How disgusting is this

When I worked in MH we had weekly staff meetings for all the staff and community teams, where difficult clients were discussed in an open and transparent way so that everyone felt supported. Surely this could also be applied to teaching... These young teachers need to share their difficulties..

Many people work in areas where letting off steam is vital; teachers, police officers, lawyers, firemen, doctors, check out operators, parking meter attendants, etc. Sharing with colleagues who understand and empathise is most important for our mental health BUT anything in writing should be in the form of a formal report where the language is measured and not emotive. In this litigious society one eye should always be on the possibility of it falling in to the wrong hands.
No medium is completely safe, even verbal communication can be recorded.
It’s a tough one that’s for sure.

Discussions in a meeting behind closed doors is one thing. I've always been horrified when professionals air their thoughts with a complete lack of discretion about pupils, parents or in the case of medics, patients. I can't imagine why they would do such a thing and not have the foresight to imagine that their words could rebound on them or drop themselves right in it

If the posts quoted were the worst that was said, I can’t get too worked up about them. People in all walks of life have to let off steam with others around them who can empathise with the challenges of their jobs. Putting anything like this in writing is very foolish though, as well as unprofessional.

On the other side of the coin, parents now all seem to have WhatsApp groups to discuss their children’s schools - any hint of disciplining their children and some parents are calling for the teacher’s head on a platter. I even find that in my school’s old girls’ Facebook group some members still rake over how “useless” they think certain teachers were, or even mock their appearance, over 50 years later. How hurtful that must be for the teachers themselves or any relatives reading it.

That's a very good point Maggie maybe. Parents are quite free to slag off teachers and pass on their child's stories about what goes on in class irrespective if it's accurate.

Aveline

Have teachers not always talked about difficult, badly behaved children they have to put up with? These WhatsApp messages just sound like rapid modern versions.

Of course, they have, on my second teaching practice ,the class teacher told me to smack one child on a Monday and the rest would behave for the rest of the week. She even pointed out the children whose parents would not complain!!!
Later in a school that had 3 classes at each age group who were mixed up each year, we sat with a class list and went through it pointing out the bright children, those with educational and social problems. The disruptive ones and the ones whose parents made a fuss and threatened to report you.
Who wouldn't? Why pass a load of unknown problems onto a colleague, a chap who threatened to lift you by the ears stands out in my mind and a child whose trick was to lock all the toilet doors from the inside and then climb under the bottom so that no one else could enter. We destroyed the lists and only passed on the files to the official records.

I wonder how these messages were obtained.

I suggest all the people on here who are so shocked and appalled volunteer to help in these schools and see for themselves the behaviour some teachers are subjected to daily, with fewer and fewer sanctions. Any attempt to record this behaviour on film is forbidden, and if the parent is introduced into the classroom the behaviour stops.

Somebody blew the whistle?

Aveline

Somebody blew the whistle?

I have just realised that I wrote earlier in the thread, blue the whistle, appalling error for a linguist! 😱🤣

My only excuse is my head is mince at the moment, due to vertigo. 😵

You only have to look in Mumsnet to see that the first reaction when parents are told of misdemeanour is usually over the top and this is often supported by other posters.Instead of suggestions that they sit down with the child, there is talk of demanding to see the Head, the governors.There is often great reluctance to accept that their child can act wrongly and the idea that if the child is in trouble it is the teacher's or the school's fault, not theirs for weak parenting.

is dominant.(this is how it should finish). Sorry

And they wonder why there is a teacher shortage these days .. There are some horrible kids around , often with horrible parents. Usually, thinking about it, the two go together. Those teachers were a bit thick to put things in writing but whoever sent that to the papers is a nasty, spiteful piece of work who should have faced them in person in a sensible and reasonable way.

westendgirl

There is nothing to say that these people are not brilliant teachers.
The job is so frustrating now and here we have a modern example of the venting of this frustration in the staff room.I wonder how this became public.

