to not want to go in the staff room??

[MrDobalina]

I am volunteering at dds school, to get some experience in order to apply for a PGCE place.

I don't want to go in the staff room! I went home for lunch last week to avoid it

Cant really explain it; its a mixture i think of it being a weird dynamic what with dd being in the school and me being a parent AND being transported back in time to my school days when staff-rooms were terrible places full of teachers that stank of coffee and fags

Can i continue to avoid it without looking like a pratt? or do i just need to woman-up? can i hide behind a magazine?

Yes you are making too much..........just go in. I have been in lots of staff rooms as a supply teacher and parents are always quite happily in, if volunteering.

wow jumping how did that happen???

well if your going to teach you need to do staff politics
stop being a wuss
take some biscuits and mingle

Can you go in and sit with the teacher whose class you volunteering in?

If they are writing a reference for the PGCE place then part of it will be how you get on with the staff - you can't get a good report for it if you are standoffish and won't even go in the staff room!

I get it OP. I used to be a teacher and had no problem going into the staff room then (obviously) but would feel a bit funny about going into the staff room of my daughters' school. I'm not sure why as i get on perfectly well with the teachers there, I'd just feel a bit self conscious somehow.

You can always walk in and actually say "oooh this does feel strange, the staff room was like the Inner Sanctum when I was at school - I've never actually been inside one before, just peeped round the door" or something equally inane

i've got nothing to add to your thread OP, but wanted to say thanks

your bloody song has been an earworm since it was played on the radio a few days back, and i'd just got rid

Mr Dobalina, Mr Bob Dobalina indeed

You are making more of this than you need to (in the nicest possible way :) )When i was a teacher one of the mums of a child who'd been in my class came and volunteered for a while and then later became a TA.
She was lovely to talk to, was good with the children and I always enjoyed having her working in my class. I never once thought "what's she doing in the staff room, she's a parent" because it just didn't ever feel that way. I think you will find if you go in and chat that they are all just normal people and will think the same of you. try to get over the feeling that they are teachers and you are not. Sadly the whole school system creates this stupid artificial hierarchy, but that's all it is, artificial. You are an equal - it's only a job title, no more.

Try and bite the bullet. Doing playground duty endlessly or going home or having a magazine is just putting off the day when you will have to face it. Go in, smile, chat about something totally unrelated to school such as what people did on holiday. It's nice to have new people to chat to, anyway. Go for it and good luck!

(still a teacher, btw, not sure why I put "when I was!" This was a few years back, though, and am obviously getting old )

I drew a cock on the staffroom whiteboard on my last day at school.

And I'm a teacher.

Someone always uses your mug....she says gloomily and with much experience. I'm a secondary school teacher and I need to go in the staffroom at lunchtime to moan to colleagues about bottom set Y10 and regain my sanity. Some teachers avoid it like the plague and hide in their cupboard enjoying the silence or mark in their classrooms to avoid taking so much work home. I need a half hour bitch about Senior Management and a quick go on the sweepstake as to what 'up the duff' Chardonnay in Y11 is going to call her baby before I'm fit for the afternoon. YANBU to not want to go in, though. Each to their own, m'dear.

Buy a brown mug, noone will use that.

thanks quango for making me feel less of a moron

and everyone...

sorry chartered!

and sowornaut you've put me off more...I don't want to hear teachers slagging off the kids. I really dont

tethers ill do that...good ice breaker?

good op you're being precious teachers slag off kids,parents,each other
in difficult jobs staff vent and better oot than in
I'm surprised you're so suprised and aghast

sowornout

Sounds like time for a career change

If you are getting pre-PGCE experience, it's quite important to go into the staff room, IMO. It's part of the job, and you need to get a feel for both the teaching and non-teaching parts.

I'm not suprised and aghast
I don't think i'm being precious either
It is my dds school. I know alot of the kids and parents. I don't want to hear the teachers slagging them off

The slagging off is unpleasant and indicative of the culture of the school.

I remember doing a supply job where the staff room conversation was quite stomach turning. They referred to individual pupils as "vile". When asked if I wanted to return the next day, I declined.

It can be hard going behind the scenes at your child's school. You really do see things you'd rather not. If you are just there for a short time, you don't have the chance to get over your first impressions and see all the good that the school does.

You do need to bite the bullet, though.

A good school won't be slagging them off!

i do have quite dark humour
Don't think I can bring myself to sneer at teen-pregnancy though..do i need to??? Im not up for fitting in with that kind of culture