Teacher's conduct
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Did the teacher apologise? Is this a first time? Does she know how serious it is (she may not realise that). You could just have a word with her about it. Try to be sympathetic - imagine dealing with 30 6yo kids for hours at a time. It’s true she is trained and it’s her job, but I imagine it can be really frustrating. As long as she apologises, there is no long-term damage and something similar doesn’t happen again, I think you should let it go. If there is a need for medical treatment and you need to claim on the insurance, then I suppose it needs to be reported to the school, but do try to be merciful to the teacher.
For your son, tell him that teachers are also human and can lose their cool, just like parents do. Hopefully the teacher will apologise, and you can also teach him how to be merciful and forgiving. You can also ask him to reflect on what the class was doing that made her lose her temper and learn from that. -
Agree with Simkoo, as long as the teacher apologizes and there is no recurrence, do have mercy on the teacher. It is not easy to handle a class of 30-40 children and I am not surprised that teachers will blow their top once in a blue moon.
One of my daughter’s classmate parent went to complain to the principal after hearing the teacher swore "shit" during lesson. I felt sad for the teacher as the subsequent investigation showed that she was mumbling to herself and not swearing at the class (girl was sitting right in front, back row did not hear).
You may check with this teacher on what happened first instead of heading straight to the principal. -
It's fairly common for P1 teachers to lose their cool, esp if it's in Sem1 when kids are still acclimatising and throwing tantrums or misbehaving like they are at home or in the playgroup. You get spoilt brats from affluent families, daydreamers, sleepyheads who can fall asleep in class, cry babies suffering from separation anxiety, rude kids from messed up families, talkative kids who like to interrupt lessons, slow kids who cannot comprehend oral instructions, introverts who are overwhelmed by the large school compound, DM & prefects...
Yes, it can be extremely frustrating and teachers will suffer a meltdown from time to time. They could use unsavoury words on innocent pupils, grab them by the collar, pull them by the sleeve, throw marker pens at them, or throw pupils' stationery or exercise books out of the classroom when they don't pay attention or make things difficult for the teacher.
Your child wasn't the teacher's target, as the projectile appeared to be directed at someone else but got deflected and hit your child? If that's the case, then inform some neutral parties first, before confronting the teacher or P. If there's a PSG class rep, ask if she could help relay your concerns to the teacher anonymously if possible. Sometimes, complainants even activate the alumni exco, but it really depends on the severity of each case. If there's a Cohort HOD, you can speak to her as well, and again request for anonymity. All teachers in the same cohort will report to this cohort head, therefore be mindful you might cause the teacher to be counselled and possibly be \"marked\" by this appraiser at the end of the year.
I don't think it's necessary to escalate this incident to the P. You don't want to jeopardise the teacher's promotion/performance appraisal. You don't want to strain PT relationship with this teacher either. More importantly, you don't want her to harbour prejudice towards your child for the rest of the year, and even in P2 (as most schools make P1 teachers progress to the next level with the entire class). You will be seeing her in the upcoming SA1 and SA2 (if any) PTM, so don't make things so awkward, particularly since the rash act wasn't something that incriminating or criminal.
Leverage on the middle man to let her know you know, but won't take action and will forgive her. She will appreciate it more. -
You may check with this teacher on what happened first instead of heading straight to the principal.
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