Why does my child's primary call the teachers Miss/Mr Firstname?

[cockles]

I've never come across this before in the UK - anyone know why it is? It's an ordinary state primary in a mixed inner London borough.

I have taught in a PRU where I was firstname and a PRU where I was Miss Firstname. Didn't like either. But especially not Miss Firstname - very odd.

Prefer being Ms Surname. Agree in secondary it is often just Ms (pron. Miss) or Sir. I quite like it, means you can refer to colleagues (supply etc) that you don't know their name eg 'You need to ask Miss'.

I really, really don't like the habit of calling the Teacher by Ms Surname and the TAs by first name...

(PS On a slight hijack, Tethersend, I didn't know you were a secondary PRU teacher!)

DD's state primary school in north London they can call the staff whatever they feel more comfortable with (this was instituted by the new head last year). But even though DD is welcome to call her teacher by her first name, she still calls her Miss and the TA Mrs . But the head is definitely .

I often see ex pupils of mine, most of whom I taught in yr 2 or 3. Many of them are now taking A levels and although I tell them to call me Angry none of them can bring themselves to call me anything other than Miss Pixie

It's fashionable in particular in two London boroughs and is the case in nearly every school, think since the 1970's. I have taught there and I found it a tad disrespectful, but then I don't even like 'miss' when I'm a 'mrs'. I compromised in one school by being Mrs firstname

Adair, I didn't know you were either

Do you still teach in a PRU or did you escape move on?

At my doctor's surgery the female doctors are all known as Dr Firstname and the male doctors are all known as Dr Lastname, which I have always found very

I was kind of hoping that 'Miss...' could also be read as 'Ms'.

My nephews in the U.S call their preschool teachers miss first name and also use it when talking to any adult / parent of a fiend .It's common in their area apparently..its always mr Paul, Miss Saarh or whatever. I think its cute... Can't stand toddlers being on first name terms with adults they barely know. !

Tethersend, I am doing maternity cover in a nice secondary school in suburban Enfield at the moment. It is not really where my heart lies and I ache to go back to my naughty kids! I loved it but left to be a SAHM (only do 1 day a week now).

Cockles, absolutely.

Hi Cheerful, my experience matches yours . . . young children use the miss first name and as they got older they used miss last name until they became adults and sorted their own relationships. This was the same in yankee land and dixie.

I used to work in a secondary school where everyone called each other by their first name, including the head, visitors etc. I liked it.

I like it, actually.

It's polite & respectful, but also friendly & acknowledges that the kids have, hopefully, a closer relationship with their teachers than they do with other adults in the community.

Also, they don't actually call you 'Mrs Lastname' amongst themselves. They call you 'Lastname' if they quite like you, & something rude that rhymes with 'Lastname' if they don't.

A bit of olde worlde courtesy would be rather nice, tbh.

(Agree that TAs having different nomenclature to teachers is not on).

We called all our teachers by their first name (primary state school in London in the 80s). It was a lovely school, and I thought it odd that children in other schools had to call their teachers Miss so and so. The way I saw it, we liked our teachers and knew them well so why wouldn't we use their first name?

sickly sweet and ewwwww

At international school in Singapore my DS's teacher is Miss Firstname. But at my DD's local preschool, her teacher is Teacher Firstname. That felt very weird at first, but I think it's the norm in Chinese.

Re using just first names for teachers, the trendy teachers at my school used to do this, especially the student ones. They'd come in one day one of teaching practice and say "Oh, you can just call me Jane" and we'd all be like "aha, a soft touch". Suckers!

I always called adults Mr/Mrs [surname] until they asked me to use their first name. I think it's polite. Close family friends (eg) Godparents I would call Auntie/Uncle [christian name].

Flimflammum - same here. My dd's are at a private Montessori pre-school and call their teachers "Teacher Robin", "Teacher Maevis" etc.

I find it really hard when I am talking to them not to follow suit and use the "teacher" as a preface to their names...

I love it. I remember much discussion at school about what the teachers' first names might be; we were so formal we had no idea.

But I hate the way all female teachers seem to morph into 'Miss' even though they may prefer to be called Ms or Mrs, or even Dr.

My mum's bugbear was being called "Miss", not just because she was a "Mrs" but because it's always "Miiiisss", so they got told very firmly that she was Mrs lastname and didn't respond to anything else (she was a secondary school teacher though). My children had firstname nursery teachers (who always referred to us as "Mum" and "Dad" which was a bit weird) and Miss/Mrs/Mr Surname teachers in the UK, the US and now in Canada.

My American relatives call their teachers 'Miss Charlotte' etc

They did this at DD's international school in Holland. I really liked it because DD would call the teacher "Miss Emma" and I could call her "Emma", for example.
Whereas now that we're back in the UK, DD will call the teacher "Miss Lastname" and I'm forced to do that same, even though I know the teacher's first name and would never refer to her by her last name in a social situation, we're probably the same age, ffs!

dd calls everyone including headteacher by their first names
but a few years back niece and nephew now in late teens called their teacher miss/mrs/mr - surname mostly, this in state primary in London

I think that is quite nice really (am trying not to be cynical and think it is too twee).

I too went to a school (um, the same one - hello other Trinity alumni!) where we called our teachers by their first names. It was part and parcel of what was (then - since much changed) a great ethos about equality and education.

When I was a child, my grandparents were Granny Lastname and Grandad Lastname. Now my children call my parents Granny Firstname and Grandad Firstname. I prefer it.

My father was a teacher (and headteacher) for 35 years. He dealt with this issue with the calm of experience: he would introduce himself to his classes by saying, "I am your new teacher and you can call me Mister Speaking" then if one of the students was brave enough to ask if he could call him by his first name alone he would say, "of course you can, my first name is Sir".

;)