• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Donal O'Neill

donnellysdogs said:
Take it that you both are involved in education of children?
Then that has changed from 40 years ago whenI was at school. Our teachers ate school meals at our table with the children at our secondary level school...

Food and breaks for health really sems as it is in the dark ages now!


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...
I teach secondary. Times are very different now. Kids do seem to want to socialise with you. Sometimes, if I'm in my room then they'll come and join me. Quite often they come back to see you when they've left or they'll approach you when you're in town for a chat.
So lunch breaks are very rare. Unless I go to the shop over the way to buy lunch and even then you've got people speaking to you as you're trying to leave the building!
 
Wow!! If like me you haven't got kids you (i) don't realise the changes that happen in schools. I admit I thought teachers still had lunches with teachers and then 3/4hrs social time
(When I did wxtra music or stamp club or netball practice!).
Its good to get realisation from people... Thankyou..


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Our school kitchen prepares meals for staff as long as they order before 9:30. We can have a school meal or something of the staff menu. I tend to order salad then add my own cheese, mackerel, tuna or egg plus some olives.

I can't eat my nuts in school because we are nut free due to children with severe allergies. Even breathing with nutty breath can be a problem.

They also do baked potato or baguettes with various fillings hut I don't touch those.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
donnellysdogs said:
Wow!! If like me you haven't got kids you (i) don't realise the changes that happen in schools. I admit I thought teachers still had lunches with teachers and then 3/4hrs social time
(When I did wxtra music or stamp club or netball practice!).
Its good to get realisation from people... Thankyou..


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...
It's changed massively in the last 10 years. It's very formal now. When I first started, I used to get the occasional naughty who would be sent to me to ask for a short wait. You would then ask the student to stand by your desk, carry on teaching for 5 minutes then say, I think you've waited enough - back you go. I also remember a young man who'd been in a fight and was sent to stand outside the heads office with a nose bleed. When he left, some member of staff with a sense of humour drew a chalk body around the blood on the carpet. This would never happen now!
 
Scandichic said:
It's changed massively in the last 10 years. It's very formal now. When I first started, I used to get the occasional naughty who would be sent to me to ask for a short wait. You would then ask the student to stand by your desk, carry on teaching for 5 minutes then say, I think you've waited enough - back you go. I also remember a young man who'd been in a fight and was sent to stand outside the heads office with a nose bleed. When he left, some member of staff with a sense of humour drew a chalk body around the blood on the carpet. This would never happen now!
Click to expand...

Chuckle, chuckle.. Like the sense of humour for the chalk body!! Definitely sounds like a no go now!!

Is it still Miss..... Or Sir? As recently heard some news on firstnames being used?!


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
donnellysdogs said:
Chuckle, chuckle.. Like the sense of humour for the chalk body!! Definitely sounds like a no go now!!

Is it still Miss..... Or Sir? As recently heard some news on firstnames being used?!


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...
Mrs/miss/mr.......
Or it is in our school. My mum remembers taking her knitting in when she was doing reading with primary kids back in the day. I also remember going to school with her and helping with groups of kids if my school holidays were different. That doesn't happen now!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Grrrrrrrrr! I hate being addressed as "Miss". I work in a primary school and the children sometimes use it, especially when they get to KS2 (juniors). I'm in KS1 (infants) and a couple of years ago I had spent quite some time explaining to my children that using my name was much more polite than "Miss". We got a new head and he has the bad habit of never using names. We were all sat in the carpet one day when the head teacher came in with a message. He addressed me as Miss a few times. As he opened the door to leave one of the children piped up "Mrs M he called you Miss!"

:-)


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
peacetrain said:
Grrrrrrrrr! I hate being addressed as "Miss". I work in a primary school and the children sometimes use it, especially when they get to KS2 (juniors). I'm in KS1 (infants) and a couple of years ago I had spent quite some time explaining to my children that using my name was much more polite than "Miss". We got a new head and he has the bad habit of never using names. We were all sat in the carpet one day when the head teacher came in with a message. He addressed me as Miss a few times. As he opened the door to leave one of the children piped up "Mrs M he called you Miss!"

