Short tempers and legal threats: UK teachers report rise in problem parents | Teaching
Teachers are used to rudeness and defiance from their students, but now parents are the worst offenders, the head teachers’ union says, affecting staff’s mental health.
According to the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), more than 90% of headteachers and other senior leaders said they had experienced “challenging behaviour” from parents, including rude or disrespectful responses, while 60% said they had been subjected to verbal abuse and threats in the past 12 months.
More than three-quarters of those surveyed said worsening parental behavior was harming their mental health and wellbeing.
School leaders said parents are now more likely to challenge the school’s handling of incidents and will often challenge sanctions such as detention or expulsion for misbehavior or truancy.
Deputy principal and ASCL president Jo Rowley, from Stafford, wants the government to support a national campaign urging parents to support their child’s school or college.
Rowley is expected to tell the ASCL national conference in Liverpool that “a small number of parents with unreasonable expectations and short tempers waste time, energy and resources”.
While most parents work “productively” with teachers, he will underline the importance of parents complaining “politely and reasonably” to avoid conflict.
“Some parents clearly struggle to cope with the pressures in their own lives and their behavior is very challenging,” Rowley will tell conferences. “The huge amounts of work and stress they create demoralizes other children, undermines behavior policies and adds to the pressures that drive people away from teaching.”
Experienced school principals said flashpoints included students’ cellphones being confiscated, a parent accusing the school of theft and threatening to call the police. Other bitter disputes may arise from students being denied time off for family holidays during term time.
Recently, presidents have said parents are using AI to create lengthy, legal complaints that require more time to manage.
Of the 1,700 school leaders surveyed by ASCL, 73% said: subject access requests – legal requests for personal data held by an agency – were being used by parents in a “coercive or excessive manner”; More than half said they had encountered hostile or defamatory comments from parents on social media.
Ofsted chief inspector Martyn Oliver will also defend his organisation’s new inspection regime at the conference, explaining that more schools in England are receiving “requires attention” grades due to Ofsted’s “stricter” standards. “Needs caution” ranks fourth lowest out of five Ofsted’s new scalerange from “exceptional” to “immediate improvement.”
Oliver said Ofsted would continue to highlight schools where it found disadvantaged children “failing to take the necessary steps”. “We will never succumb to the silent curse of low expectations that will cause Ofsted to prioritize context over outcomes for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children.”
Education minister Bridget Phillipson is expected to tell delegates: “The changes you’ve seen in your classrooms over the last decade – poverty, additional need, technology – this is a new era in childhood and calls for a new era in education. Partly an end to politics. Instead a village around the child. Every child. The beating heart of this support is schools.”
