AIBU to think that not being allowed to sit down whilst teaching is insane!

This is the school and not necessarily teaching. I imagine unions would be getting involved if they wanted to change the sitting down thing. Are unions already involved eg. Work to rule?

One school I worked at had a policy about how far apart posters should be on walls. Some management staff are ridiculous!

Yes but things like this are often the straw that breaks the camel's back. I'm on the verge of leaving teaching and something like this would indeed make me leave. Many others would feel the same. We've all had enough. Sick of the workload, the pressure and the constant disrespect from parents and the wider community and those in charge of Education whilst I'm on the verge of burnout trying to be all things to all people. People have no idea just how bad it's got and how much it is impacting both mental and physical health of teachers.

Surely they’re aware that if standing staff should generally be in one place anyway, as to hear properly children need to track your mouth and face, so sitting is the same but just slightly lower down.

@Bewareofthisonetoo I would leave too if I had this patronising, insulting, micro management at my school. There would be an outcry. Loads of jobs in my subject. Luckily slt are decent in my school and appreciate what we do.

I think it's a realistic threat (to leave).

A lot of teachers have. More teachers who are women in their 30s leave every year than the total of new teachers (men and women, all ages).

I nearly did in 2022 but at the last minute I found a nicer school. If my current one goes bad, I'll retire early.

Sadly if this was announced in my school it would clearly mean that the slt were completely out of touch and had no respect for staff. I absolutely would leave. I'm close to the edge anyway so it would push me over. Being respected is very important to me.

You don't know me yet you are making an assumption. How very rude and ignorant. I am of the age now where I am not interested in any more "new initiatives" which I last saw 25 years ago and which fell by the wayside 22 years ago. I would go. There is enough in my pension that I could draw it and survive plus I would get another P/T role outside teaching.

The day anything like that was implemented in my school would be the day I handed my notice in
Posters on here often say this type of thing -bet you don’t!
Like LTB - easy to say when it is someone else.

I left teaching secondary children after almost 25 years and have back problems and right shoulder. I don't think standing so much and writing on board with my right arm up above my head did me any good.

Get a doctors letter stating you can only stand gor short periods. I dont allow my employer to dictate to me like this as I have a disability.

If they get an 8, why not a 9?
Because in the spring term they went to a cousin's wedding in Pakistan for 4 weeks.
What did you do to ensure catch up?
Why didn't it work?

Well no, there’s no ‘you are effective, well done you!’ Your classes could always be doing better. If on average they are getting 6 at GCSE why are they not getting 7?

The micro managing has got ridiculous. Utterly absurd.

There are procedures in place for the constant monitoring and feedback to staff, with effective points for progression. The SLT should have enough specific evidence about the capabilities of their staff.
We've all been told to stand up all lesson. I don't.

I think you'd find SLT will discover myriad ways to 'be involved'. What used to be a fairly autonomous , high trust job when I started is now a job that can be, in many schools, totally micromanaged to the extent of totting up wat you are doing and how at every single minute you are required to be on school site .TeacherTapp last week revealed that over a third of teachers are told what colour pen they must use!

But that's a very blunt instrument. Why should all teachers, effective and those less so, be subject to the same bullshit rule? The day anything like that was implemented in my school would be the day I handed my notice in.

Different teachers have different teaching styles. What works in ICT doesn't necessarily work in Art or English, so why impose blanket rules like this? We're meant to be professionals; why not treat us as such?

But surely this is the problem, some teachers aren't effective and that's not fair on the children. If all teachers were effective (even in their own ways) then SLTs wouldn't need to even be involved.

@Mumdiva99 And are you going to magically cure all disabilities?

I was actually thinking that this pretty much describes my days in school!

be running round the class like headless chicken
ridiculous hyperbole

This level of micro managing is infantilising. I'm not a teacher but can recall most of my teachers would sit down to teach in secondary school, especially while we got on with class exercises.

The SLT sounds like a jobsworth.

What do I think?

I think he's a knobhead and you should ignore his ridiculous rule, and sit down if you feel like it.

It's dealing with stupid bullshit like this that's the #1 way to cheaply start to turn around retention issues in teaching.

Also how can you expect pupils and parents to respect staff when their own management clearly don't.

Let teachers teach in a way that is effective to them.

I teach secondary Music and do a mix of sitting and standing with KS3. With KS4 and 5 I sit down a lot more, and as another poster said, at A level, I sit at the table with them. We don't use tables lower down the school. Once kids are working on practical tasks, I will circulate but I like to give them time to get on without me standing over them.

I have been teaching 30+ years and can silence most classes with just a look from my seat. Due to an old injury, standing for an entire lesson is out. Yes, I also wear trainers for school and no, I don't give a monkeys. My Head is quite laid-back about things like that, thank goodness.

I don’t think there’s any actual union guidance on this (I’m stepping down as rep soon, totally fed up of being one, unions have no teeth). My head mentioned to my hod that he’d walked past and seen me sitting. I was absolutely amazed, nobody has ever raised that we should be running round the class like headless chickens in my 30 year career. I’m perfectly capable of sitting down to teach, on top of which, every single teacher in my corridor sits to teach. I don’t sit to teach much, I do tend to run round to help/check, but I do like students to work independently. I’m secondary if that makes a difference, I’m assuming primary teachers, particularly for younger children, probably spend a lot of time going from child to child.