So which teachers worki the hardest...

Oh, and not forgetting the patience to listen to 30 keyboards/glockenspiels/recorders all at once!

Defo. music!

Loads of reports (I counted 534 in my last year of full-time!).
Lots of extra-curricular
Lots of annoying children who don't view music as a 'proper' subject.
Serious differentiation, little Johnny had Grade 8 piccolo on his 1st birthday, don't you know!
Lots of pressure from management to 'showcase' the school, as well as produce amazing results "music is an easy subject, after all" NOT!!

Given we have to teach everything-primary of course

1. English- core subject, foundation of everything else and absolutely tons of marking

1. RE/History and any other essay bound subjects where marking consists of hours and hours to mark 1 A Level set

Also 2. Music- extra curricular pressures (also prob applies to Drama in most schools though not ours!)

Bottom of the list- PE, Art, Technology- subjects where there is a much reduced amount of marking and a distinct end to the working day.

I am History BTW

'I am inclined to think that RS teachers have it relatively easy (having to teach all pupils withstanding) because their examination classes are very straightforward - here are the stock answers so learn them.' Absolute rubbish - we do not know which questions will come up on the paper, and there are no 'stock' answers ime as a senior examiner in RE.

As an RE teacher (KS3,4 and 5) I also taught KS3 Geography, History and Citizenship and had to write Schemes of Work for the latter. I taught in excess of 600 students per week, so you can imagine my load when it came to reports/parents evening, planning, marking etc. I also used to do 4 after schools a week for no pay; G&T, RE revision, and two nights a week full course, for Year 9 on one night, and Years 10/11 on the Friday.

For those uninitiated amongst you, the KS3 RE syllabus also changes every 5 years as the SACRE produce a new one. They could decide to completely change the religions taught, so that one has to get new books, create and differentiate new resources, swot up on the altered religions.

One English colleague was shocked when I moaned about having to write 210 Year 7 reports; she had to write 60 (her Year 7 class and her tutor group). I had to do 2 year 7 Geog, 2 Year 7 History, 2 Year 7 RE, and my tutor group. That was standard for most Year groups - sometimes I got away with only 90, but that was good. Copying and pasting were not encouraged either, and my HoD for RE insisted on at least 7 lines, with set issues in each report.

The ones trying to get over threshold!

I would go for any subject with a lot of coursework - English of course but also Food Tech.
I think the technology subjcts are often overlooked in terms of how demanding they can be to teach however they usually have less able students requiring a lot of support to get them through the required coursework as well as a lot of energy draining practicals.
I am actually a primary school teacher but have lots of secondary school teacher friends/relatives so thought I'd stick my oar in
We have also learnt NEVER to do the primary/secondary who works the hardest debate! We have all established that we wouldn't want each others jobs so we all must work hard but in different ways (planning/marking/behaviour management/parental involvement/expectations etc)and leave it at that.

Yes I love it Maria but sometimes I wonder why I am doing it to myself! i was certainly paid more and worked less hard in my previous office-based job, but I did get very bored - that's what I have to keep reminding myself of!

English of course. Not only heaps of marking but it's a core subject so endless pressure from slt.

Wouldn't want to teach anything else though!

Lol at the idea that PE teachers work the hardest!

100 minute lessons would be awful. I like ours (50mins).

Another vote for MFL teachers (I am one).

You can only very rarely let them get on with any independent work as it is such a guided subject, plus all the jumping about and acting and sometimes fakeenthusiasm - our 100 minute lessons leave me drained.

I do very little in my holidays so that is me out of the running then!

don't care but they all get long holidays

I'll vote for English. It's a core subject so SLT are constantly on top of you; there is piles and piles of marking and you classes three or four time a week so there is less opportunity to duplicate lessons.

That's why I left it

I observed an MFL teacher once - it does look exhausting.

I guess there is a reason why we all teach what we do and as long as we are happy it does not matter who works the longest, shortest or smartest.

Another burden of MFL teaching is the actual pace of the lessons, and all the drama/actions/pulling faces that has to be done.

English teachers (me!)

I agree it also depends on the school. I have been in my school for years - it is a very high achieving one and my department leads the way in that. So our workload is huge. But perhaps the spotlight is not on us as much as Science, Maths and English so the pressure is less.

I have taught years ago RE in a less academic school and although I worked hard it could have been a walk in the park. No one cared what I did.

I have friends who are in the core subjects in National Challenge Schools and they do have the raw deal.

The SENCO at my son's school works her tail off, at weekends and in the holidays as well.

What a daft thread, surely it depends on the teacher, rather than the department.

I teach RE, I work very very long hours because of my working markload - I have colleagues in my department who work less. I am sure there are colleagues in English who work as hard as me or perhaps harder. I also do all the extras - coach a sports team, go out on duke of edinburgh, run lunchtime clubs and help out with drama productions.

I would not want to teach primary for all the tea in china though.

I teach MFL and DH teaches English, I think both are hard! I've also taught History and RS, both hard work but not as bad (RS was in an RC school though, so 6 specialists and a lot of SLT support).

Points for MFL:

1. maybe some areas are different, but all the schools I've worked in in 2 regions you spend a dispriting amount of time and effort trying to convince pupils and parents that languages are useful/important/worthwhile.

2. also a lot of essays once you get to AS & A2, but you have to mark language as well as content very carefully.

3. expectation that you will at least take part in and preferably organise overseas residential trips.

I do love it though - am working in school as a non-teacher atm and looking to get back into teaching, wouldn't want to do anything else but work with young people.

lolol @ PE teachers having to 'do a lot of motivating'. Aye right. Tricky business.

English innit

I think most teachers work hard. But I have to say that being an English or Maths teacher in a National Challenge school is almost certainly fairly low in the perks stakes, right now. And out of those, English teachers get much, much higher marking loads.

" it takes more time to help someone teach a core subject that parents are all over than to teach RS"

But I think that depends more on the type of school you work in, rather than the subject. From your other thread, I'm guessing I've taught in very different types of schools than you.

The schools I have mostly taught in, have been very high achieving academically, and the parents can sometimes want to micro manage all aspects of their children's education - it is not the preserve of the core subjects (which technically, RS is btw, as it is not a national curriculum subject . But equally, the school I trained in, the parent's couldn't give a nat's arse about their child's education, not even maths! So there was none of the pressure that you mention. I even remember one parent bemoaning what was the point of maths (at GCSE level), because "they never use any of it when they leave school anyway" But that was a very different type of school.

Parents' level of engagement will vary because of the type of school you are in, for some they will be interested in all aspects - like for example, in mine - every report had to be hand written and individual (even if you were writing 200+ reports for that year group), and every homework had to be a full substantiated homework - otherwise parents would, and did complain! But then there are other schools where parents couldn't give two hoots about school at all - that depends on the school, not the subject.

I still stand by the statement that I made from one RS teacher to another (potential) RS teacher, that RS is so bloody difficult / cinderella subject because there are so many different demands made on RS teachers, that just get dismissed out of hand, because 'RS is an easy subject' but without really knowing or understanding actually what it is we do!