Do you teach at the same school that your child attends?

[pooodle]

My son will be coming to my secondary school in September, can anyone give me some insight into what its like having child at same school you teach at? ie, is he more likely to get stick from kids, do other teachers niggle about them much, is it awkward?

thanks for advice

My mum taught at my infant school, and the only person who ever made an issue of it was the caretaker.
She did make sure she never actually taught us though. Tha would have been awful

why was it so bad cat? btw mine is a church school so kids are fairly well behaved most of the time

My dad taught at my secondary school. He made sure he didn't take my maths set until the sixth form, at which point it was fine - we were all mature enough by then I suppose! Quite a few other kids had parents teaching there - I can think of 2/3 in my year I think. Didn't seem to make any difference.

I had a number of friends who were taught by their parents at school (primary/middle). It worked well in the majority of cases - failed disastrously in one.
In my last school (secondary) two colleagues had children at the school, although they didn't actually teach them. There didn't seem to be any problems.

My mum and dad both teach at the secondary school I went to.

My dad taught me for five years. Just got on with it really - never actually called him anything . He taught me single maths in the sixth form and my mum and dad between them taught me further maths.

thanks for replies so far

do they have to call you miss? thats going to be sooo weird!

I teach French to ds's Y2 class once a week and he calls me Maman!

I teach at the same school my ds1 goes to. I was there for a year before he started in Reception. He was quite mature about it, he felt "special" and it did help his transition from nursery to school as he knew he could see his mummy in the day when other children couldn't.

I told him that he should call me Mrs InTheseShoes when he was with the whole class (e.g. when I entered the classroom and said "good morning Reception/or whatever" but that he could do it with a big wink to me - he liked that and does it to this day (he is Y2 now) but he calls me Mummy any other time.

Obviously he is still quite young at the mo, and really seems to like it. In some ways it is harder for me as I know I am tougher on his behaviour if I see him, and also want to interfere in stuff and have to restrain myself. On the other hand, his teacher sends him on messages to my class that are required and he likes that, as do I. I have always insisted that I have a proper Parents Night appointment (manage my appointments to fit in with my one with his teacher) and I complete every letter/reply slip etc as his mum and not a teacher. He bumped his head badly once, and I was so glad that I could be on the scene immediately.

However, I did have to take his class a couple of times when his teacher was teaching PE for me when I was heavily pregnant with ds2 and I didn't like that - he showed off a bit and I was tougher on him than on others - I would not recommend teaching your child unless absolutely necessary (and as I could not perform a roly poly then it was in that case).

I am in a different key stage this year than ds1, and I find I barely see him; you might find that to be the case too at secondary school. Of course, the "skitting" from other pupils might be more at secondary, could you work out a pre-prepared "line" for your ds to take on that one? Try to anticipate the things he might have to deal with and explain that you're not bothered about whether the kids slag you off or not? (I am assuming that this is the kind of thing you are bothered about here)

I do think the benefits outweigh the negatives - just the thought that you are there immediately in any crisis is plus point enough.

Hope all goes well for you - best of luck!

I am a TA at my childrens school. I do work in their classrooms and they don't seem to have a problem with it. Infact on the days I'm not in, they cause a fuss!

DD (9yo) calls me by my name, DS (5yo) calls me mum. I started working at the school before they started attending there.

I don't find it a problem being at their school, thankfully they are both well behaved but other staff who's DC also attend the school who aren't well behaved always get the threat 'I'll tell your mother about you!' I think thats a bit mean. Other children who's parents do not work at the school do not get that threat.

there were a few pupils at my private school with teachers who were parents. never caused a problem

i only ever had a class with one of them and the girl called her mum. not sure about the others.

I've never taught in the same school as my kids, but in the school where I work there are several teachers who do have their own children there - it doesn't seem to cause any problems and they call them Mrs x like everyone else.

I do (Yr 1) and ds2 in in Yr 2, just across the hall! He did show off a little at first (I have only been teaching there for a year so he was there before me.) He calls me mummy, sometimes pops in to my class to show me a special piece of work or such like. His teacher is wonderful and we get on well. If he is naughty and being disciplined by either his class teacher or the head I try to keep well out of it but the teacher always tells me at the end of the day what had gone on.

