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

Oh look someone that doesn't know jack about what is going on in education at the moment.

Wtf is wrong with the schooling in our country?! This is horrific!!

As the stats shown above evidence, the state system isn't overburdened by numbers. There are plenty of school places.

There seems to be the widespread belief among some that if a child hits/kicks/doesn’t achieve their potential or do well in their exams or is arsing about not getting on, that it’s the teacher’s fault. They weren’t engaging enough, they didn’t spend long enough planning an exciting lesson, they didn’t adapt the lesson sufficiently, they weren’t ‘inclusive’ enough.

When you are working as hard as you can, but you’re still blamed for the above, and represented in the papers as being lazy or whinging, it can get demoralising. I don’t know a single other person from my PGCE still teaching which is pretty sad.

I‘m a teacher and whilst pregnant, was attacked by a pupil. Nothing was done so I signed off with work related stress.

Teaching is not for the faint hearted and I think is massively underestimated. All I hear is I get great holidays so should just put up with the behaviour.
All I hope is that my own children don’t become teachers when they grow up.

The problem is the lack of respect of authority to teachers. Students and parents have no respect for teachers and their sense of entitlement is beyond belief.
no money from the private sector would fix that. Labour is selling you a dream like Brexit.
But would fix it is enforcing sanctions, exclusions, envoloving the police and protecting the poor teachers who are getting all the abuse.

And SLT need to start accepting responsibility for their jobs.

You need a Head and an SLT that stand behind the teacher and are prepared to stand up to parents and tell them to find another school if they don't like the behaviour policy.

I'm a teacher and I don't want to quit, however I will probably go part time. My class aren't bad but the cohort I have next year are renowned for being difficult. Their current class teacher has been off sick with stress since Easter and they've had numerous supply in as the assistant principal refused to teach them due to the behaviour!

TBF there have always been behavioural issues and some parents that don’t care. It seems to be coming from the top now with lack of support for staff that is causing this implosion plus the removal of experienced teaching staff. Current model seems to favour new grad churn and burn.

What would entice teachers back. I did primary training in a challenging school and I lasted six months. The toughest job I have ever done. The only way I would go back would be two days of planning, smaller class size and a TA. The primary my daughter went to was great though - same London borough as "my" school and very similar area, so just better behaviour policy maybe?
I'm really sorry your husband went through this OP I hope he recovers soon.

Ah, I see. So it is, in fact, politics of envy and not at all about getting another 6,500 teachers into state school. Which it sounds like is going to be impossible to manage. Whilst bringing tens of thousands of new kids into to over burdened state sector.

Why is Henrietta any more important and deserves to be sheltered from this any more than Sarah, Billy or Jonny? No child should have to see behaviour like this whether state school or private.

It's not all bad, but increasingly the bad outweighs the good.
I think many parents from my school would read this thread and think at least our school's not like that'. We are an oversubscribed Outstanding school in a desirable area.
There have always been challenging schools and all schools have always had challenges. It seems now that all schools are challenging schools full of challenges.
There is a stat that says there are more qualified teachers no longer teaching, than qualified teachers teaching in schools.
It is often said that there is a recruitment crisis in teaching, but there isn't, there is a retention crisis.

This is exactly why we went private. DD did half a term term in a pre school attached to a primary school, rated as one of the top 100 in the country. We lasted half a term before moving her to a private school. A Class of 15 with one teacher and 3 TAs. She doesn’t come home hurt, no drug deals outside the school gate, no parents swearing and shouting in the pick up line.

Good for him. I hope he recognises he has done his very best and goes on to do something much more fulfilling.
No one should have to put up with this.

But at least someone would be arrested for assaulting a police officer. Nothing happens if you assault a teacher in most cases.

This is the problem - the enrichment of a few at the expense of the majority.

Our primary school's behaviour isn't quite that bad, but has been bad and stressful enough that we have lost at least 7 teachers over the last 2 years to non-teaching roles.... The local secondary school has a shocking rate of turnover and are struggling to keep decent teachers due to the behaviour in school.

Parents really aren't getting it ... there will no one left to teach their children if they don't start teaching their children to behave and face consequences at home!

I would add the stealth privatisation through the academies and SEN provision to your list. I don’t think the decline of education and the rise of the above is a coincidence.

Parents are on phones or at work, so disengaged from children. They think being on the child's side against the school is good parenting. Maybe it's a guilt thing. I've also been called a cunt and sad old bitch, and I work in a school with an excellent Head and SLT. I just have to remind myself that our students are children and their brains are not fully developed yet.

Gosh, this is a very different view of state schools being painted than the dozens of VAT on school fees threads. On those, ‘little Henrietta’ will do just fine in state school and nobody can understand what the fuss is all about.

Schools need to be a lot more strict, and stick to the rules, if pupils break them, expel them at the first instance.

Interesting. I wonder how that is split across the grading of schools? I’m sure there is plenty of space in an underperforming school. But who wants their kids going there?!

@jouper that's terrible.