Teaching can be so exhausting. What with all that evening marking and lesson-planning after a long day in the classroom, it is no wonder that you want to take every opportunity to catch up on your sleep.
But what is the etiquette around sleeping in school? Members of the TES online forum have been debating the finer points of nodding off in afternoon break, as well as sharing their own stories of feeling tired in the staffroom.
Oldsomeman admits to falling asleep in the staffroom on one or two occasions, while several posters report seeing colleagues turning a blind eye to teachers getting a bit of shut-eye during staff meetings. For sea_pink, it is only distracting when they start to snore, while for others it is a regular occurrence. “One of our golden oldies has a snooze every Monday afternoon during the staff meeting,” says lardylady. “She is retiring at the end of term so the head ignores her and lets her get on with it.”
Snoozing in the staffroom is one thing, but napping elsewhere in school carries a certain risk. Jubilee recounts going to the toilets in a new school, sitting on the loo and closing her eyes for a minute or two.
“I didn’t know that the lights were motion activated and when I woke up I was in complete darkness and no idea where the door was or why all the lights had failed,” she says. “I fumbled my way out of the cubicle and was so relieved when my activity then triggered the lights again!”
www.tes.co.uksleepinginschool.
