“Miss” and “Sir” in schools

[MyCleverGrayBear]

Been to lots of secondary school open days recently. At the state secondaries the children showing parents around etc called the teachers “Sir” and “Miss”. Is that normal? I haven’t heard this IRL ever.

(To be clear, “Miss, this parent wants to know about languages at school” vs “Mrs Jones, this parent would like to see the sports centre”. But also in a couple of classrooms there were children constantly saying “Miss, look at this, Miss, I’ve out the sign up, Miss, shall I stand here” etc and it was incredibly grating.)

And why are female teachers “Miss” and make teachers “Sir”? I felt like I was in a bad 80’s Grange Hill episode and Benny Hill was about to run in and chase me 🫣

Thanks for this interesting fact
i never knew this.

Everyday day is a school day ☺

School in the 60's and 70's and it was always Sir and Miss

In primary we only had female teacher so it was something new to me having to say Sir to a male teacher and I did get it wrong a few times :)

Absolutely!
I’m friends years later with a Dr tutor
I don’t call him “ Sir” now though .

Exactly. We don’t say “Mr” and “Madam”.

But why are you assuming that women teachers don't want to be called 'Miss'?

I now teach in a setting that uses first names, and I do prefer it- I find "Missssss" or "Miiiiissss" a little bit grating! My surname is unusual, and hard to pronounce (although it's local, so the students here do better with it), so I didn't find Miss [Name] much better really.

Some local schools use Sir and Ma'am, which I do think is more even in terms of respect, but I don't think the students actually think a "Miss" is lesser to a "Sir" (particulary if the Miss is a member of SLT).

I've also had the emails addressed to Mrs. with nothing else- and they know my surname because it's in the email!

I do think it's worth having a conversation about, but I don't think it's surprising?

Normal in my school in the 90'a

Never known any school to do this.

But I'm in Scotland.

The 2,000 pupils in the school that I currently work at would (quite reasonably!) not be able to remember the surnames of the probably 150+ female members of staff, let alone whether they prefer to go by Miss/Ms/Mrs or Dr.

I like that we (society) have these funny little quirks of what people are called in their jobs.
Like nurses being called "Sister". That obviously grew out of the fact that early nurses were Nuns.
I believe recently many hospitals have started to bring back the Sister title because it shows the level of nurse. Even male nurses have taken to using the name "Sister" as it's basically a job title.
When I was in hospital a few years back with my child we were told "Matron is popping in to the ward later". In my mind I imagined a woman like the Carry On style matron - it was a tiny skinny bloke that turned up 😂
He was still "Matron" though.

Oo. I'd hate to do that. My mum
Always told me that kids calling adults by their first names is rude.

Yes. You could call them all Mr/Miss/Mrs/Ms <their surname>
Sir and Miss aren’t compulsory. They’re just more convenient.

Seems normal to me, was how we addressed teachers (80's) and my kids the last of who only left 5 years ago. Sixth form college was first names first one dc, the other was private and it was sir and mam

Neither was mine a serious comment

I really dislike it. They do this at my niece's school. It seems very unequal and also quite odd/patronising. Children are more than capable of learning and remembering their teachers surnames.
I hate the imbalance between "Miss" And "Sir" as well.

This. It was complete normal when I was at school and it's been the same in three primary and secondary schools that my DCs go to. Within this context I have never considered Miss to be less respectful than Sir.

Easy. In year 7 my kids did 16 subjects. Add in headteachers and all the deputies / assistant heads, pastoral care, head of year, SEN staff etc, then factor in some of those subjects will have job share staff. Thirty is probably about right.

My kids are at a very good state secondary in Scotland and everyone is miss or sir. Last spring I worked as an invigilator for the exams and I was addressed as “Miss” too as they didn’t know my name. When I was at school in Scotland it was never miss and sir but times change.

'Miss' isn't necessarily for a young girl, though. Older, unmarried women are also "Miss".

If anything, 'Mrs.' is the more sexist because it attaches importance to the woman's husband's name.

Went to school in the 90s and early 2000s, it was what we did, so not surprised they still do it. Only exception was for Dr.

It's not about remembering their names so much as it just being faster to say imo. Also makes it easier for pronunciation and people changing their names due to getting married etc.

Yes. In more formal situations or just for no particular reason you might address the teacher with their full name but other times you might just say Miss. it seems like a complete non event to me, I really can’t understand why people are offended and read too much into it.

Miss/Sir is better than oi you!

I think if the kids called me Madam I might get the giggles.

We know that quite a lot of them don't use the title "miss".

There is no imbalance though, the titles are equal and don't convey any lesser or superior status. The children use them as equal titles. I get that outside of schools some people think that the title Miss is only for young women and is a lesser title than any used for men. But that isn't the specific use or even the specific derivation in a school setting.

My school always called them by their names as in Mr Brown etc in the UK. This was in the 90s/2000s.

And so far the same at my son's primary.