AIBU to ask teachers if they miss their old school/colleagues/former pupils when they move to another school?

[potatoandleaksoup]

This is something I've been wondering. If you have spent many years at a school and then leave to work at another school, do you miss the school you've left? Your former colleagues, clubs you ran, pupils you liked etc. Do you ever visit your old schools or stay in touch with former colleagues?

I always think fondly of pupils who have moved on or I’ve left behind. I’m genuinely pleased when I find that they have done well and mourn for those you have had a difficult life path.

Colleagues: some I miss, some I am still in touch with. I’m always thrilled to catch up with them.

Yep! I'm now no longer a classroom teacher and I miss my colleagues, the kids and all the fun stuff massively.

After over 30 years of teaching the children I taught early in my career are reaching their 40s. I was an Early Years teacher in a primary school and it is in the nature of things that children move on every year. Some you remember with affection for a long time some you remember for other reasons but there is no point 'missing' them. Colleagues can become friends and you can keep in touch with them anyway.

I do miss the laughs we had in the staff room at lunchtime but those days are over anyway since academisation.

I think I phrased my question wrongly... I meant as a teacher when you move from school X (where you've been for many years) to school Y (a new school) do you miss school X and its associated memories? Do you ever return?

I worked at my first school for nearly 15 years. I don’t miss the school (it got quite toxic in the end) but I do miss the rapport I had with colleagues at its best. I keep in touch with lots of people who I worked with but I never visit! Most of them have left too though.

As for pupils, I don’t miss them as such as moving on is the natural way of things but I do look back and think of some fondly, I run into some every now and again which is nice and I wish them all the best. Going back to see pupils still at a school you have left is never a good idea though! Kids you thought would be devastated that you went will hardly even recognise you!

You tend to be so busy when you start a new school because you have to do everything over again - read all the policies, get to grips with the new timetable and learn hundreds of new names. There isn't really time to look back and teachers don't tend to do that. We are always looking for what needs doing next. I do remember some pupils and colleagues with affection, of course, but I don't spend much time thinking about them.

Thank you for your replies

I returned to a school I left once. It was a great school to work at. Sadly the year after I went back it got taken over by a MAT a d everything changed. The new head was deeply unpleasant to work for (probably deliberately as she deemed it her mission to get all the old staff to leave so she could replace us with cheaper versions). I left and now work at another school with great colleagues but I'm still in touch with many of my workmates from the previous school and occasionally see pupils around town. I'm always happy to see them but often don't recognise then as they change so much!

Mostly I'm too busy with the current job to spend time looking back though.

@artisanbread are you still a teacher?

I was delighted to run into one of my form members from years ago the other day. Some children remain a very fond memory because they’re lovely people, some you’re glad to leave behind! I’ve met some amazing people over the years, especially my last lot of sixth formers, we got on so well, they were very hard working and all did incredibly well. I’m happy I had the opportunity to support them. On the other hand, one form member is currently in prison and he deserves it, he did some truly awful things.

Re colleagues, I desperately miss my last head of department who was a fabulous boss. We are in regular contact. I’m still in touch with my team from one school, they often want to meet up. Recently, the team leader job came up at a previous school and a former colleague begged me to apply, but much as I’d love to work with him, I loathed the head and that’s too important to want to go back.

Dh was a teacher. He left to return to industry and has since recruited a couple of former pupils. And at least one colleague as well! He did love teaching but there's no way he'd have been able to keep it up until retirement age.

@PortalooSunset hours too long?

Absolutely. I really missed going to work with some of my closest friends every day. My tutor group and exam classes, which I had built up positive relationships with. I often wonder what some of them are doing now.

@mnahmnah your former colleagues, former students or both?

Closest friends were my colleagues! I wonder what my former students are doing now. Of course we find out about some of them (good and bad!) and I have bumped into one or two over the years, but there are many I remember and would love to know what they’re doing now

I have missed former colleagues, some of them a lot. I haven't missed pupils. The relationship with pupils is different. You see them grow up and there is always an expectancy that they will move on and disappear from your life.

No. I leave and don't look back. I don't keep in touch, they were work colleagues not friends.

I'm a TA and I miss my old school and children a lot and recently tried to go back but it wasn't meant to be 😢.

@sonjadog do you stay in touch with the former colleagues? Ever revisit the old school?
@Cubangal did you not gel with them/get along?

A lot of my former colleagues from a school where I worked for 10 years are my friends now. Some are still there, some have moved on. I went to a course in my old school about 5 years after I left & it was nice to see it again. I can’t imagine just going back for a visit though.

I have very fond memories of lots of pupils and love to hear how they are getting on.

Yes, I stay in touch with some of them. Some are close friends, some I meet occasionally. I have been back to visit my old school too.

I've stayed in touch with colleagues/friends from several previous schools but never actually been back - I think it would have felt odd to go back.

I worked as a TA in a special needs school and I missed the kids a lot when I left, I still think of them fondly sometimes. The class sizes were a lot smaller than mainstream schools and kids didn’t necessarily move class each year as it was based on need rather than age, so you worked with fewer children for longer periods of time and built up more of a relationship with them.

@DickVanDyke26 aw bless you. What happened? Did you try to reapply for a job there? Or were you not allowed to visit?
@user1474315215 even if it was a place you'd spent a lot of time at?

Should add I’m not in touch with any colleagues but it was very cliquey so I wasn’t that close to them