:)


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...
It doesn't bother me but then I guess it's all relative. Some of the cherubs I teach can be exceptionally rude so being called Miss is the least of my worries! Usually I'm lucky if I get a grunt. Especially if it's first thing in a morning! Sometimes one of them shocks the hell out of me by actually returning my greeting and asking how I am. We are winning the rounders so I guess I'll forgive them!
 
peacetrain said:
I began to put weight on aged 32 when I went to university to study for a degree and to become a teacher. Didn't take the time to continue my fitness regime but carried on eating. Stress of the job didn't help either. I'm not stupid yet I did a stupid thing! Depression didn't help either.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...
That's more or less it. I went on blood pressure pills at 27, a year into the job. Looking back, diabetes was well on the way by the time I became a deputy head. I loved the job, but leaving 4 years ago to travel was the very best thing I did for my health. Nowadays I do a bit of supply, a bit of private tutoring, and live on a lot less money!
 
RosieLKH said:
That's more or less it. I went on blood pressure pills at 27, a year into the job. Looking back, diabetes was well on the way by the time I became a deputy head. I loved the job, but leaving 4 years ago to travel was the very best thing I did for my health. Nowadays I do a bit of supply, a bit of private tutoring, and live on a lot less money!
Click to expand...
Sometimes I wish I could leave too but I am the main bread winner at the mo. I love teaching and the kids I work with. What I hate are all the **** politics and the petty point scoring which some colleagues seem to delight in. Am fed u of watching decent people go to the wall and watching people I wouldn't trust to sit the right way on a toilet seat get promoted.
 
Scandichic said:
Sometimes I wish I could leave too but I am the main bread winner at the mo. I love teaching and the kids I work with. What I hate are all the **** politics and the petty point scoring which some colleagues seem to delight in. Am fed u of watching decent people go to the wall and watching people I wouldn't trust to sit the right way on a toilet seat get promoted.
Click to expand...
That's pretty much why I went into management - couldn't stand people doing it badly, and the ever moving goalposts were what did me in. I have to admit I now largely live off husband. I recently did 2 terms covering a maternity leave in a tiny CofE primary. I adored just being left alone to teach whatever I fancied to my Y3/4 class (who had been described to me as feral but responded to positive discipline), but I could not believe the politics and backstabbing in a staff of just 5 teachers and a handful of TAs. Mind you, the school was in a bad way. Dreadful OFSTED, head just resigned, one teacher went on long term sick while I was there. My management side so wanted to step in, but I resisted and stuck to curriculum matters.
 
RosieLKH said:
That's pretty much why I went into management - couldn't stand people doing it badly, and the ever moving goalposts were what did me in. I have to admit I now largely live off husband. I recently did 2 terms covering a maternity leave in a tiny CofE primary. I adored just being left alone to teach whatever I fancied to my Y3/4 class (who had been described to me as feral but responded to positive discipline), but I could not believe the politics and backstabbing in a staff of just 5 teachers and a handful of TAs. Mind you, the school was in a bad way. Dreadful OFSTED, head just resigned, one teacher went on long term sick while I was there. My management side so wanted to step in, but I resisted and stuck to curriculum matters.
Click to expand...
We had a super head when I first started and a complete moron took over. After he had run the school into the ground and lots of good staff left as he restructured and gave them pay cuts, he finally left on the grounds of ill health (mmmm) we finally got another decent one although our rep has been badly damaged and parents are voting with their feet which means that there have been redundancies :( even though the quality of the teaching is very good :(
 
donnellysdogs said:
Are 1hour lunch breaks still the norm?
Click to expand...

Most people have to commute to and from work, they don't have the time to go home. Additionally, many employers only allow 30 mins and hardly any provide canteen facilities. Consequently, many people just snack at their desks.
 
Scandichic said:
Sometimes I wish I could leave too but I am the main bread winner at the mo. I love teaching and the kids I work with. What I hate are all the **** politics and the petty point scoring which some colleagues seem to delight in. Am fed u of watching decent people go to the wall and watching people I wouldn't trust to sit the right way on a toilet seat get promoted.
Click to expand...
Absolutely!

Some people know how to play the system. Some say one thing but do another. I was a SENCO for 9 years and very hands on. When I went for the role I didn't know it paid a little more money, I just wanted to do something that I was interested in. I was very hands on and didn't delegate enough. In the end I crashed and burned and was absent from school between January and October 2008. Looking back I was also going through the menopause. I didn't have the hot flushes etc but mentally I wasn't coping. My mum and her two sisters went through a similar experience.

