When not acting*, I work as a Supply Teacher. Over the years I've learned to assess a school within the first 10 minutes of entering the building. Every school I walk into I apply what I call "The Coffee Test".
If after 10 minutes, the cover supervisor/receptionist, or whoever greets you upon entry, doesn't point out the staff room and toilet and say "help yourself to the free tea and coffee", you're probably not going to have a good day. It has little to do with the tea and coffee itself; I usually pack a tin of coffee, and more recently a little bottle of milk, purely because it's the brand I prefer. I almost never actually have any of the coffee that's freely available.
The point is, the culture it represents.
One of the best school's I've ever worked in had an industrial sized coffee machine, the likes you'd see in a hotel, you press a button and a creamy latte awaits you. I actually started going there 20 minutes early, just so I could enjoy a latte and calmly start my working day.** The staff room there was large and every breaktime, packed with teachers chatting and enjoying coffee. Even as a supply teacher, where you can often feel like a ghost, teachers would introduce themselves and offer support if I needed it. I rarely did, behaviour was generally good at that school and I believe this was due to the comraderie formed at the coffee machine.
By contrast, I've been in staff rooms that weren't staff rooms, but rather offices with a kettle and microwave stuck in the corner, this tends to be a more modern trend. Striking up a conversation with someone sat at a computer was a no go as I felt I was interupting their work, and upon commenting on the lack of facilities, was told just that! The behaviour in that school, with the most modern of buildings and facilities, was atrocious.
Then there are the staff rooms where only a few weary supply teachers and perhaps a couple of teaching assistants convene in. Again, these tend to be difficult to work in.
I'm happy to be left to my own devices, I don't need idle chatter, or even free tea or coffee, but ideally a pleasant working environment where the teachers work as team and keep on top of pupils' behaviour, and that, it would seem starts with coffee.
While schools (like businesses) are always looking to cut costs, there could be wider negative implications in doing so.
Now, time for a coffee!
#culture #workculture #coffee
*Recording a seemlessly endless amount of selftapes that don't lead to any actual work.
**This turned out to be a mistake as they started giving me 30 minute register periods to cover
Curator for UNICEF Market
3moDefinitely needing some basic manners here, I actually know the feeling.