Class teacher went on long leave and my 8 year old says the new one 'doesn't like her'

maple_drum_799527 Sept 2026

Her class teacher went on leave earlier this month and someone new is covering for the rest of the term. My daughter was very attached to the old one. Since then there's fresh evidence every day that the new teacher doesn't like her: she didn't pick her to read, she said 'fine' instead of 'well done', she moved her seat. Some of it is probably true in the ordinary sense that a new teacher is still learning thirty names. Some of it, I think, is missing the old one. I don't want to brush it off, but I'm also not going to the school over 'fine instead of well done'. How did you handle a teacher switch partway through the year at this age?

6 comments

silver_badminton_536827 Sept 2026
Our older one had a mid-term change in class 1. What helped was asking her each day for one thing the new teacher did that was fine. Not good, just fine. It shifted the conversation a little. Has the school said how long the leave is? Knowing whether the old teacher is coming back changes what you can tell her.
velvet_wave_272727 Sept 2026
As a teacher: the first couple of weeks with a new class are hard for the teacher too. She probably doesn't know yet who likes to read aloud. If your daughter wants to be picked, it usually works better if she tells the teacher herself than if a parent mentions it.
- maple_drum_799527 Sept 2026
  That's helpful, and it hadn't occurred to me. She's shy with new adults, so telling the teacher herself will be a big step, but I'll suggest it.
breezy_paper_450027 Sept 2026
a card for the old teacher helped mine. she felt she'd said bye properly
dusk_balcony_164127 Sept 2026
Is it the new teacher, or the change itself? With my son it was mostly that the routine had changed, and he blamed the nearest adult.
- lagoon_tiffin_476727 Sept 2026
  I'd agree. In my son's case a substitute was 'mean' for exactly as long as it took him to learn her routine, about three weeks.
maroon_papaya_80628 Sept 2026
My daughter went through this in class 4. She still remembers that teacher as the strict one, but the complaints stopped within a month. Our son never noticed his teacher changes at all. Children differ.
hazel_veranda_848128 Sept 2026
My nephew went through this in primary, and what settled it in the end was the class settling. Once the other children stopped comparing the two teachers, he stopped too. Is she the only one upset, or is the whole class talking about it?