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.

Rishi wrote off £4.5 billion in fraudulent covid payments...but there's no money for schools

Liz pissed away £30 billion on a ludicrous budget....but there's no money for schools

Tory chums creamed off millions in profits from the 'VIP lane' for government contracts....but there's no money for schools.

Why is there no money for schools? THIS FUCKING GOVERNMENT. It's a political choice, not a necessity.

And the pay is appalling for what is expected of you

It's a shame the fraudulent payments weren't followed up

I used to do this as part of my last role. By some distance it was the worst, most stressful, bit of my job. I would try really hard to plan for absence and give staff adequate notice of cover and then I'd come into work and loads of staff would have rung in sick.

Staff absence is worse now in all schools, we have weekly reminders in briefing about the need to come into work unless your leg is hanging off. I understand why they say this (the many hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on cover for one) but it adds to the stress of diligent staff. It's a vicious circle.

It's a shame the fraudulent payments weren't followed up

True, but in a system that even my 85 year old mum pointed out was going to bring out the scammers, a few million spent on controls would've been prudent.

On top of funding. Until parents step up and stop making excuses for the behaviour of some of the children teaching will not be an attractive career.

My daughter is in a primary, this week she has broken up fights, seen a teacher stabbed with a pencil, been swore at and had a child stick her middle finger up at her.

Not a school, but my son's nursery has been looking for qualified staff for ages, with little choice. It doesn't help that the pay isn't exactly the most generous (even though it is industry standard pay).

I'm not surprised though as every industry seems to be struggling with staffing.

Also there are people leaving other areas of public sector snd civil service too in droves ( some private and corporate too). It’s not just education and health. There’s central government retention issues, justice and legal, local authorities and police. So parents may not pay much attention because they are too busy trying to keep their own job going and managing on shit pay. I’m not sure what you think parents can do

As you all say. There is money there. It's government priorities that are wrong. Wildly wrong. I feel helpless to help in any practical real sense though. At least until there is an election, then I can vote for whoever have policies to help.

I have 2 school age kids so what happens in education impacts us just as much health and police.

Thank you for the eye opening descriptions of just how dire it is.

I used to be an ASN teacher in a primary school working with individual pupils or small groups. Over the past 2 years I rarely did this job as I was always used to cover classes for absent colleagues as there was "no supply teacher available anywhere on the planet".

I really wish parents had made a fuss about this. Our local council won't do anything if teachers complain but will do if it's parents, for fear they go to the press.
I had to go to parent meetings and spout stuff about the plans I'd made for the pupils and how they were doing and next steps etc when none of it was true.

I actually felt like saying "Well I'm sorry Mrs X. I can't tell you how your son is doing because I never see him and all these plans are just a paper exercise - none of it actually happens".

You remember when lots of people said “if it’s that bad leave”? I think lots of teachers are doing just that.
Been teaching years and I’ve never seen such pathetic support for SEN, such daft requirements from Ofsted (we are supposed to have a secondary type depth of knowledge in EVERY subject) and some truly shocking behaviour.

You remember when lots of people said “if it’s that bad leave”?

yes, and ‘oh you can be replaced by a fresh young teacher who is full of enthusiasm’.

Except there aren’t any fresh young teachers. My most recent PGCE student went to work in a private school. I don’t have one for next placement as there aren’t enough trainees to go round (massive understatement).

We have a trainee maths teacher joining us next term. He doesn't have a maths degree.

Exactly.
People can say we are workshy whingers all they like but the mass exodus is not just teachers having a moan.

Don’t even get me started on the terrible mental health issues starting younger and younger. Apparently we need to deal with that too - there’s no one else 🙁

So going forward where does the money come from?

That's bad, but what's even worse is there will be some schools who are jealous you have a trainee maths teacher (even without a degree in maths). Which just goes to show how laughably shit the whole situation is.

Middays at our school are only paid for 90 minutes a day, although after paperwork and chasing down teachers for reports on class behaviour, cleaning duties, etc, they're often working at least 30 extra minutes a day with no extra pay. It's no wonder they cannot recruit or retain their MSA staff.

TAs are easy enough to recruit although turn over has been VERY high since the pandemic. And breakfast and after school clubs are happily staffed by us TAs desperate to supplement their pittance of pay with extra hours.

