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

I now only do a bit of supply. (I'm in my 60s.)

New build schools have open plan toilets with the sinks open to the corridor so that staff can monitor behaviour. I'm seeing secondary pupils vaping openly.

In one school, I was allocated a classroom opposite the toilets. I reported the kids hanging about the toilets vaping. The school is not allowed to issue punishments these days. (The LA won't allow it.) Staff are allowed to have "restorative conversations", very brief detentions - if the kids agree to stay behind - and to phone parents.

Typically, the parents reply "I can't stop him/her..." or "It's better than smoking..." or "It's all right: we'd rather have him/her vaping with our permission..."

Teachers in senior school may have 6 classes a day. It’s really only possible to mark 1/2 class’s work in an evening, as well as doing prep. Hence the feeling of never keeping up, and never being able to take an evening off. I gave up when I was menopausal, coming home,making dinner, falling asleep, then waking up in time to do 2 hours work. Going early bad,y affected my pension butbI just couldn’t do it any more.

OP I am sorry to hear this and all the posters who have had similar issues. It’s appalling.

This is depressing reading. I know things are bad but it makes me feel really depressed about the future of society.

So many parents aren't actually doing any parenting and schools are baring the brunt and we will all bare the brunt when these kids grow up to become unemployable adults.

People tend to forget that your job as a parent is to raise a child to be an capable adult after 18 years. Not to be their friend. Not to ensure they are never unhappy or challenged. That's part of the process.

You only have to read some of the threads on here…

Attendance, party invites, uniform, phones, transition, new class, friends…etc etc.
Adults who don't want to follow the rules, who are not willing to be accountable, adults who can only see ‘my child’ rather than a community, adults who do not make any effort.

That's absolutely appalling!!!!
Your poor DH. 😕
Kid's behaviour is obviously getting worse and it's disgusting that the parents allow and condone it.

This.

It’s all very well saying that certain children or groups of children should be excluded, but it really isn’t straightforward. The aim is for zero exclusions and Ofsted don’t like exclusions.

I’ve been kicked so hard I had a bruise from ankle to knee for six weeks. By a five year old. I’ve had an attempt to choke me, an attempt to wrestle me to the ground, thwarted by another member of staff. Being sworn at was a fairly regular occurrence. But there were more good days than bad. I don’t think that’s the case any more.

I’m not surprised so many teachers are leaving and it really is at crisis point now. The education system is broken and I don’t think it can be fixed, at least not quickly and not easily.

I've worked in a high school as support staff for two years. I'm job hunting and I'd never work in a school again.

I've lost count of the times I've been told to F off, called a bi*, a c**t and generally disrespected and shouted at. The way students speak to teachers is appalling and I'd be ashamed if my child spoke to them like that.

Some parents do not want to parent and just blame school.

I'm sorry your husband has had to resort to leaving, I hope he finds something that brings peace and happiness.

Some of it is. Some of it is social media and ubiquitous screens, including parental use leading to disengagement with child-rearing. Some of it is the shitty state of schools full of unqualified staff simply being the required warm body in a classroom while chaos reigns unchecked due to inability to hire teachers. Some of it is an increasingly young and inexperienced teaching workforce who simply haven't built up the knowledge of how to create routines and consistency. Some of it is the lack of pastoral staff due to budget cuts to mentor these kids into better choices. Some of it is the lack of SEN provision that is needed to help some of them be able to engage.

A lot of it is the last 14 years of underinvestment and lack of care for education and young people, particularly during covid, and post-covid.

A £15 billion covid recovery programme for kids was proposed by the government's own advisor and then rejected for being too expensive. Very false economy.

I think it’s probably a lot worse if you work for the police force

It’s not underfunding though. It’s lack of standards and vile attitudes. Where have these come from in our society that things have changed so much? I’m just more and no re shocked every day.

No worries for us, we have plenty of maintained places. Admission statistics for 2023 show about 70% of our schools with spare places.

My LA have supported governing board requests to close, losing 16 schools in just over 5 years, due to low numbers impacting on sustainability, financial and the quality of education provided.

We would be delighted with more children.

National data supports this.
72% of schools have spare places. 93% of schools have capacity or only exceed numbers by 10 or more pupils.

Around 18% of state-funded schools were at or in excess of capacity in 2022/23, this is similar to 2021/22. The majority of these exceeded their capacity by less than 10 pupils, with around 7% of schools exceeding their capacity by 10 or more pupils.

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity/2022-23#

I left teaching. I'd had too many years of being laughed at, being walked away from when trying to deal with shit behaviour, having children lie to me and parents backing them up, having parents lie about me, chairs thrown, around class, having to break up fights, tables tipped over, kids swearing, kids tearing work out of books and then getting pulled up on state of books, constant scrutiny from SLT and parents but most of all it was just dealing with teaching the most god awful curriculum I've ever seen.

It’s down to the families. I’ve taught in private and state for over 20 years and even in private schools, if the behaviour is bad, parents never blame their child or question how they are raising them. It’s always someone else’s fault.
Generally, the behaviour is better in independent schools, but the pressure on teachers is ridiculous as it’s essentially a business, so image is everything.
Respond to parents emails instantly, take endless photos of children so the parents can see what they’re up to, hear them read everyday, write to parents daily to let them know what’s going on, have meetings with them whenever they want-and if time, teach in order get the highest grades and top inspection ratings. Oh & get paid £14,000 less than a state school. It’s worth it to not be sworn at and have chairs thrown at you though.
Who’d be a teacher!

How terrible.

What on earth is going on in British society?

Its shocking.

My 15 year old told me she thinks our generation have failed them badly. When I look at what goes on around us and read threads like these, I can’t disagree with her at all 🤷🏽‍♀️.

I don’t think it’s underfunding, I think it’s a symptom of ‘underparenting’!

We’ve begged our friend to leave teaching after 20 years as he was literally on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He too has been called horrific names and assaulted. He is actually a really well liked teacher but a minority every year, have made his life hell. He’s also surrounded by very young, inexperienced teachers because all the older ones have left.

He handed in his notice in December and is counting down the days until end of term. He‘s already so much less stressed and happy.

Gentle parenting is to blame for this.

Best friend has been a Reception teacher for 27 years….she says this year’s class is the worst in terms of behaviour she has ever experienced. And parents just don’t want to address it when they are approached. It’s really concerning.

I also remember my db's PGCS/NQT time. A friend of his was working teaching something in a local school - normal area, ordinary people. She was on antidepressants within 6 weeks. This was in 2005 I think.

So sorry I wasted my life in the teaching profession. Marking and preparing 6 nights a week. No time for hobbies, and little time for my own kids. I know exactly how your husband feels. It’s so demeaning having to take that cheek from kids as there are no longer any sanctions that work. Most teachers don’t even have a phone in their classroom so they can call for help when there’s a problem.