If you work in a school does this sound familiar?

[1newname]

I'm not a teacher but work in a school and am wondering if my school is particularly bad.

A number of teachers and TAs are off sick with stress. We seem to have so many children with SEN and behaviour problems who need 1:1 care but they don't. Even the school dinners have gone down in quality massively since I joined the school 9 years ago.

I'm in London so is this happening all over the UK? It's pretty depressing to be honest and I'm increasingly feeling like the whole country is going to shit.

@Dustpantsandbush I'm SE London too...

No PRU places available here (SE) so no permanent exclusions. Kids who have been seriously assaulted (police involvement and hospital treatment) have to go to school with their aggressors, and then the school wonders why their attendance is so low - yeah, I’d have second thoughts about going to work every day if I had to be in the same place as someone who had beaten me unconscious with a wooden plank.

I could have written this. A nightmare day with a child screaming at the other children and hitting us but the parents telling us he has ADHD so apparently no poor behaviour is ever his fault.

It's the same at our primary school.

Our September intake included several children who already had a diagnosis but no EHCP because their nurseries hadn't put any paperwork through. There's also a high number who have very obvious SEND issues but who haven't been referred anywhere by anyone. We're having to start the whole process from scratch.

These children have little or no extra funding, which means we are chronically understaffed. We've already had one TA leave since September because they couldn't cope with the situation. It's not surprising when we're being hit, kicked and bitten several times a day. It's not what any of us signed up for.

The thing is, they might not be the government for long. I started teaching under Labour and it was a very different time. They're saying they will charge private schools VAT and put that money into state education. I mean, who knows but maybe things might get better...

Yes. It's atrocious and getting worse.

Yes. TAs have become practically impossible to recruit since the pandemic, even if there are funds available. Parents (which TAs often are) don't need to accept low pay for school hours now they can more easily wfh at other jobs.

Schools are trying to keep the cost of school meals the same or control increases, while seeing hugely increasing costs so there's going to be a decrease in quality.

The other and much bigger issue is the huge increase in children with ECHPs and SMSC difficulties. "Someone" really needs to do a piece of work on why that is. It's not that diagnosis is getting better because, for example, hospitalisations for eating disorders are increasing too, so whilst some of it may be that children who needed help didn't have the diagnosis, the visible physical symptoms are increasing too.

TA here in the NW.
Hugely underpaid and undervalued.

I've an interview for the civil service soon and I'm going to give it my best shot!

TA wages are an absolute bloody joke. I work in an SEN school and teachers couldn't work without us TA's, yet we can't be paid appropriately.

It's awful. I'm in a support role in a secondary school but thinking of leaving. There's so much pressure and stress. My contract is term time only. I could drop down to three days a week and work pretty much anywhere else and bring home more.

@AnySoln as an experienced mental health professional you are talking utter twaddle about ASD being more likely in people with diabetes .

There is some evidence to suggest its the other way round , but type 2 diabetes can be an increased risk in a few different disorders not because of "heavier mums and dads" 🙄

It's not any better in Scotland.

Inclusion is an illusion. A massive fuck up that should never have happened the way it did. School staff are simply expected to put up and shut up. One of the many reasons I left teaching.

Many children turned feral during lockdowns and the results of that are still being felt.

I had a years worth of training left to do to convert my degree to QTS when I was working as support staff.

I left. I saw what teaching was doing to my colleagues.

That was almost 3 years ago. Doesn't sound like it's got any better yet.

I'm in early years and more than every other child appears to have some SEN. And there's an ever increasing list of things you are expected to do before asking for support from the LA, and the criteria for getting that help is getting bigger and bigger.

There seems to be more and more EHCPs year on year and schools can't really meet their needs half the time

Same with me. I have 3 children with additional needs. One of them has a 1:1 who he needs all the time and often can’t stay in the room. There are 30 children total and no additional adults. I’m getting shit because one of the others keeps walking out when he is stressed. I just get all the same bullshit - now and next, social stories, visual timetable.

I’m seriously looking to leave by Christmas.

I left teaching after the whole thing became a shambles. Poor behaviour, cutting staff, so many people off with stress etc.

There are not enough school places at secondary. All the state schools are full to bursting and being pushed to take even more. I’d hate to be a parent moving to a new area and trying to find places.

Yes, I'm support staff in large high school. The teachers are treated appallingly by some students and some parents. I've been called foul names and I'm only support, it's a disgrace.

Yes, utter shit show. Relatively affluent area in SE.
Crumbling school building (not RAAC), no resources, old tatty furniture, a distinct lack of TAs, more and more SEN and behavioral needs to the point that those who do want to learn are having their learning servery disrupted. It has been steadily going downhill for a while but the last two years have been beyond the pale: children running out of class, screaming, throwing furniture, ripping displays off the walls, hitting their classmates, disrespectful and downright rude.
It’s hideous and after 14 years as a SEN TA I have decided I’ll leave at the end of this year.

I left teaching 6 years ago after the birth of my second child. At that point I was completely burnt out by teaching and I found the children's behaviour increasingly dreadful. At the start of this year I dipped my toes back into teaching and have been doing regular supply at the school I used to work at. I honestly can't believe the deterioration in behaviour and staff/kids mental well being in that time. Most of the teaching staff seem to be at breaking point, the TAs are so busy that you barely see them and they aren't supporting the classes anymore- they seem to be chasing uncontrollable children around the school or removing them from lessons to limit disruptions. I rarely saw tantrumming children when I left teaching, whereas I see children screaming, shouting and hurling equipment around on an almost daily basis.

I was thin and 23 when ds was born, didn’t smoke, didn’t drink so definitely not fasd. Took vitamins. Etc etc. Still have a very disabled 9 year old.

Also my sister, similar circumstances, young and fit, she has a disabled 2 year old,

My other sister who is 18, has a 2 year old daughter with disabilities.

But yes 3 out of 3 siblings with children all with similar disabilities, I’d say that was more down to genetics than being a pregnant geriatric eating too many McDonald’s.

Yep. SW England based. Absolute shit show. I'm a TA at my sons school as my professional career became too demanding with hours/school run etc.

I can't tell you the shock I had on my first day working there. Its appalling and I'm so sad that children up and down the country are being failed.

Same in the North West. We have many children with complex SEN who should be at a special school but there are no places. This is in a Primary School.

Yep. I quit.

Looked at the data and in just 10y its moved from parents being 20-30 to 30-40. The 40+ was quite constant

I taught in a posh secondary for 25 years. Most parents were older. There was no increase in any SEND from those parents.

It was the poorer cohort where issues increased.