To think change is desperately needed in schools?

That's why teachers are leaving in droves! Poor behaviour, lack of support from parents and management. It's been going this way for quite a while now. Trying to teach the new technology children, they are always fidgeting with the need for instant results and having their phones in their hands, remote, game consoles, etc. Bored within minutes and the death by PowerPoint doesn't help either. When I was a young teacher, I did interactive games, made them get up, move around, have fun, play, and learn, at secondary level! They enjoyed it and learnt by heart.

So glad I'm not I'm not starting out now, the behaviour and pressures from above with every move and a piece of data analysed is just unbearable.

How stuff can be misinterpreted -
My friend had a parent come storming up to her saying "Don't you fucking dare say we're poor"
Friend had absolutely no idea what this tirade was about.

Turns out she'd told the child off for not getting on with her work and had said, "You can't afford to waste time - you need to get on with your work"
The only word the child had heard was afford, so had gone home and told her mother "The teacher said we can't afford stuff"

So many times parents come barging in without finding out the whole story. However, they're not in the slightest bothered by it.

I fourth it.
My cohort this year are by far the worst I have ever had and lots seems to be down to parenting. I have several 4 years old with no additional needs who are not toilet trained, one of which is often still breast fed at the door before they come in each morning.

Listening and attention is incredibly far behind what I would expect at this point in the year and so is their PSED. Many are unable to tolerate delay or respond to simple day-to-day demands such as washing hands before snack without becoming physically aggressive. I am hit, kicked and bitten on a regular basis, again by children who have no additional needs. When I speak to parents they often just shrug. We struggle in nursery with a high adult:child ratio, heaven knows how Reception will cope when they move up.

I’m sure it’s parents on phones rather than interacting with their children

This was all done before, in the 1970s.

It was a horrible failure back then too.

Exactly! Having to put up with vile behaviour and gang pack culture while watching every word u say and the pressure from above to be perfect at marking, classroom management and results when trying to get blood out of a rock even in gcse classes is unbelievable!

Some parents are so quick to judge something their child has said and looking for blood in a rampage (can see where their dc get it from) and kick off not knowing or even trying to know the real events. That poor teacher is taking 5 mins at the end of the day for a wee, have a hot coffee for the first time in the day, Mark books they know will take forever as, despite explaining every little thing, some will rip pages, do no work.

Eh u said our Jake was stupid and couldn't have his dinner. Erm no, I said he was acting in a silly way and had the choice to stop throwing stuff around the room or would have to stay behind to pick up his mess and then go to lunch. In detention situations meals are reserved. Hey go to the papers and complain about it, your dc is getting a free hot reserved meal and they refuse to have it, offered sandwiches, still refuse! I mean, really, parents please support teachers!

@Sherrystrull that is sad - I think phones are to blame. JUst total addiction among that age group.

I actually think this is one of the biggest problems. Social media fuelled blame culture. It's so easy to point the finger at the state and the Tories and cuts and this and that. I'm not for once second saying what's happening with lack of services is right, BUT this blame culture is sick. When Boris was in office there was a point where people were blaming him for the failures of private companies and he rightly said that it's not the govts responsibility to bail out every badly managed company. That's not how the world works.
As lovely as diagnosing all these kids would be, what are we actually trying to achieve here? Most NHS services start and end at diagnosis. There was a mum on another thread desperate for an ADHD diagnosis as she would expect the school to then bend to her daughters needs. Wtf?? This is the attitude so many parents now have. A diagnosis that absolves all responsibility from the parent/ blame the govt cuts as that does the same. That's the two things that seem to be happening en masse

Yes to this.

@Walkiesandtalkies 100 per cent true.

Those blaming parenting - look around the streets where you live - look at the thousands and thousands of cars that now line the streets instead of large numbers of children playing - 20/ 30 years ago - ALL children played outside for large parts of their waking day - every single day. They learnt how to get along with others, how to self regulate - they made decisions, took risks.

There was also usually a parent around at home a lot more than now.

There were not as many after school clubs, I don't think I knew anyone who went to one - I had a working mum but parents took turns picking us up and sharing playdates.

Children are literally not living how they should be - ie how they evolved to live. They are not playing, they are not free .

And the shift towards screens for toddlers - that has happened even since my 11 year old was a baby (when it was unusual for a child to watch tv before about 2 or 3) - is incredible and alarming.

I imagine there will be some kids in each class who were brought up in homes where parents were on screens most of the time, staring at phones or watching tv.

There’s a hell of a lot of adults in their 30’s and 40’s being currently diagnosed with ADHD and Autism. We were just told we were lazy at school. Many of us broke down in our teens, I’m in my 40’s but self injury, eating disorders, severe depression were rife amongst my friends. Many of whom have now been diagnosed with the above.

I'm in Scotland. Started teaching in '84. It's been getting gradually worse over the years.

I quit in 2018 because of my husband's ill health. Now that I'm a widow I've gone back part-time to top up my reduced teaching pension.

It was bad before; it's immeasurably worse now. My HT told me to expect to be sworn at. I didn't think they'd be prepared to take on someone in her 60s...She actually told me "We just need a warm body in front of the classes." (This is secondary.)

