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Teaching OMG!

422 replies

LucilleBluth · 17/06/2025 07:46

I have been training to teach this year. I started my PGCE as a 43 year old in September 2024. I’m about to finish it-well I say that. I’m feel like I’m hitting rock bottom with two weeks to go. I have worked in schools as support staff before so I wasn’t totally blind and I have good friends who are teachers, but oh my god, it is such hard work. The workload is insane-the kids are lovely but I’m dealing with so much extra stuff like SEN, EAL is off the charts, behaviour, kids without equipment and who can’t cope unless a lesson is chunked and scaffolded so much I may as well spoon feed it.

I don’t feel I can do it full time so I applied for a Cover Supervisor role-15 qualified teachers applied for a £21000 year job, I,didn't get it. What’s the point

Teacher pay needs doubling. I’ve been awake since 1am.

OP posts:
SunnySideDeepDown · 19/06/2025 16:59

FrippEnos · 19/06/2025 06:51

You can't have seen many if the ones that you saw were 40K

I saw the whole staffing spend and the majority were earning £40k tops (single form entry school). The only exception were newly qualified but they weren’t far off it.

Teateaandmoretea · 19/06/2025 11:27

countingthedays945 · 19/06/2025 05:34

I’ve worked as both a nurse and a teacher and whilst nursing carries many many pressures you are not constantly monitored in terms of your performance or how you manage behaviour. It exerts a constant pressure on you to meet expectations that you just cannot ever meet. Yes, nurses and docs have pressure but then imagine their manager or cqc inspector was checking every time they signed, how they spoke to every patient, if a patients family member could walk in to their workplace on a daily basis and have a go at them about the way they nurse or treat. They wouldn’t stand it for two minutes. Teachers lost their professional body years ago and no they are at the mercy of everyone who wants to belittle and exploit them.

You’re a glutton for punishment aren’t you 🤣

ilovesooty · 19/06/2025 09:06

echt · 19/06/2025 09:01

So what?

Start a thread about others jobs why don't you?

That sort of poster just looks for teaching threads so that they can have a go.

echt · 19/06/2025 09:01

Surroundedbyfools · 18/06/2025 12:56

I’ve said yes the Job is difficult but other jobs r also equally or more difficult with significantly less down time. All I ever see is teachers moaning non stop when I see with my own eyes junior docs literally crippled with the work load and pressure and lack of time off whereas teachers have 13 weeks off a year at least and yes I know they all say oh we r not paid for tht. They r salaried like everyone else mostly so yeah they r

So what?

Start a thread about others jobs why don't you?

Zonder · 19/06/2025 07:46

Kulwinder54 · 19/06/2025 06:45

I've never understood why teacher unions don't demand quicker and longer exclusions for disruptive pupils? Maybe when parents are forced to deal with the bad behaviour of their children, they might v well do something about it.

There are all kinds of idealogical reasons why that won't happen.

ilovesooty · 19/06/2025 07:12

FrippEnos · 19/06/2025 06:51

You can't have seen many if the ones that you saw were 40K

Surely pay slips have been issued electronically for years?

FrippEnos · 19/06/2025 06:51

SunnySideDeepDown · 19/06/2025 06:50

The pay doesn’t need doubling. I worked in a school and saw the payslips - £40k isn’t bad with that much holiday!

The government need to improve SEN provision though and increase school budgets to allow for more staff.

You can't have seen many if the ones that you saw were 40K

SunnySideDeepDown · 19/06/2025 06:50

The pay doesn’t need doubling. I worked in a school and saw the payslips - £40k isn’t bad with that much holiday!

The government need to improve SEN provision though and increase school budgets to allow for more staff.

AngelinaFibres · 19/06/2025 06:46

HairyToity · 17/06/2025 08:49

Curious - why has it got so much worse in the last decade? What has been the shift?

Gentle parenting/ not parenting at all.
Children being 'parented' by screens.
Entitlement. God the entitlement of both parents and children.
The utterly pointless recording/ planning because Ofsted might want to see it .
Parents with all the 'beauty ' tweaks ( nails , lip fillers, orange tan , tattoos) bringing in children who smell, haven't eaten properly ( so they have to be fed by the teacher before they can focus on learning anything), have lice, scabies, impetigo.

Kulwinder54 · 19/06/2025 06:45

I've never understood why teacher unions don't demand quicker and longer exclusions for disruptive pupils? Maybe when parents are forced to deal with the bad behaviour of their children, they might v well do something about it.

Dangermoo · 19/06/2025 06:06

Chat2025 · 19/06/2025 06:03

Teacher of 24 years here and I agree with the above. BUT it is tough and everyone is tired by the end of the year. I have worked in very good schools luckily which have some issues but have been )generally) well managed and pretty well resourced. This changes how you can do the job as frontline staff. Maybe give it a year or two, op if you can find a good school abd then get out if it doesn’t get better. But to me it is a vocation still. Despite being nearly 50, I am still somewhat optimistic!!!

