“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've been called Miss, mum and sir this week. I answer to all of them. It's baffling to me that anyone might be "offended" on my behalf.

She would be miss in short form - "yes miss", "miss may I go to the toilet"

But Dr if the surname was used "This is Dr. Richards, she teaches maths", "Can I speak to Dr. Richards Please" "Dr Richards gave me a f*ing detention, what a cow"

Well yes. Obviously skilled teachers are more important than their sec. But having some male teachers is always good (if they’re good). Balance.

Actually, not necessarily. Two of ours get "doc"

What? I’m confused. If my child doesn’t know a teachers name and needs to speak to them he would either just not use a name or he’d ask their name. Sir and Miss are not shorthand at his school. Every member of staff is called by their full name.

I’m not offended. I was a bit irritated by it. It seemed lazy. (Still does tbh)

You don't need to irritated on my behalf either. I'd be irritated to be called "nan" but that rarely happens.

When I was at school (late 70s to early 80s) some did say Miss, but I don’t think either I or my circle of friends did. As far as I remember I would just address female staff as Miss or Mrs surname. Men were usually Sir.
My mother taught at that school, but I remember her commenting that when she taught at an all girls secondary modern in Gloucester in the early sixties the head mistress was insistent that female teachers were addressed as Madam ie equivalent to male teachers. I know my mother disliked Miss, probably because her teacher training and first few years of teaching were in Scotland.

Our teachers were ma'am. Don't remember having male ines

I worked in schools and it’s a lifesaver when you don’t know a member of staffs name or you only know their first name.

I’m irritated on my own behalf. Not on your behalf. “Miss, Miss, Miss” was irritating to me and I found it grating. Use her flipping name. Not thinking I need to stand up for all teachers, probably the majority of whom don’t care at all.

But I found it irritating and bemusing. It’s not something I’ve experienced. I didn’t like it. It didn’t scream respect to me.

I can only speak for myself. Hope that’s clear (although plenty of people on this thread share my view).

That's a really sneering thing to say about young people helping out their school of an evening.

Exactly. 30 years of teaching experience, I've always been called 'Miss' in every school I've been in. So many other teachers here agreeing that this is the norm.
None of us find it sexist, or disrespectful.

The only people huffing and getting their knickers in a twist about it are people who don't teach and have never worked in a school. It's honestly fairly ludicrous. I happen to have a PhD. I'm intelligent, educated, reasonably socially aware. I'm not offended or insulted by being called 'Miss' by pupils.

My self esteem isn't that fragile, to be frank.

Scottish education. All teachers were addressed as Miss and Sir. Got told off if we didn't say 'yes, Miss'.

"I’m irritated on my own behalf. Not on your behalf. “Miss, Miss, Miss” was irritating to me and I found it grating. Use her flipping name. Not thinking I need to stand up for all teachers, probably the majority of whom don’t care at all."
GET OVER YOURSELF

When a school has several hundred staff
at an open evening
chances are the pupils will not know the names of the teachers around them
so use the most polite option

I was irritated by their use of the word Miss. nothing else.

Bonkers thread

It wasn’t a large school. The teachers all had name lanyards. The children who were most vocal were with a teacher who actually teaches them - the culture just seems to be to use Miss/Sir. That’s what I found weird (to me) and yes, annoying.

The school doesn’t have “hundreds” of teachers 😂

@MyCleverGrayBear as I said earlier on the thread it's almost like a job title rather than a name.
If you are in A+E laying on a trolley in pain you would call out "nurse" or "doctor" to get help. It's kind of a similar thing to call a teacher "Miss" when wanting to get her attention or ask a question.
At least that's how I see it.

You said they were lazy.

If your child goes there, are you going to instruct them not to say Miss and Sir?

Yes. I would. But my children have never used Sir or Miss and have managed to learn many teachers names (both have about 15 members of staff who teach them each week plus support staff, office staff etc).

I would expect them to use a teachers full name unless the teacher asked them not to for some reason.

This isn't anything to do with laziness.

I just really don’t like it. I’m allowed to really not like it. To me it sounds lazy and rude.

I wish we set our sights a little higher in every aspect of education in this country. This was not a huge school. The children I met knew the teachers names. But Miss/Sir was the culture. It jarred for me.

I just wanted to know how common this is. Lots say it is, but not all. So there we are.

You have no idea if your dc call their teachers miss or sir. Unless of course you're with them all day