I'm seeing teenagers openly vaping in corridors, etc... Stopped an assault in progress one day; broke up a fight the next.

Behaviour of some pupils is absolutely feral. I feel sorry for those who want to learn.

I was initially told that I could see what I think of the place and then accept a contract if I wanted it...I've never heard the like. I've told them I prefer to keep it casual.

Bluntly, they'll take me for as many hours as I'm prepared to offer - they're so short staffed.

I agree with this. It's one of many factors though.

House prices are one factor - it's seen as undesirable today to be a sahm (see all the threads about 'you need your own financial independence). With both parents working, children don't have the full attention of a parent for much of the day.

SEN needs are not adequately catered for. It's fine to try and integrate all children in one system, but it's not working because of the lack of resources.

Parents (some, not all obviously), do not discipline their children adequately. (See all the threads about 'my three year old hits / scratches me). I'm elderly now, but if one of my toddlers had hit me, the result would have been a smacked bottom. That's another thing that's hugely frowned upon now, but it may change in the future.

The world is arguably more dangerous today. Children can't play out on their own, partly because of parents' fears of predators, and partly because of the sheer volume of traffic. (Again, house prices mean that 2 salaries are needed, which often means two cars per household).

Children very rarely sort out their own disputes - they are always with an adult who intervenes, and this leads to a diminishing sense of independence.

I think we are close to tipping point with schools. Teachers are leaving in droves.

I agree that screens make sense with the timeline. And as a couple of other people have pointed out it’s not just that children spend more time on a screen, it’s that parents aren’t emotionally present, being responsive and interacting for much of the time they are with their child because they are glued to their own screen. So much early development that underlies language and social skills comes from a parent watching what their child is paying attention to and engaging with it, turn taking games and singing songs. Watching a song on youtube doesn’t teach the important bits, it probably teaches something harmful instead - instead of interaction and sharing you have complete control and instant gratification in an isolated bubble.

I think it's part screens and part aftermath of Covid lockdowns and shitty parenting. A teacher friend had a seven-year-old throw his chair at her recently. When we were in school that would have been unthinkable. Now the teacher is probably the one in trouble for not managing the poppet's feelings or something.
My own nephews (7 and 8) were given very basic, supervised phones for Christmas. YouTube etc turned two bright little boys into bratty zombies. The phones are only allowed for an hour now and taken away for an extra day if there is a fuss over getting off them. God knows what they do to the brain of an infant propped up in a buggy watching hour after hour of colourful noise.

@GoodnightAdeline

I think that it's not just babies & toddlers watching too much TV but parents stuck on phones & basically ignoring their kids. They see engaging with their little ones as hard work.

I don't understand the explosion of ADHD & ASD. There are loads of children being diagnosed. I'm sure there were always kids with learning difficulties - but the lack of concentration and resilience to do tasks that require some perseverance is concerning.

You never heard of children in reception class still being in nappies until fairly recent years. Obviously some children have SEN. But years ago it was unheard of - I think most children were potty trained at around 2 when I was little. Probably having to wash nappies was an incentive.

No this starts and ends with parents, not the state.
Stop making excuses for no parent families where children are allowed to do what they want for fear of a "meltdown". Discipline and respect for others starts at home

at uni age have you checked it’s no roid rage? Bodybuilding drugs are depressingly more common.

I asked my Y4 class today what they like to do at home that doesn’t involve a screen. 5 or 6 couldn’t answer.

My DS is in an extremely disruptive class. Even if I hadn't met the parents of the 5 kids in his class that cause the chaos, I guarantee you I could pick them out in the playground. The problem is parenting and I'm guessing there are many societal and cultural things that have contributed to that over the years.

Absolutely spot on. All of which is sadly gone now.

@Wavingnotdrown1ng you are right about loss of 'soft/social ' skills like turn taking - but part of that is the enormous loss of free play from kids lives.

It is with their peers/ children of all ages that children - for thousands of years! - learnt the skill of actually being a human being, learning how to consider others thoughts, take turns, negotiate - this is what play is for.

We have filled children's days with either screens or organised learning / activities.

This I'm afraid. SENCO in a PRU here. They all come to us aged 14 or 15, no diagnosis after more than ten years of school but with such clear SEN it's outrageous. Then we can't get them diagnosed before their GCSEs so many of them leave with bugger all.

I came from a very dysfunctional home but played outside non stop. Surrounded by kids younger/older etc. Familiar adult neighbours would correct and get involved when needed. This wasn't even that long ago tbh and there are still lots of places like this. I think it's what made an insane difference to my development. We had screens etc and funnily enough there was a girl on my estate who we thought of as richer. She was always on her computer and wasn't allowed out with the likes of us. She had 2 parents who would ferry her off to clubs. Mind you I was the only one with 1 parents weirdly, but I was always so jealous of her. She ended up fine but so did I! I did well at school etc as did all my siblings, so I do think community loss and reliance on screens is a big big reason for this issue.

People are too lazy to parent their kids.

They provide their child with a phone instead of a parent. If you are too lazy to teach your child to read, use a toilet, eat properly, speak, follow a two-part instruction, there is no need to worry, the school will do your parenting for you.

The sad thing is, these parents are not even embarrassed.