Absolutely agree with this. It's no coincidence that my most enjoyable position was in a grammar school.

Chat2025 · 19/06/2025 06:03

Bunnycat101 · 17/06/2025 09:24

I suspect there are two things going on:

  1. the general toughness of the landscape at the moment

  2. the fact that you’re new in and haven’t got all the planning sorted.

It might be premature to be done already and you might find things improve in a year or two. The environment may always be tough but any new role is hard work and exhausting at first. One of the best teachers in my children’s school has done the same year for the past 10 years. There won’t be anything about that year she hasn’t seen or done before. That is going to give a very different experience to picking up a role for the first time.

Teacher of 24 years here and I agree with the above. BUT it is tough and everyone is tired by the end of the year. I have worked in very good schools luckily which have some issues but have been )generally) well managed and pretty well resourced. This changes how you can do the job as frontline staff. Maybe give it a year or two, op if you can find a good school abd then get out if it doesn’t get better. But to me it is a vocation still. Despite being nearly 50, I am still somewhat optimistic!!!

countingthedays945 · 19/06/2025 05:34

I’ve worked as both a nurse and a teacher and whilst nursing carries many many pressures you are not constantly monitored in terms of your performance or how you manage behaviour. It exerts a constant pressure on you to meet expectations that you just cannot ever meet. Yes, nurses and docs have pressure but then imagine their manager or cqc inspector was checking every time they signed, how they spoke to every patient, if a patients family member could walk in to their workplace on a daily basis and have a go at them about the way they nurse or treat. They wouldn’t stand it for two minutes. Teachers lost their professional body years ago and no they are at the mercy of everyone who wants to belittle and exploit them.

FrippEnos · 18/06/2025 17:27

Surroundedbyfools · 18/06/2025 13:23

Doctors nurses etc also have all the same issues of moving goalposts, insanely high case loads, violent patients and under intense scrutiny!

here's a thought.

Start a thread about it, instead of derailing this one.

TheCaloricDecline · 18/06/2025 16:14

Surroundedbyfools · 18/06/2025 13:23

Doctors nurses etc also have all the same issues of moving goalposts, insanely high case loads, violent patients and under intense scrutiny!

OP didn’t come here to compare teaching to nursing, or to junior doctors, or to anyone else. OP was speaking specifically about the realities of teaching, especially around supporting SEN in mainstream schools — something that’s increasingly unmanageable due to workload, systemic underfunding, and lack of resources.

But every time the challenges of teaching are mentioned, the response is to pull in another profession with “harder” conditions. First it was nurses, now junior doctors. That’s not a conversation — it’s a deflection.

Yes, junior doctors are under huge pressure. So are nurses. So are teachers. So are social workers. The public sector is stretched across the board — and trying to silence one group by shouting louder about another helps no one.

We’re all fighting the same battle in different uniforms.

Dangermoo · 18/06/2025 13:42

ilovesooty · 18/06/2025 13:29

Evidently others have more patience in engaging with you than I have. Your latest contribution hasn't made me feel any more inclined - in the same way as I don't feel inclined to bang my head repeatedly on a brick wall.

Yes, you are right x

Surroundedbyfools · 18/06/2025 13:37

ilovesooty · 18/06/2025 13:29

Evidently others have more patience in engaging with you than I have. Your latest contribution hasn't made me feel any more inclined - in the same way as I don't feel inclined to bang my head repeatedly on a brick wall.

Well if you ever do batter ur head off a wall im sure a person working under intense pressure for shit pay and less rest wilL take care of you !

ilovesooty · 18/06/2025 13:29

Surroundedbyfools · 18/06/2025 12:56

I’ve said yes the Job is difficult but other jobs r also equally or more difficult with significantly less down time. All I ever see is teachers moaning non stop when I see with my own eyes junior docs literally crippled with the work load and pressure and lack of time off whereas teachers have 13 weeks off a year at least and yes I know they all say oh we r not paid for tht. They r salaried like everyone else mostly so yeah they r

Evidently others have more patience in engaging with you than I have. Your latest contribution hasn't made me feel any more inclined - in the same way as I don't feel inclined to bang my head repeatedly on a brick wall.

Dangermoo · 18/06/2025 13:25

Surroundedbyfools · 18/06/2025 13:23

Doctors nurses etc also have all the same issues of moving goalposts, insanely high case loads, violent patients and under intense scrutiny!

Yes, but why are we making it a race to the bottom with whataboutery? Both professions, along with many others, are deserving of the same recognition.

Surroundedbyfools · 18/06/2025 13:23

Dangermoo · 18/06/2025 13:13

You aren't comparing like for like. Junior doctors have a responsibility to save people's lives. Teachers have a responsibility to Equip pupils and students in preparation for the work place. Teachers are under constant scrutiny from SLTs, Ofsted and parents. This is on top of managing high class loads, often containing violent or disobedient pupils. Added to that, are the constant moving goal posts with targets. If you've not done the job, sorry, you don't know what you're talking about.

