Teacher takes baby into class

A Whanganui school that allows a relief teacher to have her baby with her in the classroom while she teaches has angered some parents who say their children’s education is suffering.

Kaitoke School has a relief teacher take over for two hours a day in a class for students aged about 6. She has her baby, aged about 1, present.

One boy alerted his mother a couple of months into the teacher’s stint this year. Her son was frustrated and she said his reading level had dropped.

“I just don’t understand why the child cannot be put into some sort of daycare while she’s teaching,” the mother said.

Parents had been told in a Facebook post about the relief teacher but it didn’t make it clear the baby would be in the class, she said.

The parent, who chose not to be named so that her son would not be identified, was frustrated by the school’s response to her concerns.

“I went to the principal because I wasn’t happy and I was pretty much fobbed off by her.

“So then I went and wrote a letter to the board of trustees and they took their time to get back to me and then told me that this is what it is, the baby’s staying, it’s written into her contract.”

The parent, who has now enrolled her son at another school, said 11 parents of the 19 children in the class also said it wasn’t right to have the baby in the classroom.

A newsletter had been sent to parents when the school got word of a potential petition from parents.

“Saying that they don’t condone this [the petition],” the parent said of the newsletter.

The acting chairman of the board of trustees, Rob Crawley, said the baby was in a carry pack and mostly slept.

He said the school had received two complaints and that they had been addressed appropriately. Crawley also said the school had received letters of support from parents.