On Monday i called a couple of local schools in the area... (querying job vacancies) The First was a Nursery Infants and Second a Junior School...

I was amazed to hear a Childs voice on the other end of the phone... asking me who i'd wish to speak to... ok! this is one school... maybe the teacher asked her to pick it up as she/he was busy or something...

Second School same happened again! This time the Girl answered the phone (in an adult way) saying the school name her name along with saying she was a pupil and asked who i wished to speak to...

Is this common practice up North? or is it that times have moved on since i was at school?

I found it most odd... and i'm not sure (if i had children) i'd be happy with them answering a schools phone...

What are your views? would it bother you?
If you have children have they ever answered the school phone?

I'm a supply teacher and have seen it in schools a couple of times, tends to be older children manning the phones at lunchtimes while office staff are having their break.

Children take messages, rather than deal with anything that comes up, and there is usually an adult close by.

I am in favour.
Give a child some responsibility and they will usually respond well.
It gives them a sense of belonging to the school and encourages a feeling of duty, citizenship and an awareness of their own worth.

Originally posted by antisocial
I'm a supply teacher and have seen it in schools a couple of times, tends to be older children manning the phones at lunchtimes while office staff are having their break.

Children take messages, rather than deal with anything that comes up, and there is uaually an adult close by.

Ok maybe the older children like you say... but the first School i called was a Nursery/Infants... i thought it was a little strange having such a young child answering the phone...

The second School she sounded older but couldnt find anyone to take the call from her so she had to send her friend to fetch a teacher...

Secondary school: Yes no problem - why not answer the phone?
Primary/Infants: No way! What were they thinking! A young child should not answer the phone, not that they would even have a clue what someone wanted!

Originally posted by Avalon
Secondary school: Yes no problem - why not answer the phone?
Primary/Infants: No way! What were they thinking! A young child should not answer the phone, not that they would even have a clue what someone wanted!

My point exactly! Its wrong!

Originally posted by Avalon
Secondary school: Yes no problem - why not answer the phone?
Primary/Infants: No way! What were they thinking! A young child should not answer the phone, not that they would even have a clue what someone wanted!

Don't forget that at a First and Middle school you can have 10 year old children.

If a child can answer a mobile or use the telephone at home I don't see an issue here.

Of course, teh child should not give their own name, etc. and answer as 'Bash Street School', but it does offer a way of giving older children a sense of responsibility.

Joe

At King Edwards they have a scheme where pairs of Y8 upwards spend a morning or afternoon at reception greeting visitors and running errands etc. under the charge of the school receptionists.

There's usually a lot of pupils who sign up for it, possibly as it gets them out of lessons (at least that was one of the reasons my son admitted to) :suspect: But it does give them some responsibility, and when they aren't doing meet and greet, they're expected to sit and do school work.

Not sure about primary school children doing the same though, especially if they aren't supervised.

I left school in 2001 and never did we have pupils answering the school telephone!

This i have never heard of before or known to happen. I would also like to know whats going on!

[QUOTE]Sheffield Schools Right or Wrong.[/OTE]
If it's supervised then yes, something else learned. Maybe the child answers the phone at home and just thought it was the right thing to do....I find it difficult to ignore a ringing phone myself when no one seems interested in answering it.
In my last year at school( a million years ago) I was head girl and spent several periods a week "sitting" with infant classes while they did French Knitting and other stuff that they could get on with. I also did some narrating for them when they put on little "plays" and I also was left in the heads study, with a book, in case the phone rang whilst he was out and had to take messages. I was 15 almost then though.
joanl

I agree with what many have already pointed.

My initial thought was no but when you give it further consideration it makes sense. It gives the child some sense of reponsiblity and experience. Kind of like work experience

At our school we have something where students take it in turns to go on recpetion for half a day. they dont answer the phone, but they deal with visitors and ask them who they'd like to see and stuff.
i dont know why they do it, but no one complains, gets you out of the lesson! you just work downstairs in reception.

I agree that no child should give their name out over the school phone. This is wrong!!

However, I see no problem with schools employing 'phone monitors' during the office staff lunch hour. The kids are given the chance to be 'important' for the first time in their lives in most cases. It is also a 'time passer' for kids who aren't allowed out to play at this time due to medical reasons etc.

The method of answering the phone is usually strictly laid down:

"Hello, this is ********* school. I am sorry but there is no adult to take your call at the moment. If it is not urgent please call back at ten past one. If this is an urgent call, an adult can be contacted to speak to you now. Thank you."

(Notice that there is no option for taking a message, as depending on the abilities of the kids the message may be misinterpreted and/or not passed correctly.)

If a caller asks the child's name, the child should respond with, "I am sorry but I cannot give you my name. Thank you."

