To think droves of teachers will make the decision by husband made today- to leave

Fixing the problem may be as simple as having parents come into school and sit in lessons occasionally as observers. What do others think?

I ccertainly agree that parents would be shocked by what they saw, but I don't see how it would actually fix anything.

Another thread about teachers....every area that receives public funding is broken. While children are poorly fed from school meals loaded with sugar and cards and no one wants to pay more tax who can expect anything to improve.

There are plenty of things which can be done to improve things in schools which don't cost any money. As can be seen on this thread and many others, a lot of the problems are down to SLT failing to support teachers in managing behaviour. That's got nothing to do with taxes, sugar or carbs.

Boarding schools for everyone with strict discipline.

No phone or social media use, at all!
Ban sugar and sugary foods.

So lots of cabbage at Dotheboys Hall

Bet that’ll go down well here 😳

You wouldn’t dare do that now!

This all rings true sadly 😥 There are some places you just really really can't teach at due to these reasons. It's survival of abuse, mockery and threats.

"Fixing the problem may be as simple as having parents come into school and sit in lessons occasionally as observers. What do others think?"

My daughter was appalling at secondary school. I mean so bad she broke the morale of some of her teachers.

DH and I were perpetually apologising to the school & to her teachers, and trying to stop her kicking holes in walls/running away/self harming, at home.

My other two were perfectly well behaved at school & at home.

Not all badly behaved kids have parents at home who don't care. Many parents are at their wits end.

Another thread about teachers....every area that receives public funding is broken. While children are poorly fed from school meals loaded with sugar and cards and no one wants to pay more tax who can expect anything to improve.

My dil is a teacher. She has special needs pupil in her class who throws furniture at her.

There is often agreement that the system is broken. I have never worked in a school, but I have seen the behaviour and heard the language used by infant school children on the bus in the morning, so I can imagine what it is like in the classroom.

Fixing the problem may be as simple as having parents come into school and sit in lessons occasionally as observers. What do others think?

I did 32 years. I left and I’ve never been happier, I wish I’d left years ago. It’s always been difficult but the last decade has been un bearable. Even in schools with supportive management. I wish your husband well. It’s not him, it’s the system.

Seriously.🙄

I qualified as a secondary MFL teacher in 2016 and left in July 2023. I just couldn’t see it being sustainable for a long term career, especially if we wanted a family of our own. We were frequently expected to keep doing more and more “for the kids” or because it “needs to be done” and the ever increasing workload meant I was making myself ill trying to do it all. After 4 years of laryngitis, tonsillitis and complete aphonia, I decided something had to give- either my health or the job. So I resigned with nothing to go to and felt an intense rush of relief. Strangely I enjoyed my last term teaching more than any of the previous ones, but I knew the insane pressure was gone so that helped.

I adored being in the classroom, and loved working with teenagers. It’s something I really miss in my new role outside of education but for the first time in 7 years I finally feel like myself again.

Teachers do not go into teaching for the holidays or the money.

The only reason that I'm still on the supply list is that I'm now a widow with nothing better to do with what's left of my life. (Sorry - I no longer see teaching as a vocation.)

The money is currently quite decent for an experienced supply teacher (until I get my state pension) and I don't have the stress of being responsible for getting kids through exams. I still have the stress of dealing with behavioural problems, but I refuse to take temporary contracts of any description, so I can just walk if it gets too bad. Knowing that makes a huge difference, particularly since my mortgage is paid and I have my reduced teaching pension.

I feel sorry for young teachers who see this stretching before them. It's never been an easy job, but it's so much harder now.

If you're in Scotland and in the profession, my recommendation would be to look for jobs in more rural areas. I have friends who are very happy working in the islands and in the rural areas of the Highlands. Don't take a position in any of the cities or in the central belt.

Im not voting because this thread is on repeat.

you know the answer. The system is broken. Many people are strong enough to learn how to cope. And some, like your husband, ate not cut out for the job when there is chaotic behaviour and chaotic parenting. Not every school is like that. If tour husband can’t learn to cope, how can kids from bad homes?

