Education Quandary

My daughter's history teacher does a poor job, but he still has time to play in a jazz band. Can I get the school to stop him?

Hilary's advice

Well, no, you can't. And you need to think more clearly about what you are asking because there are two separate issues here, and it is important to differentiate between the two. They are:

1. This teacher returns homework late and apparently gives poorly prepared and uninteresting lessons.

2. He plays the clarinet in a jazz band several times a week.

The latter may well be connected to the former. Maybe his heart just isn't in teaching because his passion lies elsewhere. But teachers, like everyone, are entitled to private lives, and what they do with them is their own affair.

Focus on your concerns about his teaching. Have you contacted him about late-returned homework? If not, you should. Complaints about poor lessons may be more difficult to substantiate, but you should try to do so, then raise the issue with the school.

What, exactly, is your daughter complaining about? Do other pupils say the same thing? Have their parents complained? When you have your material marshalled, write a note to the teacher about your worries, with a copy to the head of department, and ask to discuss them. If this brings no returns, go to the head. And if that still yields nothing, take it up with the governors.

It can be hard for a parent to keep a cool head when things go wrong for their child, but a reasonable approach will produce a better result than wild demands for teachers to be locked in at night to do their preparation.

Readers' advice

You could always pay higher taxes so that your daughter's teacher gets paid a satisfactory salary and doesn't have to work evenings. Alternatively, you could get some parents together to go and listen to him play. If he's any good, he might get a regular contract and be able to give up teaching, the goal of almost every teacher I ever met.
Jeremy Axten, Surrey

One can understand this parent's concern about this deviant. I understand that much of the music played by such people is "low down and dirty". There is, however, a registration scheme, organised by the Musicians' Union, that keeps track of people indulging in such perverse habits, especially where money changes hands. Any citizen can gain information about these individuals from the union and thus discover whether they are moving into the neighbourhood and "making themselves available".

Regarding the possibility of the school taking action, the general advice is to keep such information quiet as awareness of such activity only spreads interest and could excite young people.
G Sapsed, Southampton

As a head of history, I would advise you to make an appointment with the deputy head and raise your concerns about homework and lessons. Any well-run school will make an internal enquiry and come back to you. (As for the jazz band, the school cannot dictate what people do in their own time.) But what evidence do you have that lessons do not hold the pupils' interest? Many pupils report that their lessons are boring when the reality is far from this!
Diana Naylor, Colchester

Next week's quandary

We have recently moved to a village where the primary school is an actively religious Church of England school. We like the school but, as atheists, abhor this constant indoctrination and feel aggrieved that our children are being forced to participate in a faith that we don't share. What can we do? And have other readers any experience of overcoming similar problems?

Send your letters or quandaries to Hilary Wilce by Monday, at 'The Independent', Education Desk, Independent House, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS; or fax: 020-7005 2143; or e-mail: h.wilce@btinternet.com. Include your postal address. Readers whose letters are printed will receive a Berol Combi Pack containing a cartridge pen, a handwriting pen and an ink eraser