AIBU to think that not being allowed to sit down whilst teaching is insane!

[Supermummy88]

Good evening all,

I’m a head of department in a secondary school where the work load has become horrendous. We have a new senior assistant head and he has made some awful changes and has increased work load by about 50%. Last week he made a complaint that he saw a number of teachers sitting down during lessons and that it’s not acceptable and that we should not be sitting down at all during any stage of the lesson apart from doing the register. I physically can’t stand for hours, but he doesn’t seem to care and thinks that teachers are not doing their job properly unless they are consistently circulating the classroom. I’m very close to giving up teaching completely and finding another career and I feel this has given me more of a reason to just leave.

What do you all think about this?

@Supermummy88 That's actually horrific. I would tell them to fuck off if I were you. Sounds dramatic, but IMO it's borderline abusive, and bullying. You HAVE to go above this person's head. This is utterly unacceptable.

I wonder if the senior leadership team, cosy in their offices, shielded from the students behind a half-closed (or closed) door, stand all day?

Yep, there's precious few people out there willing to do the job now.

I'm also primary and I mostly teach standing up, or I if I sit it's with a focus group but it's the fact that people aren't allowed to use their professional judgement. Time and time again our autonomy is stripped away. We know our lessons and students do we should be trusted to make the right decisions.

Sorry @Sherrystrull I quoted the wrong person.

I’m pretty sure that when I was training I was told that the choice of sitting/standing can dictate the vibe in the room. To create a calmer atmosphere sitting was good, but to create more energy, standing was good. Therefore, if we’re reading a case study together then I’ll often sit. When the students are working on the answers then I’ll wander around supporting them. Teachers should be trusted to do what they think suits their class. We’ve been training for long enough to know!

That's ok. I agree!

I don’t think there’s any actual union guidance on this (I’m stepping down as rep soon, totally fed up of being one, unions have no teeth). My head mentioned to my hod that he’d walked past and seen me sitting. I was absolutely amazed, nobody has ever raised that we should be running round the class like headless chickens in my 30 year career. I’m perfectly capable of sitting down to teach, on top of which, every single teacher in my corridor sits to teach. I don’t sit to teach much, I do tend to run round to help/check, but I do like students to work independently. I’m secondary if that makes a difference, I’m assuming primary teachers, particularly for younger children, probably spend a lot of time going from child to child.

I teach secondary Music and do a mix of sitting and standing with KS3. With KS4 and 5 I sit down a lot more, and as another poster said, at A level, I sit at the table with them. We don't use tables lower down the school. Once kids are working on practical tasks, I will circulate but I like to give them time to get on without me standing over them.

I have been teaching 30+ years and can silence most classes with just a look from my seat. Due to an old injury, standing for an entire lesson is out. Yes, I also wear trainers for school and no, I don't give a monkeys. My Head is quite laid-back about things like that, thank goodness.

It's dealing with stupid bullshit like this that's the #1 way to cheaply start to turn around retention issues in teaching.

Also how can you expect pupils and parents to respect staff when their own management clearly don't.

Let teachers teach in a way that is effective to them.

What do I think?

I think he's a knobhead and you should ignore his ridiculous rule, and sit down if you feel like it.

This level of micro managing is infantilising. I'm not a teacher but can recall most of my teachers would sit down to teach in secondary school, especially while we got on with class exercises.

The SLT sounds like a jobsworth.

be running round the class like headless chicken
ridiculous hyperbole

I was actually thinking that this pretty much describes my days in school!

@Mumdiva99 And are you going to magically cure all disabilities?

But surely this is the problem, some teachers aren't effective and that's not fair on the children. If all teachers were effective (even in their own ways) then SLTs wouldn't need to even be involved.

But that's a very blunt instrument. Why should all teachers, effective and those less so, be subject to the same bullshit rule? The day anything like that was implemented in my school would be the day I handed my notice in.

Different teachers have different teaching styles. What works in ICT doesn't necessarily work in Art or English, so why impose blanket rules like this? We're meant to be professionals; why not treat us as such?

I think you'd find SLT will discover myriad ways to 'be involved'. What used to be a fairly autonomous , high trust job when I started is now a job that can be, in many schools, totally micromanaged to the extent of totting up wat you are doing and how at every single minute you are required to be on school site .TeacherTapp last week revealed that over a third of teachers are told what colour pen they must use!

There are procedures in place for the constant monitoring and feedback to staff, with effective points for progression. The SLT should have enough specific evidence about the capabilities of their staff.
We've all been told to stand up all lesson. I don't.

The micro managing has got ridiculous. Utterly absurd.

Well no, there’s no ‘you are effective, well done you!’ Your classes could always be doing better. If on average they are getting 6 at GCSE why are they not getting 7?

If they get an 8, why not a 9?
Because in the spring term they went to a cousin's wedding in Pakistan for 4 weeks.
What did you do to ensure catch up?
Why didn't it work?

Get a doctors letter stating you can only stand gor short periods. I dont allow my employer to dictate to me like this as I have a disability.

I left teaching secondary children after almost 25 years and have back problems and right shoulder. I don't think standing so much and writing on board with my right arm up above my head did me any good.

The day anything like that was implemented in my school would be the day I handed my notice in
Posters on here often say this type of thing -bet you don’t!
Like LTB - easy to say when it is someone else.