Teacher lunch hour!

My consideration went out the window the minute that I found out that he'd been boasting about the punch. He now knows what he did.

I figured that if he was a grown man and able to boast about punching a woman, he was grown enough to take the guilt.

He left the area. I believe he's now working in hospitality in Aberdeen.

@BeachLife2 there are a lot of crazy/stupid/jumped up posters on MN but you genuinely win across all three categories. 😂

Which is why they have such a problem with bullying being allowed to go rife and also the kids walking out the school at lunchtime causing havoc in the local areas

So many of these issues would be solved if there was an appropriate level of support staff around. Every teacher should have a teaching assistant. I used to go to the toilet whenever I needed to when I had a TA. She was a consistent face in the classroom, knew my routines and expectations and so could easily keep the kids' heads down with a task while I emptied my bladder.
Not to mention the impact they had on the children's learning.

The landslide of TAs came about after a certain EEF report a few years ago which stated TAs had little impact on children's learning. Aside from that being ridiculously false, they never took into account how much TAs help teachers, not just the kids. In so many ways.

Anyway, rant over for today.

Mainstream secondary.

Police were called, but 'lost the statements'. He was referred to SACRO. I was waiting to take a second pregnancy test when it happened - very early and had only a faint line. (I've outlined this elsewhere on Mumsnet.)

I was in my 40s and felt too embarrassed to tell the police that I thought that I might be pregnant. (No, I can't explain it.) Thought my period had started the next day and then saw what had come away.

Once I realised that I had been pregnant, like an idiot I wanted to spare the boy from the guilt of thinking that he'd killed a baby. (Daft, I know.)

The boy had chased another boy into my room. Both S3/Y10. The perpetrator later claimed that he was the victim.

A senior pupil saw what had happened and ran for help. The two male teachers who came were also punched. At the time, we still had a Home Link Officer (Truant Officer). He was ex-police and was (I later found out) rather more robust in outlining consequences to the boy. (Said gentleman is now deceased, so I can put this here.)

Police took statements from all of us...Then took no action (having 'lost' them) apart from referring the boy to SACRO.

I got a phone call from one of their workers. He informed me that - according to the boy - he'd been the victim of a homophobic attack and I'd got in his way. (Nope. I was trying to keep my stomach away from him.) The boy was really sorry and wanted to see me to have a restorative conversation. I declined.

A few years later, I found out that this grown man was boasting to my latest cohort about the time he'd punched Mrs Weary in the stomach.

The thing is that those who don't know what's happening in schools witter on about how easy the job is, how short the hours are... (Ha!) They have no idea of what teachers do.

One of my male colleagues quit teaching. He was punched by another pupil in the same year group and the parents tried to have my colleague charged.

This was some years ago - I'm now in my 60s - and it's getting worse.

I did my last supply stint last year. In the same week, I was hit stopping a kid from being assaulted, a young woman in the same department was hit because she happened to be in a corridor where a fight had broken out and a visibly pregnant classroom assistant was hit in another department.

I was merely a supply classroom teacher, but found myself constantly having to deal with kids vaping in the toilets opposite my classroom. (They were escaping from other departments and congregating in the open plan toilets.)

Yes, I did phone for SLT back-up, but they were usually dealing with other matters.

I'm trying not to out myself, but some of the parents actually went to the Scottish media to complain about bullying in the school. Another school in the same LA featured on Scottish news following the filming of an incident. (The other school was supposedly a 'good' school.)

I have former colleagues who have moved further north and have found things much easier than working in the central belt.

I had the same. Problems all the way through - worse with peri, but also miscarried at work (very early on, after being punched - during break, as it happens, whilst trying to get my lesson organised for next period).

I think that people often forget that teaching staff are expected to teach, manage crowd control, police when necessary...

It's not a combination required in many lines of work.

High quality teachers are by far the best asset a school has. Idiots pushing pens in offices and congratulating themselves on high levels of leadership bollocks whilst never setting eyes on a child sounds like the worst kind of school and as far away from a school I want to work at or I want my children to attend.

Agree with this and what about a female teacher who is having a period? There are initiatives around period poverty for younger women and universities often provide free sanitary products in the toilets for students. Teachers need to be better looked after.

Not primary, but I have a colleague who goes and reads a book during their lunch hour to make a point that he won't be working during that time as he is not paid to do so.

Do you work from 8am to 3:30 without the opportunity to drink a cup of coffee, go to the loo, eat a snack or lunch? No, thought not. So why should we?

Well they are entitled to a lunch break. They need to use their big voices and say.....no.

Going back to the original post, how many non-teachers posting here have working conditions where they can't go for a wee at any time during their whole working day?
This is the reality for teachers who is lose their breaks and lunchtimes for extra duties.
That's why it's actually illegal for management to either direct, guilt trip or flatter teachers into extra duties in that time.
I wish teachers would stand together on this. For each individual that has a bladder the size of an elephant and sets a precedent of working over breaks there is another poor soul who is being made physically ill by having to hold their wee in.

Our ‘hour’ is 30 minutes but now the bell for the last lesson goes after 20 minutes in an effort to improve punctuality. In reality, the conscientious students now turn up early and those who are always late are still late!

I’m absolutely not making this a race to the bottom, nor justifying the situation.

The only ‘advantage’ that the team I work in has over teachers is that we’re community based so don’t have patients sat in front of us in the way that teachers have a class full
of kids . We’re able to block out time to try to keep our workspace clean and hygienic. Still definitely a waste of clinical time.

I always think that the nhs (and every workplace) would be more effective if we all only did jobs that only we can do. So teachers teach, nurses nurse, administrators do admin and cleaners clean.

@everychildmattersah thank you! I’ve never heard of it before.

Headteachers and senior management are well paid to attract and retain high quality leaders. This sets the overall for a school and ensures that there is strong management.

Lunchtime=time to get on with something without children needing to be taught, except for the 2 days I run clubs, the ‘detention every day’ thing, kids wanting me to check if they’ve finished their online homework (even though they can check their own) or to talk to me about something. There’s a paid lunch duty available, which I quite like, easy money. Break is similar, time to do tasks without children needing to be taught.

I’ve had to create new resources (the main PowerPoints, plus extra resources and associated games) for a new GCSE specification recently.

I’m not whinging, I quite like cracking on with essential work (4 hours of online training recently) and I’m aware that some jobs simply don’t allow for lunch breaks. My DH hadn’t eaten since 5.30am yesterday and he got home about 5pm. It’s just the nature of his job. I had to heat up soup and take it into class one day this week. I’d have keeled over if I didn’t eat.

I like being busy and having the dynamic of a class to work with. Free lessons, especially protected ones, are my only guaranteed ‘me’ time, although I might get thrown out of my room, or I leave for 5 minutes and suddenly someone’s in there having a meeting or some sixth formers have been cheeky and decided to use my room and wiped all my painstakingly written preparation off the board.

Not to mention the shocking behaviour we have to deal with nowadays.

You couldn't pay me enough to go back.

Nowhere near as bad as what they are factually getting paid? 🙄 It's not 'made out', you can simply Google..... teacher's pay. It's pretty shit for what they do and the crazy hours they work.

@everychildmatterswe only get 45 mins now so end up with about 15 mins to eat lunch and have a wee 🙄.
do you mind me asking how you tutor in the day time?

Teachers don't get a lesson covered so they can clean though. It's just extra piled on top.