To already roll eyes at the whingy school threads..

[Ditsyprint40]

Working in a school, and being totally inundated with both serious and trivial things..

What a miserable thread a fair bit if whinging on here, no??

Some of these posts have actually made me miss teaching (on mat leave with no intention of staying on after the 13week minimum to avoid paying it back).

All the crap parents give teachers/schools boils down to the fact that the vast majority do not understand what goes on inside a school - how much work everyone has on their plate and just how busy a day is.

I'm sure a lot parents think that teachers turn up, photocopy a bunch of sheets for the kids, sit there all day doing bugger all and leave. Oh and that there is no theory behind many teaching practises (such as the much maligned good child/"naughty"child seating arrangement). It all gets put on teachers being lazy when a lot of teachers work long hours and through weekends just to cover the bare minimum expected of them.

To sum up this unexpected rant, don't criticise what you don't understand! I've generalised massively here and I know everyone has a different situation but the more whingy parent threads I read on here, the more I think it applies.

"That's beside the Girls that were killed every year, because the school was on the most dangerous in Liverpool and they insisted on late detentions, over Winter. It took around ten girls to die, before it was changed."

10 girls from one school killed on the road? I call bullshit.

My previous headteacher routinely backed parents while hanging his staff out to dry.
Of course teachers, like any other professionals, make mistakes sometimes but I think they're now more at risk of complaint and nitpicking than ever before.
No wonder the recruitment situation is worsening.

That is terrible.
I had loads sent in last year. One had been vomiting at 8 am that morning . I caught it again and I was off for the weekend and two days with it. It was the fourth time this year.

I think this thread might have been accepted in a few months down the line.
I have had a complaint about a new jumper but that is all so far. I do look at the names thank you and I even haul anything named out of the lost property bin while I am looking for an un named one and return them to class. No, I'm sorry I don't know where your child's sweatshirt is and yes I did remind everyone at the end of the day. It will be difficult for me to find his unnamed one as we have over three hundred children here but I will try.

So far I love my new classes everyone has settled in well and it was lovely to be on duty and receive all the hugs from the children who missed me and listen to chat about their holidays. They all look lovely with new hair dos and smart, clean uniform. Not sure that the bright orange trainers look good with it ( I bet dad took him to school ) and it is a shame your mum can't be bothered to wash your yoghurt covered shirt from yesterday and so you have that bright t shirt on instead. The lie about her not having a washing machine or drier to the teacher didn't work out when I suggested she could have washed by hand ( shock , horror) and you suddenly decided you did have a washing machine after all but not a drier. Some bright spark suggested you hang it on a washing line perhaps you could pass that tip onto mum! It was good to hear you haven't punched anyone for two days try and keep it up.

Drawing up a seating plan is a massive ballache. A teacher has to have a rationale for any passing observer for how each pupil is strategically placed for maximum learning and school priority groups. The teacher will be considering targets, (under)performance, SEN, compatibility issues etc. It's time consuming and rarely easy to get right. Some times in goups you'll never have enough tables to space out according to the needs of the whole class. Disruptive X can't be on their own because of the school emphasis on collaborative learning etc etc.

A teacher will have umpteen seating plans for various classes and groupings.
Unless they have an unusually socially easy class, there will always be someone unhappy with the seating plan, and there simply isn't the time (or ink in the printer) to change it again and again and again.

I don't think it does teachers any favours to be defensive, most parents are reasonable people and if you treat them as such from the outset you will achieve more than a 'how dare you question me?' wall of defensiveness. Children are precious - should they have to suck up any old crap rather than rock the institutional boat?

Look, schools can be crap at communicating. Some teachers are great with the kids, but aren't good at relating to the parents. Similarly, most teachers do a great job and deserve respect and support and some parents are arses. Let's meet each other half way and not proceed from a staring point that either is unreasonable.

I think the lack of understanding that sometimes parents have to travel for more than an hour to work and don't have a network close to home for emergencies shows that there are some people out there with very privileged situations.

Of course it's was the mum's fault for sending a sick child to school. Did the dad have an important job rather than an "important" one like the mum?

Emergency number: If I RING the school and tell them every single time that I see patients all day and can't have my mobile on me and to ring the front desk in my job if there is an emergency, then don't ring and leave 10 messages on my mobile..
Ring the bloody number I told you to use.
And I didn't cause ADD by bad parenting. It's a neurological condition. I know this because I have three other children who don't have ADD and do remember to write down their homework etc.

As far as being reasonable in my contact with the schools my children attend. I think most parents try to be but in any job that involves contact with the public, it only takes one person to ruin your day. I was employed for years in local government, dealing with residents, complaints and resentful people were to be expected. I didn't hear from the people happy with the council, they are the silent majority.

I have to children with Aspergers so no, just teaching my children to be more organised is not enough. When they are stressed they will have trouble remembering their names let alone where they put their jumper. But I am fortunate the school is pretty receptive and provide support as much as possible.

I will always teach my kids to be respectful of school and teachers and learning. They are very well behaved and in return I expect the school to communicate effectively with me, which it doesn't always manage to do. sometimes schools expect empathy from the parents on the many pressures being applied to the teaching profession without reflecting on the many pressures on parents in return.

