How disgusting is this

I'm sure that I was a good teacher - and did a very good job. Still, some students (and parents) really would try the patience of a saint. No, I didn't write anything negative about them. I often complained and commiserated with colleagues, though - or stormed off down a corridor muttering to myself. Once safely inside my office, I could swear!

In school I kept personal private information as evidence for my divorce locked in my filing cabinet until it was evident that my Head had read it; I was then warned that he had duplicate keys to all the filing cabinets and desk drawers and went through them regularly.

Something similar happened to me once in a workplace. I wont go into details but a colleague photocopied private papers (kept in my office) which had nothing to do with the job, the organization I was working for or any person there. As you can imagine I took the photocopies away and thereafter kept the originals at home. If he ever noticed the loss there was nothing he could do about it.

I later got revenge on the colleague but thats another story.

In my experience, exclusion was a last resort, and only after a very serious incident. HTs are actively discouraged from excluding.

If things are as bad as they seem to be, the parents should be contacting the Local Authority for support. Have they already done that?
The other suggestion I have is to keep a record/diary of events, bearing in mind the school will also be keeping a record.

Many of us are committed to the profession, care about our pupils and have undertaken additional study to support children with additional needs, often at our own expense.

This teacher bashing is so demoralising and unfair, when so many of us go over and above our remit.
Insisting on an Osted inspection isn't going to sort anything and surely every teacher in your granddaughter's school isn't incompetent?

That's awful Hobbs1. You must feel so frustrated. I hope things improve soon.

TBH I find that some teachers are clearly in the wrong profession. My grandaughter attends mainstream although she has cerebral palsy, uses her wheelchair for school, also has mild Townes Brock Syndrome which affects her hearing, and to top it off she gets bullied by the same couple of girls every day.
Many meetings with said headteacher etc and nothing is done. However, if my grandaughter does on occassion retaliate and stand up for herself, she is classed as being disruptive and put in isolation for the day. The school will not stand up to the actual bullies, but removes the victims as it’s the easiest option. She has also been excluded for a couple of days because she asked the bully to return her pencil case that said bully had taken off her with force.
Sadly it is out of my hands, but given the opportunity I would take this school and it’s teaching staff to Ofsted and the Education Secretary.

Having been a teacher for many years and enjoying my job, sometimes there are children who don not want to learn and disrupt lessons for their classmates. WhatsApp is supposed to be personal and private, but some journalists are just so nosy as are individuals. This is a mountain made out of a molehill. Have they nothing better to do?

Actually maybe it's a good thing that some children and their parents hear what staff think about them.
'Wad the Lord the gifty gie us tae see oorsels as ithers see us' !

Wow! I am with Aveline on this issue. These teachers were not sounding off publicly on Facebook, or posting on Snapchat, Instagram, tictok &co, but on a private and encrypted WhatsApp thread. My first thought was, which one of the group grassed them in?

There is venting and there is name calling

I think this crosses a line

For me, I tend to like the more challenging children, there is usually a reason and getting positive results out of them is very rewarding

Several teachers in my family including me. Teaching can be so rewarding and interesting but some children can be so difficult causing serious stress especially when the leadership of the school turns a blind eye. I have seen this quite often. Of course it is not necessarily the child's fault and when you meet the parents it can become obvious where their aggression and challenging behaviour comes from (not in all cases). Using WhatsApp to discuss what should be discussed in the staffroom is not a good idea.

We all need to vent etc but agree with those who say that such venting should never be written. Same goes for police and government members as teachers.
The article says pupils and parents weren't harmed: well they were when the WhatsApp messages were discovered and made public in news outlets.

Good grief, overpaid! I’ve never heard such nonsense. My primary school daughter has been teaching now for almost 4 years, currently she has 33 children in her class and regularly works over a 10 hour day, with 30 mins break for lunch, plus 1 hour travelling each way, a later night on Wednesday as either staff meeting or twilight training, later on Mondays as she’s required to run an after school club for junior children, twice a term she works until 7pm two days in a run for parents evening and goes in during her holidays to reorganise her classroom.

They most certainly are not overpaid.

She’s young enough at 26 not yet to be jaded and disillusioned, but schools everywhere are struggling to retain teachers and more leave the profession each year than are joining. Teaching definitely isn’t an easy choice.

