Mid day supervisor

[rudolfsquiffy]

I work as a mid day supervisor in a primary school, only been there a few months. I also help out in Reception. I found out today there is a Christmas drinks night out at the end of term but none of us are invited? Is that normal?

When I first started teaching, the Xmas drinks/meal out was for teachers only-there were only a handful of TAs at that time (mid/late 90s) and they weren’t invited. As the years went on, TAs started to be invited and then a list would just go up and anyone who wanted could sign up.

At my current school, it’s just teachers, admin and TAs who are invited. The middays, cleaners and site staff aren’t.

It’s the office staff here who decide who can and can’t go!

Normal in schools I have worked in.
Cleaners, site staff and welfare do their own thing at Christmas.

We aren't cleaners or site staff, I'd say we are pretty integral to the well being of the children and the smooth running of the school!

No Christmas do that I'm aware of

I'm always dealing with issues and flagging them to the teachers.

We aren't cleaners or site staff, I'd say we are pretty integral to the well being of the children and the smooth running of the school!

Our cleaners and site staff are massively integral to the smooth running of our school, too! If it were up to me, all would be invited.

Was there a sign-up sheet in the staff room? Because that’s usually how it works in primary, rather than specific invitations.

I’ve never known midday supervisors to be invited to the Christmas “do”not be honest. Wherever I’ve worked it’s been SLT, teachers, classroom support staff and office staff only. I don’t know why it’s that way.

When I was an MDS we were always invited and they still are. Now I have moved to a new school and they are invited to this one too. Some of the MDS's had seen teachers pass through the school as pupils.

I wouldnt expect mds and lunch staff to be invited. It was teachers only where I was but it has made me think! I guess its like some businesses where different departments do their own thing.

Not normal for us - everyone welcome and the more the merrier. In my school you'd be asked why you're not going!

I'm a midday supervisor and a school cleaner. We are always invited although none of us went along this year. I think it's nice that we're invited though.

This is interesting as I too have started this post a few months ago.

There was an email about a sign up sheet for Christmas Lunch which wouldn't apply to us as we work the lunch session, nothing about a Christmas drinks thing though, so it must have been done with an invite list in mind. If they put a notice in the staff room then that would be pointless for us as we don't go in there, and they do know that.

We are only there for 1.5 hrs but always leave later as there is always stuff to put away in the playground, a first aid issue to deal with, and lost property etc. I'd say there is between us we do about 4-5 hrs unpaid work per week. I don't include the emails and reading policies etc we are supposed to do in our own time!

It would be nice to be invited, even if we couldn't make it, to feel valued and part of the team. It is nice to know that elsewhere things are different though.

It's always a good idea to pop into the staffroom every so often and look at the notice board. We don't go in very often, but it certainly isn't out of bounds.

Our MDS are also our TAs and our before and after school staff. They work longer days than anyone else in the building and are always included in our staff night's out.

Our mds did their own night out as a group of mums bumped into them!

Are the MDSs mostly parents of children at the school? The school I worked at where all of the TAs and MDSs were parents of our pupils had a teachers-only Christmas do. More recently I worked in a school where the TAs has been there for ages and their own children were at high school or adults. That school invited everyone to the Christmas party. Perhaps that’s it.

Two of the schools I've worked in had a really horrible divide between teaching and non-teaching staff. One of them the support staff weren't even allowed in the staff room. It was really sad.

We've had it both ways in our schools. In Infants the MDS do their own thing but at Juniors everyone goes to after work drinks together, plus we all have Christmas dinner and secret Santa together, which is much nicer.

If you don’t go into the staff room, you are missing a lot of useful, fast-changing information that often gets put on the whiteboard or noticeboards there. Everything from children to sudden changes to invites to staff activities. Be more proactive.

I'd say there is between us we do about 4-5 hrs unpaid work per week. Welcome to the world of working in a school.

I think it depends on the size of the school whether everyone goes or not.

I work on a one form primary and everyone from the governors to the caretaker are invited to our Christmas parties. I haven't seen a governor at a scopula even for years, and only a few of our lunch time staff come on nights out.

The lunchtime staff do have their own drinks though...I think they have coffee mornings too.

We had one TA only night , and an Early Years/KS1 night out, but the school I work in, everybody is seen as equally important, and there certainly isn't a teachers only night out.
if there is they do a bloody good job of keeping quiet about it
Everyone else who works in EYFS is very young, and they do socialise without inviting me, but I don't mind at all because I'm not into clubbing and pulling dodgy blokes

I've never known MDS to be invited either. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think it's a combination of a lot of MDS being parents of children in the school and teachers and TAs having a much closer relationship.

I'm the line manager for our team of mds. There's 12 of them in total. They are absolutely invited to everything! Christmas do, end of term drinks, half term drinks, BBQs... Some of the mds team don't get very involved, literally come in do their job and leave but most of them are very involved with the school, on friendly terms with all the other staff, etc.

I find all of these posts saying they're not invited really sad! Our mds are just as much part of the team as everyone else. We are a very large academy primary school. The office staff, cleaners, caretakers and catering staff are also always invited!

Oh and lots of staff from all sorts of roles are also parents of children in the school. We all understand about not gossiping about what goes on at any get together and it's never been a problem so far

I think it’s odd to not be invited if you work in one of the classes. MDSAs that only work lunch time generally didn’t join for Xmas drinks/meals - I think mainly because the rest of the school staff don’t see much of them/ know them that well. If it’s just informal drinks then I suppose you wouldn’t invite them because you don’t see them around. Everywhere I’ve worked there hasn’t been an invite as such though - there’s usually a sign up sheet in the staff room for Xmas meals/dos and anyone working in school is welcome to join.

In our school, everyone gets invited to the Christmas do, lunch supervisors, cleaners, office staff, TAs, teachers, kitchen staff, the handyman and even the self-employed music teacher. An email goes out to everyone asking who is interested.