Guess whether teacher recruitment targets were met this year

Good point Boney. It’s been a rough day. I got Told I needed to make up false grade boundaries to make the PPE results for sixth form look more positive and ‘motivational’. Essentially, give them all good grades that they wouldn’t get in the exam so parents and students don’t complain. Fuckers.

Teaching really does have some positives relative even to other public sector jobs (e.g. pensions are still pretty good) and one has to weigh those up against the negatives.

We are. And many of us are deciding that the good pension, the holidays and the free parking just ain't worth it, and are leaving the profession.

Come and try it then user because you will be (more than ) qualified and there is free parking!

As you can see there is a recruitment crisis and, as we know, a retention crisis. Silly teachers : fancy trying to come up with reasons!

Sorry for sarcasm, can't help myself .

One thing I will say : I have honestly never met an unhappy ex teacher!

But I haven't left teaching and have never made any serious attempt. I am in it for the long haul and apparently the pension

NannyOggsKnickers

Don't rise to the bait, I am fairly sure that it won't be long before user starts on about how teachers always whine about work.

And I genuinely didn't go into a job at the age of 20 with a view to what the pension was like.

I am not up on these financial considerations but I thought teachers were being told they will have to work up tot he age of potentially 70 to gain the pension. I don't know many teachers who could survive that long in the classroom.

I read a horrifying stat recently about the number of teachers who die within a few years of retirement!

user Thanks for suggesting this activity. Let’s try it.

Positives- working with the students.

Negatives- data entry, punitive performance management systems, unrealistic work load, getting treated with suspicion by kids/parents/SLT, dragging kids through the new (more rigorous but total balls) GCSE syllabus, not getting to teach the child but the spec, not time for out of school activities or trips, spending my own money on stuff for school so they kids don’t miss out, being shouted at by kids, being shouted at by parents, being shouted at by SLT, constant Work trawls (see the point about trust), constant ‘learning’ walks by SLT (read observation).

I think I missed a few but hey ho.

That isn't really what this thread is about. And, genuinely, being able to park at one's work is not a 'privilege' only bestowed on teachers.

It obviously depends slightly on the locale of where you work but I do think all the employees local to my area can park for free at their workplace, including hospital employees and staff at the local uni.

The ones paying through the nose tend to be the ones who commute to London.

I think it’s appalling that you have to pay to park at your own work place.

But for many (most?) of us parking charges of £50 per month or more are normal. That's £600+ per year taken from net salaries, as from next year parking can't be paid for pre-tax.

No, it's not a race to the bottom, but it is important to be aware of both the "positives" and the "negatives" of jobs. Teaching really does have some positives relative even to other public sector jobs (e.g. pensions are still pretty good) and one has to weigh those up against the negatives.

Also as a teacher you do tend to take in other stuff (plastic swords, large poster board, Clay modelling material) which most other professions aren’t taking back and forth. Although I very much agree it is important to be in this together with nurses, and higher education employees, rather than compete for most horrible work life. The Tories have done a very good job of dividing and conquering to ensure their continued power amidst the current chaos.

Sigh. I did say one of the few jobs and fully expected someone to prove me oh so wrong.

We have exercise books which are heavy. My dad is an academic. He brought quite a lot home but not all of them at once and also had his own office to keep stuff in but hey ho. I gather an awful lot of it is unprinted and online these days.

No one is suggesting academics have it easy and I would offer my sympathy and empathy - but it doesn't seem to cut both ways.

It really isn't a competition. I was just saying that would be why most teachers , working at schools on large ,dedicated sites would expect to be able to park in a staff car park. To be fair, they can at most schools I know of! the only ones I know who can't work at a town centre free school. I have no idea how they do lug marking about.

user It’s not a competition but I’m taking home two full sets of Yr 8 books this weekend. They fit in two massive boxes.

It shouldn’t be a race to the bottom. I think it’s appalling that you have to pay to park at your own work place. What a rip off.

I think the reason most teachers expect to be able to park is more born out of the fact that teachers are one of the few jobs who often have to cart boxes of stuff in and out of work every evening.

So do academics - how often do you have to mark several hundred scripts of 30 pages long?

So might some accountants, lawyers etc - particularly junior ones, who need to catch up on their billable hours on evenings and weekends.

Academics typically pay a lot every year for the privilege of parking 5-10 minutes away from their offices way across campus - and then they have to lug teaching resources/assignments etc back and forth to their parking/lecture rooms. Junior academics may not even get university parking at all - they have to use public transport, again carrying boxes of scripts back and forth, to mark in evenings and weekends.

I know of three people in my school out with stress : there is undoubtedly more.

Hello, again.

Back to stick my oar in. What a week! We’ve lost two members of staff ( one NQT and one old timer) and the timetable of everyone in the department has had to change to accommodate this. Not to worry though. It happens every year now. We’ll have another two disappear after Christmas. Mark my words!

And I’m now down to two hours PPA a fortnight on a 0.6.

This is why we have a retention crisis. This.

Interesting anyway since on the morale thread tow of us were comparing notes about how we felt we would be told off these days if we left the site at lunch.

And I know year staff are fully expected to be out and about/ manning offices/ dealing with students at lunch time despite not having SLT contracts! Since I gave up that role I have had at least part of my day back!

I think part timers are maybe more conscious of these pay issues than full tiers. We change the structure of our school day during exams and I do know that causes chaos for some part time staff!

I had to look this stuff up earlier this year for the first time ever due to being asked to carry out certain duties during lunch time. We are not paid during lunch time and shouldn't be carrying out duties during the lunch time that the children get.

They do in our school but I still don't get it as we aren't paid per hour??

And, anyway, unless I am missing something we do get paid for our lunch break! (not that a lot of teachers take one)

I think the reason most teachers expect to be able to park is more born out of the fact that teachers are one of the few jobs who often have to cart boxes of stuff in and out of work every evening.

I think you have a blind spot pgce because you hated your training so much. teachers rarely compare themselves against public sector workers (although I have read nurses on MN comparing themselves favourably with teaching, specifically ones who have done both) . I think most public sector workers feel we are all in it together.

I think it's that generalised resentment of our holidays from people who are more than welcome to try out our understaffed profession for a while, if qualified... funny how they don't and won't!