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??

Same as any job really.

Thread is about teachers, though.

Headteachers are allowed to alter work days/hours as they often have to be in school at different times or during holidays.

That’s a big chip on your shoulder.

I'm just a rank and file teacher, but have a free after lunch on Mondays, in which I go and do my shopping in Tesco just across the road.

I then stay on for a departmental meeting after school and normally work sat or Sunday (sometimes both) on preparation.

We are salaried, not paid by the hour, or having to clock in or out - some like to nip out in a free for a stroll in the park or a trip to the shops and do the work later. In 20 years I've never worked in a school where anyone would question you coming or going so long as you are doing your job effectively.

I am a TA and I work hard for my salary. I usually begin work anything up to half an hour early and I often leave an hour or more after my finish time. But I would never claim to be doing the brunt of the work. I also know that my ht gets in at 7am and is usually still on site at 6:30 pm when the school keeper kicks her out. She doesn't take her lunch at the same time as everyone else because she is on duty during lunch time so she either goes before or after. You have no way of knowing that your ht isn't doing the same.
Maybe next time you see her in the supermarket, you should ask her to get you a bottle of ketchup for the huge chip on your shoulder.

No it’s just very tiresome to see the millionth entitled parent who think they know better and don’t really have any of the facts and try to give teachers a bad name.

And yet my kid goes to senior school and their first break is 11:15-11:45. Care to try again?

Yet I see another trending thread here with a child being permanently excluded - at age 6. But schools are never wrong.

There have been two permanent exclusions in my son’s year group already. Plus an attempt to off roll my son.
But when I see the Head in the supermarket twice during school hours, I’m not wrong to question. I’m wrong to question why my son wasn’t supervised on a school trip and was left in a toilet. I’m wrong to question why they continually forget to remind him to go to the loo so he holds in all day and bursts when he walks down the road, I’m wrong to question why his legal requirement for an updated EHCP was passed by 8 months. I’m wrong to question why they use terms like ‘handicapped’ to describe him. If I see the head in the supermarket and I know all these things can’t be done due to the school being ‘up against it’ - then I’m being unreasonable.

And then in my job : a child soiled themselves in a playhouse and 3 days later - it’s still there. Nails sticking out of a wall have only been removed after reporting them 4 times and SLT being really difficult about it. Being shouted at by SLT for reporting broken bikes through the schools report card system. A broken tile at childs eye level that has been reported 4 times but is still not fixed a year later.

This post is indeed a weird one. You have issues with your child's school . The options are to actually speak to the head about them or remove your child. The school you work in doesn't sound any better. Teachers aren't above reproach and if they are failing children can and should be called out on it. If a school has a crappy management team so head, deputy and it's ethos doesn't meet the needs of children then complain to the governors and or ofsted. You have to be active here.

As it stands you come across as petulant with the examples you have described.

I work 8-4 as a school nurse. I get a 30 minute break all day, so no time to go off site. This past week I needed to purchase some EpiPens for the school, so went to the local pharmacy. I did actually bump into a parent, so if they have the same attitude, I guess they will assume I was sciving off. I don’t get PPA etc .
I would like to add that if you don’t like the school your child is at, there must be plenty of others you could go to. So there is the obvious option.

No.
I think she comes across as frustrated and pissed off with the situation and issues.

I personally know the feeling.
My kids are now grown ups and I'm so happy to be finished with schools.

OP, YANBU

Why don’t you home school him?

I would love to hear the school's side of all of this.

You have issues with your child's school and clearly dislike the headteacher so why not move them? You say you work in a school and it is better, so see if you can move them there. Although your later post also seems to suggest your school isn't that great either, so maybe look at home education which is quite popular now and I am sure you could get a lot of support with.

Some of your points are ridiculous and are normal safeguarding procedures e.g having staff on the gates in the morning. Do your school not do that?
It also sounds like you are stalking them in the supermarket. The comment about your son not being in school sounds like they are actually interested in your child and showing concern. The school clearly informed you of the bump and you as a parent saw it as your right to get further medical checks.
I think because you dislike the school you are seeing the bad in every little thing. The only option for things to improve is to remove your child from this school.

Me too… she sounds unhinged.

Honestly I came to the thread expecting to read more than a head food shopping during school hours and chatting on the gate with a colleague. The scandal!

So you saw the playhouse but didn't just clean it up like a normal person but you left it, You saw nails sticking out of a wall and instead of getting a hammer and sorting it you left it? Can't comment on the bikes as it depends who they belong to. Broken tile? do you mean chipped or sticking out like a jagged knife? Do they children in your school rub theirs faces along the wall a lot?

If you think the school is wrong about your son being high needs and the local authority agrees, why do you need an updated ECHP? Shopping and gossiping wouldn’t bother me - I mean, she quizzed you because you were strolling around supermarket yourself when you had picked up your DS to supposedly seek further medical treatment for his bump on head - but that would be an issue for me.

The local authority is responsible for your child’s ehcp and updating it.
Did the school do the annual review or not? If the timescale passed, did you request the annual review?
if the annual review happened, it’s then it’s then in the hands of the local authority.
youre clearly unhappy with the school…why don’t you find a school that meets his needs better, and meets your expectations.
You ask on a thread if you are being unreasonable. Well, 76% say that you are, and yet you won’t accept it

OP some if your latter points are fair grounds for concern and complaint. If you'd led with them you may have had a different response but the supermarket and playground scenarios are ludicrous and simply demonstrate that your relationship with this school has broken down.

Some of your examples suggest that despite having a teaching degree you don't really appreciate or understand the workings of a school right now. Excluding a six year old is awful but if that six year old (I haven't read that thread) posed a sustained and serious threat to the safety and wellbeing, let alone education if the other children, it may be the right call and the mechanism needed to get him into a suitable placement. I can imagine your own thread "my child has not been safeguarded from violent disruptive child, school should do more". It sounds to me like you will never be happy with what a school can provide.

Was about to say this ! When I was SLT in a special school, we’d often nip out to do bits of specialist shopping for kids for events or say for example if we had a child transitioning in, to get bits of food we knew they liked so that they’d feel happier and eat.

Teacher here. I often do my weekly food shop during the day or shock horror, get my nails done. I have PPA time which is obviously to plan but as im often planning all weekend or until really late on an evening then il take this time as time in lieu. Its my little bit of quiet time. I will also occasionally do a top up shop on my lunch break (which isnt always actually lunchtime due to the fact its education and shit happens). Teachers are humans too. Im a single parent with very little spare time.

This! The relationship had obviously broken down.
Move your son and maybe rethink your attitude

She doesn’t work for you.

This.