Grange Hill... Children addressed teachers politely...

[MucozadeOnLucozade]

Watching old Grange Hill episodes... The children address the adults so respectfully like Sir, yes Sir, Sir this and that. My son says kids at school don't say Sir... I remember having to use Sir in the 1990's.

My question is do children still address the teachers politely like that these days, if not when did all that change?

Yes, at every school I have taught in for the last nearly 20 years students call the teachers miss and sir (or sometimes mum when they forget where they are!)

Yes they do.

Both my DDs' schools insisted on either sir/miss or their title and surname. Dds private school was sir and ma'am

That's interesting, maybe it's just my son's school then?

Not sure now but my senior school days (left in 04) were all sir and miss, it was bizarre calling them by first names in college

all teachers in all schools I have ever taught in have been sir and miss, ( except a few schools use "ma'am")

At DDs school they deffo say "Sir" still. She's year 11.

I'm 37 and we all had to stand up when a teacher entered the room, whether that was at the beginning of a lesson, or just another teacher popping in to speak to their colleague.

I don't think Sir and Miss is respectful, it makes me cringe. We always addresses the teachers as Mr xxx / miss / Mrs / ms xxxx.

DS’s school has all teachers and Head addressed by their first names — has no impact on politeness or behaviour that I can detect, compared to his very formal former C of E school, with titles and uniforms.

Yes either Miss or Sir or Mr Smith / Ms Smith - apart from when they forget at call me Mum by accident (even had a sixth former call me Mum this week)

Actually the staff often refer to each other as 'sir' or 'miss' to keep it consistent

When I was at school we used the full names - Mrs X…. Or Mr Y… we never used just sir/miss

ive worked in 2 schools over the last 7years. I’ve Always been Miss to the kids, I don’t even think they know my last name, so I don’t necessarily see it as a mark of respect

Miss and sir where i work. Today i got mum from one.

i always said if like tonaork at waterloo road, because there was never any low level disruption. Major incidents, yes. But not constant poor behaviour.

Missing the point entirely, but are the old Grange Hill episodes on Youtube/somewhere else?

DD(15) refers to her teachers as Mr/Mrs/Miss surname.

At DS's secondary school teachers are addressed as Sir or Miss by the pupils and referred to as Mr/Mrs/Miss surname by everyone. Also, if an adult enters a classroom the class still have to stand up and wait to be told to sit back down, like when I was there (nearly in the black and white old days, as the kids like to put it 😆).

I am 'Miss' at school, much prefer it when they use 'Miss'+surname

At my DS's school they use Sir and Ma'am ( pronounced marm and not to rhyme with jam)

I've not heard of any other school where female teachers are addressed like that.

My neighbour teaches there and she did say it felt odd at first but she likes it as it seems extra respectful.

I was at school during the early Grange Hill days and we always used Sir and Miss and had to stand whenever a teacher walked into the classroom. They still have to do that at my DS's school.

I never got why we addressed female teachers as "miss" regardless if they were married or not.

And those asking, yes my son is watching old Grange Hill episodes although not sure how he's accessing them. I'll try and find out.

When I was at school we never stood up in the lesson if another teacher entered the room???!

Both my boys are at a local Catholic school and address their teachers as Sir or Miss.

I went to the local C of E girls school 40 years ago and we had to stand when the teacher entered the room at the start of a lesson.

My DC high school the teachers are all sir and miss. The teachers also call each other Miss and sir when they talk to each other around the students.

Ma’am is common in communities that have or had a large Royal Navy presence. I think it’s much nicer than Miss. Accidentally calling a female teacher Mum becomes far more frequent though!

Ours was Mr x Mrs y

Dc's school, which is fairly casual, uses "sir" and "miss". The children use it almost exclusively rather than names. So you have conversation which goes:
"We were in the hall and sir said we had to go out then sir asked us if we'd forgotten something and Jamie had to go back in to fetch his ID card and sir told him off, but he said sir told him to go and get it so sir was okay about it and then asked us to go and fetch sir's coat from the technology block, and the door was broken so we had to bang on the window and sir let us in and we took the coat back to sir."
Funny thing is they talk like that to each other and they seem to know exactly which teacher is which "sir", but when I'm listening, I'm totally at a loss by the second "sir".

Never did miss and sir at my school, left in 2005. It was always their names so Mr x and miss/Mrs y.

I too have recently been on a old Grange Hill binge, also saved by the bell and Sabrina the teenage witch!