Online lessons because schools can't recruit and retain teachers

No, I meant need as in important. Physics in important, it is a core subject and without it many potential career choices are closed off.

English is also important. PE, RS, ClassCiv are not important. They can be taught by pretty much anyone with a degree level education (excluding PE which you don’t need any degree for). I’ll put it bluntly, a Doctor and a nurse both have important jobs, but no one believes they should be paid the same.

Not necessarily. Many of those professions are on strike as well.

That isn't true at all outside of London.

Ah, so you didn't mean 'need' in timetabling terms.

You ignored the other subjects I mentioned.

PE is compulsory, requires considerable child wrangling skills and involves ,unlike most other subjects a commitment to extra curricular . So much do private schools recognise its importance, they pay people extra for sports responsibility and hire highly paid directors of sport and coaches.

You can't argue teaching is a different job depending on what is being taught. It kicks the can down the road.

I'm happy to go into battle any time with a physics teacher over marking load. But I'm not that petty.

@anonuser89 this is because South Hampstead has left the TPS for new staff, as did the whole of the GDST last year (there was a strike, the outcome was that only existing staff stayed in). Comparable schools in London will pay more and be in the TPS. So if there are Chemistry jobs advertised at most other London private schools they would be more appealing. And staff at a state school would be unlikely to transfer there as they would lose their pension. Most HMC schools are fine for recruitment unless they are trying to recruit for subjects like Physics and Com Sci at odd points in the year, or maternity covers.

It's so heartbreaking for our futures.

The education system is not fit for purpose in curriculum content or funding and the government repeatedly say they are putting funding into schools when it's all smoke and mirrors.
Teachers need a pay rise and support to be able to see a long term future in making teaching their career but still being able to have a life outside work. Low stress teachers are supremely better for our children than highly stressed ones. Government pay rises and tales of millions put into schools are never properly funded by the government; schools have to fund them out of a limited pot. Heads want to pay teachers more but know that this will lead to teacher redundancies because they are in budget deficit already and this will lead to more classes with unqualified teachers delivering content rather than teaching. Teachers' professional skills are not valued by the government and parents don't have the full truth about what's going on and how schools are being deskilled as a result of government mismanagement.
Children, especially those with SEND, who need support are being failed and suffering with mental health issues, school refusal and dropping out of education in increasing numbers; feeling hopeless at a curriculum that doesn't fit their futures.
We will all lose out in lack of quality workers and creators of the future, and crime and violence will increase.

But those jobs are generally very highly paid, and teaching isn’t.

Differential pay per subject - talk to me about primary teachers. The job is not ‘easier’ or ‘less skilled’ because they teach every single subject at an earlier stage, rather than a single subject to older pupils.

There are people who believe ‘better / more skilled’ teachers teach eg Y5 not Reception, and who confuse ‘imparting content’ with ‘teaching’. They are wrong.

Do how do we value primary teaching in a pay scale? In line with Physics / Maths? (Both of which we all teach) Or in line with PE (because we all teach that as well)?

There are lots of professional jobs where people have to work ridiculously hard and where their work-life balance is seriously compromised. But, within those circumstances, there is a big difference between working for an employer which gives you the tools to do your job and one which doesn’t.

@GCAcademic there’s plenty of evidence from professionals about how to run an inclusive school which caters for all and has good behaviour. Michaela type schools just squeeze out all the pupils with SEN and destroy mental health. A lot of behavioural problems are caused by the school environment and current curriculum. There’s a reason children’s mental health is getting worse.
education needs a lot of investment but for goodness sake make sure the decision makers have a background in child development and teaching.

It’s really hard for some children though, and there will be no one to se them struggling, or take time to explain things to them, or notice the issues that teachers pick up additionally (like signs of abuse or neglect)

Nonsense. I’m sorry, but a PE teacher does not need anywhere remotely near the same ability as a physics teacher. There is just no comparison to the job either, marking, exam prep etc. No way should they be paid the same.

It really comes down to resourcing. If schools were properly resourced and teachers paid properly, schools could employ enough teachers and provide enough resources, so that the difficulties which make teaching impossible and cause people to leave would be reduced.

Poor behaviour can be dealt with to a degree if there are enough staff to man the discipline system. It can be dealt with better if class sizes are not allowed to be too large and if experienced teachers are retained.

The trouble is, teachers are leaving in droves because of the conditions they are working under, which are mostly due to under resourcing, and also due to pay. But primarily it’s about the conditions they are working in being untenable . And as teachers leave, the burden in the remaining ones gets greater still. It’s a downward spiral.

Please support the teacher strikes. They are about the resourcing and funding of schools. Take a longer term view rather than just thinking about a particular day when your child will miss learning and you’ll be inconvenienced.

This thing with an online teacher will be come more and more common. Perhaps the government knows this and this will become the new model - schools have a few qualified teachers who make videos and most see a video rather than have a live teacher interacting with them.

Yes, private schools will be more able to recruit and retain teachers due to better pay and conditions, but they aren’t the source of this problem. In fact independent schools are also struggling to recruit as the pool of staff drops. Government might like people to think independent schools are the problem because then attention moves away from the government role. Quite simply, government has been underfunding the school system for years. Schools and teachers soldiered on papering over the cracks. But the cracks are so big now, that they can’t be hidden….another thread was running bout a lack of school trips. Yes. Not enough teachers to teach all the classes - yes. And it will get worse.

Parents shouldn’t be standing for it. Blame the government not individual schools and teachers. It’s all down to resourcing.

Mercia school in Sheffield which seems very much like Michaela just went viral on edutwitter for putting out a job ad for a member of SLT which said you'll need to work ridiculously hard and basically give your life over to the job. Which is honest, but not going to solve the teacher shortage either.

We need more schools like Michaela around the country. Then parents can choose whether they want to send their child to a school where education is prioritised or to one where the “rights” of children and parents to behave however they like are the most important thing. I think we can anticipate which kinds of school will have the teacher shortages. Whatever people on here say, whenever Michaela comes up on a thread everyone is horrified by that school and its head, so I don’t think there’ll be much appetite for anything other than the status quo of massive behavioural issues and teacher shortages.

And yet when schools implement measures to safeguard pupils and limit poor behaviour parents kick off about 'human rights'. And when pupils literally riot, people go on twitter to say it's because the headteachers are child abusers.

Part of this strategy would have to supporting parents to actually develop the skills to tackle the behaviour of their children.

Parenting is a skill that must be learnt and improved upon over time. In some other countries, they recognise this and all parents, whether it's your first or your ninth, are given support and classes/training to help improve the overall quality of parenting. In this country, however, implying that someone's parenting skills are not where they need to be is seen as a personal insult and is seen as unacceptable.

I do wonder if exclusions were made a more readily available option, whether some parents might suddenly support the school to tackle their child's behaviour instead of arguing against it? That would be wonderful!

Even maintained schools can and do employ unqualified teachers. If the head seems them suitable, they can teach.