A very depressing thread.

Just sent my three year old in to nursery, her third day.

As a parent, I always try to do everything right but sometimes I get it wrong. Im human first, parent second. I really hope her teachers aren't as hard on me as some of the moaning fuckers on here.

Did the OP start this little gem of a thread then disappear?

Well, would like her to be MNing whilst working at school?

"don't criticise what you don't understand"

That's a good point...you're right, many parents find school baffling but most are trying to understand it and do their best (and most think teachers have a tough job and are equally trying to do their best). Discouraging queries, stonewalling or making parents feel like they're being a nuisance won't help that. Please can you explain to me (be gentle, Reception novice):

• How would teachers prefer parents to communicate with them?

• why do schools communicate via letters in the post or book bags or notice boards instead of email? Isn't this more expensive/resource intensive/bad for the environment?

• why do schools insist on dress up days, craft style homework, bake days etc when the cost/time/stress outweighs the inherent educational value? A significant amount of goodwill could be created simply by limiting to once a term or at least explaining why they're necessary.

• why do some schools give little notice of the above or of other homework - whereas some other schools are able to notify parents of homework projects and deadlines at the start of each term?

Its sad to hear so many negative experiences but this doesn't have to be a battleground. It takes understanding on both sides, not a 'them and us' mentality.

I do understand that teaching is a very, very challenging job, and I am not cut out for it myself, and I respect those that are. But I do find teachers very quick to demand rights when it comes to having to work late or deal with aggressive people/stressful hours, all of which are factors in many other jobs.

I worked in a public relations role in a previous job where I regularly did outreach work until 10pm at night, involving overnight stays around the country and getting screamed at by obnoxious people. It wasn't nice, but that's what I was paid to do (I was on £30k a year, not sure how that corresponds to a teaching salary).

I don't think teachers actually help themselves sometimes by being so quick to resist change and publicly complain about things - it just turns the public against them, because most of us also have stressful jobs and work exceedingly long hours.

It isn't reasonable or realistic to expect parents to always be able to pick up children within an hour.

Which is why my neighbour gave (with permission) my name to the school as well as another neighbour.

If I have not learned your child's name by the end of the week they are doing OK. I have 90 new students this year, I know the names of the troublemakers.

And don't get me started on school admin staff, who sometimes make the sorts of mistakes that would get them fired from other jobs - they complain it's because they're too busy to do things properly, but that attitude wouldn't really cut the mustard in a busy corporate environment, where if you're too busy you just stay late to finish everything.

Realistically most primary schools cannot properly look after sick DCs. There are no spare staff. Everyone is allocated to a specific task. If a child is, for example, having an asthma attack, bleeding or fitting and parents can't get there quickly we have to phone an ambulance and someone has to stay with the DC until they arrive. This often means a one to one TA because that would be the only option. The parent of that DC will not be happy.

If it's just a sickness bug the DCs sit outside the HT's or secretary's office. It's miserable for the DC but what else can we do?

We love our job but our job is teaching. There is far too much time wasted in schools by stuff not related to our job. I won't look for a lost coat, I don't have time. You are welcome to come into school to look for it yourself, though.

everyone in my class got a turn with the "challenging" ones. I used to move the class around on a weekly basis to try to make it fair. Still had parents trying to dictate who their DCs could and couldn't sit near.

Too right I'd kick off if my child was being used like this. It's your job to stamp out crap behaviour, not hers.

I dunno, I find threads like this quite a helpful insight actually.

My boy is one of those 'doesn't look after his things' ones, drives me batshit, I don't expect the teachers to keep track of his shit, or replace it if it's lost, he's 9 not 5.

I also agree that tying laces/braiding hair is a massive faff the teachers can do without, so only ever eye roll at my own daughter when her carefully done hair (ok thrown into quick plaits) is a tangled wild mess at pick up.

Teachers are human, and do a bloody difficult job.

Which is why my neighbour gave (with permission) my name to the school as well as another neighbour.

Lucky that your neighbour is on good terms with you and you are in a position to collect in an "emergency". Many people do not have that.

million:

• catching the teacher as they are dismissing children at the end of the day or schedule a meeting after or before school. Sometimes a bit of perspective is helpful: is a problem so important that it's worth numerous emails and calls to the school, belittling and embarrassing teachers over?

• all down to the schools resources and the demographic of the area. Some schools I know communicate only via email or the website because most parents have access, some do letters as well because a large amount of parents might not have access to the Internet.

• again differences across schools, however short answer is that it is supposed to enrich the learning experience. I also find them a faff and a distracting to learning.

• organisation of the admin team and teachers in notifying the admin team. Some are well organised, some have heir heads in the clouds.

Can I just ask Teachers who send a note home saying "Little Johnny bumped his head quite hard in school today please observe for a head injury overnight" that they put the note in a book that is actually going home that day!!! If they bump their head on a Friday it's a bit late if the parent finds out on Monday.

It makes you wonder though what would warrant a phonecall??