Doctors nurses etc also have all the same issues of moving goalposts, insanely high case loads, violent patients and under intense scrutiny!

MyCyanReader · 18/06/2025 13:20

LucilleBluth · 17/06/2025 09:40

Like I said, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. I went from working in a special school (I loved it) to a high achieving grammar as Assistant SENCo, to mainstream teaching and it has blown my mind.

I love my subject and I’m passionate about teaching it, but so much EAL, behaviour issues and SEN in one classroom impacts teaching. It’s not that I don’t care about those issues, I absolutely do and I do my best to accommodate, but it’s almost impossible, with even the 80 percent timetable I have at the moment, to teach quality lessons. Literally half the class don’t have equipment, they’re not ready to learn or they don’t care. In year 7 they don’t have the reading age to access my curriculum, plus there’s too much to fit in.

I'm so tired, it’s been a fucker of a year. I emailed my mentor to say that I can’t see out the last 2 weeks. I’m not sleeping, I’ve been awake since 1.30am.

Then find a better school for a permanent job.

Teaching is a crazy job. VERY long hours during term time, but you do get 13 weeks holiday. I take a 20% pay cut to do 4 days a week and make the term times more manageable, but yes, the pay is rubbish given the intensity of the job - 13 weeks holiday but we have to pay school holiday prices for any holiday we then want to go on!

Buy a cheap pack of biros, hand them out to kids without a pen, give them behaviour points, and make it clear they now HAVE a pen, and you expect them to bring the pen to every lesson. If they don't have a pen in future, they get a detention.

I teach children who are so lazy that they can't even be bothered to get their pen out of their bag. Amazing how they suddenly remember they have one when I go to book a detention...

As for EAL, then you can translate a whole document using Google which takes 60 seconds. For one class I had 7 EAL with poor English so had to translate to Polish, Persian, Chinese and Ukrainian.

As for behaviour, find a school with a good behaviour policy. I work in a school where those disrupting the learning of others are removed.

Dangermoo · 18/06/2025 13:13

Surroundedbyfools · 18/06/2025 12:56

I’ve said yes the Job is difficult but other jobs r also equally or more difficult with significantly less down time. All I ever see is teachers moaning non stop when I see with my own eyes junior docs literally crippled with the work load and pressure and lack of time off whereas teachers have 13 weeks off a year at least and yes I know they all say oh we r not paid for tht. They r salaried like everyone else mostly so yeah they r

You aren't comparing like for like. Junior doctors have a responsibility to save people's lives. Teachers have a responsibility to Equip pupils and students in preparation for the work place. Teachers are under constant scrutiny from SLTs, Ofsted and parents. This is on top of managing high class loads, often containing violent or disobedient pupils. Added to that, are the constant moving goal posts with targets. If you've not done the job, sorry, you don't know what you're talking about.

Surroundedbyfools · 18/06/2025 12:56

ilovesooty · 17/06/2025 22:10

Not even worth engaging with.

I’ve said yes the Job is difficult but other jobs r also equally or more difficult with significantly less down time. All I ever see is teachers moaning non stop when I see with my own eyes junior docs literally crippled with the work load and pressure and lack of time off whereas teachers have 13 weeks off a year at least and yes I know they all say oh we r not paid for tht. They r salaried like everyone else mostly so yeah they r

echt · 18/06/2025 09:15

LucilleBluth · 17/06/2025 11:56

One of my dear dear friends is HoD for English in the grammar system. He is the epitome of the perfect teacher-he’s absolutely outstanding and totally inspirational. But he teaches top set KS4 and KS5. Won’t go near years 7 and 8. I think that’s the only way to survive.

He is not a perfect teacher and is a shit HOD. Lazy, lazy man.

Exam classes are a piece of piss. He should be taking years 7and 8 so he can really see how the curriculum prepares the students for the exam years.

I've been HOD English in UK secondary and FE as well as Au secondary and this is the job. You know your department and curriculum by teaching it. I always taught the range for just this reason.

User415373 · 18/06/2025 07:41

IwasDueANameChange · 17/06/2025 15:38

you have to account for the fact that many teachers are forced to work part time just so that they can manage their work load. In that sense their getting paid say two thirds of their salary for still working effectively full time.
This pisses me off so much in terms of new mothers and parents. Teachers are predominantly women of child bearing age and their careers (and bank balance) suffer because of this.

This is true of many jobs. I work in accountancy and almost no one comes back 5 days a week after having kids.

I totally get that from a childcare perspective or because they want to spend that time with their children. What I'm trying to say about teachers is that the are often still working on those days 'off'. I used to to still have to find childcare for my days off so that I could do all of the marking, planning, report writing, IEPs, risk assessments etc etc that I used to do in the evenings when I was now doing nursery pick up and bedtime etc and many others did the same. We used to take it turns to watch them at someone's house so the others could do school work.
Many teachers who work say 3 days are week are squeezing 36 hours into those days, or still working 50+ hours a week but just doing more on the evenings and weekends rather than getting paid.

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