I've told this story on here previously.

My final permanent post was in a Scottish secondary school: PTC/HoD/Faculty Head.

We were down a teacher, so I covered a senior class during my management non-contacts.

One particular girl was a real horror. As a junior, she'd complained about "a smell" emanating from a foreign girl in the class and the mother demanded that the class seating plan be changed. (In actual fact, there was no smell and the complainant simply wanted to sit next to one of her pals.) The SLT caved.

This time, the girl claimed that I was bullying her. SLT took a formal statement from me and from every single pupil in the class. All the statements matched: I had told the girl to be quiet. The mother maintained that I was bullying her daughter and that her daughter always told the truth.

As I told my depute, perhaps the mother needed to be told that her constantly truthful daughter had also told her classmate that the mother was a "slut", because she'd been [local slang word] at 15 and the daughter was the result.

Daughter had also disrupted the class by loudly informing the class that she had been put on the Norplant implant at 15 in response to the mother's behaviour at that age.

Just move country. Not everywhere is like this. In some countries kids are still respectful and teachers earn more too.

I personally disagree (mostly based on my sample of one so I won’t generalise), DS has been diagnosed with high functioning autism and both the state and private primaries he attended were very good in terms of support / adjustments etc but what was hard for him was being in a room with 30 other people most of the day, with all the noise and movement.
We moved him to a class of 15, girl heavy, and it is way easier for him.

Now to the idea that « parenting with screens » could be a cause… one of the few pre-kids principles I hung on to was to limit screen time. No screens ever until he was 2, we never have the tv on in the background, never have given a tablet to a child in a pram or at a restaurant. I kid you not, until they were 7 or so my children believed that the tv couldn’t be turned on until noon (this way they wouldn’t even ask to watch it).

I agree with the PP about the overstimulation at school. For a child with Asperger it is way easier to sit at a desk on your own, always the same one, and to write in your book. Now they sit in circles, change desks often, sit on the carpet, create posters and displays etc. I imagine all these changes were made for children who had learning difficulties / school refusal, but as a side effect it makes things easier for some ND children.

some teachers seem way softer. When i was at school they were battle axes who just ignored a rude kid! They were tough/no nonsense.

But teachers can’t win-there are posts on here baying for their blood if a class teacher so much as raise their voices to a child!

"I blame the parents"

When there is huge and very rapid (ie, over a decade) systemic change in the way an institution - in this case a schools - are functioning, and it's happening at a population level, it will never just be about the sudden and simultaneous character failings of masses of adults.

You make it sound as though it's Labour's fault.

I'm 50 50 on this.

On the one hand:

• parents don't back up school behaviour policies enough. This is a huge issue.
• kids behaviour is worse and too much physical violence is not punished severely enough
• inclusivity means schools are forced to make concessions for frankly unacceptable behaviour
• there's too much SEN in mainstream without the resource to make it work

On the other hand:

• some teachers seem way softer. When i was at school they were battle axes who just ignored a rude kid! They were tough/no nonsense. My sister is a teacher in a rough secondary & is cut from this cloth & has got frustrated a lot in past few years with younger teachers who take everything personally and lack resilience.
• my DC teacher is like this. I've been in the classroom to help out and she is terrifically weak, she doesn't hold boundaries or impose clear consequences and as a result can't control his class.

There’s so much wrong with state ed. I know there are some schools where behaviour is good and pupil progress is good but I certainly don’t go by the Ofsted judgement.

I wish the leaders of the different parties would read this thread and really understand what the problems are. Then they might be able to start thinking how to improve the schools.

OP, I hope your DH can find either a school that’s suits him better or a new career that he can grow to love.

@jouperI really pick my battles; there haven't been many. But some of us do have to challenge the schools. My child is Autistic. It's incredibly difficult for them. It's not even the schools fault- I'm so aware of that. It's the system they're part of. They are often expected to cater to all the differences with a rigid one size fits all curriculum and approach and minimal extra resources. It's an almost impossible task.

Are you seriously suggesting schools are not overstimulating for ND DC??!!