I have to say the local authority were great and they organised a course of cognitive behaviour therapy for me with their own psychology team. I was so glad of that because, after waiting several weeks to be referred by my GP, I finally got to see their psych. He wasn't very nice at all. When I mentioned how I couldn't cope with looking after the house he had no empathy and said he was also a single parent but he managed it. Anyway after 2 sessions (session 2 was all about not using the word BUT) he left and the GP said I would have to be referred again in order to see another psych!!!! Luckily my employers in a different authority stepped in.

Since returning to work I've had about 5 days off sick. I have times when I feel I'm not coping very well but that's me beating myself up. But I think I'm ok now.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
peacetrain said:
Absolutely!

Some people know how to play the system. Some say one thing but do another. I was a SENCO for 9 years and very hands on. When I went for the role I didn't know it paid a little more money, I just wanted to do something that I was interested in. I was very hands on and didn't delegate enough. In the end I crashed and burned and was absent from school between January and October 2008. Looking back I was also going through the menopause. I didn't have the hot flushes etc but mentally I wasn't coping. My mum and her two sisters went through a similar experience.

I have to say the local authority were great and they organised a course of cognitive behaviour therapy for me with their own psychology team. I was so glad of that because, after waiting several weeks to be referred by my GP, I finally got to see their psych. He wasn't very nice at all. When I mentioned how I couldn't cope with looking after the house he had no empathy and said he was also a single parent but he managed it. Anyway after 2 sessions (session 2 was all about not using the word BUT) he left and the GP said I would have to be referred again in order to see another psych!!!! Luckily my employers in a different authority stepped in.

Since returning to work I've had about 5 days off sick. I have times when I feel I'm not coping very well but that's me beating myself up. But I think I'm ok now.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...
I'm sorry to hear this. Hopefully as time goes on you'll feel stronger! It is a tough profession and getting tougher. Am worried that by this time next year I won't have a job as the numbers are getting smaller and I'm 8 hours under loading so will have to teach other things. If I don't find another job and I lose my job well lose everything including the house as my hubbie has only found a part time job on a third of the money since when he was made redundant more than 2 years ago. The problem is that now an employer doesn't have to match my salary so if I found another job but they couldn't or wouldn't match my salary then we'd still lose the house so either way were probably screwed!
 
Oh dear! I'm 57 in November but will have to work beyond 60. I receive a good salary but I support my daughter and her family by providing a car for them.

My son in law has been made redundant twice and now we share my car so that he can get to his new place of work. He isn't skilled and doesn't earn a great wage but he is a very hard worker. My daughter has just finished her second year at university.

Is there a chance your husband might retrain? Or how about moving north? Trouble with that is moving away from family.

You have uncertainty hanging over your head dear, and yet you stay so cheerful. I hope a solution presents itself soon. You deserve it. :-)




Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
My husband is in IT. Just as we sold our house in the Midlands and were about to move south he was offered a contract up there, so he works away from home during the week. He has about a year of that contract left, but doesn't hold a great deal of hope for getting a similar job down here. I guess when that happens I'll have to step back up to the mark and take more supply work. The trouble is they will not pay me anywhere near my scale. Everyone here just wants cheap babysitters for a class. They are not concerned with quality or experience.
 
peacetrain said:
Oh dear! I'm 57 in November but will have to work beyond 60. I receive a good salary but I support my daughter and her family by providing a car for them.

My son in law has been made redundant twice and now we share my car so that he can get to his new place of work. He isn't skilled and doesn't earn a great wage but he is a very hard worker. My daughter has just finished her second year at university.

Is there a chance your husband might retrain? Or how about moving north? Trouble with that is moving away from family.

You have uncertainty hanging over your head dear, and yet you stay so cheerful. I hope a solution presents itself soon. You deserve it. :)




Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...
Ironically my parents live up north but I just looked on tes. 20 jobs for languages teachers including Scotland. Nothing I can do. If I do find a job then great. If not then although the thought is upsetting then there's nothing I can do..... It hasn't happened yet so will continue to see if I can find another job and just have to hope that I am one of the lucky ones. My priority is to try and clear our debt so that we are in as strong a financial position as possible if it happens.
 
Back
Top