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?

What do you think of everybody’s comments op?

At teacher training we had to run round the hall and play the sports we were going to be teaching. And then do things like invent a new game to tick certain aims and objectives and then teach them to the rest of our fellow students from our written lesson plan. So we had to run about and stuff.

So getting yourself as fit as possible is a good aim. Not everyone on the course was slim, many over weight but things like that hey were uncomfortable with .

How's your physical fitness? Because you can obvs be overweight but still run etc.

Are you ready to apply for SKITT / PGCE? You can perhaps discuss this with the course tutors. I imagine they will be approachable. Afterall they’re looking for people with determination, enthusiasm and capability. Your weight and mobility is of relatively low significance if you are able to engage the children. My friend has just started teaching (NQT). She’s overweight but her mobility is ok.

Pps have asked you about whether you would consider looking at changing your weight. I get it’s hard and I am failing myself at the moment. BIWI does the boot camps if you’re ever interested.

Low carbs (not no carbs) forever. It's the only way.

Interesting responses thank you so much for all of them. Lots to think about still.

I do think that a teacher who is significantly overweight is unfit as a role model though. What kind of example is it to a class of kids. We're trying to teach children to eat healthy and that's not going to come all that good from someone who's overweight.

Well, it's a pretty good example for kids who otherwise might grow up to think that fat people should be hidden away from children, or that fat people can't do anything worthwhile with their lives, or that being fat is morally wrong. You know. People like you.

I wouldn’t be worried about morbid obesity in itself; I’m in that category, but I am still very capable of running after my kids, playing physical games with them, getting up and down off the floor constantly, carrying them when I need to (carried 19kg DD1 for a good distance earlier) etc. So someone who was seriously overweight teaching my kids would not bother me at all. But I do think in early years and KS1, I would feel uncomfortable if the teacher had such restricted mobility due to their weight that they couldn’t interact with the children in the way small children need them too. I’d also be worried abou school trips etc. When you’re out with a heap of 4yos you need to be able to react quickly if one of them chooses to bolt, for example.

You do say ‘significantly reduced mobility’ op. A lot of teachers on the thread have stressed how physically demanding the job is. It depends how you would manage the mobility problems.

Do it op!
While you’re training you could come over to the VLCD threads and let your passion be a motivator to get more mobile. :)

There are lots of fat people in every profession from HCPs to teachers. Passion for the job is far more important than body size though I imagine fatigue and backpain when on your feet for hours must be far worse if obese.

'My DD's first teacher was a lady who was in a wheelchair.'

It is grossly insensitive to use disability as an example to compare mobility issues when discussing overweight people.

Not sure I would be able to do much with PE

The woman behind me was a PE teacher (retired a couple of years ago). Knew her for nearly 40 years, and she was huge. Not tall - pretty much the same height as me (5'3') but twice my weight, easily, and I'm no lightweight. She could barely walk - but she taught PE and led youth groups.

Absolutely not. All I want for my daughters is for them to have passionate, interested and caring teachers. Go for it OP, don't let your weight hold you back, we only come this way but once! Good luck.

I don't think weight should be a barrier to employment or teaching success at all. Whether or not it would be is a different issue but it shouldn't be.

I also think some of the comments about the importance of mobility, being able to physically participate in PE, being able to get on the floor with children and run after fleeing children are awful. If the OP had a physical impairment preventing her from doing those things nobody would say she shouldn't be teaching KS1. Just because weight isn't a protected characteristic it isn't suddenly ok to say that to her.

The ideal teacher would have the ability to do absolutely everything that does or could happen in a classroom very well. But, in reality, that person doesn't exist. The KS1 teacher who is a Size 10 with no disabilities and good coordination and fitness will be great with PE and crawling around with children. But the obese, disabled or uncoordinated KS1 teacher might be brilliant at music or art or getting children to think outside the box. Another teacher might have an amazing memory for all the details that children love to share about their lives. Another one might be a performing arts expert or able to teach children high quality woodwork, cookery or needlework. One might be able to catch a child who's run off but it might take a different one to talk them down and work out why.

Nobody will tick all the boxes for a primary classroom. Hopefully, during their 7 years at primary school, children get to have a wide range of teaches who offer them a wide range of experiences and special skills.

I think you should go for it OP - use the talents and abilities you have to the max and don't stress about any limitations; we've all got them, they just might not be the same as yours.

