Is anyone else fed up of trying to be 'outstanding'?

[SheerWill]

Only been back at school and already I’m totally exhausted. We have a Teaching and Learning audit on Monday, which involves being observed by another member of SLT and another colleague (from a completely different department).

I've only been at this school since September having had a really bad experience in my previous school (bullying by ht). I really like the school and the staff are great, but I’ve already had loads of drop ins and parents come to watch me teach my sen group for maths and English. In fact the only person yet to see me teach is my line manager - the SENCO. I’ve had great feedback so far - which is lovely, but I feel like I've hit a wall tonight and I’ve just sat trying to plan the next hoop jump on Monday and I’ve not managed to plan beyond the first 5 minutes, because I’m just so overwhelmed by it all.

I want to do well and get a good grading – but also I just want to be left alone to do what I do best, getting on with teaching. Still getting used to TEEP lesson planning as I’m used to primary – where we’ve never heard of TEEP.

Sorry about the rant – I just don’t care about being outstanding anymore – I just want to get through each day without feeling I want to cry.

[LordPalmerston]

Me. And I know I'm good. Utterly disillusioned at the thought of knowing the levels of 300 kids that I teach off the top of my head

[MidnightHag]

I thought teachers could only be observed three times a year. Apparently this includes "learning walks".

[LordPalmerston]

Dunno. I don't mind being observed at all. Just find the shifting goalposts hard work

[NewNameforNewTerm]

My school and I are officially labelled "outstanding", but you are only as good as your last observation and last OFSTED. So the pressure to try and keep that label, especially with the moving goal posts is huge.

[Mitzi50]

Yes! Love teaching, but I am so fed up of constantly moving goalposts, new initiatives and paperwork which adds nothing to the children's learning.

My children get good outcomes - sometimes I can pull off an outstanding lesson, more usually I think my lessons are good but sometimes they are merely satisfactory (or should that be "requires improvement"?). I think I am fairly typical.

[holmessweetholmes]

Absolutely. I started at a new school this September and I am hating it. I had been in the private sector for some years before that and am appalled by the level of hoop-jumping and hysterical observing and data collection which seems to have taken over since I was last in a state school. It makes me want to scream. I shall be back to the independent sector as soon as humanly possible. I don't give a monkeys about being rated outstanding, as I think the criteria are largely nonsense.

[PotteringAlong]

I'm a teep trainer - pm me if I can help!

[soapboxqueen]

stupid question alert. What is a teep trainer?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I thought TEEP had gone rather out of fashion now? I was 'trained' years ago and, to be frank, it was some of the worst training I've ever suffered through.

I'm a supposedly, 'Outstanding' teacher, but then there is such intense pressure to feel I've got to be so all day, every day. I know this is ridiculous btw, but I still feel it. And today, I was lousy.

[BrokenBananaTantrum]

Well after 15 years of being rated good / outstanding I now require improvement under the new guidelines. I'm gutted. I just don't know how to get a good now. My results are always excellent but because I can't show progress every second I'm no good anymore. Feeling utterly demoralised

[tethersend]

If everyone was outstanding, they wouldn't be outstanding.

Strive for adequacy, that's my motto

[SheerWill]

Yay!! I managed to get an outstanding. Only took 5 hours of planning for one lesson + prep time. How unrealistic :-) can't wait for foster to come. Where am I going to find 5 hours per lesson planning time ( guess that's my Xmas holiday gone).

[NewNameforNewTerm]

Well done SheerWill. Can't you have some hoop-jumping lessons up your sleeve that you spend the time on and then do reasonable amounts of time on the rest. I'm always arguing that tired teachers from spending 5 hours on a lesson will not produce outstanding lessons in the classroom as they are just too exhausted to perform and then think and adapt on their feet.

[cakeandcustard]

Congrats! I was once graded a 2+ rather than a 1 and was told by my HOD that they never gave a 1 (outstanding) as it would imply I had nothing I could improve on :) I gave up trying to impress in observations at that point and just concentrated on teaching!