Teachers I need solidarity before I leave the profession

I had similar with some training I was doing as a union rep at work. I had 3 spaces so I offered them up to all employees. I chose 3 of the responders and offered them places. Two were actually union members who’d missed the original offer.
Oh my god the fuss I got back from entitled arseholes was outrageous! Two line managers insisting their employee ‘deserved’ the training more than anyone else. One woman who apparently responded to my email at 09:01am so clearly thought it should be hers on a first come first served basis (it wasn’t)
Some else raised a grievance against me.
never again

Agree - no wonder so many young people struggle with resilience. Feeling disappointed or dealing with failure are things parents should be teaching kids to cope with.
Total admiration for teachers, I don't know how you do it.

What teachers have to put up with is ridiculous, speaking as a non teacher. I once emailed a teacher to say thank you for a small kindness they did my child. Probably very much part of their job description but I still appreciated it so I said thank you. I got an email back saying I'd made their day with that message and I just thought it really showed what a shit time teachers are having. I guess every other email was probably a complaint about something and nobody ever thinks to say thanks.

I had a parent have a go at me about this after a residential, when I had just got off the bus and was still handing out medicines, etc. "Why are there no photos of my child on the website?"

Well, that was because she had denied permission for her child to be on the website. Not by default, she deliberately ticked the no box. I had spent a week trying to get photos without her child but not make her child feel bad / excluded.

Apparently, I should have asked again before the residential in case she had changed her mind.

As a parent, I am horrified that people would go to those lengths because their child unfortunately missed out. It is such a shame because good teachers are gold dust. My DC have been so fortunate so have had and currently have some fantastic teachers. A few not so great ones but the good ones outweigh by far.

I would also go with sorry but GDPR says no.

Unfortunately though I don't think it is just schools. There are entitled idiots everywhere and so many out to do the absolute bare minimum and communication is almost non existent. How so many people manage to get away with it I will never know.

Yep, could write a book on batshit parents. The ones who claim we've 'fixed' the cctv when it clearly shows their child in the wrong are my particular favourites

God this. Drives me up the wall. We are looking after their kids 24/7 for a 5 days straight and all the parents can do is complain we're not taking enough pictures!

So many parents are such deeply horrible people. Which, of course, isn't specifically because they are parents but instead it's representative of the population as a whole.

It really makes me feel sad about society and about the future.

Are all schools as bad as this? I would never in a million years dream of sending an email like this and I can’t imagine any of the parents I know sending something like this either. But maybe I’m being naive and the other parents are actually a lot more batshit than they let on…

I had similar regarding the Nativity when I was teaching. It then led to said parents demanding that the Nativity be cancelled the following year because their child couldn’t be included due to their religion. It’s madness out there.

I teach I a college. I have 1 class where a small group were misbehaving. I put them in a seating plan "ish"

I asked them to choose ONE pal to sit with, explained my (admittedly high) expectations about behaviour and assumed that was it.

I've had complaints from parents, written complaints from the students, managers getting involved... I'm half way out the door.

I'm a TA and it's just too much and I'm leaving. I've had enough

These are the same sad sacks that message and complain that their child isn't in enough photos after a trip/ residential.

We now only share one group photo, to stop the moaning.

I am a parent and I would have appreciated the thought and kindness to create this opportunity for the children and pulling put of a hat seems absolutely fair. The people that are complaining are just insane. Unfortunately, if you come out of teaching, you will experience these same types of people, just in different settings. These absolute bellends are everywhere, in every professionz in every job. I am not a teacher but I can relate to having to deal with idiots like this at work. I hope you stay in teaching, you sound amazing and lovely and so kind to organise this for the children.

I’d be tempted to add: should we do it again, we’ll consider your request. However, we’ll be unlikely to do any more trips outside of school hours as it involves staff volunteering their free time

What a lovely idea. We had something similar when an arsey parent didn’t believe it was at random and thought he was being punished for being on so many behaviour points, when it was actually random. Made a lot of sense seeing why his behaviour was like it was though after dealing with them.

I’d personally pass it on to the head and ignore, though I know my head would go mad and back me up - I wouldn’t pass it on if I thought they’d bend and say I was taking extra kids.

Honestly, if they can’t trust you pulling a name from a hat then why would they want to trust you to look after their child outside of school. Makes no sense.

Children are so entitled. Am a primary school teacher and this week arranged for a geologist to come in to talk to the class. The lovely lady in question brought in a gem for all the kids. I had them all in a bowl and was handing them out, the number of kids that asked for another one (not even a please), they were all different and some of the kids at the end were saying theirs were rubbish!

I buy the kids in my class a wee present at Christmas and the end of the school year and most don't even say thank you.

It's no wonder the kids are like this when the parents aren't much better.

I have a child of a certain religion in my class who wasn't allowed to participate in Nativity (by order of his parents). No problem, I printed out a nice activity book for him to do. Then his parents complained he was feeling left out 🫣.

This week I got into trouble from my DHT one day for not being early enough to the lunch hall with the class to help them with their lunch and then 2 days later got into trouble for being 2 minutes early to the lunch hall! This the the same DHT who arrived in school at 8.55am and leaves at 3.15pm every day while most teachers are in for 8am and don't leave until 6pm!

The amount we are expected to teach now that would never have been expected a few years ago; baking, toothbrushing every day, den building......Nothing ever gets taken out the curriculum, only added in meaning we have no time to teach anything in depth.

If you go to management about any issue with a child's behaviour the first question they ask is 'And what are you doing about it?'

And that's just the things that are springing to mind this evening.

This is appalling. A good SLT should back you to the hilt on this so I would refer all complaints to them.

"Dear parents,
The bakery trip will no longer be taking place due to juvenile behaviour"

Take a deep breath. It's January and miserable and it's the end of a long week. In the scheme of things, this is a minor irritation that you can brush off with a 'as previously stated, selection from this trip was made by drawing names at random. I am sorry that the draw did not go in x's favour on this occasion.' Or even just forward to SLT and ignore.

Parents are definitely the worst part of the job, aren't they! I'm in the independent sector on a subject that frequently selects by audition and sign up. So many outraged emails from parents of perfectly happy kids!

“Sadly due to GDPR regulations we are unable to take footage including the names of other pupils. Thanks for your email.”

Absolutely perfect. Maybe leave our the fuck part though 😂.

OP that is appalling!!!!

On behalf of normal and nice parents who almost never email the school or teacher thank you for everything you do. That visit sounds amazing and you are a legend for giving those children that experience.

What the hell is wrong with people? How entitled can some people get?

RIDICULOUS! Film it? No.

I regularly run an event in school where I draw names from a hat. The parents are pretty entitled about it all, but I have never been asked to film the draw! For goodness sake.

I wish we could put something in emailed signatures like “if your reply to this is unreasonable, you will not be hearing back from me.”

Refer them onto the head. Go to the bakery with your students. Have a great time. It's January. It's cold, dark and a bit shit. It's a horrible term for parents' evenings and reports. Don't make a hasty decision. Xx