If you're a teacher, do the PTA annoy you?

[RunAlexRun]

I have been into my DCs school this morning to help with a craft event organised by the PTA. I am not a PTA member but help out occasionally at things like sports day if I'm not working.

I, and the other volunteer parents, have spent the whole morning being spoken to like shit by teachers! Not all the teachers, I hasten to add, but some of them.

I was told by the PTA chairwoman to go to X classroom and that the teacher was expecting me. When I got there I knocked and entered the classroom only to be shouted at and told to wait in the corridor, and made to wait there for 20 minutes.

There were various other incidents over the morning where us volunteers were spoken to badly. If you are a teacher or work in a school, do PTA helpers annoy you? Would you prefer there was no PTA? My child is year 5 so not too long left at the school and I certainly won't be helping out again!

And wetplay? Even a few years ago we had the TV on wheels and a massive stack of VCR tapes. Maybe a turn to draw on the OHP. Education happened

I think some teachers do just forget and speak to everyone in work mode as if they're a child. I dropped my son off at secondary school recently, we had to go via the attendance box to sign in. We were late for a significant reason, I explained my note and my son was told to go to his lesson. He then proceeded to speak to me in the same manner and said to me, 'you can go', I responded, 'yes, I can, to work!'

But @EstrellaDamn, can't you see that you are expecting teachers to work an extra day or evening for free, and then sulking because they don't want to? Would you expect a restaurant worker to open a restaurant for no pay because you wanted to eat at a time they aren't normally open? Would you expect a store worker to work an extra day without pay?

It is your child's education, but it is a job for a teacher, and they have the right to a work/life balance. As SloeBerri said, why is it the staff that are expected to give up their free time to benefit the children's education? Where are all of the other parents who seem happy to sit back and let everyone else do the work? You're expecting teachers to have no other priority in life except your child, and are expecting them to work extra nights/days for free whilst being grateful for any scraps that the PTA throws them. Your whole attitude shows a dreadful lack of respect for teachers.

As a newly qualified primary teacher I had to go to the secondary school for training. I looked very young. It was a string of embarrassment from the child bus fare in the crowd (waved on crossly) to being made to stand in line at reception with students. Every time I tried to pipe up I was shushed! Finally I walked into the meeting room to be snapped at the library was closed for a staff meeting, students had to go to the hall. I never wore a black coat and trousers to work again.

Our PTA meet on a Monday morning in the school staff room. But they are given a list of activities to do to help the school so teachers don't have too do it.

On the list will be things such as:
Class x - 50 copies of a,b,c &d, put into order and stapled into a book
Class y - 200 various shapes need cutting out
Class a - new books have arrived and need colour banding and any books by z need removing.
General. Lost property needs sorting and seeing if anything is named and can be put in children's bags in the cloakroom.
Our PTA do all of this on a Monday to hopefully save the teachers having to do all the extra prep work.
Once the jobs are done they pop them into trays for the relevant classes and the teachers pick them up at their convenience.

They also raise funds, but any discos are monitored by PTA only. The head stays on site but that's it, he does work in his office.

The one at our school seems to go well and they are definitely helpful in terms of doing lots of prep work/mundane tasks.

@Ratbagcatbag that PTA would have been great to have!

I'm a teacher, on the pta and a governor. I'm the worst sort of person aren't I?

I would write it off op. There are arseholes everywhere. In teaching and the pta. Don't do it if you're unhappy.

Fucking hell I'm not sulking

We couldn't get enough parents to volunteer either but given that the thread is about teachers and the PTA that's what I was discussing.

Anyway, I'm bored shitless talking about this. I'm not even on the fecking PTA any more! I really must get a life.

why would a parent being at the school be odd? our children are there and school climate can't be that welcoming if teachers think its odd for parents to be there.

PTA hated my husband. He stopped jumble sales because they cost the school for the PTA to run them. It caused much huffing and puffing. They wanted teachers and caretakers to collect things after school, wanted storage of smelly junk, expected access to staff room for coffees etc, expected him to attend numerous meetings and to be grateful for £62.30. He replaced them with a couple of parents who spent time applying for grants and they made enough to build a new sports hall with a year.
The PTA he had were very entitled and disliked change. They wanted to dictate what was purchased, what events were held and to have eternal gratitude. He allowed a summer fete and Christmas fete and played along, but really resented additional days and evenings spent discussing minutiae and arbitrating at bickering committee meetings for very little return. His best move was to disband them and focus on proper fundraising. Parent volunteers with specific skills, or a willingness to learn, were welcomed for certain roles, but any sort of committee was stopped.