[ad_1]
A headteacher has invited ‘highly critical’ parents to try and do a better job of teaching themselves after they complained about the standard of lessons.
Colin Dowland, head at Woodridge Primary School in North Finchley, north London, lashed out at parents who have started messaging teachers and questioning their abilities during the latest lockdown.
In a letter to parents, he said if they now considered themselves educational experts, there were likely to be plenty of teaching vacancies soon.
At the moment, schools are closed for in person teaching except for vulnerable children and those of key workers. Most children are learning online, via platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
It means parents are able to watch what their children are being taught, rather than just waving them off in the morning.
Mr Dowland said that while some have been constructive and supportive, others have ‘taken advantage’ of the unprecedented access they’ve had to lessons to berate teachers via email and social media messages.
In response he sent the letter on Monday telling critical parents to ‘sign up for teacher training at their earliest convenience’.
He said some parents of pupils at the school he dubbed ‘educational experts’ had sent ‘highly critical messages of advice to teachers about how to do their jobs’.
Mr Dowland added that there will likely be many teacher vacancies – especially at his own school – due to the pressure the government and parents have put on his staff during the pandemic.
In the scathing letter he wrote: ‘A number of parents have taken advantage of this new access to send highly critical messages of advice to teachers about how to do their jobs and questioning their training, skills and competence.
‘Can I encourage all those particular parents, who now consider themselves to be educational experts, to sign up for teacher training at their earliest convenience, since there are never enough teachers and I suspect many will be leaving the profession after this year.
‘I will also update you if we have any teaching vacancies at Woodridge over the next few weeks, which if such messages continue, I am thoroughly expecting.’
He also told parents that there were ‘a number of different access routes’ into teaching and added a link to UCAS applications to postgraduate courses.
Defending the tough job teachers have been faced with, he wrote: ‘The children have now received only 13 weeks of school (this too, restricted by COVID) in the last 11 months and this is set to continue for some time to come. Inevitably, there will be some gaps in learning for all children.
‘Teachers are still setting work in line with the National Curriculum, bearing in mind the amount of learning lost and the progress of each child is difficult to assess remotely. Many of the staff are parents too and we share your frustration. No, really, we do.’
He also thanked the many genuinely supportive parents for helpful messages.
The letter stated: ‘This sort of constructive and considered feedback is always welcome and it helps us to improve our offer as we go along.’
The school confirmed the letter is authentic and was sent out to parents.
Mr Dowland’s website describes him as a playwright and in 2019 he won the Liverpool Hope Playwriting Prize for ‘Headless’ – a comedy about a disastrous Ofsted inspection.
The current national lockdown was imposed on January 4.
Boris Johnson said today that the Government will look at whether schools in areas where the virus is less prevalent can reopen from March 8.
The Prime Minister added parents and schools will be given two weeks’ notice before pupils return to class.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Get your need-to-know
latest news, feel-good stories, analysis and more
[ad_2]
READ SOURCE
