What happens when someone leaves at your school?

[FurtherSupport]

There were 5 of us yesterday. One teacher, 3 TAs and me, school finance.

I wasn't expecting a big fuss for me, I haven't been there that long, worked very p-t and hadn't really made much effort to be close to anyone. However, particularly for the teacher the exact opposite is true.

One of the more junior teachers had arranged collections and flowers for everyone and most of the staff gathered for the presentation, which was lovely, but not a single member of SLT turned up (was 5 mins at lunchtime and I know thy all knew about it).

When I left, 1.5 hours after my official finish time, I went to find the head to say goodbye and all the best for the future etc, but he was busy, so I didn't. He hadn't made any attempt to come and find me or any of the other leavers. Neither had any of the other SLT. Is this normal?

Usually SLT do the duty of others so everyone else can go. The other bit though was rude.

I've worked on primary and secondary and noticed a much bigger deal is made over staff when leaving primary. Maybe as the staff circle is much smaller and therefore people know each other better.

At my current school (primary) we have a bring and share lunch one day on final week. We have cards and gifts.

That's my school. Big fuss for teachers but everyone else slips off like a shadow.
I left after 3years this week. No goodbye.
I will admit to being a little bitter. On the other hand, it emphasises what a good decision it was to leave.

my friend was a dinner lady for 15 years (primary school) - other dinner ladies gave a card and present, one or 2 teachers came to say bye, not a peep from any of the SLT - sad really.

This is a primary school. I have noticed that lots of teachers have very poor social skills and don't actually know how to talk to adults

SomewhereIBeling - that is grim. I hate it because it strikes me as so incredibly driven by a kind of sexism and classism that looks an awful lot like the sexism and classism of the pre-2WW era!
Support staff in schools really do perform 'women's work' - and it really is invisible - and renders them invisible.
Add to that a subtle feeling that they are - in some way - servants ....
I'm often surprised that all the support staff in our school weren't given a generic name to be used whilst in service.
Mind you, I think most employers might have run to a card from the institution as a body.

At a school my children attended, the children all made and signed a card when the school cook left.

Schools are very much like little fiefdoms and so much comes down to the personality of the Head.

Graceless, boorish, with questionable moral standards ... and it will be reflected in behaviour at an institutional level. Thoughtful, strong attention to detail, good on valuing others ... Likewise.

Mind you, how many of the latter type become Heads?

I actually think the head at this school is pretty good. He is thoughtful and caring (of the children) and excellent planner and very hot on attention to detail. He is ridiculously shy (with adults) for such a high profile position though.

I work in a secondary school. Quite a few staff left yesterday. Head decided to finish early (never happened before) and we all gathered in the staffroom, teachers, TAs, technicians, office staff and all of SLT. Lots of speeches and quite a few tears. It was really lovely and so much better than the usual squeezing it in at break.

Sorry that you last day was so miserable.

Leavers tea - speeches, gifts. (My DD's school)

What lougle said plus assembly in which all the leavers sit in front of whole school, more speeches, card made for each leaver by each phase.

At my school we do "quick" goodbyes for leavers with fewer than 5 years' service which means at coffee time on the last working day we gather in the staffroom and their HOD says a few words about each one then gives them a gift (the HOD will have arranged a hasty collection in the previous week or fortnight and got us all to sign a card - SLT do not get involved). We tend to have quite a lot of staff turnover so this is a nice way to say goodbye to each one without it taking forever. Also you can choose which gifts you wish to contribute to and how much, depending on how close you are to the person - we are quite a big school.

Then a more formal goodbye for leavers with 5 or more years of service is done at lunchtime on the same day. Again, gifts and cards are organised by their HOD and paid for by staff. At this point the whole school is together, i.e. Early Years, Infants, Primary and Secondary. A longer speech is made, by either the Head of Secondary or Head of Primary & Infants. We are all gathered in the canteen. Then the person usually makes a short speech themselves. Afterwards you can stick around to chat to leavers or your colleagues or dash back upstairs to take down wall displays and fill in spreadsheets.

As far as I know, SLT stay out of the way as much as possible unless someone very senior is leaving or who has been at the school for years. They seem to have thousands of meetings at the end of the school year which might be part of the reason (or strategically arranged to excuse them from the leavers' dos?)

In our department if someone leaves we try to go out for lunch to say goodbye to them or we bring in treats to have and sit in the HODs classroom for half an hour together saying our goodbye. If we go for lunch it is one of the days when staff are in but students aren't; luckily there are some nice places near school with speedy service so we can be in and out quickly. Obviously, we pay for that amongst ourselves.

We don't do that much for people in less than a year or two and certainly no distinction given to caretaker/teacher that's for sure.

The Headteacher will mention a goodbye at the staff meeting. We will present a bouquet of flowers and have a whip round for a voucher and if it is a retirement after long service there will be a meal in local hotel (everyone pays for their own)

At our secondary school the entire staff and support staff gather in auditorium for leaving speeches. It was 4 and a half hours long. I thought I was going pass out at one point (extremely hot and 7 months pregnant). It was insane. It's lovely but waaaaaay too long

Everyone gets allocated a time to speak according to the number of years they worked. So for 10 yrs you get 10 mins. Well that's a load of bollocks. What happens is first someone from your department/close colleague speaks then big flowers and chocs from head presented and then the leaver gives a speech so it goes on forever. There were 3 people who had been there for 11-12 yrs and each had a time of about 20 mins.

We made a goodbye video for our HOD which got played as did a few other departments. V funny

Leaving is a massive deal at our school clearly! But still 4 and a half hours was mental

SLT come up to the staff room, unless it's end of term, then there's full-on leaving speeches etc. All levels of staff, not just teaching staff.

Always announced in assembly. Little gift and nice words. If long time member of staff often a leaving do of some kind, card and gift. Sounds a bit mean tbh.

I think that's pretty unusual in Primary.
All schools I've worked in you'd have been dragged into final assembly and presented with some flowers in front of everyone.

Usually some kind of end of year "do" too - meal out or something. HT would always do the presentations and say a few words - and that's every HT I've worked under in the best part of 30 years.

Big deal made- for everyone- including kitchen staff. Usually a tea party -we out in cash into a kitty at beginning of year for stuff like this. We are primary.