'My DD's first teacher was a lady who was in a wheelchair

It is grossly insensitive to use disability as an example to compare mobility issues when discussing overweight people

No, it isn't; it's a really important comparison because it highlights how shitty the comments about the mobility issues are.

Some people are saying that a teacher shouldn't be a teacher if they can't:
model PE rather than just explain it
run quickly after a distressed child
get down on the floor with young children
take a full part in trips and excursions
move quickly and easily around classrooms and school buildings.

All those things are limitation that some obese people may have. They are also limitations that would affect many people with disabilities, including wheelchair users.

It's obviously unacceptable (and possibly illegal) to discriminate against someone with a disability in that way. Therefore they shouldn't be acceptable 'rules' to put to anybody wanting to go into the profession.

It's surely offensive to teachers with disabilities to read statements like those above about what makes someone suitable to teach.

Totally agree with the PP.

I’ve recently applied for a PGCE and have been assured that reasonable adjustments can be made for my long term health problem. But according to some of the previous posters a person who couldn’t “get down on the floor” or “chase after” children would struggle. So frustrating and offensive.

Go for it OP. There are difficulties in every job, but if you excel at what you do you can just ignore the negative nellies!

There will be some situations where someone with limited mobility will be unsuitable for a particular teaching role but it is not reasonable to say it for all roles.

I'm a disabled teacher with significantly reduced mobility and used to be in a wheelchair. I don't find that comparison insensitive btw. I'm also, I hope, a good teacher despite that. Go for it OP!

'Staffroom' cakes? What's that, I never saw the staffroom from 8.15 on Monday at the weekly briefing!
As a large lady I found it actually useful when having to physically intervene between two 15 year old hell cats intent on killing each other, I 'accidentally' stood on many a foot and when I stand on your foot you know about it!

@StrumpersPlunkett it'd be a real shame for you not to pursue this dream because of your weight.

Training to become a teacher won't be a quick process in terms of gaining relevant experience, training etc. so now would be the ideal time to try and lose a bit of weight if you want to, with a powerful motivator behind you. I did a similar thing (although there was a maximum BMI limit and fitness test for my chosen career) and I lost 12 stone and became a marathon runner in pursuit of that dream!

And to those who talked about teachers being a role model. I had an overweight Home economics teacher. It was her first teaching job.

She talked about gaining weight in uni because her diet was so bad and she drank beer in the student bar. She taught us how to make cheap healthy food and spoke of the weight gain evils of alcohol.

That was twenty years ago and I still remember her. I drank half pints instead of pints thanks to her and made tuna pasta casseroles instead of eating takeaways. She was a role model.

@Dollymixture22

She was a role model because she admitted her faults and used her mistakes to teach you. That's a wonderful thing... But I had many obese teachers who taught health and wellbeing whilst ignoring their own morbid obesity. It meant we didn't take them seriously. If they'd said what your teacher said then we would have, but some don't. They teach the material without reference to their own experience.

I had plenty of very overweight teachers at school and don’t remember it ever being the slightest issue. I think only real dicks would have a problem with it!

Just as a question - because I don't know the answer, not because I am trying in any way to be goady - are there disabilities which it would be OK to see as being incompatible with teaching, or is it illegally discriminatory to suggest that any disability would be incompatible with the job?

I was thinking, for example, about sensory impairments - would it be discriminatory to prefer a sighted teacher to a blind one, or a hearing teacher to a deaf one?

Rightly or wrongly - and I absolutely agree that it might be wrongly - I can see that schools would be completely prepared to make reasonable adjustments for a teacher with a permanent or acquired physical disability - e.g. someone like my grandfather with polio who was a wheelchair user, or someone who used walking aids after specific cancer treatment - that they might not be prepared to make for someone who has seriously impaired mobility simply due to their obesity.

That might be truly, genuinely unfair on the individual concerned, but it is a view that the OP might encounter, both during training - which would have to be in 2 different key stages - and perhaps when finding her first job.

Once a school has accepted her and made reasonable adjustments for her, it would almost certainly not impair her performance as a teacher (especially if the reasonable adjustments included e.g. swapping with a colleague for PE), but it might present a real or perceived barrier to initial entry to the profession.

I would emphasise that that is not my personal viewpoint - my only concern might be quality of PE teaching - but it might be a viewpoint that the OP encountered.

No I'd be more interested in your attitude and ability. Size has nothing to do with it, go for it!