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74% of school staff have considered leaving this year

116 replies

NorthernGirlie · 16/03/2024 19:17

Almost three-quarters of school staff (74 per cent) say that they considered leaving education completely over the last 12 months, an annual Tes survey reveals.

Moat threads about schools have responses like "All of my immediate family are teachers and love it"

I've taught for 20+ years - always enjoyed but even I'd like to leave now.

Unless there's a huge wedge of money thrown at local authorities very soon so they can
*Improve staffing ratios
*Support SEN kids in appropriate settings
*Pay aupport staff the money they deserve

we're screwed.
https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/school-staff-views-wellbeing-revealed-survey?fbclid=IwAR0c2Ecyzx-iBjyCaaxDqAkod9Mml8TaWGEi8T4d-qGUB67uETPqraByBwM

Teachers’ views on wellbeing revealed in new survey

The latest Tes Schools Wellbeing Report, released this morning, highlights school staff’s opinions on workload, funding and confidence in their roles

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/school-staff-views-wellbeing-revealed-survey?fbclid=IwAR0c2Ecyzx-iBjyCaaxDqAkod9Mml8TaWGEi8T4d-qGUB67uETPqraByBwM

OP posts:
Caffeinequeen91 · 16/03/2024 21:09

I’ve already walked. Not one single regret.

teacheroffsick · 16/03/2024 21:09

Teacher here. Leaving at Easter. It's made me unwell due to poor management.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

FrippEnos · 16/03/2024 21:10

folkjournals · 16/03/2024 21:01

Accountancy is also experiencing a recruitment crisis by the way. Maybe pick a different alternate for your "everything would be better if I'd become a... instead" fantasies!

https://www.icaew.com/insights/viewpoints-on-the-news/2023/mar-2023/accountants-reject-regions-as-recruitment-crisis-deepens

Its interesting how professions don't like it when teachers say "I could do that",

Can we also tell you off for whinging as per the script?

FrippEnos · 16/03/2024 21:11

teacheroffsick · 16/03/2024 21:09

Teacher here. Leaving at Easter. It's made me unwell due to poor management.

I was forced out due to the same thing.

SLT that had favourites that were allowed to bully and harass, then didn't like it when you tried to get them to do their job.

ThreeImaginaryBoys · 16/03/2024 21:13

I'm a career changer to teaching, four years in. All being well I intend to be out by the end of this academic or calendar year. It's unbearable and getting worse.

Notateacheranymore · 16/03/2024 21:15

Pieceofpurplesky · 16/03/2024 19:34

24 years and u go at Easter. Love the teaching and the kids it's the micromanaging and constant blame game alongside the pointless paperwork that have finished me off.

This is why I left in December 2013, and nothing has improved at the school I used to work at since then. I can’t believe anyone continues teaching in the current climate. But so many of my ex-colleagues think that teaching is the only thing they can do as they are all now in their 40’s and 50’s.

Tsuipen · 16/03/2024 21:17

It’s so hard at the moment. I’m on 22 years and I’m exhausted at the moment. It’s the underfunding and the behaviour outside lessons.

caringcarer · 16/03/2024 21:17

I was a teacher for almost 24 years and loved teaching secondary. I burned out at 57 so took early retirement even though I couldn't get my Teachers Pension until I was 60. I was invited back to my old school for a colleagues retirement in January and honestly several former colleagues told me they wished they could get out. They have all told me classroom behaviour is getting worse alongside yet more and more paperwork.

fishfingersandtoes · 16/03/2024 21:19

Honestly I'm surprised it's as low as 74%

EddieVeddersfoxymop · 16/03/2024 21:19

As a burnt out TA, I'm not surprised. My physical and mental health are beginning to crumble under the strain. I'm looking for an out but have no idea where to start.

NorthernGirlie · 16/03/2024 21:20

@folkjournals the only reasons I can see in that article are that accountants want to wfh and also work in nice environments

Teachers are leaving because they're beinga attacked by students, made to work hours extra every day for free, being put on PIPs for students not making progress fast enough (despite research showing more children have SEN, more NT children start school un potty trained / not able to do basics...)

My claim stands that I'd be better at being an accountant if I'd been one for 24 years. I might not be in as nice an office as I'd like but I'd not be trying to manage massive MH issues from 6+ students per class on a daily basis and deciding whether eating lunch or going to the toilet is the bigger priority because I can sometimes only do 1.

That's not fantasy - it's reality.

OP posts:
Lanneederniere · 16/03/2024 21:36

As an employment lawyer, I have been amazed and disgusted by the atrocious lack of proper management in education. Young people of all ages and teachers deserve infinitely better.

I agree that many parts of the public sector are badly managed, but education is consistently terrible with complete non-compliance by 'managers' (especially 'senior' ones) with the basics of employment legislation.

I feel that, as a heavily female profession, teachers tend to find ways of coping with this poor management, and tragically blame themselves, rarely taking on a fight with it as men are more inclined to do statistically.

miffymum90 · 16/03/2024 22:13

Agreed. It's a real concern, and it should be for everybody. The state of schools now is terrifying and I wouldn't have believed how bad until I got a job in a school. How teachers do what they do defies belief. They don't get time to teach anymore, it is just behaviour management for 6 hours a day. I am support staff (office, not classroom) and I am doing 2 people's jobs and paid very, very little for it. On an average day, I spent about 4 hours doing my job and the other 4 helping out in other areas covering staff sickness (of which there is A LOT, understandably!) or dealing with the students. I therefore have to take my laptop home and do my actual job in my own time at the weekends. And this is true of every support staff member I know.

