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Little acts of heroism from teachers

145 replies

StabInTheDark · 20/08/2013 23:10

I just read an article about the series Educating Yorkshire and it talked about how the program would show the nation the little acts of heroism teachers perform on a daily basis.

When exH and I separated, DD (15 at the time) found out in a pretty rubbish way and a few days later one of her close friends passed away. She was understandably pretty distraught and lost it a bit at school and had a panic attack. Lovely teacher cradled her on the floor of the toilets until she calmed down, took her to her office and gave her hot chocolate and talked to her for a good hour until I could get there. Still grateful today.

Another teacher stuck her neck out for her when she wanted to change GCSE options and the head didn't approve. She knew her pupil's happiness was more important than the paperwork etc and it meant a lot to DD.

So, what is the nicest thing you've ever witnessed from a teacher? And teachers, what little acts of heroism are you proudest of? Smile

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FourEyesGood · 20/08/2013 23:20

Aw, shucks. We're just people, y'know?

Nothing springs to mind from me, but DS's teacher fostered his enthusiasm for minerals and fossils by burying interesting stones in the school garden and encouraging him to dig. That was way above and beyond!

Your story is lovely, OP. Smile

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SpotsDotsandFlowers · 20/08/2013 23:22

I've had a child who has struggled all year with behaviour and effort, he's really turned it around and I have found every opportunity to 'notice' and say how proud I am, including making sure he sees me give his mum a quick thumbs up and grin at the door. Moments like that make it worth doing the job. Not heroic though, just makes me smile.

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InternationalPower · 20/08/2013 23:23

I know a child who was supported through secondary school by his teacher sourcing him a full set of school uniform from lost property and then taking it home to be washed regularly - if it went home with the child it got lost/sold Sad

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MmeLindor · 20/08/2013 23:28

I knew a nursery teacher who would buy breakfast for some of her young charges, because she knew they weren't getting any at home.

TheRedStarburst
Glad that your DD had a supportive teacher.

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PenguinBear · 20/08/2013 23:28

Lovely story op, glad there are teachers like that in secondary schools :).

I remember in my class, I once had a little girl who had had the most turbulent home life. She would curl up in a tiny ball on the carpet and stay there(she was 4). Don't want to give away any details that would out me!
Sometimes she would just cry in my lap. :(
I did a lot of work with her over her time with me and it paid off :) she moved away half way through the year, the cuddle I got from her and the hug and kiss from her mum when she said goodbye meant to much, it was a very emotional goodbye for all involved.

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RoastedCouchPotatoes · 20/08/2013 23:28

Not me, but DS' friend collapsed in school when they were both in reception, so a year and a bit ago, he stopped breathing, nobody knew why. The teacher did CPR until the ambulance arrived, while other teachers and office staff kept the class calm, and without the teacher, he could have died easily. It turned out he'd had an allergic reaction. She was a true hero and saved his life. He's a wonderful boy, and I saw how terrified his parents were, and the teacher was nominated for a local prize thing- and won, she totally deserved it.

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StabInTheDark · 20/08/2013 23:29

Ahh they're lovely!! FourEyes that is so sweet.

Spots but that's why it's heroic, because it probably means the world to that child!

International that is so sad. Sad That teacher is fab.

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Faverolles · 20/08/2013 23:30

The Headteacher at dc's school has gone above and beyond the call of duty so many times for my family, I wouldn't know how to start to thank her enough.
She gave me her personal mobile number when mil was dying, offering to take all the dc to her house if we needed her to.
She helped hugely when ds2 was having massive behavioural issues at home (we later found out that he reacted badly to a medicine he was taking) even though there were no issues at school.
She was so supportive to the dc when dh had a stroke earlier this year.
She stuck her neck out for ds1 when he was being bullied, even though he was at secondary school and no longer at primary.
She offered me a job (which I think she invented) when money was tight following dh's stroke.

She's a star. Never met a teacher like her before.

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Masterchuff · 20/08/2013 23:30

My form tutor at school, when he found out I was self harming, let me use his office whenever things got too much, encouraged me to call the Samaritans, brought me pictures his children had drawn, arranged a councellor, He was the only nonjudgmental person in my life at the time and he saved me in so many ways.

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StabInTheDark · 20/08/2013 23:31

These are all so uplifting!!

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MyNameIsLola · 20/08/2013 23:35

A teacher at special school where I worked was just amazing.

One little boy (5/6 years old) was badly neglected at home. Everyday she bought bread and fruit so he could have breakfast, made sure he ate before he went home, bought a coat for him to wear in the playground as he would only have a t-shirt in the depths of winter Sad

Thankfully, this boy is now with a very loving foster family, and a lot if that is also down to the teacher being very persistent.

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OldRoan · 21/08/2013 00:44

Six years after leaving, one of my secondary teachers organised me teaching work experience at a nearby primary school (needed different holiday dates to my LEA) and then let me stay in his house (compete with wife and children - nothing dodgy) so I could walk in each day. Above and beyond the call of duty, although not as heroic as some of these stories!

