A staffroom can host a myriad of interesting things…
Every school has their own staffroom quirks and although having a particular seat may be a thing of the past, there are still a few common themes!
Can you relate to any of these?
- An empty sweet box where somebody has eaten the last one and not thrown the box away.
- Not enough teaspoons! The next person to leave the school should gift some teaspoons.
- A random collection of mugs including a ‘Best Teacher’ and several DIY freebies which never look clean, regardless of how much they are scrubbed.
- A questionable cake that nobody is quite sure who baked …
- Alongside it, there’s that home-baked lemon drizzle from the school’s star baker. Word gets around before break time and staff attempt to leave their classrooms early in order to secure a slice before it’s gone!
- A set of pigeonholes that one or two teachers never empty. It is overflowing, with stuff in there from last year.
- There are very few teachers. They don’t have time to sit in the staffroom – they inhale their lunches at speed!
- There is someone who sits in there for hours. No one is even sure what they do… Maybe someone to check whether they are actually a member of staff?
- A secure door for wet play purposes. It’s important to have a strong boundary between children and the staff. You will find the staffroom is busier on these days. Teachers will not leave the staffroom until they have to, hoping to return to their classroom with all the science equipment (they diligently put in the middle of each table) remaining undisturbed.
- A ‘dishwasher fairy’ who comes in the night and sorts out all of the mess left by the staff. Nobody knows this person (until they have left their post) then you realise how hard they worked.
The staffroom is the social hub of the school. Just remember this golden rule: what’s said in the staffroom, stays in the staffroom!
Do you have any more you could add?
Dr Rachel Lofthouse (Leeds Beckett University) is conducting a small-scale research project on staffroom reflections …