I love my job but in another 12 months I know I'll be burnt out and needing to look elsewhere, but as a Mum I fear what that means for a whole generation of children. For me, it would be a massive help if the government funded more staff but would also help if parents were on our side too. I'd never have believed the way some parents speak to teachers if I hadn't witnessed it with my own eyes and I believe it's part of the problem.

lurchersforever · 16/03/2024 22:36

FrippEnos · 16/03/2024 21:11

I was forced out due to the same thing.

SLT that had favourites that were allowed to bully and harass, then didn't like it when you tried to get them to do their job.

To give a slightly different perspective, I'm HoD and SLT (school trying to save money by merging roles) and I've spent the last few months in tears over bullying by new and inexperienced members of staff who have made endless complaints, anonymously of course, about the way the department is run and the easy life I apparently give myself and more experienced staff. Dealing with this while also being sworn at, insulted and derided by our most challenging pupils and their parents has pretty much broken me.

FrippEnos · 17/03/2024 00:50

lurchersforever · 16/03/2024 22:36

To give a slightly different perspective, I'm HoD and SLT (school trying to save money by merging roles) and I've spent the last few months in tears over bullying by new and inexperienced members of staff who have made endless complaints, anonymously of course, about the way the department is run and the easy life I apparently give myself and more experienced staff. Dealing with this while also being sworn at, insulted and derided by our most challenging pupils and their parents has pretty much broken me.

I was also HoD. So I know that bullying can come from below as well as above, but once escalated it is for SLT to solve and not brush under the carpet, avoid or blame the victim.

MrsMurphyIWish · 17/03/2024 06:16

I teach in an Outstanding school. On paper it should be the dream institution but even we have staffing problems. In the last academic year, in my dept alone, we have had 3 seconds in a dept. At Easter we have 2 teachers leaving but no-one to fill timetables so it’ll be like last year - cover supervisors and our “gained time” to be taken for cover. I’m taking retirement in 7 years so I’ll stick it out. I also moved to part time this year and looking to drop my hours further next year. I’m sticking it out until my youngest leaves education (and my mortgage is paid).

MissingMoominMamma · 17/03/2024 06:20

I left last month after 20+ years.

Iamasentientoctopus · 17/03/2024 06:49

I left last year after 13 years. It was bad then, but from what I hear from ex colleagues it is absolutely awful now. We always had a huge issue with students just walking out of lessons so they installed gates that were locked between 9-3 and could only be unlocked with a staff badge. Now there are about 5 incidents a week of students snatching badges from around the staff members neck so they can get out. It’s like the children have lost all sense of what is acceptable behaviour in society and just do what they like!

senua · 17/03/2024 06:51

FrippEnos · 16/03/2024 21:10

Its interesting how professions don't like it when teachers say "I could do that",

Can we also tell you off for whinging as per the script?

That was very rude. PP gave you a heads-up and was given a snide response in reply. She wasn't saying you couldn't do it, she was saying "are you sure that you want to?"
At our auditors, the Manager is currently on long-term sick from stress and the Partner is being managed out.
But you are welcome to join the profession, if that's what you want.Smile

Theedgeoftheabyss · 17/03/2024 07:03

It's not as easy as just leaving either. Experienced teachers are expensive to hire so trying to jump ship into a similarly paid role is extremely difficult..we have mortgages and bills!

Piggywaspushed · 17/03/2024 07:20

I put a link on a different thread to a TeacherTapp Survey question that showed 97% of respondents were suffering from signs of burnout. Those of you who know TeacherTapp will know it's usually on the positive side.

Annoyingly, the comeback on here was someone raising an eyebrow at teachers having a survey site - it was seen as 'another place teachers go to moan'.

I'm not a person considering leaving - been too long at it and too long in the tooth. I also have carved out a timetable I like. But I am utterly exhausted all the time and my workplace keeps adding and adding and adding tasks without taking anything away. Asleep by 7.30 pm is not unusual. DH went part time three years ago in order to not walk out completely. I'll probably aim to reduce my hours in a couple of years.

ThrallsWife · 17/03/2024 07:30

I have to say, I haven't found it particularly difficult to find a new job that pays the same or even more every time I moved. In fact, I'm moving to a new role in teaching soon, which offers me more money for less responsibility than I currently have. The one advantage of teacher shortages, really, is that those of us with a good track record can pretty much name our price, and even some conditions.

Many school leaders are starting to wake up to the fact that they need to work to retain staff (because hiring new staff and training them up to standard is expensive!) and also to the fact that us "oldies" are experienced in getting decent results.

With a bit of experience and balls, you can reduce your workload considerably. There is a particular piece of paperwork I refuse to do in my current job. It's a way of proving that I am doing something, which you can just as easily see I am doing if you look in students' books. It would take hours of my time to then prove that I am doing what I need to and add nothing to student results, so I don't. I haven't been sacked, or even disciplined, over not doing it.

We have the choice between hosting clubs or completing certain duties - clubs beat duties hands-down, so I do something I don't have to prepare anything for and I am guaranteed a warm spot inside and an opportunity to talk to the kids and build positive relationships.

Of course, you cannot do any of this in your probation period. But once you're past that, when you have proven that you can deliver student results, it's possible to kick back. I find that younger staff are far less willing to say no to bullshit, though, or to prioritise, and so the vicious cycle continues.

Fizbosshoes · 17/03/2024 07:47

Moat threads about schools have responses like "All of my immediate family are teachers and love it"

I don't know what threads you are reading because most threads about teaching that I read are the same as this - that teachers are overworked, overwhelmed, unhappy and are either leaving or considering leaving (and with good reason)

Piggywaspushed · 17/03/2024 07:53

Yes, that's true but it's also true that a poster always comes on and say the thing you have posted in order to gaslight the exhausted, unhappy school staff reporting their lived experiences...