Would you talk to the head about this? (dd has had no maths teacher since September.)

[itsmeolord]

DD has been saying since the start of the school year that her teacher is always off sick and she is bored because they don't do anything in maths lessons other than draw or read their library books etc.
She is in Yr 5.
I know that kids can exaggerate and she can be a bit of a drama queen so I waited until parents evening last week to speak to her class teacher about it. The class teacher was also her maths teacher last year.
So, her teacher said that yes, the maths teacher has been off sick but they have supply teachers. I asked about the lack of homework and she said she would look into it. I then asked what they are covering this half term in maths, we got dd's books out as well and there was very very basic stuff in there, not nearly enough to cover the last few weeks either. DD was in the top set last year and the stuff they have been doing is things that they covered at the beginning of last year.
We looked at a couple of other childrens books in her class to see if it was a class thing or if she had not been working.

It is definitely a class thing. The teacher then told me that this was a lower set than the one dd had been in last year. I asked why she had been moved and why we hadn't been informed, she couldn't tell me. I got a little cross then and stated that I needed an answer by the end of this week as to what is going on and I wanted reasons behind her moving down a set with no discussion. She did say it was "possibly a mistake".

TBH, that made me even crosser.

I should have heard something by today but still nothing.....
In the meantime, I am doing maths at home with dd in the evenings as she is not doing any at school.

So, do i now go back to her teacher or would you just bypass her and go to the head?

I'm not out to get anyone into trouble here but dd has been doing maths with the year above her since yr2. Surely if she had been struggling her report would have said so at the end of last year, also, it's utterly ridiculous that they have no maths teacher and are not doing even the basic yr 5 curriculum.

[LadyMuck]

Why isn't her class teacher teaching her maths?

Personally I would go back to class teacher first, but then straight to head if not satisfied. Mainly because it is autumn term and I prefer not to go above the class teacher unless I absolutely have to.

[LIZS]

I think you need to wait for the resposne before taking it further. A supply teacher is not necessarily any worse than the regular one. The way the curriculum for maths works is by revisiting each topic in rotation, revising then building on it. Maybe it is the revision stage which , because your dd was taught at a slightly faster pace last year, may seem more protracted. Our sets are published each year and there is a degree of movement between them during the year if a child does well or struggles to keep up relative to the rest of the group.