Is this acceptable for a teacher to say..

@MushMonster

I was a pupil once as well. The toilets were unlocked. Half the kids were to scared to use them because they were always full of kids missing lessons, smoking, and generally misbehaving. I think having to get a key and feel safe using them would have been far better than not going all day.

Lighten up would be my suggestion????

If my child had some form of health needs that meant that soiling was a possibility then I’d expect there to be sensible systems in place.
other than that, I’d expect my healthy teenager to be able to plan her toileting so that she doesn’t need to leave a lesson to go.
Kids in and out like yo-yos is incredibly disruptive.
I’m not allowed to just go to the loo whenever I feel
like it in my work. I have to plan ahead. Or wait.

Oh dear! Not only a change of government, but really a change of attitude supported by more staff and starting on earlier years on corridors/ toilets discipline.
If we start change on the mindset that it will not work, then guess what, it will not work, for you.
Surely you do have children yourselves. How much would you approve of having your child soiling themselves in a classroom because they could not access a toilet? Let's be realistic, they do have activities during break time, not much time to eat is left, they may have drunk buckets of water because is hot, be on their period, feel ill, have a urine infection....
It is a basic right.
I am not denying that some get to mischief, including vandalism.
But what I am saying is that this needs to change. We need to teach them discipline and appreciation of what they do have and allow them access to the flipping toilets.

I wouldn’t hold your breath.
I’d rather a bit of realism.
If you’re suggesting that a change of government is going to somehow magically fix the issues of underfunding and understaffing in schools then I fear you’re in for a disappointment.

I'm more baffled parents are going to Secondary School sports day! Was one of the bonuses of them leaving primary 😂

I am aware of cuts.
This can be changed, maybe in the very near future.
A bit of positivity will help!

but more staff may be needed and a bit of trust goes a long way!

Funding cuts passed you by then?

And a swathe of shit parenting tbh.

This really is a storm in a teacup. You don't know the tone of voice the teacher used and the child was 12, not 6. It really is not worth worrying about.

I was a pupil once

Yeah? And I was on a plane last year, doesn’t make me a fucking pilot, does it?

I feel so fucking sorry for most teachers (obviously not the OP). It must be an absolute dog's life.

I train young people, in an education setting!
You do have serious issues with discipline and common sense, common good behaviour, but it is and should not be the norm.
You cannot just drop standards till they hit the ground and punish young pupils just because others did this and that...
It does not even sound like it is working, does it? I am not saying it is the teachets fault, but more staff may be needed and a bit of trust goes a long way!

@MushMonster I was a pupil once.

What do you do now?

My secondary school pupil came home raging that the toilet seats were missing from the toilets and so I told her I'd contact the school and complain.

Later that evening a picture appeared on Facebook that a member of the public had taken of a load of kids from the school...five of whom were wearing toilet seats round their necks like ruffs.

@MushMonster I was a pupil once.

And this is what most issues with disagreements between parents/the general public and those working in education come down to.

Being a pupil (in a totally different context) doesn't mean you're seeing what it's like to take responsibility for doing the job properly in today's landscape.

Successfully (or otherwise) taking part in lessons through having an expert teacher doesn't mean teaching lessons is something that's easy to turn your hand to, and remembering the rules your headteacher put in place for you to follow doesn't mean you could effectively lead a school.

Presumably you can be trusted not to trash the toilets and to go back to work as soon as you’re done. The same can’t really be said about a large bunch of teenagers.
Especially in the sports day scenario.
And being asked to wait a short period of time is totally acceptable for a person with no health needs.

All this plus sadly the sexual assaults that occur in unsupervised toilets. We don't have the money to supervise.

I still cannot fanthom how some of you are in agreement with locking toilets and denying people access to toilets

1. vandalism, meaning that toilets could be out of action for days/weeks or longer not to mention the cost of refurbishment out of already too-stretched school budgets
2. children arranging to meet friends at pre-arranged times to skive out of lessons for 20 minutes
3. children up and and down like yo-yos, interrupting lessons meaning crucial learning time is lost. Teachers jobs at stake if children don't hit their target grades.

.

@MushMonster I cannot fathom how you cannot fathom why these rules are in place.

I still cannot fanthom how some of you are in agreement with locking toilets and denying people access to toilets.
I was a pupil once. Toilets were always unlocked. Surely, there were times when there was an older pupil or a teacher on corridor patrol at break time. But they never stopped you going anywhere. They just kept an eye. During lessons, we did need to request to be excused, which was never ever refused.
This is a new low. I cannot work without access to a toilet. Can you? Why do we impose this on yound adults then?
Surely you encourage them to go to the toilet at break, not to disrupt lessons, same as we do not to disrupt meetings, but if they happen to need the toilet during a lesson, they just go.

I work with special needs so I'm more caring and compassionate than having a joke with them. As I've said, thanks for the comments I've got my answer there's no need to comment telling me what everyone else has already said

Surely it's obvious that teachers who work with special needs children and secondary school teachers who are at a sports day are going to speak to the children in a different way from one another.

I teach year two but yesterday I had to help out at the nursery new starters transition and I talked to those children in a completely different way than I would my year twos.

It's madness to suggest that a teacher would speak in the same way to a two year old and an eighteen year old simply because one is a teacher and the other a student l

FFS, maybe teachers should never speak to the kids. Just write all the school rules, lesson instructions and subject explanations down and that's it.

Never explain differently, ask questions, rephrase, encourage kids to think or decide what they feel, respond to their needs or show them the big things they need to know about the world.

That worked really well when schools were shut and kids only had asynchronous work to do and parents were apparently doing all the work.

Or maybe that's actually why they can read, speak in sentences, pull their eyes from their devices, wait for the toilet, follow instructions or generally behave decently.

Caring and compassionate are not mutually exclusive with having a joke and/or using idioms 🙄

I will try not too. Thanks for your concern, I had forgotten about it.