At some point in your teaching career, you will encounter super curious students who want to know all about your personal life. Get ready for the nosey questions because they are coming…they just can’t help themselves! Here are 3 things students always want to know about their teachers.

Being a teacher is oddly similar to being a celebrity. We stand in front of an audience of young people everyday, plenty of them know us but we often (though we don’t like to admit it) forget them and we are pointed at and whispered about when they see us in public. All we’re missing is the celebrity pay cheque to match. Our students find our personal lives so interesting and they aren’t shy to get more information. 

Here are 3 things students always want to know about their teachers:

“Did you get all 9s at school?”

First of all, you mean As & A*s – we had none of this grade 1-9 business when we were at school! This question however, does make sense. After all, we are the same teachers who always stress the importance of ‘life choices’ and achieving the ‘best’ grades so it’s only fair that we got them ourselves. They will want to know where you went to school, what you picked for your GCSEs and what kind of student you are so get ready for the interrogation.

“You’re quite old aren’t you, are you like 70?” 

Get used to hearing students guess your age and try not to burst into tears. Young people just don’t understand age. To them there’s very little difference between 25 and 50, they have no real sense of what happens past their current life stage. All they know is you’re no longer a child and they expect you to have your entire life together. So even if you’re a NQT straight out of university, get ready for the disappointment on their faces if you tell them you don’t drive and still live with your parents! 

“Are you married?”

This one is inevitable! Young people are uber obsessed with your relationship status. They are so interested in knowing whether you have children, or if you’re married or got a boyfriend or girlfriend. Some will even ‘ship’ you with other members of staff they believe you ‘suit’ and you’ll be mortified by their opinions! As they begin to mature and desire romantic relationships themselves they ask us questions to get more information about relationships as a whole. So it makes sense they’d ask us, we however, are not obliged to answer. 

There’s no right or wrong when it comes to answering these questions. As a teacher you have to gauge the situation. Some students may be trying to engage you in conversation to avoid doing their work while at other times you can answer questions because it relates to the topic or helps to build a rapport with your students. Just remember the boundary setting is up to you. You get to decide what and how much you want to share. It’s your personal business after all.

We all know young people are masters at work avoidance so the best way to see whether they are truly interested is to say you’d be happy to answer their questions at break time. Let’s see how many of them turn up!

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