Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

HairyHandofDartmoor

I enjoyed the meal last night and it was good to get to know the TAs a bit better outside of school. It was £20 for the set three course meal, I spent £3 on a diet coke and gave £1 towards parking, so a total of £24 which could have been a lot worse . We didn't tip as the service was a bit iffy.

I was home by 10pm but I was too hyped up to sleep for ages and then I woke up at 6.30am.

I was determined to go in to school for the last morning. I helped to wrap up little gifts for the children and then watched a theatrical performance with them in the hall, so the morning was quite restful. Lunchtime was mayhem though as we're short of one staff member because someone left two weeks ago and a child fainted in the dining room :eek:. Two staff attended to the child and I kept the rest of the children calm, but that made us all behind so it was a bit stressful. I had a present and a lovely card from my lunchtime class .

Anyway I'm home now and can finally relax. Whilst my cold isn't better yet I don't feel as unwell, just more tired than usual, so I'm keen to get organised for Christmas. Only four days to go :xmassmile

HairyHandofDartmoor

By the way am I being unreasonable to feel slightly miffed that the head teacher didn't give me a Christmas card or even say happy Christmas to me today? :mad:

I've worked there for ten months and I've never had a single day off sick from my paid job. I've also done a lot of work which I haven't been paid for. I'm not expecting a present, but a simple "happy Christmas" or a "thank you for all your hard work" wouldn't go amiss.

The teacher of my lunchtime class gave me a lovely card signed by all the children and a present, which I'm sure she paid for out of her own money. My class teacher makes me feel appreciated. The head teacher does not.

Anyway rant over . I'm feeling unwell and tired so that's making me a bit grumpy.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I'm really looking forward to getting prepared for Christmas now :rudolf:. I've put a wash on and emptied the kitchen bins. DH was going to do it but he got caught up with a phone call.

Now I'm going to relax for the rest of today :xmassmile. Tomorrow we want to do our Christmas food shop. We want to get there as early as possible and beat the rush. Then depending upon how I feel afterwards I'll put up some ribbons for the Christmas cards as we've run out of space and most of them are in a pile on the coffee table at the moment.

[Deleted User]

What a change in mood between your two last posts:T I'm so glad that you were well enough to go to your meal last night and enjoyed it and that you are getting into the Christmas spirit at home now you can finally put your job behind you:j:beer:


As for not receiving a card from the Head, maybe she doesn't give cards out. Do you feel you were the only one not to get one? Could be she forgot and still has it somewhere. She'll kick herself when she 'finds' it:rotfl:. I expect she was pretty stressed today after a very hectic few end-of-term days. I wouldn't read too much into it if I were you:). I'm sure it wasn't meant as a personal slight. Didn't you mention a few days ago that she'd said something really nice to you? Maybe she thought she'd see you in the afternoon (I seem to think you finished after your lunchtime job today) as you are in school a lot. It might be that she has a lot on her mind and can't remember every support staff's timetable.


I hope your food shopping goes well tomorrow:beer:. It's just going to be DH and I to cook for over Christmas this year and nothing would drag me out tomorrow. It's about the first Christmas in 40 years that I haven't had to brave the traffic, find a parking space and wait for ages in supermarket queues for last-minute food supplies. What we haven't got in already we won't be having;). I'll be cooking a regular Sunday dinner instead of Christmas fare and already have a leg of lamb, our favourite meat, in the freezer as well as all the necessary home-grown veg. I don't have a sweet tooth but I'll make a nice trifle for DH. We both love Christmas pudding though and when the children were growing up I used to make my own. Now I wait until after Christmas when the supermarkets are selling them at vastly reduced prices and get stocked up. They have a very long shelf-life, often beyond the next Christmas:j.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thank you FS .

I don't think the head teacher has ever said anything particularly nice to me (apart from one time when I'd done some free cover and she thanked me for going above and beyond). The teacher of my lunchtime class says nice things to me and is very appreciative. Perhaps I'm being big headed to expect the head teacher to notice me as I'm only a lowly dinner lady. I don't know whether she gave anyway else a card or a thank you. My lunchtime colleagues did mention at our lunch the other day that they felt unappreciated by the head and never got a thank you and the TAs said something similar last night.

We know it will be busy at the supermarket tomorrow which is why we're going to get up at 7am and get there very early. We literally haven't had time to do our Christmas food shop before now.

Willowtree222

I think she should have wished you a merry Christmas though. Our deputy head bought us all a present- it was a miniature bottle of something and then some chocolates and a small Christmas decoration. She is the person responsible for us as we have 26 centres, if that makes sense?

Anyway, I think she should have at least said thank you.