We’re desperate for supply teachers. Lots of sickness, one long term 😢 and we’re having to bring in people we know aren’t great. One fabulous supply left yesterday because she does a spiritualist event every December. I’m gutted, she was great.

General taxation, Thunderpunt, which it is what it is for.

One wonders exactly what we are paying it for if there is no money for public services.

Subsidising bars in parliament? Lining MP chum pockets?

If you want to grow the economy, you have to invest in education. It is false economy not to and will cost the country more if we don’t.

The rot set in years ago.

I have two family members who trained to be teachers, who in turn, married teachers.

None now teach due to stress, hassle and too much needless admin oh and the behaviour of pupils in class 😔

A few years ago, I did day release from work. The senior tutor said the difference teaching the likes of me as against teenagers was that we wanted to be there and valued learning new stuff 😔

My generation appears to value education, youngsters these days, do not, or so it appears

How many young teachers actually go on to have careers teaching?

But most of the maths teachers in my (excellent) maths dept don't have maths degrees. They often have bio-med/psychology/other related subjects.

You can obvs earn a lot more outside of teaching with a maths degree BUT also I have found sometimes, without wanting to stereotype, the types of people who do maths degrees don't always have the right temperament for teaching.

Staffing wise we are ok at the moment. Average sized Primary. However we have 2 teacher and one TA maternity coming up, two TAs are leaving at Xmas and we’ve just lost one admin. We also have the problem that we are in a very deprived area, so our reputation precedes us.

We have Nursery provision and have identified 6 children who need EHCPs as soon as we can get them. This is on top of the 4 in Years 1&2 that are currently underway, and the 5 who have them. Of the 5 that have them, 3 should have 1-1. We couldn’t recruit for them, no-one applied so the SLT took the brave decision to recruit one teacher and one TA to work with all 5 in a specialised class. It seems to be working now, but things may change if the class expands.

We’ve managed to fill one of the teacher Mat Leave
posts with an ECT but not the other, yet. The TA won’t be replaced. We’ve had no interest at all in the two other TA positions, probably because they are KS2 so need some experience. We may need to shuffle staff, but that won’t go well.

I’m the DSL and I’m covering the admin, and have resigned myself to it being added to my job description before long. I’m already ‘front of house’ for the parents because of the number of teachers point blank refusing to deal with so many of them.

I’m knackered and I’m not a teacher. I’m not sure how much longer ours will last in the new year, because they are starting to struggle now.

That may be true. But I'm not convinced that a low grade A level and a degree in a totally unrelated subject plus an 8 week SKE are going to make an excellent teacher of maths.

I'll be happy to be wrong but I've done this job a long time. The bursaries are more a hindrance than a help.

I'm in a primary and the sickness rate amongst support staff is really high. Teaching staff however, we come in if we're on our death beds. Why? Because there's no money to cover sporadic absences as insurance doesn't kick in until we've been off for a few days.
No money to cover us, no supply staff, so we drag ourselves in because otherwise we'd feel guilty.
The problem is staff end up even more ill because they drag themselves in, and get signed off.
Not only that, but staff being off has knock on effects on the others and they end up getting ill from stress.
Teaching is an incredibly hard job when you're well, never mind when sick. If you're well and also having to cover for others then you end up being ill yourself.

It never ends.

I'm a TA in Special School.
I left in April after 17 years because I was burned out, especially after slogging through Covid and all the restrictions. Went to another (far easier) job for 6 months, but missed the children.

Kept in contact with my colleagues and boss, and heard how many had left and how no one was applying for the vacancies, so have just gone back..but only 3 days a week because anything more and I will just burn out again.

10 years ago there were SO many applicants for both teaching and TA jobs.. now there are barely any. We are short of teachers, chronically short of TAs. But the teaching is so stressful and TAs are woefully underpaid considering we do everything from medical procedeures (tube feeds, suction, etc) to being hit, bitten and spat at every day.
I could earn more cleaning, but I do love the kids!

The school itself is falling apart, but there is no budget at ALL for even the basics. It's sad, and it's a disgrace that succesive governments have piled on more pressure but have so little respect for education that they have failed everyone, mainstream and special ed alike.