To think some teachers are getting away with all sorts with no way of challenging them??

[RedEyePen]

Mainly SLT! So today my ‘high needs’ son who the school tried to off roll had a head bump. On the way back from A and E I bumped into the Head getting her weekly shop in the supermarket. During school time. She didn’t seem stressed at all! Just getting her shopping in. V happy to interrogate my son as to why he wasn’t in school. Head and non teaching SENCO are always in the playground chatting every morning, yet can’t do any of my son’s paperwork without - at worst - an 8 months delay because they are ‘snowed under’.
I also work in a school where planning meetings, courses, computer based admin trumps : actually attending to the children’s needs.
AIBU??

I don’t think teachers are protected. They get a lot of stick! However most people also try and understand that it’s a hard and often thankless job, the admin is a killer and they will be snowed under. Showing their face in the playground at the start/ end of the day is part of the job.

None of us know why she was in the supermarket during the day, but it’s possible it was for work reasons or because she was going to be working late in the evening.

Attending to the common good for most of the children most of the time used to be enough, now if they don't meet the individual needs of every child they're slacking? They're only human.

I work in a school.
Today I had to do something for school out of school.
On the way back to school I stopped for a few minutes to grab some personal shopping.
I still worked my required hours but it made my life a little easier to get things on the way past instead of going out of my way on the way home.

Would you?
Really?
Based on what? your child's school and the one you work in?

SLT being on the yard or gate at the start and end of the day is common and good practice. It’s about being visible so parents can speak to you easily if they need to, building good relationships with parents, welcoming pupils, supporting a positive start to the day, etc, etc, etc.

I think that you should keep your beak out of her private life.

But she had her beak in my private life! I got a full on interrogation - as did my son!

Yet I’m not allowed to question what she was up to…

I was on a 0.8 contract (4 day week) so did my shopping on a Friday. Bumped in to a parent with 4 bottles of wine and a load of BBQ ingredients in the afternoon! Luckily she had a sense of humour... In Jan I'll have two days off as I'm doing a phased return after cancer treatment. Is that okay?

Was it an interrogation or did she just ask why he wasn't in school?

But your child attends her school of course she is going to be concerned why he's not in school? Whereas it's not your concern how she manages her working day. I have never heard of a school where teachers and SLT work anything close to their contracted hours, all are far exceeding them

The relationship has broken down so find another school for your child.
As a headteacher she is responsible for safeguarding, your child not being in school is a potential safeguarding issue. You being nosey about her day is not. She is entitled to her lunch break, maybe she was using that (I await your smart arse answer about how you know she wasn’t on lunch), or maybe they have a twilight after school and she was getting refreshments for staff (you probably know the directed time calendar too and they aren’t entitled to refreshments because they started 2 minutes late last month), or maybe she had a medical appointment like other people in the world and just nipped into the shop on her way back. All of these examples are none of your business.
I do a duty at break time in the same place as another member of staff, can you confirm if I am allowed to have a conversation with them if everything is running smoothly?

When you say they tried to off roll, what happened? Did they struggle to meet needs, was your child suspended? There's a lot of reasons why a school can't uphold a placement

YABVU. I don’t know any head who doesn’t work all hours and frankly if they want to shop during their lunch break or during the day cause that makes them happy or relaxes them then good.

How dare you judge someone when you have no idea of their situation or whole story. She doesn’t work for you. It’s also about output not hours worked.

As for your SEN complaint - yeah well a good amount of school are the same so your righteous stance isn’t foudnded - the system is broken. Your Head isn’t singling out your child.

On behalf of grateful and appreciative parents for the exceptionally difficult job teachers do with bad behaviour, tough conditions, ridiculous parents and general abuse I am sorry for posts like this.

Well you can ask, but it’s none of your business so you aren’t entitled to an answer.

So I assume he had the bump at playtime, the school did the standard thing of informing you of the bump and you decided to remove him during teaching hours to take him to A and E. I'm pretty sure if he'd been bleeding so profusely that it warranted emergency medical assistance the Head would have been informed.

When you are you entitled it’s an interrogation because how dare you ask a valid question as the head of school as to why a kid wasn’t in school as they should have been.

How bad would you feel if there’s a charity bake sale tomorrow that she was prepping for? 🤣

Nobody is saying that no teachers do anything wrong. They are saying that your examples aren't necessarily examples of teachers doing things wrong. Teachers are just as scrutinised as most workers, and arguably have less flexibility to come and go during the working day than many people. This is less true of Headteachers because they mostly don't teach and often spend quite a bit of time at events out of school and doing out of school hours.

TAs are often great, and are underpaid for what they do, but I (understandably) don't see their cars still in the school car park after 3:45. They work hard, but I wouldn’t say they have done 'the brunt of the hard work' in any of the schools I've worked in.

She has a legal responsibility to ask!

She is ultimately the one responsible for ensuring children are in school when they should be. She saw you. That made her OBLIGED to ask. She isn't allowed to just turn a blind eye in such circumstances. It wasn't prying into your private life.

Ironically she was at the supermarket and ended up doing her actual job whilst at the supermarket because she had to ask you why your child wasn't in school!!! So that kinda mitigates half your complaint about her doing shopping anyway!

Is she not allowed a lunch break that she may or may not be lucky to get near midday?

Could you get your son enrolled at your school OP? Sounds like it is much more efficient and well just better. Or look at other schools? Being at loggerheads with all the staff about everything is not going to do you or your son any good.

I’m on a .6 contact and work three days in school as a Year 3 teacher. I taught full time for 32 years, until I reduced my hours aged 62 earlier this year. I’m being paid for 18.5 hours (which is less than the actual time the children are in my care) and yet I work around 45 hours a week. When I was full time, my payslip told me I was being paid for 32 hours (again, less hours than the children are physically in school each week!) and never worked less than 60 hours a week…often closer to 70.

You have NO IDEA of ‘the extra miles’ we dedicate to your children. Think on, before you publicly slag off the people who spend so much time trying to educate (and MUCH MORE!) your child.

Yeah I've never had a job where I can just wander off and do my shopping.
Would she have done that if Ofsted were visiting?

Ime - some are yes, but I don't think this is unique to teaching. This week we have put the paperwork in for a tribunal against my sons secondary. They have not only acted unlawfully but they have repeatedly failed to come up with meaningful plans, despite frequent requests.