Staffing crisis in schools - teachers/school staff, what's your school like?

[noblegiraffe]

Discussions with fellow teachers about the current crisis in school staffing has raised the issue of whether parents know how bad it is. I guess they won't know if we don't tell them?

My school - struggling to recruit teachers. There are subjects at A-level where students are currently teaching themselves, and with no prospect of a teacher on the horizon. Last year we had similar issues, pupils went into exams not fully prepared, and coursework was a huge problem. At GCSE where we couldn't recruit, there was a teacher in front of the class, but not qualified in that subject and pupils complained about the syllabus not being taught.

TA provision has been cut to the bone. There is only in class support if a child has an EHCP, this support is then spread to other children who need help. Due to backlogs with EHCP applications, and applications routinely being rejected (the assumption is automatic rejection, then appeal) some very needy children get no additional help in class. In addition, we have bigger classes due to leaving teachers not being replaced, so teachers are spread even more thinly.

There are huge concerns about teacher recruitment for next year as the number of trainees on local PGCE courses has collapsed.

And I know my school is in a relatively good position compared to others.

I feel exactly the same.

And me.

The constant "rinse and repeat" every September with nothing ever improving (in fact, quite the opposite) and despite everything I try to do, I can't change it

It's so disheartening. I can't see any other job where you repeat the Einstein definition of insanity as a cycle each year.

Yep. That and the pretence that everything is normal and all outcomes should be the same as if covid never happened and we weren't at breaking point from over a decade of funding cuts and hugely understaffed.

It isn't sane.

I could have written this myself. It's just relentless. I'm exhausted, my colleagues are dropping like flies and we are stretched to breaking point. We can't get supply cover at all, so TAs are holding the fort, but that means children are doing without their support in lessons, including those with EHCPs. It can't go on being cut like this: there's just nothing left to cull.

For me the worst thing is the relentless pressure on the children. I hate it. I teach Y6 and have been given SATs targets that match pre pandemic levels. This is with a much larger class, no class TA and no catch up help. Many of the children have mental health issues but only very few get support with this.There is the same high expectations for KS1 SATs, Y1 phonics screening and the ridiculous Y4 Multiplication test, where the children have to score 100% on a timed test to pass. We had to tell 2/3 of our children that they had failed last year. Why?

Totally agree. Pushing children who had never known normal school through KS1 sats last year was immoral.

This thread has been fascinating. I’m a governor at a primary school and we are hanging in staffing wise but I suspect will start to really struggle with TAs soon.

Is there anything you’d like to see your governors do?

@Blackcatinanalley my DC go to private school. I’m not keen on the concept but they are average intelligence children who would get ignored in mainstream as teaching staff are too stretched. Dc1 is dyspraxic and gets 5hrs 1:1 a week which simply wouldn’t happen in state. Anyone claiming a bright kid would do well anywhere isn’t thinking about a really challenging school.

Thank you to all of you who work in education.

I think it says a lot that so many are nodding along to this post.

I feel the same. It's relentless, and i'm so worn down by it all. There have always been bad days or weeks, but there was a silver lining in the distance to keep you going, once you got past XYZ it would be ok. That's no longer the case.

School governor here. One thing our school has noted is a massive decline in the quantity and quality of supply teachers, because many of the better ones have been recruited to the National Tutoring Programme. This makes the experience of cover lessons much worse for students.

Supply agencies in my area are still expecting to pay experienced staff cover supervisor wages or low main pay scale. It won't be helping schools find cover teachers and some schools are finding they call agencies and there's nobody available.

It would be better to have local authority supply banks paid to scale without agencies taking a huge cut and expecting people to work for less than an NQT.

Supply rates are also shocking. I did supply for two terms last year. I'm a UPS3 teacher with 12 years' experience, leadership background, MA in Education, PGDip in Education, and can and would teach Reception to Year 6 happily (I like to think I was a pretty good supply).

I was getting £130 a day from my agency, which worked out after tax as about £104 a day. No pension in that.

Yes, I'm aware above minimum wage, but as an employed UPS3 teacher I would be looking at around double that for my experience normally.

Supply wages are shocking. If you want to retain good supply teachers, employ some on zero hours contracts and pay them a good rate, excluding the agencies.

That's why supply would rather do NTP. Who'd want 30 kids of unknown behaviour and needs for a day with sometimes little or no planning, no computer or interactive whiteboard, no knowledge of where things are or when to do things, for less than you could sit 1:1 somewhere quiet?

This was becoming an issue when I started teaching (2003) and the impact is only really starting to hit now. Supply teachers have been shat on for decades.

If you can, I would really question your school on staff workload. If a policy is introduced with extra work for staff, don't accept "oh but it'll only take 10 minutes" all of those 10 minutes soon add up!

If something is going to create significant extra work for staff, then ask what will be removed from their workloads to facilitate the new thing.

You mention TAs so think about the things that make the job attractive eg school hours working etc, so don't be tempted to extend their days as some schools have done (I'm not sure that's entirely your remit, but if it happens, I would question why).

