Teachers : what's the worst thing about the job now?

Behaviour

Academisation has killed our local schools off. We were taken over last year by a relatively small MAT, with the CEO earning £250k a year. The MAT have refused to sign a trade union recognition agreement, so we can’t currently have union representation in any meetings, of which there have been many. They seem to want to push out longstanding members of staff and replace them with a wave of ECTs/unqualified teachers. Lots of staff have left and not been replaced, so workload has increased massively from trying to do two jobs.
We have been out on strike for 5 days over the 2 weeks before half term and have announced 6 more days of strike action with no movement towards a meeting to negotiate between the unions and the MAT. I have worked there over 10 years and it is actually depressing how they are running the school into the ground.

Parents who can't/don't actually interact with or parent their children, but immediately assume their child's behaviour is down to an SEND. No, your child doesn't know how to interact with others because if they're not at school they're stuck in front of a screen. It's the complete lack of responsibility that gets to me. Everything is someone else's fault.

Children’s behaviour, parents blaming the school for their own poor parenting and the unreasonable work load and continual assessments.
There is no joy in this profession any more and I’ve lost count of the number of young trainee teachers who have left their PGCE mid way through as they just don’t want to do such a relentlessly tough job.

Infant school teacher here - it's between behaviour/lack of sen support and entitled parents.

We are on our knees in every classroom with at least 20% of every class having high needs / really challenging behaviour. I'm in Reception, and I am getting so little teaching done because if I so much as turn my back for 2 minutes the behaviour becomes unsafe and someone gets hurt. That's with a full time TA and an additional learning support.

During COVID, we gave our work email addresses to parents and now the constant stream of anxious/entitled parents flooding my inbox is adding to my workload. Most parents believe their child is neurodiverse and are demanding additional interventions/support despite the child managing very well, often excelling, in class.

We are so lucky that SLT in our school are supportive, prioritise wellbeing and workload has eased considerably in the last 5 years.

Excited for you. Enjoy your Retirement, You've earned it.

Parents.

I love everything about the teaching and the school day and the children. I look firward to going in every day still after 18 years. I'm just scared of the parents' expectations and demands.

But, also parents.
I had 10 new swimmers to Stage 4 a few weeks ago. 9 of the parents, 9!!!, approached me to explain about their child's bespoke needs. Took maybe ten minutes. The tenth parent? Complained that the lesson didn't start for ten minutes.

As most people have said:

behaviour
parents demands and complaints

I love my job and the kids I teach, but I wasn’t prepared for how difficult it is.

Behaviour.

It is so so different than even just a decade ago. So much harder now.

The children all seem to think they are there 121 with you. Maybe they're used to it more with parents being around more?

behaviour ….. and the fact that most parents excuse this behaviour because they think that their kid is ND.
parents - basically allowed to speak to us how they want.

why oh why does every parent believe their kids side of the story ?!!

we have a communication app so parents are able to messages us at any time of the day or night (we don’t reply at night/ weekend ) but why is that ok ?? I don’t have a direct communication line with my doctor or my bank manager !

Not a teacher anymore (I quit) but I've always wondered what are the unions doing to push for better working conditions? I haven't seen any campaigns at all on this through the door from DH's union magazine. They should be lobbying the government and demanding better conditions.

Non teacher here. I’m intrigued about the comments saying it’s the parents. Is it just a couple per class or is it a large proportion of them? Are they pushy parents demanding more for their child or parents you’re having to deal with about an issue who are abusive / in denial?

We have no contact with our kids’ teachers other than at parents evening. I occasionally email the school office with a change to pick up arrangements or something else administrative.

Parents.
They will blame school for every little problem they can actually think of.
Some things are so ridiculous you couldn’t make them up!

You get staffroom biscuits? You’re lucky! We get nothing, no tea,coffee, milk. Not so long ago we had all this made for break and even scones. We socialised with each other. Now we all stay in our own wee bubble. It can be a very lonely job despite being surrounded constantly by people. The worst for me is parental demands, phone calls, emails and complaints. And a crazy timetable. And the continual looming of inspections, which I do my best to shut out.And horrible stilted internal interviews when you go for a teaching responsibility. And the inability to take an hour off when you need to, eg make a doctor apt.And the bells. And the heat and stuffiness of the classroom. And losing your voice every few weeks. And getting all the colds and coughs going round.Other than that I love it.

Behaviour. I have a student whom I tutor privately and who regularly laments that he can't get work done because of the disruption from some of the other students. He has my utmost sympathy because I remember very well what it was like!

I was also threatened with physical harm on several occasions. You wouldn't get me back into a classroom without a bodyguard these days.

Not teacher but SEN teaching assistant. Behaviour! Absolutely no respect for adults, I get told daily by the child I'm working with 1:1 to go away, shut up, rolls his eyes when i remind him of consequences of bad behavior. He raises his fist at me, won't listen, refuses to accept my help. It's relentless

We should be downing tools and rebelling. It not sustainable. There is a reason we can't retain new teachers.

If you’d have asked me this 3 years ago, I’d have said workload.

Now I say behaviour.

The workload hasn’t eased at all though.

I'm primary.

For me, what brings me to my knees is trying to get everything done in a week that I am required to. It's possible, but only if I rush at breakneck speed, ticking boxes and ignoring the actual learning needs of most of my class.

I feel like I'm in a spotlight on a stage, plate spinning as best I can, and SLT are sitting in the audience, eating popcorn and yelling,

• DECORATE CUPCAKES ON THE PLATES AS THEY SPIN!!
• NOW DO IT HOPPING ON ONE LEG!
• NOW CLOSE YOUR EYES!
• NOW SING THE FRENCH NATIONAL ANTHEM!
• SING IT BACKWARDS!!
• WHILE PLAYING THIS KAZZOO
• ALSO SPIN AROUND! YOU'RE NOT SPINNING ENOUGH!! THE PARENTS WANT TO SEE MORE SPINNING!

Behaviour, workload and crap SLT with BS initiatives 🙄. I going early. Like my job most the time, but just don't want to work so hard.

Workload
Behaviour
Lack of resilience in, say, 50% of the kids
SLT
Parents being in direct contact
Basically being a SEN teacher but without the support

Torn between:

Unreasonable parents
Children's lack of attention span
Children's behaviour
Workload
Unreasonable expectations
Poor quality of staffroom biscuits