Teachers I need solidarity before I leave the profession

[Soniastrumpet1984]

I love teaching. I have done it for 22 years.
I am sick of parents moaning. Today has put the tin hat on it.
Here's my situation (this is not exact but an approximation as close to similar as I can get it without putting actual details.)
Let's say I've been teaching French bakery recipes to my cooking club. A local French bakery has offered to host 5 students( in its tiny kitchen) on Saturday morning at 7.30am before they open so they can watch the pastry chef making the items. This is a total favour and just a nice thing they do not have to do. They did this as on my way to work, I was chatting whilst waiting to get my coffee. I as a teacher have agreed to give up my Saturday morning to take them. Every child in cookery club was offered the experience, by email with their parent copied in. It was NOT first come first served, they were clearly told if there's more than 5, we will draw out of a hat. There were more than 5 interested , so I wrote them all on pieces of paper and trotted next door to a different teacher, who came and drew 5 names out. Now I have Two parental complaints demanding to see photos of the slips and why didn't I video the draw and provide evidence. I know it's Friday and I'm tired but fuck I want to leave.

Entitled pillocks!

Parents should be banned from emailing teachers directly. They are just ridiculous with their demands nowadays.

My late mum was a teacher. One year, a local company donated Christmas turkeys to the entire school (small school, SEN). The following year, school office was besieged with messages from outraged parents demanding to know where their fucking turkey was.

I feel for you! Out of interest whats been the turning point for you?

My mum friends and I were discussing it - 2 of them are teachers and we think a key turning point was the ability to email teachers becoming a thing. People are more comfortable being livid about something behind a screen I guess!

But also the flip side of this in secondary schools, where you get a notification on every behaviour point and missed bit of homework- so we are dragged into school dramas at home, that previously would have just been left between child and teacher.

Mentally my reply would be:

”dear parents, despite clear explanation of the procedure, it has come to our attention that some parents were dissatisfied with the process of selecting students for the extra curricular trip and as such we will no longer be running them and giving up our free time (unpaid) to do something lovely for your children to enhance their learning experience

merry Christmas and a fuck you too”

Ask them to send you the video proof of them writing their emails.

I'm surprised they are allowed to. They weren't when I taught back in 2012 and still left as it was bad enough then!

Yep this turning point is right. No one used to care about totally normal things that teachers might tell you off about. We give demerits for the normal stuff , no pen 3 times in a row, etc etc all low stakes stuff. We will have parents emailing in how nothing is ever their child's fault. They should be given another chance (course the child hasn't told them that they have in fact been spoken to many times)

I feel your pain!
”Dear parent, thank you for your email. I have noted your concerns. Regards, Miss Sonia.”

This is awful

I wasn’t a teacher, I was a TA. I have nothing but admiration for you and other teachers.
I don’t think people can fully appreciate the amount of effort teachers go to unless they have witnessed it.
I resigned because even as a TA I was under immense pressure. Particularly trying to support children with behavioural issues. I’ve been hit, kicked, bitten, spat at and was once hit so hard in the face my glasses broke. Some of those children had SEN but not all.The senior leadership team did nothing to support me, and parents just don’t care, many of them refusing to accept just how poor their child’s behaviour is.

I think leaving teaching was the best decision I ever made. That decision almost certainly saved my life.

What did you go on to do and how did you actually leave? Did you go at a term end ? How had you coordinated your other job start date?

Outrageous. I am a teacher too. I don't think I could bring myself to respond to this.

I think the thing that drives me mad is that somehow I am always wrong.
If I do something nice like bring sweets in, I'll have a complaint that I didn't bring a range in that suits all the dietary requirements. If I do a class party, there'll be a complaint that a kid didn't get to have enough time on just dance , if I don't do a class party, a kid is disappointed as another class had one.

Parents only tell us we are doing wrong.

Refer them onto the head. Go to the bakery with your students. Have a great time. It's January. It's cold, dark and a bit shit. It's a horrible term for parents' evenings and reports. Don't make a hasty decision. Xx

RIDICULOUS! Film it? No.

I regularly run an event in school where I draw names from a hat. The parents are pretty entitled about it all, but I have never been asked to film the draw! For goodness sake.

I wish we could put something in emailed signatures like “if your reply to this is unreasonable, you will not be hearing back from me.”

Absolutely perfect. Maybe leave our the fuck part though 😂.

OP that is appalling!!!!

On behalf of normal and nice parents who almost never email the school or teacher thank you for everything you do. That visit sounds amazing and you are a legend for giving those children that experience.

What the hell is wrong with people? How entitled can some people get?

“Sadly due to GDPR regulations we are unable to take footage including the names of other pupils. Thanks for your email.”

Take a deep breath. It's January and miserable and it's the end of a long week. In the scheme of things, this is a minor irritation that you can brush off with a 'as previously stated, selection from this trip was made by drawing names at random. I am sorry that the draw did not go in x's favour on this occasion.' Or even just forward to SLT and ignore.

Parents are definitely the worst part of the job, aren't they! I'm in the independent sector on a subject that frequently selects by audition and sign up. So many outraged emails from parents of perfectly happy kids!

"Dear parents,
The bakery trip will no longer be taking place due to juvenile behaviour"

This is appalling. A good SLT should back you to the hilt on this so I would refer all complaints to them.

Children are so entitled. Am a primary school teacher and this week arranged for a geologist to come in to talk to the class. The lovely lady in question brought in a gem for all the kids. I had them all in a bowl and was handing them out, the number of kids that asked for another one (not even a please), they were all different and some of the kids at the end were saying theirs were rubbish!

I buy the kids in my class a wee present at Christmas and the end of the school year and most don't even say thank you.

It's no wonder the kids are like this when the parents aren't much better.

I have a child of a certain religion in my class who wasn't allowed to participate in Nativity (by order of his parents). No problem, I printed out a nice activity book for him to do. Then his parents complained he was feeling left out 🫣.

This week I got into trouble from my DHT one day for not being early enough to the lunch hall with the class to help them with their lunch and then 2 days later got into trouble for being 2 minutes early to the lunch hall! This the the same DHT who arrived in school at 8.55am and leaves at 3.15pm every day while most teachers are in for 8am and don't leave until 6pm!

The amount we are expected to teach now that would never have been expected a few years ago; baking, toothbrushing every day, den building......Nothing ever gets taken out the curriculum, only added in meaning we have no time to teach anything in depth.

If you go to management about any issue with a child's behaviour the first question they ask is 'And what are you doing about it?'

And that's just the things that are springing to mind this evening.

What a lovely idea. We had something similar when an arsey parent didn’t believe it was at random and thought he was being punished for being on so many behaviour points, when it was actually random. Made a lot of sense seeing why his behaviour was like it was though after dealing with them.

I’d personally pass it on to the head and ignore, though I know my head would go mad and back me up - I wouldn’t pass it on if I thought they’d bend and say I was taking extra kids.

Honestly, if they can’t trust you pulling a name from a hat then why would they want to trust you to look after their child outside of school. Makes no sense.

I’d be tempted to add: should we do it again, we’ll consider your request. However, we’ll be unlikely to do any more trips outside of school hours as it involves staff volunteering their free time