Exactly. It would seem that someone with an axe to grind made private, encrypted messages available to the council. Nasty.

Teachers are no different from the rest of humanity and there will be colleagues one should not trust when one needs to vent.

As others have said, not writing such remarks is the safest bet. I don't blame teachers for letting steam out though. As marydoll kindly out it, some teachers are naive. So are some of everybody else in the world.

*put

Only for a comparison I have been in an operating theatre where the operating surgeon was making rude remarks about his unconscious patient's physique which was actually relevant to the success of the operation.

It was a mistake for the teachers to record their feelings in any medium whatsoever.
It would be an interest to a psychologist to discover whether or not someone who was trained in medical or educational ethics would be influenced in their actual work by sharing their unethical feelings. or choice of language. In any case it was unethical to identify a problem child however naughty. she be.

vampirequeen

Teachers have always let off steam in the staff room but to put it in writing on Whatsapp was stupid.

I understand why some of these things were said. You have to be in the position of having your classroom destroyed by a child on a rampage and then be told by the parent that it's your fault for not giving him enough attention. Or be called a mother f****r and be told by the parent that you must have taught him the word because he never heard it at home even though you know that he's been playing Grand Theft Auto. Or have your lesson totally disrupted by a child who is 'expressing his opinions' on your teaching skills.

Sadly the media is only too happy to show teachers in a bad light and these didn't just fall into a trap, they built it and threw themselves in head first.

Well said, vampirequeen. This is exactly the sort of behaviour that my three family members who are primary school teachers have to put up with. The parents of the challenging children are, of course, the ones who will not come to parents' evenings, even when offered times to suit them on other days. One of my family had to leave the classroom to have a bleeding head wound dealt with when one of her charges threw something at her. Just as well it didn't hit one of the other children as that would have been the teacher's fault too.

Having said that, I agree that these teachers should never have said what they did in WhatsApp messages.

Teachers cannot let off steam even in the staff room as it often used by non-professionals, including parents, and there is always the sneak in the corner.

The last staffroom I was in was used for meetings for purposes unconnected with the school, and several attendees made a point of reading all the messages pinned on noticeboards, including minutes of meetings.
Some years ago there was an undercover programme about the daily life of a nursey school, and the undercover reporter recorded and filmed some members of staff giving vent about their troublesome day, and it was shown on television.

I agree Vampire Queen well said. Only people who have been there and witnessed know what it is really like.
It is true that the staff room is not a safe place to let off steam there are always other people in including ancillary staff who do not always keep things to themselves. Some governors do not always have the children's well-being at heart either. They are there to be able to say they are a governor to further their own careers.

I wonder if the covid inquiry and this kind of publicity will stop the use of unprofessional use of whatsap
I sympathise with stress
Teachers work with but how daft to put this kind of thing in writing

I just had lunch with a retired teacher. Her two sons are also teachers. Apparently there is now an app called 'Rate my Teacher' where school children can mark and comment on their teacher. 😑

Well that's asking for trouble isn't it?
I thought there were strict privacy laws about this in Europe.

I've just tried it but it doesn't work for me.

Just soundas like a bit of a water cooler moment to me. I have never worked in a customer of client facing role where staff were not (sometimes) disparaging about customers in private. It helps to dispell the tension.

Some of todays kids and their parents could do with a good hard slap in the way they speak to teachers.

My daughters are in mums whatsap groups linked to the primary schools their children attend. They’re horrified and stunned at the derogatory comments about teachers, a pile on if Miss X offends in any way

Just soundas like a bit of a water cooler moment to me. I have never worked in a customer of client facing role where staff were not (sometimes) disparaging about customers in private. It helps to dispell the tension.

We've probably all done it at some time or other and it is fully understandable. I have every sympathy for the teachers involved.

But it is insane to put it out there on social media, in writing, and fully attributable. A number of people have been sacked for doing similar things. I understand this was probably a whistle blower but social media sites have been hacked so many times there is absolutely no guarantee where anything will end up or who will see it.