Lovely that you are going to relax now. Good luck with your food shop tomorrow. I am not looking forward to doing mine next week and actually plan on just visiting a local shop for some fruit, nothing else!

The school wouldn't operate without each member of staff, whether that be a dinner worker, the cleaner, or the teachers/TAs. She should be grateful for each and everyone and make them aware that she is. I always buy for my TAs and the cleaner/caretaker. Without them, the school wouldn't run and my class would be in constant chaos. I never think it is too much. It sound like your class teacher thinks highly of you and shows how appreciative she is of you. x

Sun_Addict

Hooray to finishing for Christmas :j

Glad you got to go to the meal

It wouldn’t hurt the head to at least wish you Happy Christmas and a thank you costs nothing, bit mean spirited of her.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Nicnak wrote: »

I think she should have wished you a merry Christmas though. Our deputy head bought us all a present- it was a miniature bottle of something and then some chocolates and a small Christmas decoration. She is the person responsible for us as we have 26 centres, if that makes sense?

Anyway, I think she should have at least said thank you.

Lovely that you are going to relax now. Good luck with your food shop tomorrow. I am not looking forward to doing mine next week and actually plan on just visiting a local shop for some fruit, nothing else!

The school wouldn't operate without each member of staff, whether that be a dinner worker, the cleaner, or the teachers/TAs. She should be grateful for each and everyone and make them aware that she is. I always buy for my TAs and the cleaner/caretaker. Without them, the school wouldn't run and my class would be in constant chaos. I never think it is too much. It sound like your class teacher thinks highly of you and shows how appreciative she is of you. x

Thank you Nicnak . I'm glad you agree with me. I think you would be a lovely person to work for .

Sun_Addict wrote: »

Hooray to finishing for Christmas :j

Glad you got to go to the meal

It wouldn’t hurt the head to at least wish you Happy Christmas and a thank you costs nothing, bit mean spirited of her.

Thank you SA . I'm glad you agree with me.

I'm not expecting a Christmas bonus, or a Christmas meal paid for by my employer as I know the school doesn't have the money for that sort of thing. But a Christmas card and a thank you would surely not be beyond the realms of possibility and would make me and the other staff feel appreciated.

We work very hard for very little pay, we cover for staff when they are off sick, we work additional unpaid hours if a child needs our help. A simple thank you doesn't seem much to ask in return.

milann

I didn’t get a thank you either from our head. She was however, running around rather stressed as I left on Thursday. My old school head used to buy all the staff a little something- a candle, or small box of chocolate and the deputy put cakes on the staff room table every half term as a thanks but it was a much smaller school. I’ve never had a present from senior management at this school but we do get a birthday hour and Christmas shopping morning ( of our choice as long as there is cover - which we do for each other) as a thank you. I definitely prefer the time off to a trinket that isn’t usually to my taste. Previous years I’ve had presents from parents and teachers I work with but I haven’t been there this year so didn’t expect any.
Hope you get your shopping done tomorrow- I’ve got a few bits to get but will do the bulk of what I need after Christmas ready for New Year as we’re not eating at home until 28th.
Have a lovely Christmas with your boys - and as for housework- do whatever suits you and your family :beer:

[Deleted User]

I see you agree with what SA and Nicnak said re the Head and I hope you didn't think my comments came across as not being very supportive to your situation. I seem to fall short of expressing myself properly on these boards and my words are sometimes misconstrued:o. Sorry if so. My intention was solely to make you feel better about things.


I was just playing Devil's advocate in a way, definitely not condoning the Head's lack of Christmas spirit or empathy with the staff at what will have been a very tiring and stressful time for them. Although some Heads are fully appreciative of their staff and all they do, some just don't express it. Please don't take your Head's mean-spiritedness as anything personal to you. It's obvious from what you say about the TAs and lunchtime staff that she treats everyone that way. A verbal 'Merry Christmas' would have cost her nothing though.


I wasn't a teacher myself but my sister was and was Deputy Head in a big Comprehensive school of almost 1000 pupils. It was a very large, mixed staff with more men than women and the Head was male. She once asked the Head about showing the staff some form of tangible expression of thanks at Christmas and he seemed totally nonplussed at the idea. He told her she could if she wanted to but it wasn't anything he or 'the school' would be doing:eek:. She used to buy everyone a card out of her own money, that's teachers, assistants, admin staff, cleaners, cooks, etc etc and write a message of thanks inside. She signed them as from herself though, not on behalf of the Head:rotfl:. It was a different set-up to a small Primary school though and she said House/Department/Year Heads used to give some sort of appreciation to their own staff members. My sister always said that apart from that, the Head was well-liked and it was a lovely, happy school to work in. I expect a lot of that was down to her though as she was very empathetic and caring.