Taking the piss

One thing I will certainly miss when I start my new job is the rank that every teacher, if truth be told, aspires to, if they are not working their way up the career ladder. And that rank is the one which could be called the "taking the piss a little bit" rank. By this, I mean that you know your way around the job ever so well, you know who's who and who matters, and you've earned yourself some brownie points here and there. So, like a get out of jail free card, you've earned a "taking the piss a little bit" card. Some people in my school seemed to have progressed further still, to the "don't give a stuff" rank, but that's a dodgy one to aspire to - it could tip the balance between SMT turning a blind eye and SMT getting heavy on everyone.

For example, the "taking the piss a little bit" rank entitles you to turn up to school a little bit too late for the morning meeting because you had five extra minutes in bed. The "don't give a stuff"-ers are those who then deliberately avoid meetings, so that SMT implement a sign-in policy for everyone to try to curb this wayward behaviour. The "taking the piss a little bit" rank means you can casually ask the teacher in charge of cover if you can leave early to go to the dentist, instead of waiting until the summer holidays like newbies. Those who "don't give a stuff" ring in sick with toothache and spend half the day at the dentist and the other half getting their hair done.

So come September I shall revert to being a newbie and doing things to the letter until I work out who the movers and shakers are, and really by now I should start booking dentist appointments for upcoming half terms...