Anyway, it works well for me although I am very glad not to be teaching my own child which would be more difficult I think.

thanks for your replies, inyourshoes yes I am a bit worried about other kids, dont want son to get in any fights over me thanks for kind words too, much appreciated.

My ex husband was very good at this. He never told me anything at home about school - gossip etc so often knew less than the other mothers! He didn't treat our son even when he taught him as a parent, just as a pupil and of course you go out of your way to appear fair and if in doubt decide something against your own child so there's no allegation of bias. ITS says she was tougher on her son - so was my ex husband. Occasionally we thought other teachers with children at the schools weren't as objective as they should be. You have to be really fair and appear to be too and look out all the time for anything that might amount to a possibility of an accusation of bias.

In our school (secondary) I know four members of staff whose children attend/have attended the school. In two cases there have been moderate-severe problems caused by the difficulties in separating 'parent' role from 'staff', and also of staff having unrealistically high expectations of the students because of their parents.

In two cases it seems to have caused no tensions whatsoever so far. (Extremely well-behaved, easy-going, undemanding, rarely noticed, king of children.)

But most staff choose to send their children elsewhere.

Personally there is no way I would want my children at my school, because they are not that type of child and will encouter/cause some issues; and I want clear staff/parent roles without blurred boundaries. But also primarily because it's not a very good school, and I want better for my children.

thanks for all your replies, glad to hear mainly that it doesnt cause a problem, i feel alot less worried now, tx again.

Having been in that position, my father was a high profile teacher at our secondary school, I would only do it if there were no other option. Yes teachers' children do get stick from other children, yes other teachers do appear to find it impossible not to see the child as separate from the teacher who is their parent.

At the time it probably looked as though we were OK, we didn't complain, but none of us would ever choose to do it to our children.

Just don't. Why put your children through it?

There was a similar thread a while back and I think there were more people there who posted saying don't on that one. Primary is different maybe. Or if you are a very low profile teacher.

Primary worked fine for us. Secondary if it's a big school and a very good one I would have thought that the benefits of one of the best private educations in the country virtually free of charge, against being sent to the nearest rough comp just to avoid your father is probably not the right decision.

Secondary if it's a big school and a very good one

Yes it is a big school, around 1400, plus it is a 3:2 oversubscribed church, so kids generally fairly well behaved etc!

against being sent to the nearest rough comp just to avoid your father(mother in this case!)

Thats just it, this is the only "good" school around, and cant afford private. At moment ds is very keen, and I have said if it all goes pear shaped and he hates it he can always go to the local comp, but it couldnt have been the other way around.

All my family are teachers and so we were taught by both parents and so were my cousins taught by their parents

DS is now at same school as DH

DS is year 8 and DH hasn't actually taught him yet apart from cricket last year

There are several boys with their parents at the same school

DS calls him Sir if they meet around school or Dad in private.

DH doesn't help him with homework anymore than other parents would - we are very careful about that.

DS' classmates don't seem to mind that DH is there - there is quite a crossover with older boys that DS mixes with and they all know who he is iyswim

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread, but this is something I feel very strongly about.

My parents were both teachers at the only secondary school in the town where we lived.

I was taught by them both at various points. I found out later that this was deliberately engineered so that they could ensure we were being taught properly.

They were very strict teachers, and probably among the least popular teachers in the school.

Did it affect us? Oh yes.....

-Shouted at regularly in the street.
-Silent phone calls
-Very few friends, and we hardly ever were allowed to bring anyone to our house.
-Seeing grafiti about parents in the school toilets
-Accused by other kids of cheating in exams (oh your dad must have given you the answers etc etc)
-Physical violence. My sister had eggs broken over her head (she was about 7 at the time) and my brother got a tooth punched out for doing nothing other than walking down the street.

You get the general idea.

I still maintain that they should have kept their work and home lives in different towns. Growing up is hard enough without all this shit going on too.

However, there were many other teacher's children in the school and they seemed to be popular and my parents could never understand what the problem was.

mawbroon, thats tough sorry to hear that! I have been "sounding out" some of the kids, to see what their reaction is, mostly good so far, ah well, fingers crossed, we shall see! thanks for advice again.