“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 🫣

I haven't read the whole thread but in the state school I work in it's "sir" and "ma'm" which is much better than "miss" imo

I work in a school and our students call us Miss and Sir.

If a child is taking a group around for open evening/day, they could, for example, go to the language building. They may study German, and would call their teacher Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms Smith. But they won't know the name of the French teachers - why would they? They don't study French. So if they go into a French classroom what do you suggest they call the teacher - who is welcoming the families, explaining what happens at the school and watching out for the next group who are normally not far behind so doesn't want to be interrupted full flow. We don't have time to say 'I'm Mrs Smith, and who are you?' to every child who accompanies a group. So they'll get a 'thank you Billy' if we know them or just a 'thank you' if we don't. Is that rude too?

We have 2300 kids in our school with a staff of 200 plus (teachers, caretakers, admin, catering etc). A child may bump into a teacher once during that open evening/day then only see them across a playground for the rest of the year.

And what's the alternative for a man other than sir? 'Excuse me Mr' sounds a bit Oliver Twist-ish doesn't it?

I’ve worked in Scottish schools for 20 years, everyone gets called Sir or Miss, even me as a considerably older first aid lady 🤣

Totally normal! Was when I was at school in the 80s/90s and also for my kids now
Definitely normal in the UK

Normal in my school too. We knew the names of all the teachers so sometimes it would be Miss Windsor, Mr Chambers but generally everyone just got called Miss and sir.

Female teachers at my DS's school are called ma'am (pronounced marm) which i think is hilarious and much fancier than Miss.

I went to a school that named its teachers Sir or madam. Was in the 70’s

It's perfectly normal to address them as Sir or Miss. Anyone who thinks otherwise is ridiculous. Did the OP go to school?

It amazes me you've never come across this. Never known a school not do it

If someone called me ma’am I think I’d have to drop kick them 😂😂

Standard in all schools I've come across except dh's which was a bog standard comp that called them "sir" and "ma'am".

What I did find different with my kids is that they referred to them all the time, so you'd get sentences like:
"Sir was really funny at lunch, because sir was on duty and James dropped his pack lunch and sir was helping picking it up and sir said...."

Whereas we'd have called them by nicknames so would have said:
"Windy was really funny at lunch, because LongJohns was on durt and James dropped his pack lunch and Spit was helping pick it up and Windy said..."

Totally normal when I was at school in the 70s and 80s, nothing wrong with it.

I’d feel I was addressing the Queen. I’d feel embarrassed to be called that (it just sounds so cringe), I’d much rather be called Miss.

If we said Madam the way the French say it that would be ok but Madam just sounds horrible.

What would you like them to be called?

I'm a teacher. It's pretty handy as staff too! We can get away with calling each other sir and miss in front of the kids. Great when you've no idea if someones name.

Scottish. Went to three different secondaries. One of over 1400 pupils.
Never heard Sir/ Miss.

It was all Title Surname. And some of the teachers were really picky about their titles. Ms McHarrie who taught english was my first ever experience outside Mizz magazine of a female title that didn't announce marital status and I loved it! (and her bright red lipstick).

Love that 😆

Engiandshire? Pretty offensive.

in my kids school in Scotland, just outside Glasgow, teachers are sir/miss. As I said a few posts back I was invigilator in another Glasgow secondary and was referred to as “Miss” even though I’m in my 50s (and not a teacher)

Normal

I don’t like it at all.
We called the teachers by their names.
It’s derogatory for women teachers, and shocking to call a male teacher Sir in my opinion.

Sorry, been a long day!

Got told to fuck off today, so someone saying yes miss doesn’t seem remotely disrespectful.

When I went to school.our teachers were always called by their names, never Sir or Miss. I did a teacher training course and on the first day in a school.the pupils were calling "Miss, Miss, Miss". I was totally ignoring them as I had no idea they were addressing me!

Scottish schools always make me think of Miss Jean Brodie. (Great film and TV series).

@MyCleverGrayBear i started a thread once about this because it always did strike me as quite sexist, as on this thread, everyone thought it was completely fine and carry on as normal. My small act of defiance was to NEVER refer to male staff as Sir but use Mr Whatever every time. I didn’t mind kids calling me Miss but I would use a full name whenever I had to refer to a female teacher too.

Totally normal. My classes actually call me Ms Shortened-version- of- my- long- foreign surname. At my suggestion but Miss and Sir is the standard.