AIBU to consider giving up teaching?

[PenguinBear]

AIBU to think that maybe I don't want to be a teacher anymore?

I have been teaching for a number of years and for the first time this year I am really not enjoying it. I have a difficult class (one child in particular who is making things very hard work).
There is massive pressure to achieve a good OFSTED grade and it's a whirlwind of constant book scrutinises, planning analysis and book comparisons, pupil progress meetings etc.

I love working with children and enjoy helping them to learn but the pressures for everything else are getting too much and ruining the enjoyment of the job.

I think I'd like to be an HLTA or something (definitely went to remain in a school).

Dp thinks I am mad to even consider it due to the drop in money but if I went for a HLTA position/ supply teaching it might be okay.

I just want to work in the classroom without the responsibility and pressure. I watch my TA breeze out the door at 3.30 with a smile and I'm stuck there till 6.30 every night. There's always so much to do and I feel like I'm constantly on a treadmill with no exit!

Anyone done similar? AIBU? Dp doesn't want me to do it at all and is being off with me for even considering it.

Riverside I hope so too. Maybe I'll be SMT by then and actually able to address some of these broader issues. I would live to, but my positivity is genuine and not just naivety, I've been doing this for 8 years.

Soverylucky but sometimes tick and flick is ok, no? We have three levels of marking in our school ranging from 'tick and flick' ie checking the work is done, perhaps correcting a few spellings, to level three marking which involves giving 2 stars and a target, related to AFs or AOs, and a level or grade, and pupils are expected to formally respond to this feedback. There is a very clear and transparent about how much of what type of marking is required per term within my department. Also, peer and self assessment are great tools- I broke my wrist 7 weeks ago and couldn't write at first, so I've had to do a lot of this recently, to good effect.

Having said that, I probably mark one set of a level or gcse essays most week nights, giving in depth feedback, after my dcs are in bed. But I enjoy it. Reading the creative writing of my students is an absolute joy and privilege and occasionally moves me to tears.

I teach English which is notorious for its marking workload. I also have a very top heavy tt with a lot of a level and gcse. Ks3 science teachers at my school were complaining on fb at half term that they spent 90% of it marking, another that she marks 90 books every evening, and I jut think that's not a smart way to work, the feedback cannot be of good quality.

I assume everyone moaning on here has filled in the teachers' workload survey on TES?

Yes, I've filled in the workload survey on the tes. Would love to read some of the replies.

YANBU and frankly wish my DH would consider doing the same.

'my positivity is genuine and not just naivety, I've been doing this for 8 years. '

I never thought otherwise, but did you have your children during those 8 years, and so have a change of pace and work on maternity leave?

Yes I take your point, I've had 2 maternity leaves in that time.

Tbh I found being at home with two small children far far harder than work.

That's why I didn't call it time off on maternity leave!

Just done the workload survey. Turned into a bit of a rant!

I am envious of those who only have three obs a year. We have one every half term and book scrutinises and pupil progress meetings the same. It feels like we are constantly being watched and checked up on and I'm one of teachers they leave alone. Some of the teachers who are viewed to be underperforming have more frequent visits from the head (she often does daily drop ins on them which seems an enormous amount of pressure to me).

Marking moves me to tears too.

YANBU

Im an ex teacher now working asca ta in a referal unit. I love it: tiny classes and if the kids kick off it is not your fault. Far easier than working in mainstream and private.
My goal is to teach in referal unit as less marking and I feel like im making a difference.

I haven't looked for jobs for so many years the process scares me.... I haven't updated my cv or person spec etc in 10 years.
I'd feel dreadful leaving my class halfway through a year though!

My friend works as a one to one maths tutor at a school. She starts at 9am and finishes at 2:50. She is on pretty good money . She also tutors a couple of evenings a week.

I really wouldn't want to send my son to school if the classrooms are so full of exhausted, desperate teachers.

My question is this - Can teachers not fight for their rights and better conditions, challenging and resisting OFSTED's demands, rather than putting up with it and/or leaving. Perhaps I am being naieve, but this is a genuine question.

Sparky, in an ideal world, yes. But my last school was RI, then failing, then forcibly Academy. I had "learning walks " every week, book scrutinies weekly. Every book marked to scheme every night,which was 90 books. I had drop in observations, and my pupil progress meetings were like something from the Stasi. It's an academy. No rules, no back up, lots and lots of bullying.

I have since moved to a school that is a world apart. Yes, the scrutiny is there and i'm still observed, but it's not a witch-hunt.

Now there is no pay guarentee, and you have to prove your worth for every pay scale point, things are worse. Why should you move up a point? PROVE you did your best! If your class disn't make the required sublevels, no pay! If you can't do the job, there are NQT's who can. The school I was working at ( and my children were at) is an academy. Unsurprisingly, it now has 8 NQT's working there. Wouldn't be allowed in an LEA school. But there's nothing anyone can do. Academies are like vampires, and we invited them in.

Funnily enough my school is an Academy too!

Yes I can imagine the pressure Phleba - but could you not "go your own sweet way" IFKWIM? Somebody has to say "no" to this state of affairs. Plus I genuinely wouldn't want any teacher to become a martyr on my behalf.

What would 'they' do if you simply refused to grind yourself into the ground? Would they sack you? I don't know any teachers, so I suppose I don't understand how it works from the inside.

I was a teacher for 11 years and now I'm not. I couldn't do it anymore I was exhausted and constantly ill/It's taken me over a tear to get well again,YANBU.

The pay related pm is fairly used IMO in my school. What we had in the past is teachers sitting at the top of the pay scale doing not much whilst younger staff are doing loads for less pay. When I was on main scale I ran cpd groups, revision classes, loads of extra curricular stuff, wrote sows, designed shared resources etc someone else who did none of this was getting paid 6k more than me just because they had been doing it longer??

Pm pay goes some way to mitigating this. Students not achieving targets is the only area where I do not think this is fair as there are a lot of other factors there beyond a teacher's control.

They can do sack you now, far more easily than before. The problem us, if we do stand up for ourselves, we are roundly lambasted by much of the public. Also, job insecurity is do rife that teachers do not want to work to Union rule (as we all should be at the moment) for fear of retribution.

The problem with PM in our school is the staff who are on very high pay are still on high pay and from what I understand even if they do badly the head can't take that away?

It depends if it's an academy or not-our head can certainly take ups off teachers who are not felt to be performing. A weak head won't tackle it-our head weeded out the under performers very early. That sounds awful, but they really were not great teachers.

Just out of curiosity, as a teacher's work experience seems to depend on the SLT/HT in each school/academy, has anyone any experience of being managed by a Teach First grad who has stuck around and made it to HoD/HT? I read today that a few were sticking with teaching and getting promoted to these positions. Do they 'people manage' differently at all? Just curious.

I read that about Teach First in the papers today. They seem to be doing very well in schools. It has been a good scheme.