“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 🫣

MyCleverGrayBear, its a British thing, so thats why youre confused

Or Mum!

Completely normal, kids do occasionally say 'mum' though by mistake!

My favourite teacher (my English teacher) was Miss. I loved her. Not in any way shape or form did I have less respect for her because she was Miss. The Sirs at school I barely even remember them.

Using 'Mrs.' - identifying a woman by her husband's name - is much more sexist than using 'Miss'.

Just like the whole education system I this country it is so outdated and stuck in last century

Many secondary schools in my area have moved over to calling the female teachers “ma’am”, for this reason.

I work for the prison service and it’s the same here too. Miss or Sir. Occasionally ‘Boss’. Not my favourite, but it is what it is.

I was at school throughout the seventies and the early eighties. Sir or Miss were 100% the normal ways to address teachers. We didn't think anything of it and I am sure nor did they. It was also normal when my own DDs were at school in the 2000s and up to 2018.

From my own childhood, come secondary school and we often had nicknames for our teachers which we laughed about amongst ourselves. Believe me, addressing them as "Miss" or "Sir" was the lesser of evils there. 🤣

I didn't know that any schools actually use those terms for the teachers. I've only ever seen them used on Grange Hill!

I’m a teacher and we were talking about this at the start of term in the context of sexist micro aggressions. We were trying to come up with a term that would work for all- I suggested Guru but my colleagues weren’t keen. 🤣

I much prefer Mrs Surname- if I can learn 100’s of names they can learn 20 or so!

DH saw a teacher by chance in the street in London and said “hello Sir!” .
He’d left school twenty years earlier.

More academies aping costume drama as though it had anything to do with education. What's wrong with title and surname like the rest of polite real life.

Ma’am to me sounds ridiculous so
I’m glad I never had to say it.

It's something which the English language in UK lacks, in the US it's normal for a man to be called Sir and a woman to be called M'am in shops etc, can't say about schools.

I’ve taught in state and private schools. All used miss and sir. Totally normal!

My last school was a school with 2000 pupils and 250 members of staff including teachers, TAs, admin staff, leisure centre staff etc.

In September there might be 30 new members of staff each year.

Teachers are expected to learn the names of the kids they teach and in secondary they do so. This can be easily over 200 kids. I used to spend hours memorising them each September.

You weren't expected to memorise the staff names, and an unknown adult was always sir or miss depending.

One school I taught at refused to use miss and insisted on madam which really did make me wince as the only context I had encountered the word was in 50s novels about brothels.

I know it's normal. I said so myself upthread.

But I was addressing your point that kids don't give it a second thought, as though that in itself justifies something. Sometimes things that we give no thought to benefit from closer scrutiny, otherwise nothing in the world would ever change. You may not consider it disrespectful or sexist but clearly some people on the thread do, and perhaps they have a point. We won't know unless we consider it, instead of dismissing it.

There was no need to be rude to me.

It should really be Sir or Ma’am if it is going to be either.

My husband resigned himself to being called Sir even by some university students. They just didn’t seem to be able to cope with calling him by his name.

I went to school in the 70s and 80s and never did this.

I think it sounds childish and would have hated to have had to do it.

I don't understand how you can have a conversation with a teacher on an equal footing when you are older in secondary school when you have to call them Miss or Sir like a little child.

It's like calling your mum Mummy.

I’m perfectly happy being a Mrs with my husband’s surname. Never batted an eyelid. Could have kept my own, but I preferred his, could have hyphenated it, but it simply didn’t work. It’s actually been my name for over forty years now, which is more of an achievement, and I’ve been happy with it since the day I took it. Wasn’t forced on me, my decision. Strong woman…..makes her own decisions.

Sir and ma'am at our school

Yes this is normal in my DDs school

I've been a teacher a long time, always been Miss, doesn't bother me at all. I find it nice when ex pupils from years ago still say 'Hi Miss' !

God when I was at school we had to use Sir and Ma'am!
Now it's Sir and Miss.