Anyone else in education feel burnt out already?

[Ridiculousradish]

SEN TA in a Secondary School. First week back has been utterly horrendous. I know the start of term is always hectic, but the past week has been unmanageable. Anyone else struggling?

Are you picking up the slack for a colleague, OP? Is your workload manageable? I would book in a chat with your line manager and let them know you’re inundated.

TA is a tough job with lots of firefighting required. You will always have decision fatigue.

Can never catch the SENCO, too busy. Trying to arrange a meeting for a few weeks time. All the team feel the same way. We are woefully understaffed. School won't get more TAs.

Sorry don't know why I'm posting really, just to see if anyone else feels the same. I'm just sad because I know I will probably have to get another job. It took the whole Summer hols to recover from the last year. Fucking madness for the lowest paid job in the school.

I'm a SEN TA too, OP, but in primary. Moan away, I absolutely get it. It's exhausting. I've had a crap start too. Really thought this year would be different but so far it's been worse.

Also ready to move on but the problem is I really need a term time school hours job (v difficult to put one of my children in after school/ holiday provision). I've also only ever worked in education!

@Quokkafeet that really sucks. Sorry to hear you are struggling too. I hope you can find a job in another school.

Are you understaffed too?

Same!!

@billandtedsexcellentadventure ah crap. So what are we going to do?

I'm trying to do one more year, but I'm not sure if I can stay that long. If it continues like this I'm out. Fuck the holidays. If you can't enjoy the holidays because you're so stressed from work then what's the point?

Same! Ill already!

@HopefulBeliever fuuuuuuck.

Me! Been a week from hell. Trying to teach large classes with lots of staff off and juggling so many needs of children.

@hopspot that sounds so hard. The level of need this year is off the chart. So many children need help but we can't meet need. It's awful.

The worst part is the constant feeling of failure.

Yep - same here, secondary. And we've had open evening this week!!

We shouldn't be understaffed, on paper. Our problem is that our SLT responds to most behaviour issues by removing children from class and giving them a 1:1 TA on a supposedly temporary basis, we then can never get them back in class. Time and again, we don't learn from it but they don't care because it solves the issue of behaviour in the classroom and becomes the problem of underpaid, burnt out TAs. Already got one out and been told he'll be with me full-time all next week, but not to worry, it's short term. So fed up!

Sorry an unexpected little rant came out then 🤣

And unfinishedness. With more being added on top. And with all of it being a top priority and with a deadline of 5 minutes from now.

Me! A Reception teacher already facing burnout. The needs of the children are just disproportionate to what we can realistically do to support them. We have multiple children still in nappies, three children with extreme autism who are flight risks, and the rest have very little school readiness.
I’ve spent the last two weekends feeling poorly and completely exhausted, which means my own family are suffering too. I’m genuinely looking for other jobs now.

Me ….
I didn’t properly recover from last year and feel like I’m on the back foot already.
Really don’t know what to do.
I don’t know wtf is going to happen in schools but it really can’t go on like this.

Agreed, this really can't go on. I'm sorry you're all struggling too. I don't know what the answer is, but I can't see things improving anytime soon. This should not be happening.

We've had Ofsted - new school for me - so it's been a tough first fortnight.

Tas are not paid enough to care and I’m sorry you’re put in a position like this 🙁

We aren't, but the job is so hard and the pay so low that, certainly in my school, I don't know one TA that doesn't care. It's the only reason we're all still going.

Yep it's the only reason I'm there. Same with the other TAs I work with. The kids are bloody awesome and I know that we make a real difference.

Blood hell. Ofsted shouldn't be allowed to visit that early on. Poor you!

Similar sort of thing: my close friend is a Year 1 teacher and has a particularly tricky class this year. She has 3 children who need 1:1 support but just don’t have it. She’s already run ragged and she thinks she’ll be lucky to make it to Christmas in one piece.