Any teachers on here?

Sadly it is getting worse and worse. I’m SLT and been in teaching for 22 years.
I don’t think I’ve another 20 days left in me let alone another 20 years.
Sadly there is an increasing profile of parents who are tearing teachers apart, hugely unreasonable and think it is acceptable to send you 10 emails a day about minor issues, harass and threaten staff, post accusations and inflammatory/untrue comments all over social media, verbally and sometimes physically abuse staff - and unfortunately this is not exclusive to any one school. It is the same across the board.
Education is the only service that can’t opt out- social services, health- they can all disengage. But not schools who are expected to have the magic want to fix society’s problems. I have retrained in another career and I am planning how I can leave.
I love the children, I love the buzz of the classroom. It’s all the additional demands- presumption of mainstream for children who deserve so much more support, cutting services to the wire, having no budget and having to spend hundreds of our own salary on being able to resource school properly, abusive parents, increasing violence…it is an entirely unsustainable job these days and I would never ever suggest anybody does it. Something I never thought I would ever say. This week I’ve barely slept and hardly eaten due to stress and that is no use- seeing my GP next week. Getting out now is the best thing she could do for herself.

I teach secondary and am actually an ect but taught unqualified for several years before I did my training. It is pretty brutal in terms of expectations, hours etc. I have classes with 70% of students with SEND needs (all together to ensure ta support) and it's challenging beyond comprehension some days. I have y7 students who can't read or write and still have toileting issues, as well as struggling socially and emotionally. They should be in specialist provision but there are no places.

However, I love it like nothing else. I'm lucky to be in a department where we do everything collaboratively and wellbeing is crucial and supported. SLT are also fantastic and the school ethos suits me. It doesn't detract from the significant issues with workload and behaviour but there are good schools and on balance, it's completely worth it for the love of the job. I did find out during my training year that my fellow apprentices were working in schools where there wasn't the support and it sounded frankly awful.

There is no easy answer and it's desperate that education is in this state.

34 years in Primary teaching and I've seen the job change beyond all recognition.

I really wouldn't recommend it as a career anymore, it's definitely not for the faint hearted.

Please ask her to find a different school before she packs it in. She needs to find her school. I work in a little village school. The hours are long still, there is a lot of planning as mixed age classes, there are only four classes so everyone has to lead a couple of subjects each however, the kids are lovely and the vast majority of the parents are grateful for the job we do. We’re a good team and I love working there. I’ve been there 9 years and have no plans to move. It took me 4 schools to find this one.

my advice would be to change schools, try some out and find what she likes and what suits her.

Yet, Bridget Phillipson is busy boasting about her free breakfast clubs which does not address the dire state of many schools in the UK. If she volunteered at your typical mainstream British school I would guarantee that she would hand her notice in by the end of the day.
She’s busy taking money of private schools and spending it elsewhere. Slow clap.

People like your sister need to shout louder so that everyone knows what’s happening inside those schools. Everything is bursting at the seams.

Now left education, you’re right, absolutely, not sustainable.

usually in at 7.30 until 7.30 at night, rarely had a lunch break, either on duty or sorting safeguarding. After students left at 3.30, team meeting, agencies calls due to safeguarding, calling parents, after school detention rota or revision club, every night.Sometimes marking or planning lessons if I was lucky. Home about 8.00, quick dinner, then prepping for next day, maybe an hour. Either Saturday or Sunday would spend most of day putting up resources for teachers. Exhausted reading this back. I did it until I couldn’t do it anymore. Did my PGCE in primary, absolute doddle compared to secondary. Prefer teaching teenagers, but worked in a huge city high school, that had more students in a year group than the feeder primary had in the whole school.

Unfortunately yes that's pretty much it

My Daughter is in the same boat she has packed it in after struggling with her second year ECT. It’s a bit heart breaking to deal with as she has wanted to be a teacher since she was 13,but the behaviour broke her as she spent most of her time corralling the 2-3 major problem kids in the class which was affecting her teaching and mental health.

luckily she was living with us so she has time now to reassess and work out where she wants to go next.

my hat goes off to the teachers heading into the current education environment and trying manage behaviour with one hand tied behind their back for essentially the same money my forklift drivers earn.

Yep. All this and more sometimes with having to take on extra responsibilities to cover staff absence (because they’re off to recover their mental health) and a bullying SLT, . Ridiculous expectations and sheer exhaustion. We are all leaving in droves. Teaching stole my best years. Get out now.

I teach in what used to be a PRU. You’d think it would be awful because they used to have all the worst kids. It’s not like that any more. All my teaching is either 1to1 or small group. Lots of support. Mostly the kids are not unpleasant, just traumatised by lockdown and never overcome the social anxiety.

Tell her to look at moving schools. I am really happy at my school- they do exist. Sadly the SEN TA funding crisis is really hard everywhere. But even if parents are difficult SLT should be backing their staff and any aggression should mean an immediate ban from the premises.

All of that plus the insane workload is why I left in 2022 after 6 years. Never been happier.

It's better if she can stick it out to complete her training and then leave - a qualified teacher, rather than an NCT, is in altogether a better position when looking for other roles.

Jobs with a September start are usually advertised between Christmas and Easter, so she should look out next term. And sometimes they come up for a summer start. Assuming she’s in the state sector, she likely has only half a term’s notice, so if she’s lucky she could start a fresh in April. Otherwise September. I think that unless she sees something else that really catches her eye, she should try another school. Maybe even a private prep school. Or she could look at international schools and use her teaching qualification to work abroad and save some money for a deposit on a house.

Yeah this is standard in most schools. You’ll have the odd year where it’s a better class but this is pretty much how it is.

This sounds mild to be honest. She should get out now if she’s struggling as it won’t get better.

This is why I left teaching. I have always maintained that the children are (generally) lovely, but it is the adults around them (SLT and sometimes the screaming/aggressive/hard work parents) that are the problem. I have discussed this with current teachers and, frighteningly, they agree...

I changed careers completely. Life has been much better since, though I do still sometimes wonder about the children that I used to teach, and how they are getting on (e.g. one was being adopted when I left, so I hope that she and her sibling found stability and happiness with their new family).

I live with a teacher and he never has to do these hours. 60 hours a week in school is madness. When do you arrive and leave each day? He in at 7.45 and left by 6 most days. What are you doing? Its not sustainable.

If she’s qualified, get her on to Australia. She’ll be so much happier

Sadly this sounds fairly standard these days.

Sounds exactly like my teaching job but you forgot to mention working 7:30am till 5:30pm then 8:00pm to 11:00pm ish every fucking day plus at least half a day at the weekend. Mainly trying to plan 6 lessons per day that I could deliver alone to year 6 pupils some of whom couldn't read or write, one who would smash stuff up, and several who were allowed to leave the classroom or play with lego in the corner whenever they wanted. Literally in the middle of a lesson. This is a bog standard mainstream school. The kids were so fragile it was scary.

You wouldn't believe how ridiculous it is. I quit and have never been happier.

Sadly yes! It's often a case of being squished in a narrow space with relentless, ludicrous and impossible expectations from above on one side and over reacting parents and poor behaviour on the other.

It's the vocation and those lovely kids that keep you going until one day you feel like you're suffocating!