Five teachers have left DD's school including two of her GCSE teachers!

Foxyloxy1plus1
Every time I've left a school I've always left exam classes because when I've been in 11-16 I've had year 10 and 11 and when I've been in 11-18 I've had 3 or 4 groups in y10,11,12,13.

A child who has worked hard through school, works well and is on track for an A is able of getting an A independent of who teaches them for the final 6 months of a course (because realistically that's all it is in y11. By March, if not earlier, it's just exam papers and revision).
Much as I would love to claim that the years my results were off the scale good were because I'm awesome, those spikes happened because those STUDENTS did everything I asked of them and worked their arses off. Im a great teacher, but i wasn't a better teacher that year.

Several years ago my DDs A level history teacher walked out on the penultimate day of the summer term. No notice. Came into the class and announced he was going. Just walked out.

clearly for him his health was worth more then his career.

I suspect it was the other way around. They didn't struggle to recruit because he walked out.

More likely he was being treated like shit, which was both the reason he walked out, and the reason they stuggled to recruit.

Several years ago my DDs A level history teacher walked out on the penultimate day of the summer term. No notice. Came into the class and announced he was going. Just walked out. That was totally unprofessional and school struggled to recruit and it did make a difference because the replacement was unqualified and hadn't "taught" for 10 years. Utterly dreadful for all concerned.

Thing is, secondary teachers do tend to have exam classes whenever they leave. I left several classes of year 10s and year 12s. Had I stayed until they'd finished, I'd have left a different lot...

My daughter's English teacher left the school at the end of her Year 10. Until that point, she was on track for an A or A. She got a B and I believe that was the reason.*

That's hardly fair. Teachers need to be allowed a life. There is always a class to leave and if your DD was capable of a A at the end of yr 10 she was capable of an A in yr 11. At what point did it become the sole responsibility of the teacher?

My daughter's English teacher left the school at the end of her Year 10. Until that point, she was on track for an A or A*. She got a B and I believe that was the reason.

rebelnotaslave

yes, "Usually" but there are many things to take into account.

Such as a pissed off head who wants them off premises ASAP.

Usually they would wait until the end of the lesson so that there are no pupils there. And they wouldn't be allowed to talk to the pupils and say they were leaving/had been sacked.

rebelnotaslave

How would you expect someone to get home?
They would be allowed to go and get there belongings. normally with an escort.

No, even gross misconduct they'd have to be told the meeting was happening in advance and that there was a likely chance of dismissal. They'd also have to be given time to get a union rep present if they wished.

If they were bring suspended pending investigation they wouldn't be allowed back into the classroom with pupils, even to collect things.

user1497480444

Its entirely possible for the teacher to be pulled out of lesson, have a meeting and then be given time to collect their things.

It's not a massive turnover. Teachers move on. I did a year ago. I left my exam classes. I wasn't sacked, I wasn't leaving teaching. I got a new job in a new school, because I wanted to do a different job.

Because teachers can only leave at 3 points in a year, there is inevitable "bunching". And the most common exit point is the end of the summer term.

5 is normal to me and a fairly typical turnover.

One school 15 of us left in one year. Some of us left for promotions (I was one of about 6), others left for another school and some left teaching altogether.

As other posters have said, a sacked teacher would not have been back on site. They would probably have been fixed term contract and it's not been renewed.

*an unqualified

I know of an academy employing anu qualified technician as a teacher next year. No degree, no teaching qualification.

I was a teacher until 2 years ago, in a shortage (secondary) subject. I loved the actual teaching, I was quite good at it. But I wouldn't go back now if you paid me £1million a year.

user1497480444 - I agree with DonnaNoble. Much more money is needed to make the state education system fairer for all children. It is a mess. You have experienced bad discipline but this cannot be a major factor in every school. State schools have been underfunded for years. Volunteer governors, whilst well meaning and many hard working, are being asked to run £5m + income academies which need to be led by qualified professionals from business and education. Whilst needing more funds we also cannot expect senior teachers to run these budgets alone. Qualified teachers need to be more valued by government and the government needs to stop "giving" schools away to private businesses.

That was exactly what it screamed out to me when I saw that addley

@user1497480444 - more money is exactly what we need. The cuts to our local schools have resulted in subjects like Music and Tech being cut (and no, this isn't from schools with loads of TAs twiddling their thumbs).

this profession has massive turnover and you'll be promoted way too soon with way too little experience because everyone who's been in it longer than you has quit

yes! that is exactly what it means.

I saw an advert for teaching the other day that was like "I was head of department within 20 seconds of qualifying 😄" - like that's going to encourage me! It just screams "this profession has massive turnover and you'll be promoted way too soon with way too little experience because everyone who's been in it longer than you has quit". Mmm. Tempting.

With better discipline, better tailored curriculum, more support from parents, better work ethic, we could do TEN times more with the money we have.
What are your suggestions for how this could be achieved?

we really don't need more money, we just need to use the money we have better. I have just resigned from being a TA, I spent my time being abused and threatened by children who didn't actually need support, or who refused to use it.

We pay millions to serve up a decent education to children who REFUSE it.

With better discipline, better tailored curriculum, more support from parents, better work ethic, we could do TEN times more with the money we have.

I wonder if some posters who have kids in private schools or decent grammars etc understand quite how bad things are at regular state schools.
Articu - Yes, some of us who cross both state and indie do realise how bad it is. My DD's former "Outstanding" grammar was rife with problems behind the scenes, losing staff and running a high deficit. It was made to join a MAT. Many of my friends are worrying about their DC's state schools. The question is how to repair this dreadful situation and make the government listen. We do have a PM at the moment who is very reactive, so maybe it should be made very uncomfortable for her? Strikes are rightly unpopular amongst teachers but it may be the only way to get the government to listen, especially while they are on the back foot politically.

@Articu - I work in an excellent grammar school. We have lost lots of staff this year and as I stated earlier no one applied for my last mat cover. The English was covered by my department going over allocation and losing games afternoons (one English teacher was doing 4 afternoons of games! He is qualified for rugby and cricket coaching but still!). The RS was covered by twisting the arm of a recently retired teacher.

About half the staff at my (small) secondary school have moved on over the course of this year. There were 8 teachers plus several members of support staff on the last day of term. We have fewer than 40 teachers overall. Some of these were redundancies (including majority of admin staff - we used to have separate receptionist/HR/Reprographics/Librarian jobs and they were all turned into one job, which is utterly ridiculous but saves a lot of money) some were staff moving into new jobs or retiring and one or two (including me) are just leaving the job completely.

As of September, the school will have an entirely new Maths department, only two recognisable (to the students) Science teachers, no DT teachers, only one Business/IT teacher, no Drama dept (sob - that was me - but I've not been replaced) and only one member of staff who has been there more than 10 years. English will be taught by 3 properly qualified English teachers and then anyone else with space on their timetable.

But the biggest issue is the fact that there has been no Headteacher since 2014. It's an academy, part of one of the biggest (and worst) academy trusts and has spiralled downhill since it was taken out of Local Authority control. Thing is, we're in an area where there are no LA Secondary schools any more, so there literally was no choice. I've been there 13 years and it has changed beyond recognition.