To ask teachers what your pet peeves are?

[Collettegirl]

Personally mine are wet playtimes, and children who don't have a pen/pencil.

I have to say I agree with birdsgottafly

A child who is so clearly, severely autistic to the point that they throw chairs across the room when a different teacher walks in to take the lesson than was expected. Parents insist this is the school’s fault THAT is the school's fault! If the child can't cope with sudden changes of teacher you need to plan for this - prepare the child for the change and put support in to help them cope!

I think teachers do an amazing job. As a single mum I think the teachers of my 5 and 4 year old have been a great support to our family. The children have grown so much in confidence and enjoy their time in school. I confess to being guilty of saying "If you don't stop being rude to me I am going to have to tell Mrs/Mr...." It is not that I want them seen as a monster but I know my children hold them in high regard.

It was hardly surprising this thread went south quite so quickly was it? Even if it was supposed to be light hearted.

Inevitably someone was going to say something stupid or word something in a way that shows the profession in a poor light.

Having said that I’m quite tempted to start the ‘share your pet peeves about teachers’ thread just to see how long that one lasts before it stops becoming ‘light-hearted’.

Humming while working JUST STOP
Chewing gum - I don't get involved with the yes/no argument, if I suspect you're chewing then it's an immediate lunchtime detention. Only takes a new class a few weeks to work this out.
Swinging on chairs/pen tapping/clicking
The "my mum said that I can't give you my phone" and you know it's true!
Parents that complain about the sanction you've given their prescious kid can kindly fuck off.

No name labels on clothes. Sheer laziness.

When my DC started nursery, I bought the labels and sewed them onto every single thing from socks to bags. Then stuck the sticky ones onto the packed lunches and water bottles. It took a few evenings.

It takes a few evenings every August now cutting off the old labels and sewing them onto the new clothes. I check the sticky ones every week as they are far less durable than the sewn ones.

Do not ask me to find lost property with no name on. 😡

Having to force kids to write about everything As a child, I remember a certain realisation that school trips were always followed by having to write about them! My mum was big on keeping diaries as well.

I give tuition in pupils' homes, which has different issues, here are some of mine:

When the pupil is only five minutes out of bed when I arrive.

When both the parent and the pupil are hopeless with appointments. Sometimes the only way I can get anywhere with them is to text them before every lesson; even charging them for missed appointments doesn't work in some cases, they just pay up!

When they haven't had breakfast (or any meal since breakfast, for afternoon lessons).

Parents who have LOUD conversations nearby. (I don't mind cats who sit on my lap though!)

Pupils who are so good at mental arithmetic (better than I am), and think that because of this they don't have to show any working.

Parents or grandparents who say nasty things to their children in front of me. I once stopped giving a pupil lessons because I couldn't put up with this.

Teachers that turn up late and leave welcoming reception Age children to TA. Teacher in question had "childcare issues ". We all have fecking childcare issues. But it's lighthearted so, hey ?!

If this is aimed at teachers would it would be better off in Staff Room rather than sitting in AIBU being GF to parents!!

With respect to dressing, and my dd was slow with motor skills, her teachers in reception (young group 11 July and August birthdays) huffed and puffed a little too much about children who had just turned 4 to the extent that a letter was sent home for February half term suggesting that they practiced with their children in the holiday.

Fair enough you may say except even then 2002, at home children wore leggings, jersey top, fleeces and Velcro trainers. Not cotton shirts, ties, cardigans, tunics and tights with lace or buckle shoes. My suggestion that a more age appropriate uniform was required clearly peeved. Children's clothes had moved on yet the level of complaint was extraordinary and many parents felt was largely unjustified.

I don't recall a single child in my DC's years arriving at school still in nappies

Not a teacher but from my own DC schooldays....

General lack of resilience from classmates who equally had massive aspirations to be doctors or lawyers but could t be bothered to do homework etc, with no consequences- not the teachers fault but the fault of liberal parents who allowed hoe work to be forgotten and then made excuses for their DC. Infuriating as a parent trying to encourage my own DC to do the right thing and respect the work set by their teachers.

Fake illness backed by parents to get DC out of games. Again lack of resilience.

Unrealistic aspirations generally fuelled by parents such as professional sportsperson, when no hope; medicine, law etc when an average kid academically- fuelled for making the parents
Seem like they have spawned a child prodigy.

Kids signed up to model agencies.

Also re: laces. I did a lot of lace tying, and then realised that a lot of the children could do it if I taught them, so that's what I did. But that's really not the job of a teacher.

I didn't resent having to zip up kids who had coats with difficult zips (there were a couple), or the little children who really couldn't do their laces, though I did wonder why their parents sent them in with shoes they couldn't do up when they could have worn other shoes.

