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.

The kids they teach are all older teens. They don't live in a bubble. Im sure theyve seen plenty of people smoking or vaping, and im sure theyre aware that teachers are peoole too.

When I was in primary school, the teachers smoked in the staffroom. When the door opened, smoke billowed out.

Yes to this.

Great opportunity for a teaching moment. Comment to your child about how bad you think smoking and vaping is.

Ah now come on.

They're not babes in arms. They're surely aware that teachers are real people and actually have an existence outside of school?

They won't be allowed to smoke/vape on school grounds (rightfully so) and will have short breaks so where else are they going to go?

16-17 year olds aren't small children. They know that teachers are humans too and are far from perfect.

They will have sa quick 5 min break if they walked further away they would be late. You're being ridiculous

Absolutely. Tell them to do it in the bogs instead.

I know what you mean, the issue will be because they can't do it on the grounds

Staff at ds old school smoke min the bus shelter outside school. It's changed so much, when I was at school, if you had to go to the staff room it was like a fog when they opened the door, I can remember my junior school teacher doing playground duty with a cup of coffee in one hand & a cigarette in the other.

The best comment 😆 and they wonder why nobody wants to teach? It's because parents exist

Teaching is a really hard job that is seriously underpaid and it is hard to find talent. Now you want their entire lives to be lived setting an example to children. Give me strength

It’s not ideal for them to be smoking at the schiol
gates as pupils arrive, I agree.

Regarding teachers having a sex life - I’m assuming nine are having sex at the school gates, so not sure why their sexual preferences are of any concern.

It's ironic, isn't it - we need teachers to build positive relationships with students, which means relating to them, yet teachers are also expected to be so perfect as to be unrelatable.

If smokers' staff rooms were still a thing (they used to be off the back of the main staff room) then students would not be in a situaion where they'd see staff smoking outside the gates. If breaks were a reasonable time, staff would be able to go and smoke away from premises.

Back in my day, our teachers used to hang out in the smokers' corner, together with the kids, when the weather allowed. It was age-restricted, of course, but it meant you always had more staff outside, technically not on duty, but present anyway (the same way free food in the canteen and separate eating spaces meant more staff to techinally supervise there). Some of the best relationship-building happened in those smokers' corners, where staff would have casual chats with the kids, who were often from more problematic families.

I've always found the code of conduct a bit over-reaching. Sure, when I am at work I represent work and my employer, so I bend to their rules. But when I am not? I am not paid to be on constant duty, not paid to always be on my guard. It is healthy for students to see that their teachers are normal people and don't shut themselves into the broom cupboard at school at the end of a day. I don't smoke, but I have my vices, like everyone else.

During any given day, how many things are your DC exposed to that you’d rather they didn’t do?

If its a fe college, how do you know it is teachers smoking outside. It might be catering staff or cleaners or even adult students?

I think it’s poor from the school. I’d probably ask the head of governors’ or someone else once removed from the head if they can request the teachers smoke out of sight of the students. I think it sets a poor example…

In that case they should be paid for 168 hours a week not 40 or whatever.

Employers don't own people.

I don’t think it sets a good example but don’t think you can do anything about it. Ultimately it is a parents responsibility to teach their children right from wrong. I remember Ds telling me one of the teachers at school was an alcoholic. Quite frankly I said so what? As long as he is a good teacher, you enjoy his classes and are making good progress then that is all that matters.

It's a college not school - all 16 plus

YANBU
Incredibly unprofessional and inappropriate! I doubt there's anything in their contracts saying they can't, but might be worth raising a complaint with the head anyway. I work in a school and can't imagine any of my colleagues smoking outside the gates!

I think some people really forget that teaching is just a job. It's how we pay our bills.

Yes, we have to make sure that we don't behave in ways that bring the profession into disrepute and my HT reminds us at the start of every academic uear that we are required to be upstanding members of the community - like every other profession that has standards to uphold. Yet, as always, some want to hold us to even higher standards and, in many cases, higher standards than parents hold themselves to.

I smoke. Between 8am and 3.45am I have one at lunchtime. We used to be able to smoke in the carpark which is behind the school and not an area where children are ever allowed to go unattended - so certainly never at lunchtime. And they never do. So no child could ever have seen.

But they made the whole school premises non smoking, which is fine but now means teachers have to leave the premises with very few options in where to go. i wouldn't smoke directly outside the gates because I wouldn't want the children to see so I walk round the corner.

But a few of my colleagues and I go to the pub around the corner once a week after school. We don't live near each other and it's a nice way of just getting to know each other and chat in a relaxed environment that isn't our workplace.

We sit in the beer garden with a pint and a cigarette/vape. But there are rarely fewer than 3-5 families from school there with their children.

The parents are all smoking and drinking too. Would people expect me not to drink or smoke in a pub too if there are children there? If their parents are?

Because it is illegal to smoke etc inside.

Most schools require teachers to smoke out of sight of the school. 6th form colleges are a bit different because students are coming and going all through the day and are allowed off the premises so they will spot teachers smoking regardless of any policy. I also think that if they are that easily influenced at that age, teachers smoking is the least of your worries.

I would love it if teaching was just about academic education and not all the social work/parenting stuff. I couldn’t care less what my students eat or if the want to wear makeup or trainers. As they aren’t my own children, I don’t actually care if they smoke or vape(sorry!). So long as they are safe, happy and not pissing about in my lessons, I’m not that bothered about what they get up to. I think it is a matter for their parents.

I’ve met the teachers obviously.

It’s not the smoking/vaping that bothers me, if they want to do that then it’s up to them but why do it right outside the gates in full view of students coming and going? Surely they should be setting an example

At 16/17 i doubt many students are going to take up smoking /vaping because they saw their lecturer having a fag.

They are more likely to be influenced by their peers.
We saw our teachers smoking all the time ( I'm 60) No one thought their teacher was a role model for cigarettes!