Post the most petty rule your school has for teachers

[MaryBerrysEyelashes]

That might explain the teacher recruitment shortage

No trousers unl1ess the head allowed ot was common back when I started teaching. One school - primary - allowed them for outdoor PE in the winter; but just for the PE class with no time to change!!

Having worked in school and had some involvement in writing codes of conduct at 4 schools, I'd say teachers need to be told.

Some of what they think is appropriate for work....

I think the thing is that office wear has changed everywhere apart from in education
Stop telling women what to wear

Also, I don't think that whatever rules apply to the child to apply to the adult.
Adults are paid employees so totally different thing

No cups of hot drinks in the classroom. Eg no tea or coffee - fair enough, health and safety. Except we weren't allowed cups of a hot drink for 20 minutes before and after the children arrived/departed.
And no flasks etc of tea or coffee in the yard when on duty because they looked "unprofessional"

The thing is, that none of these rules make sense. I know corporate lawyers who wear trainers to work, none of my children who are in high-level professional jobs at work shoes or wear suits and ties.
It's just bonkers yet schools still run as if it's goodbye, Mr. Chips

shaming women for daring to show the top of their arm.

A risk assessment is one a thing but a risk assessment doesn't necessarily mean it's risky

The rules that blatantly contradict each other.

'You must greet each child as they enter the class'
against
'Every second in the classroom matters, you much teach (and pupils make progress) for the whole hour'

Rules that they put in place then ignore themselves.

'Don't worry about getting a child to take their coat off straight away, its more important to get them learning, then approach them to take their coat off'

SLT enter the room, disrupt the lesson by making said child ,that is now working, take their coat off and then either have a meeting about said coat or send a snotty email.

We had strict rules about dress but realistically the only one that annoyed me was having to always have a jacket on outside the classroom. Neither that nor the inconsistent rules (stand at the classroom greeting every student while simultaneously supervising the work and behaviour of those who were in and taking the register within 5 minutes) had anything to do with why I left, which was entirely driven by behaviour, workload and unrealistic expectations.

Hmm. We have rules like no visible bra straps and no flip flops, all in place becuase teachers do need telling. Is that suitable work attire anywhere?

@FrippEnosha ga yes

Why not visible bra straps? And then, and then unable to restrain themselves? Is this policy equality proof?

Are you going to try and tell me bare shoulders on a male teacher would be acceptable in school?

I would say that no part of anyones underwear should be on show at work

Why are you trying to make this about women? I assume men can't wear spaghetti straps either.

Expecting teachers to come to work looking professional is not shaming.

No chewing gum allowed to be brought onto school site. Of course no teacher should ever be chewing in the classroom but if someone wants to chew gum before school / break / lunch / after school then they should be allowed to. We’re not sticking it under desks! There have been many passive aggressive emails.

Students aren’t allowed any colour which isn’t their natural colour (e.g no highlights etc) which is ridiculous imo. I (sort of) agree with no blue hair for example, not that it would make a difference to learning but they’ve taken it too far. They tried to implement the same for staff which as you can imagine went down really well. The Head also visibly flinches at piercings to be dramatic.

She’s basically a bit of a knob on a power trip who likes to exert authority over students and staff alike.

Oh that drives me mad. Stand in the corridor for the meet and greet, yet supervise a silent start and ensure all books and materials are handed out?
You get told off if they can't see you!

Thank goodness we never had all this meet and greet nonsense. Kids line up in the playground, teacher leads them in, hang up coats then into the classroom.

Staff were expected to be on duty before school at the gate to welcome students in and could not head into school until after the bell but were also expected to be on their classroom door checking uniform as the bell went. There was also an expectation that the register for morning registration be complete within two minutes of the bell being rung.

For lessons we were expected to complete the register within two minutes again, whilst greeting all students on the door and checking uniform again but also phone student services if any student had not arrived within the two minutes to report them missing. And we were also responsible for behaviour on the corridor.

Business attire was the norm in most non manual jobs until 15-20 years ago, my retired teacher friend tells me they weren’t allowed to wear any trousers at all just skirts or dresses.

Anything that compares professional adults at work to kids wearing a uniform falls into the original category of ridiculous rules which, on top of workload and other conditions, mean fbf jobs becomes much less worthwhile.

Teachers can wear the shoes and clothes they choose, and pupils can't. Just like make up and jewellery.

At my old school (before I quit teaching) teachers were not allowed to leave the premises under any circumstances between 3.20pm and 4pm. So even if they're not working that day and have come in to get books to mark or something. Or say they have to leave to pick up their child from school or whatever.
Like many modern schools, the school has a fenced perimeter. At pick up time, the pedestrian gate is opened. However, if someone were to drive out from the staff car park, then the car gates would open. Sometimes when this happens, parents walk through the car gate before they closed (slower than a snail could get across) because it's a short cut.
This was considered too dangerous. So even if your child's school rang and said your daughter has broken her leg, you'd have to wait until 4pm to leave (even if you'd not got a meeting or anything). Because risk assessment.

Oh yes, you get "a meeting" if you don't call the register within 10 minutes. A warning next time!

Another one. We had plastic display cabinets for children's work which had to be updated weekly. Teachers were not allowed a key to start with (you had to get the caretaker to open it and stand there while you changed the display). Later, you could sign the key out but you absolutely were not allowed to let someone else use it.
Same with the lift. There were several keys to access it. Teacher's were not allowed a key, even if you had a child in your class that needed to use the lift. You had to phone the office for someone to come and open it, which could take 20 minutes.
Same with a key to a lockable meeting room...when I was pumping milk I had to get a caretaker to lock me in and let me out because teachers weren't allowed a key (obviously needed to be locked to stop pupils coming in accidentally as it's also where some resources were kept).

Ive been teaching long enough that we had to check when we were deployed to a school whether ladies were allowed to wear trousers or not.

And girls being allowed to wear trousers was only brought in in my first few years of teaching.

Most bonkers advice I had from a head teacher was to never wear red... as it excited the children.