Metropol

We have ours tomorrow. Except it's not an after school job, but a day long marathon of arm shaking pleasantries from 9am-6:30pm. Quite frankly I’m bricking it. During the last one in October one father called me an ‘Hispanic Fascist’ because I objected to his sons somewhat slack attitude to schoolwork. It's bad enough that he said it, but what hurts it that I can't hit back.

What’s worse is that word in the staffroom says that for tomorrow we’ll be called ‘Agents of Customer Satisfaction’ (it’s an independent school). I kid you not. What ever happened to ‘teacher’?

Have you/your kids had any parents evening nightmares?

SN2005 wrote:We have ours tomorrow. Except it's not an after school job, but a day long marathon of arm shaking pleasantries from 9am-6:30pm. Quite frankly I’m bricking it. During the last one in October one father called me an ‘Hispanic Fascist’ because I objected to his sons somewhat slack attitude to schoolwork. It's bad enough that he said it, but what hurts it that I can't hit back.

What’s worse is that word in the staffroom says that for tomorrow we’ll be called ‘Agents of Customer Satisfaction’ (it’s an independent school).

Independent school teachers have to double as whores? No wonder the pay's so good!

Have you/your kids had any parents evening nightmares?

Heh, I suspect Metropol is the wrong demographic if you're looking for parents, but good luck! What do you teach?

Sput wrote:Independent school teachers have to double as whores? No wonder the pay's so good

Yeah the pay is v.good. It's what everybody says, but then there are extra pressures. Long hours, a lot of schooltrips during holidays, and the hassle from parents who have the 'I'm directly paying for your job so get your arse in gear' card to play.

Heh, I suspect Metropol is the wrong demographic if you're looking for parents, but good luck! What do you teach?

Yeah thought so. But I didn't want to exclude. Equal Opportunites an' all. I teach Spanish and Media btw. I brought media to the school (the common and downmarket subject that it is) and am slowly convincing everybody that it needn't be a vocational extra.

SN2005 wrote:

Sput wrote:Independent school teachers have to double as whores? No wonder the pay's so good

Yeah the pay is v.good. It's what everybody says, but then there are extra pressures. Long hours, a lot of schooltrips during holidays, and the hassle from parents who have the 'I'm directly paying for your job so get your arse in gear' card to play.

You've got my sympathy there. Nothing quite so bad as the privileged end of the Great British Public - oh my god, you have to deal with their children too.

and am slowly convincing everybody that it needn't be a vocational extra.

Of course! It needn't be taught at all!

Yes, imagine the fracases we had on our hands when the parents and kids realised their silver spoons were stuffing a gay man’s coffers.

Jeez, a "Hispanic fascist"? What an overreaction! The parent didn't happen to be Rick from the young ones, did it?

I think they'll be quite used to it if the ones I've met are anything to go by.

SN2005 wrote: Yeah the pay is v.good. It's what everybody says, but then there are extra pressures. Long hours, a lot of schooltrips during holidays, and the hassle from parents who have the 'I'm directly paying for your job so get your arse in gear' card to play.

Yeah, but you still get a cushy 8 or 9 weeks paid holiday a year! That's more than double what I, and most other people are entitled to! Want to swap jobs for a fortnight?

I've got parents evening next monday... more of the same "your child is doing x really well however they really need to make sure they do that every lesson". Or you get into the swing of informing the "our child is wonderful" parents that actually their child is lazy and never does any work and you get the "we just can't cope any more, can the school do anything to help us?" line - stops you dead in your tracks and you know you'll have to put up with the continued problems!

Other one I hate is when I get the line "I'm a teacher... tell me what he's really like".

The actual effectiveness of a parents evening or "Parent Teacher Consultation" as we seem to call them this week is debatable - can you acually glean anything useful in a 5 minute chat with a teacher in a loud environment? Day long things seems better though the thought of being some "Customer sevice... whatever" seems a bit odd!

Well, we get 15 minutes with each set of parents, in our own classrooms (so the urchins come to us), plus for the parents there is free tea and cake in the canteen. Sound good? Oh no, us teachers have just 3 sessions free over the day. Thats 45 minutes to myself in 9 1/2 hours.

I've tried to make sure that all my appointments are quite earlier although there always is one little shite whose Daddy can't make it back from the conference in Tripolli before 5pm.

I posted a considered response in this thread, but it's vanished.