School Staff Rooms

[strawberrisc]

Following on from the thread about shorter lunchtimes, do any other school staff find that hardly anyone uses the staffroom anymore for socialising?

When I started over 11 years ago the staff room was so busy at break and lunch and it was lovely for teachers, TAs and support staff to get to know each other. Now there just isn't the time. The only people who actually sit down in there are supply teachers.

In my job I get a 15 minute break but prefer to work through and have a lunch duty every day for 30 mins followed by a 15 minute break.

Yeah it's the same in my school. people use the microwave and boiler then take their food to their desks to eat and work.

Our Head did say in one of our meetings how important it is to have a proper break however paperwork dictates otherwise.

Nope. Our staff room is very busy at lunchtime. And many staff make it up there for a few minutes at break time too.

Definitely. I used to find the staff room at lunchtime such a valuable (and fun) time. It allowed me to talk to colleagues about students so I could get a wider picture of how my tutees were doing across the board, for example, or get an idea for a strategy from a more experienced teacher. Or it allowed us to blow off steam from the morning session so I could go back to class for the afternoon in a much more positive frame of mind. I’m not in teaching now, but I do wonder how much safeguarding and pastoral care has suffered as shorter lunch breaks and split lunches mean teachers aren’t able to have the informal chats we used to.

Ours is a haven of silliness! The other day some staff were having a contest to see who could lean their head back, and by blowing upwards hover a malteaser above their mouth then get it to fall in to eat it.

I used to love trotting up to the school staff room back in the 1980s and being greeted by a fug of cigarette smoke.

Oh those were the days .....

Apart from one teacher, everyone goes in at morning breaktime. Ar lunchtime some staff prefer to eat and work in their rooms but around 6 of us do marking/prep for about 15 minutes then spend the rest of the hour in the staff room.

Nope, ours is busy, with people coming and going due to different lunchtime clubs and other responsibilities.

It’s a great place for people to get together, and you can frequently hear the screeching of laughter down the corridor! In fact, there’s often a cry of “shit, the bell’s just gone” before a stampede out to the playground to bring the children in!

Morale is high in our school.

Honestly, in our school and the last two, unless it’s end of term, we don’t have time.

My school doesn't even have a staff room and lunch breaks are non-existent. I am very much made to feel like lowly support staff who's time and health is not important

When I worked in a secondary school I used to go and eat my lunch in the car. I wanted that time away from people (they were lovely) and just have some me time. I still do it now in my new job.

Ours is used by TAs and HLTAs mainly at lunchtime...we only have a 30 min lunch, teachers are either prepping or doing lunch duty...I'm a TA but do lunch duty every day so rarely see the staff room

I only go to the staff room to pick up my mail.

At lunchtimes, everyone is on their phones.

I prefer to have my lunch with the students.

Apparently new schools are being built without staffrooms!

Support staff use the staff room before school and at lunchtimes. They have a 30 minute break at lunchtime and sit down for all of it. Teachers get a 1 hour break and most sit down for about 15 minutes with everyone. No one uses it at break times really because support staff are all on duty and teaches are setting up or on duty.

I rarely go to mine. There just isn't time at break (15 minutes) and lunch is 45 minutes but I tend to spend that working now as I have to collect DC at 4pm so need to photocopy/mark etc. Some people do use it though, I think, especially on a Friday.

Ours is busy always. Lots of people talking and joking. Cakes left out to share. Moral is high amoung my school.

I think sometimes it's done deliberately as a management tactic. I taught in a new build school back in about 2005, and as @spanieleyes said, it had been build without a 'proper' staff room. There was an official staff room but it was far too small for all the staff, and was too far away from our classrooms for people to realistically use. We had departmental work rooms, and our own classrooms and things worked out so that staff stayed there - timetables, pressures, practicalities etc. I was convinced that it was deliberate - as a tactic to stop people talking too much to each other, and to staff in other departments, to stop them realising that pressures from management were the same all over, and to stop them organising and feeling like a whole staff team. It made people who were overworked and stressed feel as though they were alone and it was therefore their own fault. It was so bad for staff wellbeing.

A few of us go in at break time but it gets very busy at lunchtime. I tend to eat my lunch in my room, do a bit of marking or prep but always try and spend 20 minutes of so in there to grab a coffee and have a natter before the bell goes for the afternoon

We have fab staff and a good head

Amy85 do teachers get paid for doing lunch duty? I've never heard of any teachers doing that.

Ours is full and buzzing before school (teachers have a cuppa at 8:45), playtime and lunchtime.

My last school got rid of the staff room and used it to create SLT offices. I was glad to leave there!

I don't use ours, but that's because we have departmental offices which are pretty huge and have microwaves, sinks, fridges, etc., so we mostly spend our lunches and breaks in there with our team instead. All the usual silliness you describe, just in a smaller group.

Our staff room always had cakes and biscuits on the table which enticed staff to gather there. Everyone lunch break were at slightly different times, but it certainly helped socialising.

Interesting to see the correlation between staff morale, strong Head/Leadership team etc.

We had a change of headteacher a few years ago and morale has plummeted. We just also had a disappointing OFSTED and teachers who have been here for years have left in droves. Whole departments are also off with stress. The workload is horrific. Sadly, the staff themselves, on the whole, are lovely.

Also the last day before the Summer break and Christmas used to be riotous in the local pub and then on into town. The pub used to bring in extra staff on those dates. I'm not lying when I say that in the last few years there has been only a handful of people who bother going.

At the school I worked at a couple of years ago staff were told they weren't allowed to use the staff room at break as it wasn't a break for them, only for the children. Where I work now staff are encouraged to come and have a coffee/tea together.
At lunch most people eat in their rooms with their TA and other teachers and talk shop/mark/get stuff ready.