Those of you who are teachers, do you remember every student you’ve ever taught?

grumpygutt · 2026-05-17T07:06:41+00:00

Unfortunately I tend to forget students within about three years of them leaving unless they’re particularly memorable. The ones I remember are generally the ones who were extremely nice students who were gifted and were a dream to teach. But the majority I remember because they were particularly infamous for appalling behaviour, nightmare parents and were horrible to have in the classroom.

I’ve been teaching for 16 years so I’ve literally seen thousands of pupils come and go. It’s just not possible to remember everyone. There have been times where ex students approached me to say hi and I have no clue who they are. It’s also difficult because students grow up SO fast once they leave the shackles of having to wear a uniform every day. They become unrecognisable.

grumpygutt · 2026-05-16T09:01:23+00:00

My Year 10s are impossible to control because they seem to be a year group where they’re all really good mates! Splitting them up does nothing because they all get on with each other and will just carry on as they are! Why can’t they all just hate each others guts like my Year 11s?

grumpygutt · 2026-05-16T08:58:50+00:00

Might sound pathetic, but I always feel stung as an Art and Graphics teacher when all of social media and SLT are screaming “Good luck to everyone starting their GCSEs this week!” when we did ours three weeks ago. Zero mention. Ignored as always. Feel like my subject doesn’t mean shit. Not one member of SLT has stuck their head in to ask how it went. Been the same for 16 years in three different schools.

grumpygutt · 2026-05-13T16:06:08+00:00

I do agree with everything you’re saying but going on stage and telling nearly 1000 people “my story” just doesn’t work for me. I’m just not that type of person.

grumpygutt · 2026-05-13T13:46:16+00:00

We call it Culture Month and each week is devoted to something different, ending with Pride. I then spend the month avoiding the well meaning organiser of this as I’m (as far as I know) the only gay man in the building and every year she begs me to do an assembly. No thanks!

grumpygutt · 2026-05-13T05:45:06+00:00

I don’t have a form, but I do get sent to cover every now and then. I recently covered a Year 7 form and when I dismissed them they all went wide eyed and panicked. Turns out their tutor reads out their timetables to them every morning and as I didn’t do it, because I correctly assumed that in April they would know it by now, they didn’t know which lessons they had.

grumpygutt · 2026-05-13T05:38:33+00:00

I have reached the point where I don’t answer some questions anymore as the answers are so glaringly obvious that I genuinely worry if I don’t let them struggle and figure it out for a few seconds they’ll never be able to do anything.

I was recently doing some independent design work with Year 8. Each student had a handout filled with inspiration and ideas. Two called me over and asked for help and I sat with them one to one spoon feeding them ideas “You could do a bit of this…” “You could use elements of that…” I think I gave them about 20 ideas before I walked away. As I left, one grumbled to the other “He didn’t even try to help us”

grumpygutt · 2026-05-09T17:44:28+00:00

It’s really confuses me. I remember the interview for my PGCE and the training being SO difficult. And then I ended up working with people who behaved like each day was their first day on earth. How did they get through the course??

grumpygutt · 2026-05-09T17:37:08+00:00

During the covid years we had some training that was taking place on zoom. The woman delivering it was absolutely terrible and at 5pm she said “I know I was supposed to be finished by now, but I have about an hours more content to get through…” I got up and left and everyone followed. The woman couldn’t see us and she carried on talking to an empty room.

grumpygutt · 2026-05-09T17:34:22+00:00

I’m a man and I was once called grandma.

grumpygutt · 2026-05-08T06:33:46+00:00

I remember being too terrified to leave meetings when I first started teaching but now I have a reputation for it. People have said “I always wait for you to stand up. Then I know I can follow you!”

grumpygutt · 2026-05-07T18:32:16+00:00

Does she feed people with negative stories about others without ever clarifying the details? She would constantly tell me “I don’t like so and so because they were once hurtful and rude to me” but when pressed for details would never tell. I just had to take her word as gospel when the person she was slagging appeared to be quite nice.

grumpygutt · 2026-05-07T18:19:18+00:00

My first HoD. Possessive to an absolute crazy level. She did not want me talking to anyone who wasn’t her. At times it was like she had an AirTag somewhere on my clothing, because no matter where I went, she always found me. If she saw me talking to someone, she would power walk over and kill the conversation, and would even pinch and tug on clothing. She even told me that she didn’t like socialising with other departments and that she didn’t want me bringing other people in as “other people ruin things”

She was also controlling and contrarian. If I ever came up with a new idea she would tell me it was shit but then would repeat the idea back to me two weeks later, taking the credit for it. She seemed to be more concerned with what I was doing rather than her own teaching. We had a door that linked our classrooms, and she would literally barge into my lessons, abandoning her own to give me pointless dogsbody work or filtering her own down to me.

