To want to know if you had a nice teacher growing up

[JustYouAndMeNow]

70's and 80's schooling. I have to say that many of my teachers in the late seventies were absolute psychopaths looking back..and the rest..but there was one female English teacher in my second secondary school who tried so hard to reach out to me.
She encouraged me to write and would ask me what was wrong (even though she was seen as a strict teacher) I didn't appreciate it at the time and definitely couldn't articulate what was wrong but I have never forgotten her.
The only two final exams I turned up for in secondary school were English Language and English literature.
Did you have a good one ?

Gobby (see hands slower than mind)

I had several lovely teachers. A couple of useless ones but none that I can remember who were horrible.
My history teacher, maths, Latin, biology and chemistry teachers were particularly memorable.
Also one rather fabulous primary teacher who was a right character.

I left high school in 1974, so I don't think about my teachers very often. I liked Mrs B who taught Religious Studies. She was clear, well-organised, thorough. When I was training as an RE teacher 20 years later I realised what a good job she'd done.

Only one teacher in primary school was less than sadistic - Mrs W. If you're still out there Mrs Horsforth, Mrs Seed and co, you weren't nice. Not nice at all.

@ghostyslovesheets
Wow good for Mr Thompson to rescue you from all that crap.
Mrs Hamer sounds hilarious 😆

@JustYouAndMeNow Ms Hamer is a legend in this house - my kids still say 'oh mum, your life is full of drama' when I have a crisis!

Mostly bad, in high school (abroad) I had an English teacher who was so encouraging but then I was the top student and lived the subject.
we also had two consecutive woodwork teachers who were so cool and chilled.
my 2 teachers who both taught me for 6 years in primary did not try to connect with me or help me socially

I had some fabulous teachers, particularly at secondary school and I still think about some of them really fondly. My music teachers were amazing, my maths and English teachers at GCSE and my French teacher at A level. I got so much from them and I’m a teacher and use lots of what they taught me.

No, unfortunately I was brought up to stick at stuff and never give up, a good theory for many of life's challenges, but in this case the worst strategy possible... by the end of the first year I was the only female still left in his class and I was so far behind... I finally switched classes for the second year and found the A level equivalent of Mr Rush, another fantastic guy who made maths learning a pleasure... but too late for me to do anything other than scrape an AS level (or retake a year but I had too many other issues going on to be able to go down that road), so the effect of that one bad one was significant. Didn't kill my love for maths though as the other two lit a fire that couldn't be extinguished.
I'm not building my own house and use a lot of my maths skills for compound angles, load forces, heating calculations etc... And I love helping my son with his maths homework, so I have the good and the bad legacy but good wins. ☺️

I had the best teachers at secondary school. Inspiring and caring. Some went out of their way to help me with personal problems and stayed in touch after I'd left school. I'm still in touch with a couple on Facebook and I left 30 years ago!

That last post to @JustYouAndMeNow in answer to your question.

I’ve told this one before, but she deserves her niceness to be repeated on any thread like this. I had abusive and neglectful parents. One of my primary teachers was very aware of this and always made sure she had an “extra” sandwich or piece of fruit as I was always hungry.

On the last day before the Christmas holidays there was always a Christmas Fayre. I never had any money so just looked around.

On the morning the teacher announced a competition and the winner got a free ticket for her tombola stall. I won.

Then amazingly, I thought at the time, when I went to the tombola I won a prize. It was an amazing hamper - those little Kellogg’s cereal boxes, little things of uht milk, crisps and little biscuits. Just a whole bundle of non-perishable foods. All in a bag the same as my school bag.

My elder brother helped me hide it in my room and I didn’t go hungry in the holidays. It was amazing and I felt so lucky.

I was an adult when I realised what she’d done.

She was instrumental in my moving to live with my grandparents as well. Her and my HT risked a lot to bypass social services (who’d been useless on multiple occasions) to allow my grandparents to take us and dare my parents to call the police.

@PimpMyFridge
Wow fantastic that you're building your own house. Brilliant!

I had a fabulous biology A level teacher 1984-86. Dr Q. A really lovely, kind, clever Iraqi man. His whole face scrunched up when he smiled. Loved him. He had a very long association with the school, even after retirement. He died last year and I was really sorry to hear it. Must have been in his mid -80s.

I had a lovely Science teacher, very fair and respectful yet had boundaries, really passionate about his subject. Even after we left years later if we saw him around town he'd stop and chat. Sadly he was killed a few years ago in a road accident, terrible tragedy, he was only around 45.

Brought tears to my eyes.
So glad you had her in your life @YetMoreNewBeginnings

My geography teacher went above and beyond in ways that really changed my life. He was never aware of it.

I bumped into him a few years back at a wedding (super awkward) and explained it (really glad of the opportunity to do so though).

My dad had to fire my teachers fiancé one year so that year at school was not the best.

I did have a wonderful teacher when I was about 10. Kept in contact with her for quite some time after - but lost track when we both moved. I think of her often…

Track down your old teachers and tell them they’re great! I did this to four of my teachers and all responded. One said my email came on the night of his worst GCSE results ever and reminded him why he did carried on!

mumsnet very much inspired me to contact them.

@Headchecked
The last thing I knew about my teacher is she was about to get married and did change her name. Unfortunately I don't know her married name. I don't even know her first name. There's also a very real possibility she is no longer with us.
I'm glad you made contact with one of yours though, sounds like he needed it.

I was painfully shy when I was younger and not exactly a high achiever at school, but despite the fact I was the chubby one in the class I secretly loved to dance, we had a lovely PE teacher who decided to produce a 'gymnastic dance' production and we were all asked to audition, I worked up the courage and to my surprise I was selected, all shyness was forgotten and for the first time in my life I felt like a star !

I'm pretty sure I wasn't selected for my talent or appearance, I believe she chose me because I needed that 'boost' and I'll never forget that.

Had a great English teacher who gave up his Saturday to take a small group of us to see where he studied in central london.

and a sports teacher who saw I was behind at cross country and gave a
me a lift!

My teachers were all either good or boring. I don't remember ever having any really awful ones. My brilliant primary school teacher and my secondary school French teacher are probably responsible for the fact that I decided aged 12 to become a teacher and stuck to that plan. I'm 51 and still teaching!

Not really. Some were sadistic, most were unremarkable.

The best one I had (in 77-78) was top year of the Infants. It wasn't particularly that she was nice, it's just that I remember so much about that year as she must have put so much effort in. I remember the books she read to us, the songs we learned, the topics we studied, the trips, walking to the library. She just enriched the curriculum so much.

Born early 80s. Had a mixture of lovely, middling and horrible! Most of the horrible ones were primary school (left in 1993).