On the occasion that the child gave you their name, this child clearly did wrong and I think that particular school should know about this!

If the school is in the S5 area, could you give me a PM Angel?

Thanks.:thumbsup:

They were offering this job to Year 6 pupils at Longley recently...

not sure if they got any volunteers, my daughter got the job she wanted I think.

Originally posted by saxon51
The method of answering the phone is usually strictly laid down:

"Hello, this is ********* school. I am sorry but there is no adult to take your call at the moment. If it is not urgent please call back at ten past one. If this is an urgent call, an adult can be contacted to speak to you now. Thank you."



Have Teachers never heard of an Ansaphone? So, it now appears that hard pressed, over worked and poorly paid Teachers are using pupils as unpaid child labour. I could have sworn kids went to Primary school to learn to read and write but the statistics seem to prove otherwise. I remember we aways had a Secretary/Receptionist to deal with office type duties. Obviously Sir and Miss can't cope with their exhausting schedule and 13 weeks paid holidays per year, so really need to ensure they put their feet up in the staff room to have a well earned fag and cup of coffee at the slightest opportunity. Shame they have to call the AA out when they are made to stay late on a parents evening because they don't know how to turn the lights on their cars on !

It is entirely heathy and educational for Children to get little jobs at school no matter what they are.

In the 70s I was Milk monitor, bell monitor in different schools.

In the 80s I operated the emergency lights at Chaucer school for a year when I was very young.

And I spent half a day for a full week working as the network administrator in the computer room as everyone did who was taking O-level Computer studies.

Giving children little jobs, appropriate to their abilities, will help them to feel part of the school and maybe even proud of it and stretch them to achive a little more.

From a parents perspective, if I was calling school then I would definitely want to speak to a member of staff.

It is unfair to saddle a child with the responsibility of taking messages, some of which may be detailed and involved, some of which may involve the welfare of a particular child.

I think that it is most unprofessional.

Originally posted by Mo
From a parents perspective, if I was calling school then I would definitely want to speak to a member of staff.

Ok but if a child was answering the phone you would hardly leave a sensitive or personal message with them would you.

A child answering the phone would at least be able to tell you when an appropriate and responsible adult was next able to take a call, because they would be only doing it for a short period of time.
And surely if it was an emergency the child would be able to summon a member of staff if they had to.

Having said all that I would have been pretty useless at answering the phone when I was 10 because I was in a dreamworld of my own at that age. But I could have put a plug on a vacuum cleaner or stacked 100 chairs in about 10 minutes no problem.

Here we go again!

Originally posted by cloudybay
Have Teachers never heard of an Ansaphone? So, it now appears that hard pressed, over worked and poorly paid Teachers are using pupils as unpaid child labour. I could have sworn kids went to Primary school to learn to read and write but the statistics seem to prove otherwise. I remember we aways had a Secretary/Receptionist to deal with office type duties. Obviously Sir and Miss can't cope with their exhausting schedule and 13 weeks paid holidays per year, so really need to ensure they put their feet up in the staff room to have a well earned fag and cup of coffee at the slightest opportunity. Shame they have to call the AA out when they are made to stay late on a parents evening because they don't know how to turn the lights on their cars on !

Never had monitors at your school then?

And since when did kids learn to read and write during their dinner time?

Believe it or not, an Ansaphone doesn't run off to get an adult to respond to an emergency call.

As for the rest of your rant, you'd know wouldn't you!

:rolleyes:

Originally posted by Mo
From a parents perspective, if I was calling school then I would definitely want to speak to a member of staff.

It is unfair to saddle a child with the responsibility of taking messages, some of which may be detailed and involved, some of which may involve the welfare of a particular child.

I think that it is most unprofessional.

My earlier post explains all this.

And the child (of which there are usually two) is a volunteer.

Yet again an unnessecary swipe at teachers.

I think you will find that answering phones has nothing to do with teachers as they are too busy teaching, preparing, marking, meetings, etc etc etc

I have never been in a school were the telephones were in the classrooms.....

Telephones still are in school offices, and still are answered by receptionists, so if you have a problem with phones being unmanned you have a problem with receptionists having a dinner hour.

Teachers would find it difficult to answer the phone as they would be too busy working through their lunch hour as it is....

I thought the issue was with children answering phones not the working conditions of teachers

Originally posted by antisocial
Yet again an unnessecary swipe at teachers.


Teachers would find it difficult to answer the phone as they would be too busy working through their lunch hour as it is....

I thought the issue was with children answering phones not the working conditions of teachers

Good points antisocial:thumbsup:

Permit me to correct one minor mistake though........teachers get 30 minute lunch breaks - but only when there are no problems to be dealt with during this time.:thumbsup: