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.

Apparently new schools are being built without staffrooms!
Yup - ours doesn't! Each department has a small office though

I used to, ten years ago. We'd all sit around the table, it was great. Nowadays I don't get time and have a quick sandwich in my room while marking.

Can't wait to leave teaching!

We have our staff briefings in there 3 times a week and the big whiteboard with all of the notices and our pigeon holes are in there, so if we don't go
In regularly, we miss things.

I don't ever sit in there at break times, though. Generally it's only the support staff who do. Teachers have too much to do - and I do lunch duties because I'm SMT and it's expected, even though my Terms and Conditions say my lunch hour is unpaid.

Not many use our staffroom. I do, as the nature of my work means my 30 minute break is unpaid and I'll be buggered if they're getting another extra 30 minutes out of me. I'm already there 45 minutes early every day and have left on time once in the past 10 years.

I earn just over minimum wage and am not a teacher. Full time staff have been told they are not entitled to use the staffroom at break.

Ours used to be full at break and lunch. Now there are no more than half a dozen people in there at any one point.

I ended up being the only one in ours. Everyone else was on duty or working.

In my first school (admittedly a very old fashioned boys’ boarding school) we had a hot lunch and then a cheeseboard at lunchtime in the staffroom. Was brilliant!

Ours is really busy at breaktime, nearly everyone makes it in. Most of our TAs are part time so don't get a lunch break but most teachers have at least part of lunch in the staffroom and so do the handful of full time TAs, SLT often come in too. Before and after school its usually busy too.

Many Academies require staff to do lunch duties.
No one has time to have a lunch break anymore.
No wonder staff have had enough

No we don't get paid to do lunch duties. Or break duties.

I try to get to the staff room at least twice a week. I am on duty for the whole of lunch twice a week too.

Those of you working lunch duties, you need to contact your unions. You’re entitled to a lunch break. Staff are not going to be productive if they don’t have a chance to sit in the staff room for a chat/moan/laugh at least once a day.

We don’t have a staff room or department offices.

I'm a ta and I go in there for break if I'm not on duty and for the half hour break after lunch hour when I'm on duty. We get delicious free school lunch 😂 If I don't give myself a break it's difficult to get to 1.15 without snapping at people.

I'm an ex primary school teacher. I used to find it so stressful because my head teacher used to encourage us to always go in staff room yet I never ever managed it because I was always so busy preparing for the next lesson. I worked in a tough school with high SEN and had a lot of differentiation and a lot of resources to set up. She had a go at me one day because she said I wasn't integrating with the other staff, yet I felt like I couldn't 'drop the ball' by taking even ten minutes to eat my lunch. It felt like I couldn't win! Such a stressful job, I didn't go back after having my first DC and probably never will.

It used to be until it was taken off us... We don't really have one now 😔

Lunch time is not part of your directed time, so you should be paid orcgiven somerecognition -we get a free lunch. It is not mandatory to do lunch duties as a teacher.

@ShinyMe - I think we may have worked in the same school!

Our staff room is great, lunchtimes are very silly and full of laughter. But we have a great Headmaster and great morale, not everyone can stay the full hour but everyone usually gets 20 minutes at least

Years ago we used to have a great laugh in the staff room - let off steam sometimes and have a rant before going back to class for the afternoon. We had a wonderful morale and we're very supportive. I retired just as the school was about to become an Academy and now, apparently, no one stays in the staffroom long, morale is low and teacher turnover is high.

were very supportive.

It's a bit chicken and egg though.
When I first moved to a school (and this was 25 years ago so not a new phenomenon) where nobody was in the staff room, there was then little point in going to the staff room, as there was nobody there to have a chat with anyway, so you might as well crack on with a job and leave 15mins earlier in the evening, and so it goes on - leaving no-one in the staff room.

Corneliawildthing None of us get paid for lunch duty...we volunteer and get a free school dinner...if we didn't volunteer there wouldn't be enough cover at lunchtimes...

We have playtime and lunchtime supervisors so no teacher is ever expected to supervise kids in their breaks.

@amy85

None of us get paid for lunch duty...we volunteer and get a free school dinner...if we didn't volunteer there wouldn't be enough cover at lunchtimes...

Ditto. Lunch clubs, interventions (especially leading up to examsj etc. Of course we could play the Union card but unofficially and in reality our own “card” would be marked. I can’t imagine demanding my rights and sitting in the staff room while my colleagues pick up the slack.