The Third Republic - solidarity comrades!

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. Baiters and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are not staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

You can play here only if you are a member of one the following groups-

-ABBA - anti bashers and baiting association
-SWAB - school workers against bashers
-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
-STARS - schoolworkers together against ranting + slurs

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes and the ability to sniff out where the toffee vodka is hidden.

You joke but...

Don't show Cummings that idea....

... well it would certainly solve some of the MN posters" problems about having their children around.

Perhaps all the childless teachers could move into school

I was once told ‘oh, one of you child free people can do that over the weekend’, by another teacher. As if my time is less important because I don’t have children.

Phlebas - sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that my student would be a good primary teacher because he was thick! I only meant because I knew him quite well and he had a lot of the skills that would be very valuable in primary teaching and was very hard working and keen, just not academically focused on one subject that would be needed for secondary. And yes, I’d had words with him about the fact that maths might be an issue.

I’m not putting down primary, I walk out of the DC’s school every day thinking I wouldn’t last a week there! They have to be nice all the time. The horror!

Oh it's ok Gravity. I've had a hard day - i'm being sensitive. I honestly can't cope being cooped up with a 12 year old, a 13 year old and a DH the opposite political spectrum to me much longer. The only reason we are still married is that he's a chef and usually out the door at 5 and back when we are all in bed! That may very well change. It's me, not you!

They have to be nice all the time. The horror!

Ha! I’m so glad it’s not just me. I couldn’t be a primary teacher primarily because of this! I did a bit of primary supply once and found it very very difficult to strike the balance between tears and being walked all over.

I much prefer the robustness of secondary 😆

And as an aside - in year 6 I get to be just as hortid as I was in year 9 - they genuinely are at about the same level! I used to wave my lovely year 8 tutor group off in year 8 and watch in horror as they returned - they really do regress!

I can't go below year 5 though. Once after swapping to primary I had a supply gig in year 2. I just can't. It's like you're a sodding magnet and they are iron filings. And the Show and Tell!!!! Fuck the fuck off with that!

Oh there are already huns in teaching- possibly a Primary only thing- and seem adept to gaining early promotion. We were inspected by one once. It was like in a bad movie where the high heeled foot comes out the car first, then the fake tanned leg.

We all watched this Glamazon totter up the playground in high heels in disbelief. I had several runners at the time.

I tend towards sweary fits in the staff room at break as I let out the pent up frustration. I feel like there would be pearl clutching at primary school. It’s a long time since I’ve been in a primary staff room but I felt very out of place.

They have to be nice all the time.

I know that it is not the point but I think that this is one reason why teachers get it in the neck most of the time.

Parents are so used to teachers being nice to them about their off spring that when teachers on forums etc. stand up for themselves they can't deal with it.

I have improved though. At my first job I used to get a lift home from the only other ‘young’ (under 30) teacher who’d been in the game longer than me. I used to swear for literally 10 minutes non stop.

I think learning not to swear was one of my biggest challenges in my pgce year. Particularly important for an rs teacher

One of our Reception children told a very heavily made up Ofsted inspector that she looked like a monster.

We're in RI now

I'm the same with the swearing. Most classes just accept I swear occasionally now! I remember a parent making a formal complaint because I'd referred to a sixth former as a "div" in front of her year 7 child. That was an interesting conversation.

Primary teachers I think are some kind of sorcerers to get children under 10 to do anything without bribery or making them cry. The robustness of secondary definitely suits my personality much better!

You may be right fripp. I think it may also have something to do with the paranoia around what do their kids say at school, what do the teachers think of them, are they judging me etc.

Apologies for posting too much. I’m a single parent with a 13yo boy who only leaves his cave to demand food. Possibly making me a bit needy for conversation

Ha! Yes in Primary you are seen as nice, and hugged and complimented and told you look beautiful all the time, Y1&2 are great for the ego! Cue hilarity when one of them calls you "Mummy" and everyone's in fits of giggles, child is usually a bit embarrassed but I always said, "you'll all do it at least once".
But.....The Prize Gifts And Stickers.. the Y2 SATs and data matching to EY statements to prove EY teacher in same school was correct..and changing for PE...and Lego...missing socks...wet tights...hands down trousers and fingers up noses loved it! Happy where I am now, but having those lush kids for my first teaching post was wonderful.

I haven't taught yr 7 for about 8 years, which is just as well cos I had lost all patience and energy since having babies. Teaching all high stakes classes can be a killer though, and I sometimes think it might be nice to take a trip down.to ks3. I have a lot more empathy for yhem.now I've got a pre teen of my own.

I feel like there would be pearl clutching at primary school.
I invite you to come and visit ours - we swear like troopers.
Also, don't labour under the illusion that it's all rainbows and unicorns in Primary. We are tough on our UKS2 kids - and despair when we see how they're mollycoddled when they go up to our local secondary. They regress hugely.

How are they mollycoddled, Angelina ? I have had my form since year 7 and I think they have formed a really good group. They are the best form for behaviour and competitions out of nine! I am proud of them!

That was a genuine question by the way. Always looking to improve.

Academically, what our Y6s produce in Y7 doesn't match what they do in Y6.

It is partly because of not having Maths and English each day that these two subjects slip. And partly - I say this as a person who has cross-school meetings about transition - that the secondaries have very little idea of the challenge of the post-2014 primary NC (or what it no longer includes).

Sharing work, observing lessons and running workshops for children across the primary / secondary divide has been useful. I shall always cherish the shocked face of the observing KS3 Maths teacher as she observed my UKS2 Maths lesson... especially when she realised the class was completely mixed ability.

In secondary I felt I had a much more supportive staff room (largely because primaries are so much smaller they are swayed by a SLTgroup) and I had the chance to escape a particular rotten group.

I think primary schools below 3 form entry are rife for slt favoritism and who fits. It's a dilemma in secondary who gets what post and promotion but primary is a law unto itself. Our SENCO and maths lead were recently appointed without internal application or anything - just who the Deputy likes best.

And yes cantkeep, the kids fall back in maths in secondary precisely because the transition is not aligned to what year 6 maths now is. There's such a missed opportunity there. They do so much in year 6 and it lies fallow.

In my last meeting with the KS3 Maths co-ordinator I did point out that they started off with material - not even quickly brushed over, but actually TAUGHT - that primary children learned in Y3.

I had taken along, and provided her with, the first copy of the primary NC for Maths that she had ever seen....

I didn't have the heart to do anything more than hand over the SATs papers.... though I did have to disabuse her of her idea that 'expected' for the end of Y6 was probably round about 35% of the marks...