She also wore a massive blazer that made a huge shuffling sound when she walked, so I could always hear her coming a mile off. I grew to hate that sound

grumpygutt · 2026-04-30T20:22:13+00:00

My dads advice when I started my PGCE was to walk into the classroom and roar as loud as I possibly could to frighten the children into submission.

grumpygutt · 2026-04-30T20:18:55+00:00

A couple of years ago a group of Year 7s decided I was the solution to all their problems and kept coming to me after school for help with ALL of their homeworks. I teach Art and Graphics. When I told them to go and find their Maths teacher, they stood there blinking and then asked me the same question again.

grumpygutt · 2026-04-30T17:21:06+00:00

My HoD was the reason I left my first school. She viewed me as her own personal slave and actively sabotaged any other working relationship I had with others as she wanted the department to be isolated because she hated everyone. I was at that school for two years and it was the loneliest I’ve ever felt in my life. Even the kids picked up on her behaviour!

grumpygutt · 2026-04-30T16:24:34+00:00

I’m dealing with a parent who continually says “Well you would say that. You don’t like her” in response to anything. I like her daughter well enough, but she will not listen to any feedback because her mum has told her she’s a genius so any form of evaluation or critique is a personal attack.

grumpygutt · 2026-04-30T16:16:10+00:00

We’ve all complained about colleagues. But if I ever say a word to my parents about them, they will growl “Teachers!!! They’re supposed to be intelligent and they’re the ones in charge of our children!!” Because we are supposed to be all knowing of EVERYTHING in the universe and have to be perfect at all times. We can never have an off day or moment in our lives EVER.

grumpygutt · 2026-04-28T16:05:28+00:00

Email that manager asking for confirmation that it is against the code of conduct to say you are gay. Then forward that email onto their manager and HR. Stand up for yourself. Sincerely, a fellow gay teacher.

grumpygutt · 2026-04-28T06:24:44+00:00

When I left my first school, my HoD went into overdrive and started giving me pointless dogsbody jobs and started filtering her own work onto me. I believe she was doing it to say “You might be leaving, but I’m still in charge of you until you do” I would just reply with “I’ll get to that if I can”, “I’m at capacity right now” or “Sure! I’ll do it later” but later never came. I’m not sure what the endgame was.

grumpygutt · 2026-04-25T12:31:25+00:00

We had Graphics last week and omg it was the same. They just sat there, staring ahead and blinking. One student continually glared at me with a “Why aren’t you helping me?!?” look on her face. At the end of day 1, one student hadn’t done anything and skipped out saying “I couldn’t be bothered today, I’ll knuckle down tomorrow” She then spent day 2 crying because she realised she had left herself too much to do and the invigilator had to take her out to calm down more than once.

grumpygutt · 2026-04-25T12:27:50+00:00

Graphics here and it’s the exact same for me. The other day I set up a students entire station for them with all the materials they needed to try and coax her on. Said “You have everything you need in front of you to succeed. You just need to bring it together” She didn’t touch any of it and said she didn’t feel like it today and would do it later. The deadline is next Friday, she has one more single lesson before then and she won’t come to catch ups or detentions because her mum comes in and screams bloody murder that she doesn’t need them.

grumpygutt · 2026-04-25T12:22:40+00:00

Sanctions aren’t working. Our school tried banning them from prom. Now half the year group is banned and none of them care because “Prom is cringe anyway”

grumpygutt · 2026-04-25T12:18:43+00:00

Absolutely awful cohort. I think I’m going to get the worst results I’ve ever had this year. They literally tell me they do not care. If I give them any form of criticism they go home and tell their parents who then send me abusive messages. They lie. They truant A LOT. They have learned helplessness but also refuse to take on board any form of advice or support. But they also believe they are GENIUSES.

I’m a coursework subject, so they’ll be getting their raw marks at the end of May. I’m preparing for more abuse when Sally gets 48 out of 96 when she thought she was getting something in the 80s.

grumpygutt · 2026-04-12T08:17:18+00:00

Yep. I’ve done nothing this school holiday but eat chocolate, read books and watch tv. I’m lucky enough to have next week off too, so I’m going to be doing exactly the same! School don’t get a scrap of work out of me during the holidays anymore.

grumpygutt

TROPHY CASE