When looking at budgets accept there may be some costs to recruiting well qualified candidates.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl a governor expressed annoyance that a TA
wouldn’t increase their hours and I pointed out that they probably couldn’t afford the childcare they need to cover their own DC. They hadn’t thought about it as their kids are in their 30s!

We are very mindful of workload and having a mix of ECT and experienced staff, and our SLT are generally brilliant and I try to tell them how great they are and how appreciated they are as I don’t think they hear it much.

The SEN stuff on this thread is eye opening. Our official stats are 35% SEN but in reality it’s higher. Our teachers are doing the best they can.

If governors could look at the gender pay gap, assess whether there is an issue with getting women into leadership positions (is SLT a sausage party?) and whether the school is treating part time staff well, this may improve staff retention.

My school has a huge gender pay gap, management is extremely male dominated and treats part time teachers so badly that we lose them at a rate of knots. I am sure these things are all connected.

Our slt on the other hand seem to constantly be sending all staff emails patting each other on the back and telling us how wonderful they are.

Yep I definitely think schools should be made to do equality assessments of any new procedures or practices they want to introduce. They constantly impact women detrimentally whether as a result of biology eg. periods, pregnancy and menopause (shortening breaks, creating longer chunks of time without any access to toilets or fresh water etc) or through childcare - just announce an extra meeting a week with no thought as to how that will financially or pragmatically impact on teachers with young children.

Super weird than in such a female filled profession there is literally no consideration for women's needs.

Even very basic things like adequate toilets or not having to go down and back up 6 flights of stairs to access drinking water would make such a difference. I've no idea how they imagine anyone is going to be able to work in those conditions up to 68 years of age.

I think a lot of people assume age means progression but the reality is that there aren't that many progression positions available plus women in particular often end up having to be part time and most schools won't promote or take seriously part timers anyway so people really do end up as 'just a classroom teacher' for their whole careers with maybe a small tlr thrown in for an epic amount of work with no allocated time - it's generally only ects who apply for those though as they have more ppa and often don't have as many responsibilities outside of work as older women.

I don't know if people will qualify for medical retirement simply because they're too old and knackered to let it across a school and up 6 flights of stairs in time for a lesson. I'm only in late 40s but am finding it tougher with being flat out for 6hrs with only a half hour break in which there's no time to eat but just about refill your water, queue for a quick wee and then get set up for the next lesson and being on the door greeting them with work on the board 5 minutes before our directed time allegedly starts.

I think what is crushing is that it is never enough. Never, even after the madness of covid, could we get even a term of 'just' being expected to teach and plan and mark and assess and report. There's never a common sense reading of the room and someone saying everyone is exhausted, there is no capacity for new initiatives now, we are not implementation ready yet and staff will not be able to engage with this meaningfully currently and it is likely going to lead further resignations or people signed off sick because it will push them over the edge.

It's not even intelligent you know? That does make me extra cross when it's clearly bloody counterproductive yet push on anyway because we want to tick this box (mostly a box they've made up and ofsted doesn't give a shit about anyway tbh).

@noblegiraffe Our SLT are all women. I think there’s two male teachers in the school.

Thanks for the other points, will definitely take them on board.

I got ill health retirement from teaching. I was 57. It gets increasingly hard to gallop up and down stairs and run at a jog trot everywhere. My joints were knackered from being constantly in use. I had loads of foot and knee problems.

Thats not why l got it though!

Send me the secret of how to get it Arse - I'm having a hell of a time with perimenopause and work becoming increasingly unmanageable and not sleeping etc. I've now ended up with horrible anxiety and palpitations and I'm frequently sweating from head to toe with my heart pounding at school. I've got some other health issues going on too but I doubt any of them would qualify me for early retirement and my pension would be tiny anyway come to think of it. Ho hum.

swallowedAfly there's some groups on social media that have members who share their experiences to take ill health retirement. If I remember correctly it is a series of hoops but there's people out there who share. If I remember the name of the groups I could PM you?

All these little things that add up, like having to run around all the time, not having time for lunch, a drink, to use the toilet, etc - can you raise these things - anonymously if necessary - with your school's management team? Because if you only get half an hour for lunch and that doesn't give you enough time to eat something, that's outrageous, but does the head teacher know about it? What about the governors? Because if I was the head teacher or a governor of a school that wasn't giving teachers enough time to eat at lunchtime, I would want to know.

@swallowedAfly have you seen your GP? Are you on HRT? I know it isn't a magic pill for everyone, but it sounds like you could really benefit from some medical help and those are classic peri symptoms.

All the good supply I know (secondary) get snapped up for long term supply. If you are lucky they might do some marking or planning for a high rate. Massive costs though.

The wages need to be sorted out before anything changes. However the state we are in that’s never going to happen.
I had a HT (on approx £85k) complain because the PT TAs who’d already had their hours cut (on approx £6.5k) weren’t doing the hours they were and what could we do about it. Clueless.