That’s the danger of “messages”, it was stupid and unprofessional and their comments should be left to the staff room and never in “print” Of course teachers discuss pupils and sometimes, sadly, in derogatory terms, because they are human beings. To this about a “vulnerable” child is awful though. However, I do have some empathy for todays teachers as every child with behavioural issues seems to have to have a label. Not all badly behaved children have “additional needs” Of course, many do.

Alison there are alway people on here, who have absolutely no idea what teaching is like nowadays.
When I became ill, the LA occupational health doctor was shocked to hear I was working between 60 and 80 hours a week, as well as studying for additional qualifications.
On top of that having to deal on daily basis with violent pupils, who could not be in the classroom was exhausting.

As a former primary school teacher I'm not sure that the general public understands that teachers don't just teach their subject. They must also fill in the gaps left by spending cuts to special needs services, social care provision etc and all the time fill in mountains of paperwork. Alongside violent children (I still have a scar from having a glass thrown at me), there are aggressive parents - I was pushed against a coat peg by a parent convinced that her child was being 'picked on' - he wasn't, got a nasty cut from that! I'm astonished that anybody could think that teachers are 'overpaid.'

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 …

BlueBelle

Sorry Avaline I thought teachers were on the whole intelligent, articulate people hopefully for young people to take a lead from , ummm

And you'd think children are all polite, lovely and eager go learn with parents who support the teachers in their endeavours to make sure this happens, wouldn't you!

Some children are very badly behaved, some parents are just plain awkward (belligerent) and some teachers are at the end of their tethers.

Children aren't naughty or disruptive now, they all have a label which excuses their bad behaviour.

Joseann

nanna8

Stupid to put it in writing. Some kids are dreadful but you keep it private and only in the staff room and if they are that bad they probably need some help. Wouldn’t be a teacher these days for quids , though. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

I agree.
Think it, say it, but never write it. Just don't, (unless carefully in a professional manner). And that goes for comments about parents too.

Yes, this. 👏👏👏

Teachers are human too, but posting on social media is dangerous.

There are more badly behaved pupils than ever these days.

However, it begs the question ' how private is messaging in a WhatsApp group? How did the BBC get hold of this?

Aveline

I just had lunch with a retired teacher. Her two sons are also teachers. Apparently there is now an app called 'Rate my Teacher' where school children can mark and comment on their teacher. 😑

This is not a new site, it's nine years since I retired and we were aware of it then. However, it was mainly secondary school children who used it.

What teacher would be brave enough to look themselves up!

Yes, putting things in writing is dangerous, but as has already been said parents have groups on Facebook or WhatsApp which specifically mentions only for parents of children at school X where they rant and let off steam about how they think their children are being treated and what they think of the teachers.
The fact that some of the teachers have children at the school and therefore qualify as parents and have access to the group seems to pass them by.
And then there’s always somebody in a group who is willing to pass on what’s being said, seemingly unaware that the person they’re passing the information onto is acquainted with staff.

It is dangerous to write anything unless you have somewhere secure to lock it away.
I had to keep a diary when I was a team leader, and discovered that a member of the Team whose job was on the line was photo copying it; his contract was not renewed.

In school I kept personal private information as evidence for my divorce locked in my filing cabinet until it was evident that my Head had read it; I was then warned that he had duplicate keys to all the filing cabinets and desk drawers and went through them regularly. Easy to know, impossible to prove.
We thought he had the staffroom bugged; he certainly stood in the adjacent stock room listening to lunch time conversations until some locked him in, 'by accident.'

Yes it's a two way thing

Just soundas like a bit of a water cooler moment to me. I have never worked in a customer of client facing role where staff were not (sometimes) disparaging about customers in private. It helps to dispell the tension.

We've probably all done it at some time or other and it is fully understandable. I have every sympathy for the teachers involved.

But it is insane to put it out there on social media, in writing, and fully attributable. A number of people have been sacked for doing similar things. I understand this was probably a whistle blower but social media sites have been hacked so many times there is absolutely no guarantee where anything will end up or who will see it.

My daughters are in mums whatsap groups linked to the primary schools their children attend. They’re horrified and stunned at the derogatory comments about teachers, a pile on if Miss X offends in any way

Just soundas like a bit of a water cooler moment to me. I have never worked in a customer of client facing role where staff were not (sometimes) disparaging about customers in private. It helps to dispell the tension.

Some of todays kids and their parents could do with a good hard slap in the way they speak to teachers.