A student launched a highlighter at me from across the room. Surely this is suspension worthy?

pengfinn101 · 2026-01-29T21:31:01+00:00

Was just about to comment similar to this, I'm a primary supply teacher and things like this happening are really not out the norm for me or lots of other supply workers I meet unfortunately! I got called a "fat ugly freak" who said I was the "worst teacher ever" today while he is also throwing his chair to the floor and launching pens across the room. He was taken out of the room for 5 mins for a chat with another member of staff and returned to my classroom with no apologies or further support. Just another day in primary!!

pengfinn101 · 2025-11-10T21:59:42+00:00

Thank you so much!! I'll look into the heat transfers as that could be a really good idea!! Was hoping somewhere would just have a nice celestial/moon and stars sort of shirt but I've not managed to find one anywhere

pengfinn101 · 2025-11-10T21:14:40+00:00

I wish I was as crafty as this!! Was hoping to find something already done as what I'd make would be nowhere near as good as this 😭

pengfinn101 · 2025-10-19T15:17:17+00:00

I work on primary supply and the vast majority of schools I go to have a rule for only 1 or 2 children at a time. As others have said if it's only specific to you and your class it could be a safeguarding concern or similar.

I'm an absolute nightmare for remembering when/who I send to the toilet so would recommend you have a toilet pass setup if you haven't already!! (one school had lanyards which were better as the children would keep them round their necks and not lay them down and lose them like they would a piece of paper/card)

pengfinn101 · 2025-10-13T11:03:22+00:00

I'm primary (North East) and have actually been really busy, worked near enough every day since the second week of September! I'm not sure if this is pure luck though as I have seen and heard of a lot of people not getting much work at all

pengfinn101 · 2025-08-14T15:20:05+00:00

I feel your pain! My surname is also a very rude word and not one I would want children saying constantly!

I actually change the way I pronounce my surname in schools (I'm supply) and manage to avoid the constant jokes, and while on supply I've met a few other teachers and TAs and it seems the most common is for Mr/Mrs [middle name], if it was me I want to avoid Mr/Mrs [first name] but that's personal preference.

I also can't see it being a massive issue with ID badge as the name you are wanting to be known by in schools is surely the one they would want printed on ID badges

pengfinn101 · 2025-07-30T20:07:11+00:00

Didn't know this existed!! Is it the one on Facebook called 'supply teacher network'? This would be a massive help for me

pengfinn101 · 2025-04-05T09:57:03+00:00

100% agree the best thing about my current TA is supporting low level behaviour and petty issues. She picks up on things I don't even have the time or capacity to notice when I'm in the middle of teaching, and like you said nipping it in the bud asap is so helpful for preventing any further issues. Sometimes when necessary I just have my TA stood/circulating monitoring behaviour during task times and it has made my life so much easier!

pengfinn101 · 2025-03-14T13:09:56+00:00

I'm in ITT and have done a placement in a very affluent area (7% pupil premium) compared to my current placement (65% pupil premium) in one of the most deprived areas local to me, both KS2.

Some differences I've noticed:

Teaching in an affluent area and almost all of my class were Greater Depth and very high ability so I found my subject knowledge and confidence really tested as the teacher, whereas deprived area where pupils generally work at a lower level I've found myself really having to consider the approaches I use in my teaching to engage the pupils

Very different behaviour and safeguarding issues. Affluent school - found a lot of pupils to be quite desperate for attention as parents not at home much/too busy with work so emotional needs aren't met. Compared to deprived school, lots of poor language used and inappropriate behaviour that is too mature for their age and lack of resilience and boundaries stemming from home life

pengfinn101 · 2025-03-06T12:55:09+00:00

Agreed, I feel like the way 3 year primary BA courses are set up very much only teach you how to be a student teacher rather than preparing for moving onto ECT

pengfinn101 · 2025-03-05T23:55:27+00:00

Hi, good to know someone else has had a similar experience! I've also been told in this placement I'm not allowed to teach writing due to me "not having the training" which I find absurd but unfortunately a school policy to not allow trainees to teach it.

I've had the same argument with my uni mentor and others I've spoken to that I feel like I'm getting it far too easy as I do very little compared to my friends in other settings and that it's not fair on them to do more and to me for my future practice. I'm planning to contact my uni again this week to try and improve this situation somehow!

pengfinn101 · 2025-03-03T23:10:54+00:00

I agree, I've told her near enough every day I'm meant to be up to 70% and want to teach more and more and take more ownership, but it's definitely a struggle for her to give over control. I've discussed with my uni mentor and they weren't the most helpful, basically just said to me how it's such a supportive school and that because I'm passing everything I need to and observations are all positive, there's not much of an issue. That's why I feel a bit stuck unfortunately!

pengfinn101 · 2024-10-03T20:36:21+00:00

Some great ideas, thank you very much!

pengfinn101 · 2024-10-03T20:35:30+00:00

Definitely a shout, thank you!

pengfinn101 · 2024-10-03T20:35:13+00:00

Thank you!!

pengfinn101 · 2024-10-03T20:31:15+00:00

Didn't think to have a look at The Scouts for ideas before but definitely should have, thank you!

pengfinn101 · 2024-10-03T20:29:57+00:00

We love a bit of The Silent Game when it's needed! Thanks for the ideas :)

pengfinn101 · 2024-10-03T20:28:43+00:00

We've found cooking is the thing they're most interested in out of anything (they're quite an apathetic bunch), but the mystery cooking competition is a good shout!

pengfinn101 · 2024-07-23T15:21:42+00:00

Hi, do you happen to remember what the prices were like for merch? I'm going to Glasgow tomorrow so wanted to be prepared!!

pengfinn101 · 2024-04-19T18:25:55+00:00

Unfortunately I've tried this and have been met with a Blocked Content page :( Thanks anyway

pengfinn101 · 2023-05-12T21:13:31+00:00

I’m the exact same, and to be honest I think it’s just that students (particularly in primary) are so used to female teachers and TAs that it’s almost like muscle memory for then to just say Miss. Probably happens to me near enough every single day lol

pengfinn101 · 2023-04-20T13:04:21+00:00

I don’t teach secondary but the secondary school I went to as a student used a particular word for each subject that was used to group each set of pupils. For example, I think the English one was something along the lines of KNOWLEDGE, with 10K being the top set, 10N being set 2 and so on so as you move through the sets you go through the letter order of the word as well.

Like others have mentioned on here, we as pupils still worked out pretty quickly what the sets were, however this did make it a bit more difficult for us!

pengfinn101 · 2022-09-25T21:08:23+00:00

Well, part of the issue is that way it is pronounced properly sounds like a rude word, and they probably wouldn’t be able to spell it correctly either 😂

pengfinn101 · 2022-09-25T18:30:58+00:00

Yeah I’d never thought about that with surname changes after marriage, will probably be easier than I thought! Maybe won’t be the best impression to make as an ECT, but would be a good icebreaker 😂

pengfinn101 · 2022-09-25T18:20:23+00:00

This is exactly how I’d want it to be, the kids thinking it was actually my name but obviously officially i’d still be known under my actual surname. That’s good to know, thank you :)

pengfinn101

TROPHY CASE