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MNHQ

Mumsnet users discuss phrases that teachers always say

418 replies

EllieMumsnet · 20/04/2018 12:13

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With National Teacher Day coming up on the 8th May MNHQ would love to know the phrases you remember your teachers always saying….also if you are currently a teacher please share the phrases you most commonly use during your classes.

Do you have strong memory of one of your teachers always using the ‘I’m not angry just disappointed’ line? Perhaps whenever your teacher was annoyed at someone they would say ‘It’s your own time your wasting’? Or maybe as a teacher you’re becoming known for saying one phrase in particular?

Whatever phrases you remember your teachers always saying, comment on the thread below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £100 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

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OP posts:
Mxyzptlk · 29/04/2018 19:15

I'll give you five! - when it was legal to give strokes of the belt on pupils' hands.

One teacher broke a boy's watch, while belting him, as its face was on the inside of his wrist - not that the belt should have been going on his wrist anyway!

otter099008 · 29/04/2018 19:24

I think the one that's really stuck with me my whole life is "drop the E, add ING" which my English teacher used to say when teaching us how to spell.

holey · 29/04/2018 19:36

It isn't a phrase but I can only remember one specific thing that my maths teacher told my parents when I was about 15, which was that in his opinion I'd reached my "ceiling" with maths and was unlikely to improve any further. So basically he was banging his head against a brick wall trying to get me to understand anything more! At the time I was deeply offended but now I find it hysterically funny. What's more, when my daughter was around the same age I saw her reach the same point. She had always been in the top set for maths, as I was, but seemed to reach saturation point where nothing else would go in!

Ruleof4 · 29/04/2018 22:15

'For completeness sake..'

Grrr complete it the first time round!!

Nobra2matchmypanties · 30/04/2018 13:52

When ever our maths teacher told us we had do sums using our heads because "when we grow up, we won't have calculators in our pockets all the time". Look how that worked out. I'm typing this comment out on one.

farhanac · 30/04/2018 19:01

Perhaps you would like to come to the front and tell everyone what is so amusing?

NorthernKnickers · 30/04/2018 19:36

(Used almost daily by me!)

"You have two choices...so choose wisely!
A) (insert the thing they SHOULD be doing), or
B) (insert what WILL happen if they don't do A!"

Eg today's miscreant was offered the choice of:

A) Stop licking your shoes (🤢) and sit nicely on the carpet, or...
B) sit in your socks next to Miss C and miss 5 minutes of break!

He made the wrong choice 🤷‍♀️

Supermam · 30/04/2018 23:46

I’m not angry, I’m disappointed. 😕Hmm

Dixiestampsagain · 01/05/2018 03:33

Hmm, I may have said that once or twice in my teaching career, supermam

angiehoggett · 01/05/2018 11:58

"come on you know the answer" when clearly nobody did!

morningtoncrescent62 · 01/05/2018 12:21

"I don't mind missing my playtime." One of the teachers who taught both my DDs used to say this when children were playing about/not getting ready quickly enough and she was threatening them with being kept in. I considered breaking it to them that it was the biggest, fattest lie ever, and their teacher would begrudge every lost nanosecond. But adult-to-adult solidarity won out.

MillyVanilli222 · 01/05/2018 14:45

"Do as I say, not as I do...!"

user1485629191 · 01/05/2018 16:05

Why can't you be more like your sister - maybe that was unique to me!

UpOnDown · 01/05/2018 20:31

Always seize the opportunity.

Nicole1709 · 01/05/2018 21:02

'I'm going to count to three, any everybody better be quiet...'

overnightangel · 02/05/2018 08:30

“A chair has got 4 legs for a reason”
Anyone who said ‘Miss/sir my pen’s run out’
Got “Run after it then”

Blainalass · 02/05/2018 17:34

"The first time MIGHT have been funny, the second was pushing your luck but doing a a third time must mean you want to stay in at playtime"

Kezer · 02/05/2018 18:22

"You should have gone at lunch"

Had a 5 minute discussion today with a girl about how she would have to wait until hometime to go to the loo. She asked coming in from lunch.

claza93 · 02/05/2018 21:00

Did I say something funny?

Got to the top of the class but don't fall off!

TheGirlWhoLived · 03/05/2018 09:02

Oooh this was a college one - after being caught by my Law A-Level tutor with my boyfriend in the corridor.

TheGirl - If you do not remove yourself from his face in five seconds, you shall have to bring him into class with you

shaddai88 · 03/05/2018 09:14

You are always daydreaming in class!!

SuzCG · 03/05/2018 10:24

So many of these ring true as things I've heard across the years.

The one I've come to 'love' at parents evening for my DS is 'if only he would stop talking and start listening'. I kept thinking he'd grow out of it but I've heard it for 7 years now...

Allington · 03/05/2018 16:25

My brother's response (aged 6) to being told by a teacher at lunchtime:

"Don't put your knife in your mouth or you'll cut your tongue"

was to put the knife in his mouth again to prove he wouldn't Grin

jellybaby25 · 03/05/2018 18:10

Where is your homework?

Treaclespongeandcustard · 03/05/2018 22:43

'It's your future not mine'
'We don't do that at [school name]'
'Say what you mean because otherwise people will think you mean what you say'