How disgusting is this

What is also unaceptable is that teachers are unable to defend themselves, when parents start a witch hunt on social media.
Sometimes it is just one parent with an axe to grind and others jump on the bandwagon.
I have seen this happen recently and it was awful. The instigator then stood back and watched the fireworks.

We should also bear in mind that there are two sides to a story and we shouldn't be judging until we know the full facts.

Marydoll

What is also unaceptable is that teachers are unable to defend themselves, when parents start a witch hunt on social media.
Sometimes it is just one parent with an axe to grind and others jump on the bandwagon.
I have seen this happen recently and it was awful. The instigator then stood back and watched the fireworks.

We should also bear in mind that there are two sides to a story and we shouldn't be judging until we know the full facts.

Yes Marydoll. Two sides.
I once worked for a head who took all accusations very seriously, but who would not interview a child about an accusation within hearing of other children. She said, in her experience, all the other children would claim to have heard/seen what the child was saying had happened, even if they’d been absent on that occasion.

A very wise HT!

Not very insightful Mojack26.

It wasn't unusual for us to have children, who had been pupils in every school in the town (seven schools in all).
Parents kept moving them, because the teachers didn't like them!.

When I had my second child I was admitted to hospital with high blood pressure, but later allowed home complete with my medical notes. At the time of having my first child, notes were not given to patients. I read the notes written by my consultant during my first pregnancy and was shocked at some of the language. I'm sure he wouldn't have written some of the comments if he thought I would ever see them!
I showed the notes to a midwife when I went back in for the birth. She was shocked and said "And I thought he was one of the nice guys!" I didn't complain, but he lost my respect and I no longer felt comfortable with him around me.

As many have said the mistake was to put the criticisms and frustrations in writing. I've worked in schools in a number of roles. Yes teachers vent from time to time but hopefully the conversations are private and with trusted colleagues.

Having had conversations with parents about their children I am fully aware that some parents view their child through rose tinted glasses and are unable to accept that their behaviour can be absolutely outrageous. I once had to give a detention to a child who had attacked another pupil, trying to throttle him in my class and I had to physically intervene to drag him off. I later found out that he had been subjected to some pretty vile verbal racist abuse, so his reaction was understandable, but obviously inappropriate. I apologised to the mother that I had to punish her child in the circumstances, but explained that the punishment was for losing his temper and taking action into his own hands rather than telling me what had been said. Her response - "My child does not have anger issues!" and slammed the phone down! Well I wonder where he got them from?! The boy who had made the racist remark was later permanently excluded but the other child was removed by his mother who was unable to accept my apology. No wonder teachers get frustrated!

I have had students threaten me - one threatened to throw a chair at me! A teenage girl stamped on my foot in a crowded corridor then performed an elaborate apology pretending it was an accident. I knew it wasn't but could never prove it! Teachers are subjected to incredible abuse on occasions so it is no surprise they vent amongst themselves. The school where these incidents took place has now closed and kids from our village have to be bussed to the nearest school a number of miles away. The building lies empty!

While I don't condone writing nasty things about children online I can see why.
Nearly every school class in the UK has at least 2 children with special needs. This very often translates into severe behaviour issues eg assault on staff and other pupils, throwing tables and chairs, kicking other pupils, disrupting lessons by wandering around or calling out. Now the idea was that these disabled children would be integrated into mainstream schools with a 1-1 support assistant. Assaults on staff, lack of funds due to government cuts, lack of applicants etc means most teachers do not have anyone full time to support these children. So you have 1 teacher trying to teach 30 children, including 2 who can be violent and disruptive.
I know they would be happier in a special school with smaller groups, and a higher ratio of fully trained staff. I've actually had this conversation with a group of teenagers in a special school who hated mainstream schools as they always felt the 'odd one out' Special school made them feel included and the same as their peers as they all had difficulties. But the council won't fund it unless it's absolutely necessary.
So the teachers are left doing very difficult job with little support. And that's why they moan!!

Some of the social workers (family counsellors) where I worked kept two sets of notes - one that the clients could view if they wished and the ‘real’ ones, situations warts and all. Some of their clients were just awful, no other way to describe them.

Someone upthread commented on how unsafe it was to chat frankly in some schools even in the staff room. If that's the case, where do teachers get a space to sound off a bit and talk out frustrations?

Maybe that's why the WhatsApp started...?

NotSpaghetti

Someone upthread commented on how unsafe it was to chat frankly in some schools even in the staff room. If that's the case, where do teachers get a space to sound off a bit and talk out frustrations?

Maybe that's why the WhatsApp started...?

Maybe indeed-and now we know that that’s not safe either.
DD who is a head and I let off steam to each other on the phone in private. I give a lift to my TA and we chat in the car. Elsewhere. . . You have to know who’s safe.
Even some governors don’t understand confidentiality. Stuff that must be confidential is always reinforced at the end of a Governor meeting, but imagine my amazement when the wife of a parent Governor asked me about one of the confidential matters.

Yes my understanding was that Whatapp texting were private messages with end to end encryption, so should have been a quick way to privately message a colleague or friend in a very small group without others having access. These messages ( however expressed) were not kept private and are now in the public domain.

Only because someone leaked them. Wonder why?

Relationships in that staff room could be pretty icy at break!

I'm not in the least surprised. I'm sure sarcasm is taught at teacher training college

This is where parents criticising teachers can lead. :sad: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67543278

As for chair-throwing, my 5yo GD was hit on the head by a chair that another child had thrown. She had quite a lump on her head afterwards. The chair thrower constantly disrupts the classroom, along with one other child, (whose parent is a primary school teacher) and it seems impossible to control them. My GD began not wanting to go to school, tears in the morning and so on, because she didn’t know what would happen to her that day.

DeeDe

I know a couple of teachers and was quite shocked to hear them mocking some special needs lad who was struggling with doing up his laces, nasty and I said so, red faced they quickly shut up ..
Think their overpaid and seems so many of them worse than the kiddies they so called teach!
I’m aware it’s not all the teachers of course …

Teachers overpaid??? 🤣🤣🤣

SueDonim, you highlight one of the difficulties inclusivity brings with it. I worked with children so experienced many parents, teachers and children, I also have relatives and friends who teach.
Managing ‘challenging behaviour’ whilst trying to teach 30 plus children of varying abilities and backgrounds is a real challenge.
This govt doesn’t value teachers (or any public servants). This disdain is increasingly mirrored in society so increasing the challenging context in which teachers work.

Yes, teachers need eyes in the back of their heads, Iam64, to minimise the opportunities for trouble. It must be an exhausting job. The other children suffer, too, by having to do without attention while staff deal with their more challenging charges.

Exactly - imagine managing one disruptive, unhappy 7 year old who is waiting for the vanishingly rare Ed psych assessment which will lead to transfer to (vanishingly rare) special school placement, or 1-1 TA support. Alongside this yiu have children who haven’t eaten since school dinner the previous day, who witnessed domestic violence/drug/alcohol abuse in the period between leaving yesterday and arriving this morning. I’ll stop but I can’t believe the government has any idea what it’s like

That’s not actually the case in this school, they do have pretty good support, but it’s small and they were overwhelmed by a large (into double figures) family, most of whose had special needs. Some of them have been moved to a better resourced venue but the two boys are not from that family, so they’re still causing havoc.

whom

Iam64
That’s bad and I have seen that sort of thing happen.
But increasingly schools are peopled by children who think they are entitled to do what they want, have what they want and say what they want, regardless of the needs of others, often with parents who believe everything their child says, and resent their child being reprimanded.
Add them into a class of children with special needs, academic or social . . .