The Caretakers' Forum

Reacher wrote: ↑21st May 2024 at 8:30am Ahh so my Schools not the only one! Seems like l am the only one who knows how to load a dishwasher and that you don't put dirty cutlery in a clean dishwasher load. And rather than unload it they'll stack it all up in the sink.

That’s another problem we encountered in our staff room, “the dishwasher is broken again?”. When in fact it was again leftover food blocking the drain away in the dishwasher, it seemed to be a weekly job for me.

I remember once watching someone reluctantly filling the dishwasher and mumbling contempt as it was their turn. They placed the cups the right way up in the upper drawer. When I suggested turning the cups upside down so they would drain away better the person replied, I’ve seen the tv advert where electronic hands wipe out the cups, so it doesn’t matter if they are the right way up.

Ok I replied walking away…

The trouble with teachers often I think is that they have had no life experience. They go from school to college to Uni to working in a school again. They are just used to having their bums wiped for them and never lived in the real world.

I've been called to fix many things that are broken when in fact they just haven't been switched on at the plug.

Simon wrote: ↑21st May 2024 at 11:29am The trouble with teachers often I think is that they have had no life experience. They go from school to college to Uni to working in a school again. They are just used to having their bums wiped for them and never lived in the real world.

Exactly that. All of the education but no common sense!

I had a call that the staff room dishwasher was leaking. The room was full of bubbles! A teacher couldn't find the dishwasher tablets so she used washing up liquid!

The same day, we had the fire alarm go off. The head and I were running around trying to find the cause as the school evacuated. Minutes later, everyone started coming back in (the alarms were still sounding and we were still looking for the cause). A teacher had told everyone that it was probably a false alarm and was no doubt safe to return. The head "spoke" to the teacher and I had to walk away!

MajorD wrote: ↑22nd May 2024 at 8:17am I had a call that the staff room dishwasher was leaking. The room was full of bubbles! A teacher couldn't find the dishwasher tablets so she used washing up liquid!

The same day, we had the fire alarm go off. The head and I were running around trying to find the cause as the school evacuated. Minutes later, everyone started coming back in (the alarms were still sounding and we were still looking for the cause). A teacher had told everyone that it was probably a false alarm and was no doubt safe to return. The head "spoke" to the teacher and I had to walk away!

Crikey that last one is outright dangerous!

MajorD wrote: ↑22nd May 2024 at 8:17am I had a call that the staff room dishwasher was leaking. The room was full of bubbles! A teacher couldn't find the dishwasher tablets so she used washing up liquid!

The same day, we had the fire alarm go off. The head and I were running around trying to find the cause as the school evacuated. Minutes later, everyone started coming back in (the alarms were still sounding and we were still looking for the cause). A teacher had told everyone that it was probably a false alarm and was no doubt safe to return. The head "spoke" to the teacher and I had to walk away!

Verbal warning for that last one..
I hope it was entered in the near miss form/ book. That needs to be properly investigated and maybe some staff training required.

MajorD wrote: ↑22nd May 2024 at 8:17am I had a call that the staff room dishwasher was leaking. The room was full of bubbles! A teacher couldn't find the dishwasher tablets so she used washing up liquid!

The same day, we had the fire alarm go off. The head and I were running around trying to find the cause as the school evacuated. Minutes later, everyone started coming back in (the alarms were still sounding and we were still looking for the cause). A teacher had told everyone that it was probably a false alarm and was no doubt safe to return. The head "spoke" to the teacher and I had to walk away!

Blimey the last one is really quite serious. Our protocol is to not enter the building until the Fire service have arrived, our main concern is the children as it a SEND school. Our fire marshals do a sweep and then its straight out. I meet the fire service at the main entrance and walk them to the panel and wait for their instructions.

She did get a huge telling off. Luckily, it was a false alarm.
She used to be one of those who looked down their nose at the site staff but I think she had a wake up call as to how important our role was and was nicer to me afterwards.

MajorD wrote: ↑22nd May 2024 at 8:17am I had a call that the staff room dishwasher was leaking. The room was full of bubbles!

Had something similar here during one holiday period. I opened the staffroom door and the place looked like one of them 18:30 holiday foam parties from Ibiza (other destinations are available), I was almost knee deep in bubbles. Apparently, what had happened was this. Somebody in their infinite wisdom decided that the soap dispensers in a number of toilets could do with a bit of a clean. After rinsing them in the big sink, said person decided it was taking too long with a scrubbing brush, so put them in the dishwasher with no tablet so they could get on with other things. How did I know there was no tablet put in? Said person was me!! Thankfully only two other members of staff in, and after we had a good laugh about it, snow shovelled most of it out of the window and finished off with the rugdoctor.