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.

Was it? I don't care what time anyone emails me.

I check my work email at work and our policy is simply that we keep our own hours. We're expected to reply within 24 hours but not within a specified schedule.

If a parent emails me at 10.30 because it suits them, that's fine... as long as they don't expect me to reply then. And if they're abusive, they simply won't get a reply from me.

On most email platforms - gmail, outlook etc - there's a "schedule send" button. So you can write your email at 10pm but it only gets sent the next day during work hours. You can choose the exact time and date.

Emailing at 10.30 pm is outrageous

Sorry, but it also wouldn't have occurred to me that it would matter at what time I sent an email. I would have assumed that people would check their non-emergency work email at a time that was convenient to them and that it wouldn't matter what time it had been sent. 🤷

Schedule send is a thing, though. No one needs an email to arrive at 10.30pm. By all means type it whenever suits you but there's no need to just press 'send' at an antisocial hour.

I'm aware of that. But it actually doesn't work on my school email when I'm at home. Scheduling it just means it never goes.

Kids email me at all manner of stupid times. I reply when I get to work.

Following a weekend residential (with no time off given in lieu so straight back to school on the Monday) a parent complained that her DD had been made to feel different. This was because children with food allergies were put to the front of the queue and supervised when selecting their food. The children were 8 & 9 so fairly young. Apparently, I should've known that the allergy wasn't that bad (the child had an EpiPen) and close supervision wasn't necessary. Can you imagine what would have happened if the child had had a reaction?

Go. The parent stress made me leave. Never felt happier

i often email the school SENCO at 11pm because that’s when she is online and replies to me, even if you email at 2pm , it seems to be when she replies.
I know another teacher I regularly contact doesn’t read emails after 7pm, but I know if I send it late she can reply first thing.

I was joking! I'm a (retired, thank god) teacher.
I've already 'fessed up to skimming and missing the residential stuff that made my joke about the inaccuracy of 24 hours a day, seven days a week of a teaching role, fall flat Then, again jokingly, I said to be strictly accurate on a five day trip, it's 24/5.

I messed up a joke, basically. And yes, I've been that teacher getting woken up at 3am on a residential many many times.

Again, apologies for messing up what was meant to be a humourous post.

Exactly. It's a bloody awful job.
Glad I don't do it anymore

WHY DID YOU TRY TO DO SOMETHING NICE FOR THE KIDS, OP? THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT.

OP is trying not to make life harder anymore and considering no longer teaching. Good advice to all teachers - stop teaching. Problem solved. No teachers making entitled parents and their children disappointed anymore.

I have regular email contact with my boys' teachers. Both have SEN but are in mainstream. We have open communication because sometimes there is no other way for us to talk about issues with the kids. Until recently, I worked full time, and I'm a single parent. This meant that by the time I got them home, fed, lunchboxes washed, dried, refilled, uniforms sorted, washing on, kids in bed etc (you get the picture), it was usually 9pm or later by the time I could sit down and organise my thoughts enough to write an email. I stuck to a few rules though:

• I intended to schedule emails to send the next morning. I often forgot in exhaustion, but I made it clear right from the start that if I forgot to do this, I had NO expectation of receiving replies out of hours and that it wasn't intentional to email late at night.
• I don't email to complain about things. If I did have serious cause to complain then I'd email the head or the office, not directly to a teacher.
• I think the teachers and support staff are amazing and I make sure they know this! They support my boys brilliantly. Issues do arise because they both have SEN, but I don't blame them on the staff. I make sure I give credit where it's due. Eg year 1 did a brilliant Christmas show and I emailed complimenting them on this. This was passed on to all staff and they told me how much they appreciated it. They work bloody hard and it should be recognised.

I'm sorry that you've had such a shit time. The bakery experience sounds brilliant. Surely this is an ideal learning opportunity for parents to teach their kids that disappointment is part of life and we have to learn to deal with it? That's what I'd do with my boys.

I've experienced it from the other side btw. I've recently left my 15 year role as a TA in a specialist school. Some parents (not many) were a part of it, but SLT was the main issue for me.

This just epitomises the problem. Someone who hasn't done the job explaining to someone who has why they are wrong, with no idea of the issues with what they're suggesting. A competition that needs to be organised, thus taking up more time? And somehow objectively judged? And be fair to the children who don't have a decent kitchen or the money to afford ingredients or who are at their grandparents every evening til 6.30pm and haven't got time to cook. It's the sort of idea that anyone who has worked in a school for 5 minutes would know is unworkable.

As for why to offer something to 5 out of 30, surely better than 0 out of 30?

Yes- just run a 'baking competition!!' Just like that!! 🙈

Hmmm! Was an accident waiting to happen. All or nothing really. Don’t disappoint dc. They didn’t see it as fair. I get it’s a club but some of these dc probably get balloted out half thd time. One of my dc did. Never got the rub of rhd green. It maybe should have been two visits or no visits. It does feel horrible to Llose out. As a parent I would not complain though. I’d keep my thoughts to myself but I’d feel my dc had been left out when a bit of planning could have changed things.

By the way, clock watching snd professional don’t sit well together. Many professions have to go above and beyond. Just think of your pension.

Oh yes, another straw to the camel's back! I knew several years before I left, after a successful career, that so much has changed since modern technology. Fantastic to use to teach but oh the data, Academy takeovers, micromanagement etc.

I feel for primary school teachers who have parents allowed to e mail personally, shouldn't be allowed. You need time to go home, be with your own families and not have to reply to 'those parents' to deal with on an evening whilst marking and planning. Far too intrusive. Xx

This is why it's so often nothing.

A bit of planning could not have made the bakery bigger.

I always make a point of responding to emails where parents have gone out of their way to say something kind. It really does make an impact when 99 out of 100 are ones complaining !

They are bloody lucky they are not in a school that gives them detention first time they don't have a pen...

DC would be saying why aren't they relying on "floor loot?"

Same.

@TizerorFizz "By the way, clock watching and professional don’t sit well together. Many professions have to go above and beyond."
You thought it was appropriate to come on this thread and tell a bunch of teachers about going "above and beyond?"

"Just think of your pension." Which has been heavily curtailed for many younger teachers and, judging by the mass exodus from the profession, really isn't the draw you assume anymore.

I'd have thought if you are complaining about other people's planning, you'd have the sense to plan and edit your own post so that it was written intelligibly and without mistakes.

"In primary we were told to email the teacher. I emailed the teacher. The head called me out for emailing the teacher at 10:30 at night. As though I have a choice about when to squeeze life admin in."

This is batshit.

Many workplaces have a policy on emailing outside of reasonable hours. You absolutely do have a choice of when to send such an email, regardless of when you draft it.