My favourite was parents blaming me for their child's bad behaviour at home: "He says it's his homework and he can choose not to do it. Have you been teaching him about the rights of the child?" Like it's my fault your child refuses to do any work? He's 7, he doesn't get to make those kinds of decisions! (And she then wanted me to recommend that her child skip a school year because he was "so advanced." He wasn't, I didn't)

Speak with pre-school staff. It doesn't even occur to some parents that their children should know how to get dressed by themselves. They are busy, in a rush, it is faster to dress the child than let them fuss around whilst they are learning.

Strictly nothing to do with SN.

It doesn't even occur to other parents that their child will manage a tshirt and wellies with handles, but NOT with tiny buttons on cardigans, laced shoes when they haven't even been shown how to

My local schools give the parents of Reception kids the list of uniform with the acceptance letter, and remind them that the children will have to manage by themselves, so they have the summer to learn!

Share your pet peeves about teachers? Every day on here is have a go at teachers day, isn't it?

Clicky/tappy noises when you can't identify the source! So irritating and apparently not made by anyone -probably don't even realise they are doing it.

Automatic lying -when I just saw you do it in front of me! (Trying to phrase that one on a report at the moment)

Children who tell me of an ailment or incident from lunch time which they didn't tell a PSA in the playground about because it "just happened as the bell went" -which if it was occasional would be different but happens far too often and then spend afternoon chasing up.

HT who change the goal posts or who say one thing to parents and another to teachers. Those who expect us to be responsible for things but then don't trust us to do anything outside of their direct control.

Staff who think their view of children and learning is they only correct view so children who don't fit into this must be naughty/lazy/have bad parents. (Again Carol stop talking out of your arse)

So refreshing to see this being admitted. Though to be fair it is not just a teacher thing though, lots of people are like this, just teachers are in a position to actually cause some damage by thinking that way.

Oh god I'm guilty of some of these. I did complain about them doing P.E outside when it's -4. Even with joggers, hoodies etc my DD was still freezing. As were a lot of the other children.

Sorry teachers!

Who is paying for the crap coffee? We buy our own at my work. If you want nice coffee you buy it yourself. If you don't buy it yourself, you don't have any. What a weird moan.

Aragog I never tie boys' laces. The boys' toilets are usually awash with wee so untied laces will have undoubtedly been dragged through it.

A child in my class took half an hour to get dressed after PE so when our PE slots were changed to the last lesson of the day, I used to send him back 15 minutes early to get changed so he'd be dressed by home time. Miraculously he got changed quickly so he could have the full PE lesson.

stargirl1701
I've never sewed a label in my life
got packs of stick-on labels, some with the name, some with name + my phone number and I even put them on the kids socks. I don't care about losing a pair of socks, but it should make life easier to locate a black sock in a see of other 59 identical black socks at PE

When you are in the middle of explaining something and someone says "Do we need to know this for the exam?"

No name labels on clothes. Sheer laziness
Really, that's a top teacher pet peeve? And automatically labelled as laziness? Oh dear...

I never put name labels on clothes when my kids were little. I guess being a single mum of children, no support from family, working FT in a demanding job, travelling one hour in traffic both ways, and just trying to raise my kids to be respectful, disciplined, hard working and kind wasn't good enough. How dare I forget to put labels on their clothes and what a fool I was to actually waste time trying to teach them to be responsible for their own clothing, not leaving them anywhere, and that if they lost anything as a result, they would get a telling off.

Thankfully, always had a good relationship with all my kids' teachers because they were keen to learn and disciplined and I felt that these were the things that they appreciated the most.

Kinsorino I interpreted that post about the autistic child throwing the chair as the parents being in denial about their child and instead choosing to believe the root of the behaviour is the school.
..
Even if that is not the case, not all changes in school can be managed.

I know it’s early, but...🍷🥃🍹🥂🍸🍫

I wanted to be a teacher (Primary), I love kids, I love teaching them stuff, I LOVE watching their faces when they ‘get’ something. However, I am increasingly grateful that I chose a different career path. Between the ‘Carol’s’ and many parents I’d be behind bars by now.

Just know that for every ungrateful, twatty, rude parent you deal with, there’s a parent who think you’re fabulous 🍹💐. I do try to let our teachers know how great they are.

Get of the cross, swingofthings, we need the wood.

Collette, I didn’t realise primary school kids these days were meant to take their own own and pencil into school. I never had any guidance abou school equipment needed once they moved up to juniors, which was a surprise to me. All throug 4 years there was never any letters about sending children to school with this, that or the other piece of stationery.

I don’t think anyone took them in but would have been happy to. All parents thought that he teachers preferred to use their own classroom equipment I suppose, but with the state of funding, I could never understand it.

Secondary schools are much clearer about what children need to take to school.