A plea to all mums

[Fairyliz]

I am the lady in the office. I am responsible for a £1m budget, deal with
HR work, admin and secretarial jobs. I also have to know about health and safety, child protection and assessment. I unblock the toilets in the absence of the premises officer, clean up when your child had been sick and look after them when they are ill. In between I answer the phone, open the gates and sort out lunchtime squabbles.
To get this all done I work about 45 hours per week for about £18,000 per year.

So please don't shout at me when your child looses his sweatshirt that you haven't named!

Love it!

Fairyliz - I know the feeling - I'm a mid day supervisor and assist with the sick stuff when it happens at lunchtime.... you did miss out the "little accidents" , the nosebleeds (how much blood does one small child contain!!) , and the cleaning poop from the socks stuff..... but apparently all I do is act as lunchbox police and tell kids to take their fizzy pop and jelly beans home with them....

I get you, but that list is all part of your job surely??
more frustrating when a named item goes missing/is pinched

Whatever your roles and responsibilities it is not acceptable that you are shouted at in the course of your duties.

Yes, but as office staff, please don't yell at an already upset year 3 because they've lost their unlabelled lunch box when you told me when my daughter lost her named one and you told me it was my responsibilty to walk round all (20) classrooms to check it hadn't gone to the wrong one.

No I didn't yell at her, but I was a bit

and Dads?

I try, but our primary school sec always behaves as if she'd rather not the job. Never smiles always gives the impression everything is too much trouble.

Senior school admin are lovely.

DeWe at my boys school labelling does not increase the rate that clothes will be returned. ;)

labeling garments has no relation to safeguarding
you're being itty bitty precious

Our office lady is lovely and always smiles. When I was on the waiting list for the school she answered all my weird questions kindly and never once rolled her eyes. She is also funny and makes my smaller Dd laugh.

I never knew she had to clean sick!

The office ladies at dds' primary are absolutely gorgeous. Funny, helpful, kind, and very hard working. When my littlest dd wanted to show something she'd made to the Headteacher, and he wasn't available, she asked to show it to Mrs Office Manager instead. Says it all.

If anyone shouted at one of them (it has happened) I would be tempted to bop them on the nose.

We refer to our school secretary as the Heart of the School

I will always be nice. My Mum used to be our school secretary. She could stop naughtiness in the corridor with a single stare. Sadly I didn't inherit that ability.

Yes, Goulash, it's a label, not an electronic homing device.

Fair enough

A plea to all school admin staff

Please don't feel you are the gatekeepers of the school, and as such your role is to be as bad tempered and unreasonable as possible to all pupils, parents and prospective parents
(I have one or two in mind here although our current staff are lovely - they don't clean up sick though)

And a plea to lunchtime assistants - if there is a fight between two children, and one is a lot younger and is actually being beaten up), don't just watch til the other kids have to pull them apart 'as you are not allowed' to touch the children.

Fair enough

A plea to all school admin staff

Please don't feel you are the gatekeepers of the school, and as such your role is to be as bad tempered and unreasonable as possible to all pupils, parents and prospective parents
(I have one or two in mind here although our current staff are lovely - they don't clean up sick though)

And a plea to lunchtime assistants - if there is a fight between two children, and one is a lot younger and is actually being beaten up), don't just watch til the other kids have to pull them apart 'as you are not allowed' to touch the children.

We have only had wonderful wonderful school secretaries. I hardly ever bother anyone at schools. They have far too much to do without yet another parent fussing about something. If you don't name something you lose the right to object if it goes missing. Those plastic clip on tags are good for people who do not have time to sew labels in, although when our boys started their school their father (never let women be responsible only for school things - get husband to have a task eg get all uniform named, a penis does not mean you cannot do that stuff and more implortantly be responsible for it - this is a feminist issue) found for us a local dry cleaners which also had someone to sew name labels into clothes if you have no time but the money for that.

"..or even loses it.... I suppose "loose" would be if it were made of wool and it were loosened and the threads unwound)

I won't shout at you if DS looses his sweatshirt, but I did beg you to make sure he eats his packed lunch this week.

And thank you for knowing my DC and their interests so well. DH and I both welled up recently when you brought in some seedlings from home for DS to plant.

mercibucket - I assume from your tone that your young child was in a physical fight at school. I'm sorry about that, must have been distressing for both of you. But midday supervisors are paid next to nothing, work odd hours which break up their day and are often not respected by the children. They also have no training in terms of discipline or management of the children.

If they have been told they shouldnt be touching the children then I would absolutely support them in this. Most MSAs live in the community as well and run a real risk of angry Mum or Dad appearing at their door treating to beat them up for touching little johnny.

threatening, not treating!

Also - office staff know everything and control almost everything. They can be hugely grumpy but most are lovely But the OP clearly shows why - No most of these things are NOT in her job description.

Ours is lovely but would have a gripe about parents sending in money not in an envelope named and whats its for.

Our school secretaries are lovely and ask after ds1 & 2 even though they have long since left the school.

Well... When my son is school dinners (maybe once a week) I was cornered by the secretary and told I had to pay the £2.10 again because the teacher lost the money.

Calmly told her I was not paying £4.20 for a hotdog and bowl of jelly and water after she said I would HAVE to pay it! She obviously was not happy I would say this either, bizarre women.
Every time the enveloped money is written with my DS name, class and the date on and handed to the teacher as I drop him off. Yet still it's my fault if the money is lost in transit from class room to office.
Oh yes how dare I refuse to pay twice, horrible women.

Unfortunately some secretaries really do act like they don't want to be there and take it out on us mums.

Fair enough but in return

Please can you open the door when I press the bell and it is pouring down with rain and not let me stand there for 5 mins whilst you finish your phone call (Yes I can see you through the window)

Please could you smile occasionally instead of looking like you really want to be everywhere else

Please can you accept responsibility for the loss of the cheque I handed DIRECTLY to you that has somehow never been entered into the school info (yes I will write you out another however it was not me who lost it hence yes you do have to wait until tomorrow I do not carry my cheque book with me and no I wont go home to get it and return you lost the info not I)

Please could you be honest with me when I ask if I need to come in after my child has fallen and you say she is ok I took your word for it only to be presented with a nose and cheek so badly scraped we needed a trip to A&E my child must have been in agony for 2 hours.

Please could you actually update the info I handed to you 3 times * yes thats 3 times.

Please could you not take a rude tone with me when I question how the info still have not been administrated after the 2nd hand in.

And btw thank you for cuddling my sick dd (age 5) when she got a sickness bug in school she needed that more than anything.

(ps the above are examples of what 9 years of kids in school over 5 schools have done so I am sorry if I am jaded but it goes both ways if you want politeness)

Oh I've learnt a lot! I promise I am always nice to the kids and give them a little cuddle when they are hurt and crying (even though I could get sacked for that).
In return I had some fab pictures/cards and sweeties from the kids on my birthday so thanks to all the mums who helped with that.

PS Can't always help the grumpy face it's my wrinkles drooping.

ok, as long as you promise not to look at me like a piece of shit when I dare ask for a replacement form, or to check lost property or anything else that you feel i ought to magically have or know