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unsure2124 · 21/08/2013 01:38

My secondary teacher was lovely, I was having huge problems during secondary and she allowed me to sit in her room for hours after school. We didn't talk much, she just worked and I did homework or studying, but those hours of peace I loved. She knew there were problems but she never tried to pry, just listened if I occasionally said something. One day I did manage to tell her something very upsetting and she did listen and offered very good advice. I gave her a card and a wallet card when I left school. I've met her a couple of times since, and she's still the same lovely person.

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BadRoly · 21/08/2013 01:54

Ds1 really struggled with his behaviour for for his first few years at school. Violent outbursts if situations escalated.

The school he was in were brilliantly supportive and were doing everything they could to successfully reduce the outbursts and teach him to manage his behaviour.

One afternoon I arrived to collect him (and dd1) to be greeted by a TA and escorted to the head's office as ds had lost it. When I arrived the HT was say on the floor with ds in a restraint but gently rocking him and quietly singing lullabies.

I was very upset that he'd needed to be restrained (again) but so touched by the way the HT was doing it. She really cared.

The upshot is that now, thanks to a lot of hard work from a number if teachers, TAs, Sencos and outside agencies, ds no longer requires any additional support or intervention - they're all heroes in my eyes!

Sorry, that was really long.

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BOF · 21/08/2013 01:54

My teacher in secondary school was brilliant with me- I was so neurotic and self-absorbed, but she was incredibly patient and caring with me, even when I must have bored the tits off her, whining on through the lunch hours that she gave up to listen to me banging on with my teenage angst. Miss Seaward, I salute you!

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milkdud · 21/08/2013 05:00

I will always remember the teacher who told us "You are all incredibly important people", we were a school in a very poor town, a lot of kids went home to abusive households, most of us had very little faith in ourselves, but he made us feel like we were worthy of getting out of there and doing something with our lives. Might seem small, but he was heroic in my teenaged eyes.

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LoremIpsum · 21/08/2013 05:26

As a young man, my dad was sent to be the teacher in a small town in the north west of Australia. One of the first things he did was to desegregate the school, until he arrived the aboriginal children had been taught in a separate room. He stood up to threats to run him out of town, to snakes being set in his room, guns being waved.

It was the actions of teachers like him that practically, rather than legislatively, ended desegregation in many outback towns.

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CakesAreNotTheAnswer · 21/08/2013 06:41

Love reading threads like this

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Grumpla · 21/08/2013 07:06

My art teacher realised I was bunking off several other lessons on a regular basis, including PE as I used to get horribly bullied in the basically unsupervised changing rooms.

She told me there was no point wasting my time hanging around the bike sheds and let me appear in the art rooms whenever I wanted to get on with my coursework.

My PE teacher colluded with her and issued me with satisfactory reports for the rest of my time at school despite the fact I never turned up for another PE lesson.

The art rooms became my refuge, and I fucking needed one. I think I probably would have fallen apart completely without that. I certainly wouldn't have stayed in school.

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heronsfly · 21/08/2013 07:08

My ds1 was hurt playing football at school, our old Head teacher put him in his car, drove to get me, drove us to the hospital and waited hours with me until the leg was x rayed and plastered, then drove us home.
Several weeks later he did it again with ds3, broken collar bone that time though Grin.

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TobyLerone · 21/08/2013 07:12

DS had a lovely, lovely reception teacher. She reminded me of Miss Honey.

He really struggled to settle in at school. On the first parents' eve, she brought the headmistress in too, who said "I've just never seen such a sad little boy." It broke my heart. I sat and snivelled while they both worked out a plan to help him socialise and settle properly. And he did.

He's now almost 14, at grammar school, popular and sporty and clever. I wish I knew where his reception teacher was now, so I could thank her.

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SweepTheHalls · 21/08/2013 07:22

It is so nice that some parents appreciate what we are trying to doSmile

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cory · 21/08/2013 08:19

I always remember a supply teacher dd had. She wasn't a very good teacher and the children didn't like her very much. But when the school remembered the evening before the big trip to the zoo that they had "forgotten" to book the minibus with disabled access and gave her the job to phone us up to let dd know she wouldn't be coming (bastards! let the supply teacher do the dirty job!) and she heard dd sobbing in the background, she went back and told them they'd have to find a solution. In her position, that must have taken some courage.

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InternationalPower · 21/08/2013 08:32

I'm currently working in a school, after 20 years in the real world Wink

I have been amazed to discover just how much the teachers (and TAs) know and care about the children as individuals. I didn't think it would be possible with 30 children in the class. Some don't like parents very much! but they all care so much about the kids.

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Sparklysilversequins · 21/08/2013 08:48

When ds was at school it all got very stressful and political, he has ASD and dyspraxia. A teacher working with him risked her job telling me the route to go with him and it included getting him signed off school by a doctor and then out of the school asap as he was being pretty much ignored there and the headmistress was actively campaigning for him to go to a school for kids with severe behavioural issues or a PRU where he would have been eaten alive. There was loads more and she told me quite categorically that she would be disciplined and probably lose her job if I didn't treat her advice in confidence but she couldn't sit by and see ds being treated as he was any more. She was great.

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