Miss Z has been a really great student from the outset. She loves all the activities and everything they talk about and she was exceptional at reading from the moment she learned her a b c’s.
When she arrived at Year 1 I was quite pleased that she, once again, had a very nice teacher that was upbeat and joyful. One could tell that this young lady loved her job – teaching these little people.
Next door however was a different story.
Mrs W reminds me of a wicked witch in a Disney movie. She hardly ever acknowledges a parent, much less says hello and you would struggle to ever see her smile. I was truly relieved Miss Z didn’t get her as a teacher.
There were still a few occasions throughout the year where Miss Z would have to interact with her (the kids move from one class to another for different things) and there was even one day that I was unfortunate enough to have an exchange with her – on a day of a school visit to somewhere. It’s enough to say it didn’t go very well.
Fast forward two years and a couple of months back when Mr A was finishing Reception and I was shown his end-of-year report (in which he was a little behind than what is expected at his level), we also got an information sheet with the list of teachers for the following year.
Lo and behold, Mrs W would be Mr A’s teacher for year 1.
My first reaction was to go talk to the Head Teacher with whom I have a good rapport.
She heard my concerns and she was sympathetic. She told me she is aware of the “lack of certain inter personal skills” that teacher has but that she also knows of her results as a teacher and how generally the kids end up loving her and it’s mostly the parents that have issues.
She finished by asking what it was that she could do for me. And to be honest at that time I didn’t know. Just having a sympathetic ear to my concerns was enough.
I guess my worries were that Mr A would rebel against this stern teacher and get even more behind in his school work.
I told her I wanted to play it by ear. To give it a try and evaluate later.
And so the summer came and went and the kids are back in school. During our holiday I made sure to tell Miss Z not to talk about Mrs W with her brother. I didn’t want her to influence him just before he started school.
Daddy took the kids to school during the first week and the report I got from him on day 2 was that he practically had to drag Mr A into the classroom, where he had some brief words with Mrs W and where she showed no emotion at what was happening.
The words that came out of Mr A’s mouth at the end of the day were “I never ever want to go back to strict school! Mrs W is rude to me.”
Now I could have bolted and gone straight to the Head to ask for him to be moved to the other class. Instead, I used the opportunity to teach my son a little dose of reality. I told him “sweetie, you cannot not go to school. It is the law that all children have to go to school so unless you want Mommy to get in trouble with the law, you have to go. I understand you don’t like the teacher so much but guess what – in life you will need to meet and work with people that you don’t like. That’s just life.”
I also told him that if he went to school without complaining for the rest of the week that I would buy him some superheroes stickers. Granny took him the next day and it all went without a hitch.
I’m glad we stood by our guns and didn’t ask for a change. As far as school work goes we think this teacher is probably what Mr A needs. She will likely make him understand the importance of the work and get him to focus when focus is needed. I actually am filled with positive feelings that this will work out for the best and at least Mr A has stopped the drama in the mornings which leads me to believe he has accepted his new reality and that we won’t budge.
This of course until I remembered that we will have to face her for Parents meetings… Blah!