Was your daughter on a school trip at Alton towers today?

[Zzz1234]

Was she late for her bus? did the teacher lose his rag at her in the middle of the entrance area? If so is she ok?

Can’t believe what I saw today, two girls were 20 mins late back, yes they should be in trouble but they did not deserve some teacher screaming at them, I was 75 metres away and could hear everything I felt so sorry for the girls. I was in a queue and I wasn’t talking about it to the other people in the queue, I was about to go over, but another teacher did.

Would love the name of the school to make a complaint to. Heat is not an excuse, I have lived in hot countries and never saw a teacher lose it like he did.

I know it’s not Aibu but posted here for traffic....

Honestly I would be furious with the students- I teach in a 4-16 setting and feel like when we are on trips we have 200 odd babies. I would be terrified- I adore all the children I teach and the thought of anything awful happening to any one of them makes me feel sick

You should be furious with them.

It's how you conduct yourself while furious that's important.

To be honest, without a bit of context it's hard to make a judgement.

On one hand the teacher could have been bang out of order and snapped for no reason.

On the other, the OP has just caught the tail end of 2 girls being complete shits all day, messing everyone around, gobbing off when turning up late & then turning on the tears for a bit of sympathy....

It's how you conduct yourself while furious that's important.

Unfortunately some kids are too thick to understand more "subtle" forms of communication & only seem to get the message when they drive someone to shouting - it's often a by-product of how they were raised...

Modern parenting seems to involve a lot of "reasoning" & "discussion" with the kid "reasoning" and "discussing" back until the parent gets bored/can't think of a "discussion point" and snaps at them.

Whereas if they just said "No, because I said so" in the first place and stuck to their guns the kids'd know to do what they were told...

I have to disagree, mostly you will find if you tell a child "no, just because I said so" they will have no understanding of the reasoning behind your decision to say no, the need some explanation or eventually they will just think ah fuck it why shouldn't I do that, they just day no because they are being mean. If you have given a good explanation of why a child shouldn't do something and they still refuse to listen, then yes, the "no, because I said so" would probably be acceptable.
Yes these girls understood they did something wrong but like a few people have said we have no context. I still wouldnt find it acceptable for a teacher to lose control in the manner the OP described. If it was as bad as described, and was in public, imagine what has like in the classroom. Did they deserve a telling of and shouted at, yes probably (depending on their reason for being late). Shpuld a teacher be screaming at pupils? Nope not under any circumstances. Raised voice is sometimes needed, screaming is never neccasary, no matter how "stessfull" their job is.

Unfortunately some kids are too thick to understand more "subtle" forms of communication & only seem to get the message when they drive someone to shouting - it's often a by-product of how they were raised...

I dispute that there are children 'too thick to understand more "subtle" forms of communication'.

Surely that is an illustration of why shouting is always completely counter productive?

Once you have got the decibel level up as far as it can go and a child is only 3, what do you do next? What do teachers do next?

Because clearly shouting is getting nobody anywhere if the girls are still late back to the bus after years of it.

mathanxiety, yes I have to agree that, QueenPeeBeePee, post was very confusing and contradicted itself all over the place. To call some children "thick" was uncalled for.

I disagree that some children are “too thick” to understand subtle forms of communication. Labelling a child in this way is awful. Are you saying that another child, same misdemeanour, who wasn’t “thick”, would get a different form of punishment?

I do hope you aren't a teacher QueenPeeBeePee.

Shouting loud enough to be heard from 75m away is not effective or appropriate management of childrens bad behaviour by anyone, let alone a teacher. And I don't buy into this argument that those of us who disagree with what this teacher did are bring up snowflakes and its all die to poor parenting. Of course the girls should not have been late and should have been dealt with. Being made to sit seperately from friends and at the front of the bus with a teacher and their parents being informed would have been better. Yelling like a sergeant major is not right and only confirms the teacher lost control.

Labelling the children “snowflakes” seems to be a new way of trying to bully parents into shutting up alongside labelling them “that parent”.

I don’t think I can think of another profession other than teachers where they blame the people they work for for not being able to do their job in a professional manner.

qwertyuiopy
I don’t think I can think of another profession other than teachers where they blame the people they work for for not being able to do their job in a professional manner.

Teachers work for the LEA or academy trust.

BoneyBackJefferson They get paid by them, but their “clients” are the parents and children. They do their work for them.

This thread is making me wonder how much back chat, ignoring requests, ignoring rules etc. parents put up with.

To be fair we only have the OPs opinion of how loud and aggressive the bollocking was. Posts like this quickly escalate from "shouting" to "screaming and swearing and terrifying the poor little darlings".

OP (no offence) could be of a nervous disposition and upset by a bit of shouting.

If my DS was late back to the bus by 20 mins then I would have been panicking as a parent or as a teacher and certainly would have had a good old shout!

To the posters saying he should have dealt with it professionally... have you ever lost a child in a big place like Alton towers? Or better still have you ever lost someone else's?? God just the thought of the phone call is enough to put the fear of god into you! Teachers aren't perfect, and I know plenty of people who lose their shit at work sometimes!

These kids are just starting to taste real independence at trips like this where they don't have a parent watching their every move. As part of that they need to learn to take other people into consideration and that leaving everyone waiting for an extra 20 mins in boiling hot weather isn't right!

@MoonsAndJunes I have a 13 year old...backchatting is a daily norm for me now :) (I also have a cupboard of gin)

Lets be honest what happened here.

Two teen girls were late back for the bus, they probably had form, and were probably mucking around with boys from other schools and chose to keep everyone waiting. The liklihood that these were some diminutive studious wallflowers is very low.

They got bollocked. Which in the real world where teachers do shout ( and not reprimand the little dears with a quiet firm tone, so as not to upset them) is pretty much standard, and we all know it.

Pearl clutching mum decides that it was all too much, but thinks to post on MN to create a good old teacher bash, where the affronted middle class parents can criticise something they didn't see and base their opinions on wild speculation.

Great.

Wild speculation you say topcat1980? A bit like your description of the girls. You know, the ones you have never actually met so have no idea if they were messing about with boys or have form for bad behaviour.

Two teen girls were late back for the bus, they probably had form, and were probably mucking around with boys from other schools and chose to keep everyone waiting. The liklihood that these were some diminutive studious wallflowers is very low

Misogyny in action. And then you have the cheek to label anyone else’s thoughts “wild speculation”? Oh you’re very very funny and really fucking lacking in self awareness

Being in charge of 50-100 teenagers on a trip to Alton Towers is not a walk in the park.
Late students fuck it up for everyone.
Arriving back to school late potentially =
Angry students who have to sit and wait on a hot coach for others to turn up.
Angry parents who have to wait around at school for the coach to turn up.
Angry bus driver who will get home late to his family.
Angry Headteacher who has to pay the bus company a penalty for going over allotted time.
Angry childminder who has to wait for late teacher to pick their own DC up.
I could go on..

The little loves deserved a bollocking IMHO.

My scenario is far more likely than those set out by the pearl clutchers.

BTW you lot have probably debated it more than it was ever thought of by the students in question.

Who probably got on the bus and were asleep in 20 mins, as is usual.

How is it misogyny in action?

Its a very, very likely scenario, one which I've observed from being on these trips many, many times.

Boys late back- mucking about with girls from another school.

Girls late back- mucking about with boys from another school.

Aye because teenage girls can’t possibly be late without having been mucking about with boys

Aye, because its the usual reason.

"Oh but they might have had an emergency"

In which case they have phones and can ring, or let someone else know.