Does the size of a teacher make difference to their ability to teach?

[StrumpersPlunkett]

Would you be concerned if your child’s teacher was of significantly reduced mobility due to being overweight?
If you are a teacher in early years/ks1/ks2+
Would it limit your teaching?

It depends how big and what age group you want to teach. For little ones you do need to be able to get down on the floor with them at times/crouch next to desks etc. I guess if a teacher was using a wheelchair they wouldn’t be able to do those things but they’d already be at a lower level similar to the children.

Not at all, as long as she was a good teacher, disability, weight and whatever other obstacles a teacher might have should not be a deterrent to being a good teacher.

I’ve just seen your update, OP. If you feel a vocation for teaching, you should go for it. PE at primary can be you simply supervising rather than taking part yourself.
However, it would be great for your own health if you joined in as far as you were able, and gently increased your activity level.
Have you had your thyroid function checked, to rule out a medical cause for your obesity?

Whether you go for teacher training or not, now is the time to address your weight, before you condemn yourself to a lifetime of ill health, joint pain, diabetes, and an increased risk of several cancers.
Maybe you could use your teaching ambition as a spur to help you lose weight, so you’ll have more energy to do the job?
Finally, believe in yourself, learn to love your body and give it healthy food and exercise to nurture it, rather than comfort eating junk food.
My best wishes for your future career and healthy life!

Speaking as an obese person, I would find it difficult to be a teacher especially in ks1. I would also be concerned that I wouldn't be a good role model.

In my son's school, there is an obese teacher who doesn't move about much choosing to sit at one table of pupils for the duration of the lesson and the kids from other tables come to teacher.

Teacher is also PE coordinator which I think is ridiculous. I would be ashamed to be PE coordinator if it were me.

Teacher looks exhausted at the end of the day.

My favourite primary school teacher was an absolute tank. We used to sit at story time and rub her feet. And she’d ask us to get things for her because she ‘had a bone in my leg’. We loved her.

Eeughhwww - feet rubbing!

Feet rubbing, what the actual fuck

YOu may well find that you don't stay very obese for very long working in a school. I've slost a stone since the 3/9/18

colditz it usually goes the other way because of all the biscuits and cake in the staff room.

how would everyone feel about a teacher who smoked?

it wouldnt bother me unless it was the PE teacher

how would everyone feel about a teacher who smoked?

That’s totally different. No reason that the children should know and it doesn’t affect their mobility.

My dd teacher last year (she was in yr 1) and this year (yr 2) are both what you would call morbidly obese. Last years one did struggle with physical things and couldn’t sit on the floor with the children but other than that she was an excellent teacher and my dd loves her. She also did yoga with them every morning. This years teacher is much younger and more mobile. I would guess she was a size 24/26. She’s a good teacher and my daughters seems to like her. She doesn’t do anything physical with them though. The only thing I found a bit odd was that the head of the PE department is also plus size. I would say a size 18-20. She runs quite a few of the after school clubs and all the kids seem to love them and she’s always running around with the kids on the field

Ugh to feet rubbing.

Op, being totally candid, I think it might impact on your chances of employment and I would try to lose some, for your health as much as for anything else

if you can ensure you can do pe lessons (not necessarily participated) i wouldn't have an issue. Could you react and intervene with the physical challenges like a child running off? (i don't know the physical challenges as i am not a teacher)

Being a bit overweight or even obese is probably fine, but if you are very large then it would be difficult to get around the room, you definitely couldn’t fit on the tiny chairs (well my bum is too big for that and I’m a 10/12 so maybe this point is moot) and you might struggle a bit with all the getting up and down, kneeling down to help with shoes etc. Still time to lose some weight if you want to op, though you certainly don’t need to be silf like to teach.

Gosh, no! As long as they were a great teacher I wouldn't give a second thought to their weight! Go for it OP!

Morning, folks.

We're getting a lot of reports on this thread, and we think many of you have missed the OP's second post so just wanted to draw your attention to that.

The OP is overweight herself and is considering teacher training. She's asking for opinions on whether it might be difficult for her or not.

Sorry to butt in, OP. Good luck with the decision. You sound like you've a lot of passion for it. That's what makes a good teacher.

I had several morbidly obese teachers and they were great teachers, but as a child, it was confusing when they taught the primary version of healthy eating and being active etc. It's hard for a small child to watch a very very large person teach you about staying healthy... as an adult I wouldn't doubt your teaching ability, but with health becoming a bigger part of the curriculum i would be concerned about that aspect. And uncomfortable with a role model of that size with my kids everyday. But part of life is learning to be compassionate and accepting so at least the kids would learn not to be cruel and they'd learn that size doesn't stop you doing a job. That would be a good thing.

I think it would be possible in KS2, though it would depend whether you were 'very overweight but capable of normal physical activity' - e.g. walking at a reasonable pace around the school multiple times per day, circulating round the classroom, effectively supervising break duty including going over to a child who was hurt - or 'very overweight and unable to move around the school / class at a normal pace'.

Teaching is a reasonably 'step heavy' job - I wore a pedometer for a day, and just in the course of normal 'collect photocopying, go to another class to talk to the teacher, go down to the front door to meet a parent, walk round the classroom during lessons and setting up, collect resources from elsewhere in the school' activity did thousands of steps per day. It does involve a fair amount of bending and stretching - bending down to pick things up or down to a child, stretching up to get resources stored in various places.

However, it doesn't often require 'long bursts of fast paced exercise', unless your class has a child who 'runs', in which case their individual care plan would need to take into account the fact that you couldn't chase them.

IME most primary teachers do teach at least 1 PE lesson per week - yes, outdoor PE may be taught or supervised by an external coach BUT with 2 hours of PE mandated per week, you will almost certainly be required to teach the other session. That dopesn't require you to be able to DO the lesson, but being able to teach / supervise - move around the room / field, including fairly rapidly to someone working dangerously - would be critical.

Some schools do also have things like the daily mile.

KS1 would be harder, as it is a more 'physical' job and more things will require physical demonstration / will be modelled through physical activity first, as well as more children needing physical help. Again, a minimum of being able to be on your feet all day and be able to bend / kneel / sit down at floor level would be really helpful.

Does that help? Obviously someone with a physical disability would have more 'formal' adaptations made - for example, they might never teach PE or supervise break on the field if it was inaccessible to a wheelchair or walking frame - so adaptations are and can be made. I'm just talking about the main 'what the job entails' points.

I'm afraid it takes more than 'passion' to make a good teacher. It isn't the obesity per se that might be a barrier, rather the associated physical challenges that may go hand in hand. Could you chase a child who was running off? React and move quickly to a child in danger? Get down on the floor with children who are playing? Teach PE? Although many schools do use sports trainers to teach PE, it isn't necessarily good practice to do so, and during your training you will need to evidence that you can teach PE well.

I would not have any worries about my child being taught by someone who was overweight, btw. Us teachers come in all shapes and sizes. I was just seeing the job from the inside and thinking about what might be hard.

Not for older children, no. For younger children, I don't think it's a good idea - in my opinion, teachers of young children need very high fitness and energy levels to keep up.

Surely most primaries have dedicated staff to teach PE - is this not standard? My eldest is in Y2 and I don't think his teacher really requires much mobility other than moving around the class room. She's tiny so sometimes sits on the little chairs for kids but I'm sure that could be avoided. Go for it OP!