{"id":235545,"date":"2025-09-30T13:26:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=235545"},"modified":"2025-09-30T13:36:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:36:33","slug":"dreadful-parents-what-do-teachers-really-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/dreadful-parents-what-do-teachers-really-think\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Dreadful parents’: What do teachers really think?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Sir John Townsley declared that \u201cdreadful parents\u201d<\/a> were the greatest single problem facing English secondary schools, it was always going to provoke strong reactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one level, he\u2019s right to pick out behaviour. At Teacher Tapp, we ask 10,000 teachers daily what\u2019s causing them stress or worry. This month, 40 per cent named pupil behaviour as their top concern. That figure has topped the charts since 2023, ahead of accountability measures, workload or admin. Behaviour is<\/em> a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But is \u201cdreadful parenting\u201d the root cause? The picture is far less simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What teachers blame for poor behaviour<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When we ask teachers directly about sources of stress, \u201crelationships with parents\u201d rarely comes near the top. Teachers are more likely to feel worn down by administrative tasks, marking or even disputes with colleagues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a phase divide too: nearly three in ten primary teachers say parents are a source of stress, but only 16 per cent of secondary teachers say the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, schools are dealing with a generation of pupils growing up in an online world that few adults fully understand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just last month, 93 per cent of secondary teachers told us they worry about influencers like Andrew Tate shaping boys\u2019 attitudes, and 83 per cent said they\u2019d prefer an outright ban on mobile phones in school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These factors have a clear effect on behaviour, but they aren\u2019t things parents can easily control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So while it\u2019s tempting to pin today\u2019s challenges on \u201cdreadful parents\u201d, the reality is that behaviour problems come from a tangle of influences: technology, culture, poverty, peer norms and, yes, sometimes poor parenting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>When parents are<\/em> part of the problem<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Our data doesn’t let parents off the hook entirely. In fact, it has painted a less flattering picture in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abuse<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Around one in five teachers say they\u2019ve experienced abusive emails or messages from parents, with the same proportion reporting verbal abuse face-to-face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over-communication<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Four in ten teachers have been contacted three or more times by the same parent in a single week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanctions undermined<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Thirty per cent of teachers said a parent undermined a sanction they\u2019d issued (a return to pre-pandemic levels).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoidance<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

More worryingly, 27 per cent admitted ignoring poor behaviour in the past month because they feared parental backlash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, expectations have ratcheted up. More than 80 per cent of teachers believe parents now expect more communication than when they started teaching, and over half say parents hold unrealistic expectations of how much they can do to support children at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to bridge the growing gap<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Education Endowment Foundation states<\/a> that positive parental engagement can lead to four months of progress, but most teachers lack training for managing these relationships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two-thirds of primary teachers and half of secondary teachers have never received parent engagement training. Those who did mostly received in-house training, with only one per cent trained by external specialists. If staff don\u2019t know how to build relationships, frustration is inevitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blaming \u201cdreadful parents\u201d might therefore feel satisfying, but it risks turning allies into enemies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Primary teachers instinctively know this: 85 per cent say they proactively build relationships with parents. But in secondary schools, less than half do the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When teenagers are testing boundaries and teachers need parental backing most, many schools are keeping parents at arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why we\u2019re running our annual Settling In Survey<\/a>, where schools can ask parents and pupils how things are going this term and teachers can see the results. Understanding how families are experiencing the start of the year is the first step in making them partners rather than problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If behaviour is now the number-one challenge in schools, then it\u2019s time to stop arguing over whether parents are dreadful and start asking: how do we get them on board?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our data shows teachers don’t see parents as a key cause of worsening behaviour – but it doesn’t let parents off the hook completely either<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311124,"featured_media":183467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3734],"tags":[],"post-theme":[3730],"class_list":["post-235545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-the-leader","post-theme-the-research-leader"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t