Teachers on Facebook and night out

[GreenGreenGrassBlue]

I’ve name changed for this, my friend was showing me photos of her children’s SLT (Dep Heads, other teachers) out on a night out in a City. She’s friends with one of the Teachers on Facebook.

There are photos of them enjoying a night out, doing shots etc and this Teacher is friends with a number of parents on Facebook.

AIBU to think it’s probably not appropriate to share these sort of photos on Facebook?

It is titled like a pre back to work night out with a number of parents commenting things like ‘are you ready?’.

Im not saying don’t go out but not sure how appropriate it is for teachers to be sharing like this on Facebook.

As a PP said, teachers with their own DC at their school will socialise with their kids' friends' families, too! Teachers can be parents too... (That's my situation.)

We can only check public accounts. We can't request their passwords and insist in looking at what they've posted on private, password protected social media accounts.

This isn't a new thing. Many employees have been doing this for years.

I've been checking our schools staff's social media accounts for years, annually. Staff know about it. I let them know if anything can be viewed by the general public on those accounts so they can chose to hide them further or to tighten their privacy settings.

Of course teachers can go on nights out and have fun

I dont think they should be friends with parents that they dont know well though. One TA at our school is friends with everyone and posted a raunchy selfie in a story by accident. It was deleted within 20 mins but I'm sure parents would have seen it.

The thing that annoys me is when teaching staff (usually TA's to be fair!) tag the whole school staff on memes about how much they hate their job, how much they hate the kids and parents.

One of my friends is a teacher in the local secondary. My kids aren't there yet but she may well teach them one day. I know tonnes of "inappropriate" things she's done, I've known her since we were 15, we've been through it all ha. Won't bother me one bit.

tSchools I’ve worked in have no issue with parents and teachers being friends on SM if it’s a pre existing friendship. If you work where you live, it’s really not uncommon for that to happen.

Most schools have a social media policy. We aren't allowed to be friends with former pupils. We are discouraged from being friends with parents but it is allowed in cases where you are already friends with the parent outside of school. I would say you have to know the parent well enough to be confident they wouldn't show pictures from a private social media account to others.

I thought teachers powered down and got put in a cupboard at the end of every day 🙄

No one in the UK got sacked from a Catholic school for sitting in a bar beside an alcoholic drink. Alcohol.is allowed in Catholicism so is going into pubs.

Most of the teachers I know do change their surname on FB though so they aren't easily found by students and parents. Precisely for this reason I imagine, so they aren't judged for just having a normal life outside of school!

Stop digging. You’re rightly being called out for trying to pretend that your own contract somehow applies across not only your own whole profession but others too.

You are posting rubbish.

These images were shared with a friend of the teacher who then shared them with you. You and your friend are the ones at fault. Stop gossiping.

YANBU.
Everybody knows we’re not allowed to leave our schools. The children leave at 3pm and we’re expected to sort the classroom out and be hung up on teacher hangers in the stationery cupboard by 3:30. What’s a social life?

This is why you never add parents on social media. Even if you get along like mates. It’s also the reason so many of us change our names so we can’t be found and reported by a “concerned parent”.

Your friend is a shit for sharing someone else’s pictures with you like that.

So if you were friends with some of them before getting the job, do you have to unfriend them?

Is it just teachers who shouldn't post about having social lives? What about medical professionals? Pilots/flight attendants? Are supermarket workers OK?
Just wondering what your hierarchy is.

Quite! 😂

The teacher is being very naive befriending parents on Facebook.
I do feel sorry for her colleagues, who haven't done anything wrong by meeting for a social drink.

Crazy logic. Why shouldn’t they have normal adult fun when not working? If they had the kids on Facebook it’d be different of course, but you are grown ups and grown ups are allowed to drink, have fun, and use social media.

Exactly this!

I'm finding this thread unbelievable. Having a few drinks out and posting on your private account is not bringing the school into disrepute.

Maybe you'd better tell your friend how judgy you are OP so that she knows not to show you any of this stuff going forward.

It’s a bit crass for parents of kids who attend the school to be commenting on pissed up photos.

I’ve worked in schools with teachers and of course they have a life but I’ve never really encountered that.

Teachers are only allowed one evening out per academic year, and 2 units of alcohol in a 6 month period.
Log it with Ofsted.

So several local friends who I knew before kids, who then became TA's cause it worked around the kids they had. My close friend who worked at another school then transferred to being on the SLT of my kids secondary. The friend I ran a sports club with who was also a teacher.
I don't collect people on Facebook, they are all close friends. Most have adjusted their names to hide them a little bit. I like seeing them out enjoying themselves with other teachers, makes the ones I don't know all seem more approachable and human. In real life they are all incredibly discrete and sit there with a blank face and silent if the rest of us are having a moan about something at the school. (Which we try to avoid so they don't feel awkward!)

@GreenGreenGrassBlue why have you name changed for this thread? Are you less than super duper virtuous in life?
Also for those who have missed it? The teacher hasn't shared things publicly. It's on her own page which op's nasty little friend has access to which has enabled her to have a nasty little 'how dreadful is this teacher' bitchy chat with op about the teacher! "For shame! How can she teach our children!! She goes out for FUN and drinks ALCOHOL!

Teachers are real people you know 🤣🤣! This does explain why a year 7 seriously asked my husband if he lived at the school (this is a normal school not a boarding school)!! We sometimes bump into kids he teaches at local events (where you can drink) the kids appear shocked he has a life/family and god forbid likes a pint! He teaches one of our neighbours so it is hard to keep work and life separate anyway. One of my old friends school friends is also sending one of her children to his school this week, she's been fb friends with me since I joined fb, I've been with my husband longer than fb has existed so she has seen everything I posted, nights out etc for the past 17 years, I contemplated restricting my profile to her now but to be honest I think most people know teachers are normal humans who like a night out and have a life!

They must of course then do penance following this night out, scrubbing the gym hall with a toothbrush and weeding the playground with tweezers of course!