Ask a Primary School Teacher anything

[Vickyromeo]

I am a primary school teacher ask me anything

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I think that depends on the bigger picture . If wearing masks means it limits the risk to staff, parents, and grandparents then absolutely

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TorqueDirty said:

Is hitting naughty children over the knuckles with steel edged rulers still encouraged?

I could never be that mean if it were

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Sheets Tabuer said:

How do you deal with children that don't get support at home, if they have underdeveloped speech, English or Maths for instance or come in to school reeking of cannabis?

Also how do you cope getting so close to icky snot machines?

Usually offer voluntary lunchtime classes

I teach year 4 so tend not to deal with snot

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CanAm said:

Do any of your pupils have “normal” forenames, eg

CanAm said:

I'm not sure if it was on here or another forum, but a few years ago a poster's wife, who was a reception class teacher reported on a new pupil:-

T: And what is your little angel's name?
Mother: Whyvonnee
T: Pardon?
M: Whyvonnee
T: Sorry, how do you spetll that?
M: Y.V.O.N.N.E of course!
T: Oh, you mean Yvonne.
M. Nah, you spell it Y.V.O.N.N.E so you say it Whyvonnee!!!

A Jack and Emily . Lots of strange ones though including Darius

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aww999 said:

Hi, and thanks!

How much of a problem are the 2/3 naughty kids that disrupt the class for everyone else?
How do you deal with them at the moment?
How do you think they should be handled?

My two (6 and 10) complain about this problem a lot, and red cards, going to the head teacher's office etc does nothing to dissuade the trouble makers in their respective classes from constantly talking, running about, etc etc. Obviously you can't throw a naughty 6yr old on the scrap heap just because their parents are awful, but neither should you let them ruin 29 other kids' education!

I am pretty strict they know mess around in my lesson time and they will lose their playtime . Not a problem for them to talk quietly providing the work is finished . My pet hate is the constant toilet requests

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Steamer said:

Whats the best / worst thing you've confiscated?

Can’t think of anything especially but did confiscate lots of loon bands a couple of years ago . My desk was full.

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Spare tyre said:

Do you look at the register for next years class and guess which names are going to be trouble

Don’t have to guess you get the info from their previous teacher

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SpeedMattersNot said:

Girls steer towards biology and boys steer towards physics, chemistry seems neutral.

Since the majority of primary teachers are female, do you find primary teachers have a bias towards any of the 3 sciences?

I love chemistry as there so many practicals you can do with them

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Last Visit said:

How many hours do you on average work a week?

66 including weekend

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Trevor555 said:

Vickyromeo said:

Last Visit said:

How many hours do you on average work a week?

66 including weekend

My wife is also a primary school teacher so can also say it's about those hours if you add what she does at home.

And she spends at least one whole week in the summer holidays in school sorting out the classroom for the next term.

And she's done more recently having to adapt to new online lessons.

Yes and no going for a break when we need one. What year does she teach?

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kev b said:

How much time do you spend actually teaching?

23

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Trevor555 said:

Vickyromeo said:

Trevor555 said:

Vickyromeo said:

Last Visit said:

How many hours do you on average work a week?

66 including weekend

My wife is also a primary school teacher so can also say it's about those hours if you add what she does at home.

And she spends at least one whole week in the summer holidays in school sorting out the classroom for the next term.

And she's done more recently having to adapt to new online lessons.

Yes and no going for a break when we need one. What year does she teach?

Hand you over to her..

Hi, I teach r/1 and covering a mat leave in 1/2/3!

Would not be able to cope with the early years I am more comfortable with ks2

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kev b said:

What do you do in the remaining 40 odd hours?

Planning , marking , smt meetings, dealing with parents

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kev b said:

How much hands on teaching is carried out by classroom assistants?

They are there to assist when children are working usually with reading . I find if you let them do too much the children take advantage of their lack of teaching experience

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paulguitar said:

I have two questions, please:

1. Were you inspired to go into the profession because of a special teacher that you had yourself when you were at school? I still remember a couple of my teachers with real affection, they were people that still have an influence on who I am today.

2. Do you have pupils who swear at you? If so, how do you deal with this, and do you involve the parents?

Thanks in advance.

A bit of I always wanted to teach and one particularly lovely teacher I had.

They do and yes. Once had a boy threaten to piss in my bin .

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sbk1972 said:

My daughter is still in primary school, year 5. In her class is a boy who has some form of autism where he has his own teacher assistant to help him.

Through the years the boy has becoming more and more rowdy. He is left to walk around the class, forms crushes on the girls to the point where my daughter had to go to the teacher complaining. Obviously he's physically growing and is now become a right pain physically and with his outbursts.

During home schooling lessons Ive witnessed it myself. Sitting next to my daughter working Ive seen the teacher tell him off ( he is still allowed to go into school ) for shouting, or writing rubbish on the google school chat. He's then reacted by kicking over his chair, throwing pens and now shouting things at the teacher. Ive heard the teaching assistant trying to cool him down. Things are getting worse now as he's growing physically. Ive see nthe chat he writes on the school chat session, even to the point of offering out the headmistress.

This isnt me trying to cause a row over handicapped / mental issues, and to the parents that live and breath this I feel for you. However Im concerned at my daughter's learning and Im shocked at the effect it has on her studies.

My question is this, although mixing kids with this level of autism into a normal classroom may develop their social skills / learning better but I believe comes at the prices that all the other kids in the class suffer, do you agree ?

I have to say in instances as you mention yes. Have you spoken to your daughters teacher ?

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El stovey said:

1 Have you ever had kids tell you worrying things about their home life that you’ve had to follow up in some way?

Yes but will not go into that on here

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eltax91 said:

Hi, thanks for the thread!

In your opinion, do mixed year group classes work? Due to class numbers and restricted budgets, my boy has been in mixed classes in Y2 and now Y4.

He’s always been in the older group and I’ve always felt he’s repeating work for the younger kids and when he’s completed his work instead of being set more challenging work, he is often helping out one of the younger kids (so he says)

I know it is very common now. We are are 3 form so not had any experience . He shouldn’t be repeating work unnecessarily

[Vickyromeo]

eltax91 said:

Hi, thanks for the thread!

In your opinion, do mixed year group classes work? Due to class numbers and restricted budgets, my boy has been in mixed classes in Y2 and now Y4.

He’s always been in the older group and I’ve always felt he’s repeating work for the younger kids and when he’s completed his work instead of being set more challenging work, he is often helping out one of the younger kids (so he says)

You need to clarify what he says as they often don’t convey messages truthfully