Teachers Smoking Outside

[PlumFairies]

My child completed their GCSEs last summer so started college this year, it’s a special unit for additional needs and students who need to resit English and Maths.
Everyday when we pick them up there are teachers smoking/vaping just outside school premises. I know I am probably being a bit unreasonable here but would it bother you? Personally I think they should be setting a better example to the young teens they are teaching and finding somewhere a bit more discreet to go and smoke. I won’t say anything because I don’t want to be THAT parent but ultimate it does slightly irritate me.

Where do you suggest? They have short breaks, and on site Smoking shelters don't exist in these places any longer.

They have to leave site have a quick puff then return - personally I feel this is setting an exam as the amount of young people vaping indoors on buses, where they shouldn't be is silly. You go where you are told to go do it not just do it.

Everyday when we pick them up there are teachers smoking/vaping just outside school premises. I know I am probably being a bit unreasonable here but would it bother you? Personally I think they should be setting a better example to the young teens they are teaching and finding somewhere a bit more discreet to go and smoke.

Bring back the staff rooms of the 1980s, with smoke billowing down the corridor whenever the door was opened 😄

It does to me - I think they are saying that we hold teachers to a much higher standard because of the children, but in reality their primary job is to teach them the curriculum, it's the parents job to teach them everything else.

Have you ever seen a healthcare professional drink, smoke and eat crap - I have, because they're human beings doing a job for the most part, they don't have to live it.

I will draw a line at Pilots and astronauts , they're a different breed.

I think that expecting school staff not to smoke openly in public, expecting them not to perform on Only Fans or to be seen on Swingers sites, or to participate in extreme politics is a pretty reasonable expectation for any adult involved in the education of children tbh.
It's called having a moral standard.
The day we don't expect any moral standards from the people who teach our children is the day society officially ends.

It goes on- work too?

Its post -6 education not nursery fgs.

Don’t be ridiculous, post 18 fine but 16/17 year olds are still minors.

You beat me to it! 😂

Our school resolved this issue by "selling" the caretaker his bungalow about 10 years ago to get some land, it has a long garden and a piece of concrete hard standing at the end, about 10 feet from the school side doors - he's left the concrete bit still all open, so anyone who wants to smoke (including him) just steps off the tarmac of the playground onto the concrete slab and lights up - its not school property, the mans a genius.

I say selling, because the genius he is, he purchased a strip of wasteland without telling anyone 20 years ago that he reasoned eventually the school would need - they decided to build a new gym, approached the farmer to buy a big chunk of field, only to find the caretaker owned a 40 x 20 foot chunk of it - he swapped it for the bungalow genius, epic genius!!

In my college days the tutors uses to smoke with us! That was the 90s though.

Would it be better if they smoke in class.
Get over it.
EDIT- To say what teachers have to put up with i can see why they need a fag.

I've always figured that as I'm never going to be seen as an example for kids to want to emulate, I might as well function as a dire warning.
I love this

I am an occasional smoker but I would never smoke in full view of anyone,let alone students,patients etc .
Hospitals are non smoking sites but the staff use their imagination to have a sneaky puff somewhere away from patients view 😉

I would emphasise that you know teachers can smoke wherever it's legal but given that smoking is a serious health risk, could the college provide an outdoor space away from the gates for the staff to smoke where they aren't in view of the students.

If you want us to be on duty 24/7 then you're going to have to pay us a lot more.

I disagree completely. Teachers are free to do whatever they like in their own time as long as it's legal.

I would still ask them not to smoke by the school/college gates though as all health professionals are trying to prevent youngsters from becoming addicted and suffering all the associated illnesses. Teachers could support that by not smoking at the gates themselves. If they had somewhere else to do it, they probably would go there instead so it's worth trying to create that alternative.

If people whinge about teachers smoking off the school site, imagine how they'd kick off at teachers smoking on the school site.

Totally unreasonable.
I used to work in a school that tried to impose a smoking ban within a 100m radius of the school grounds. They neglected to consider that two staff members lived within their ‘boundary’ and would therefore be unable to smoke in their own homes and gardens. Totally unenforceable.
There has to be a sensible cut off point, and legally, this is the premises of the school. You cannot dictate what people do in their own time, out of work.
Teachers are human. Primary, secondary, college, university… it makes no difference!
If a teacher chooses to smoke in a legal place, that is their business and no one else’s.
Same goes for buying alcohol in the local supermarket, having a drink in the local pub, putting a bet on in the local betting agents, putting your profile on a dating app…
People might see you… but so what?! Teachers are entitled to a life!

Incorrect......many start at 17, in same way kids start college.

It's not ideal but if college won't provide a designated area on campus where are they supposed to go?

Most local councils won’t allow smoking on their grounds @CombatBarbieso there will be no areas.
Post 16 is different though, having worked in what sounds a similar unit many staff may not be qualified and will be on shit money.
teach your kids smoking is bad. There has to be some parental responsibility

I expect people who teach our children to lead by example in all aspects of their lives.

I expect parents to do the same, after all, they bred them, but I don't hold my breath, the majority seem to expect someone else to be responsible for their off spring from conception.

I do wish all these posts with parents posting about eviilll irresponsible teachers would post their job.
@PlumFairies what do you do? How would you feel about something being vitriolic and judging you for what you do in your personal time?

when we pick them up

in a car I presume?

Mind your own business.

Be happy that your kids are being taught by people who are dedicated to teaching your kids what they need to get on in life.

I don't think they should smoke in the view of the students. Similarly, I do find it off putting when I see hospital staff smoking in front of the main entrance. Will I complain or do anything about it? No. But I can still think it. Actually, now that I think about it. I feel like this about any professional smoking in front of their customers.

This is the crux isn't it?

Teaching used to be a respected profession with high moral standards expected of its members.

The Tory policies over the years undermined the standing and the pay of the profession resulting in teachers no longer being recruited from the highest calibre of candidates.

You will of course be aware that the ruling classes and those with money and power who pay large amounts for their children's education still have expectations of the moral, and educational, standards of teaching staff. There will always be a class divide as long as the divide in educational standards between state and public schools exists.
It's such a shame that children from ordinary backgrounds are expected not to have the right to decent and moral behaviour from their teachers

But who gets to set the sexual mores? I was teacher, left ages ago , glad I left and part of the reason was pearl clutching busybodies like you. I'm also a queer woman. Should I never have been in a relationship or get married because it might offend someone? I did hide it back then because of this exact reason. I was younger then I wouldn't do that now but to hear people talk you would think me kissing my girlfriend is worse then a male counterpart doing the exact same act.