To wonder why so many teachers want to quit

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

Inspired by other threads but I didn't want to derail.

What is going on in education that is making teaching so stressful?

I work in the City and you don't see too many people quitting with stress even though the work can be stressful. Certainly, not the numbers you see in teaching.

Sorry for the appalling SP&G

I don't have any problem with the content of GCSEs getting harder. But I do hate the concept of a C/4 being a fail... it damn well isn't!

And L3 courses should be able to take students with D/4s as so many courses are fine with Functional Skills, which will of course be magically unwanted in 4 years time without anything other than C/5 being the one and only target grade acceptable.

OK, so bring back a 2-tiered education system and embrace the differences. Why is that so impossible? Plenty of other countries manage to give credence to all sorts of training, bartending for example. It is infuriating that we can no longer structure a general education for all up to 16 years and then an appropriate, useful post 16 education that the establishment won't continue to mock!

Who cares that a plumbing student can't do some esoteric equation? Can they guesstimate? Can they write an accurate quote? Can they do the maths the job requires? Well, 10 years ago the answer might have been yes. These days, maybe, but Functional Skills is losing its applicability ... after 2020 I doubt it as they will have failed to complete an apprenticeship because they cannot gain C at GCSE.

Do I sound angry? You'd think that after 6 months out of the job I would have calmed down about this, wouldn't you? But I can't. What is happening to kids today is going to be proven to be unforgivable.

NOT the exams getting harder, but the ever increasing insistence on there only being one acceptable measure of intelligence. And that measure has been set, in stone, by a group of people who cannot fix a dripping tap - but can, apparently, write all sorts of financial strategies to end all world ills!

Irrate parent.Who will not hear of their little darlings being disciplined. No matter what. You know those type. I don't care that my little Courtney-Rai threw a chair across the room. No out shouts at her. She can do as she likes
Often Unmanageable demands from Ofsted.

Thanks Camille. I love my company and feel humbled to be able to get a second chance. The marketing department has just interviewed me for the company newsletter as an example of how it's never too late to recover and change direction.

It boils down to the fact that whatever we do, however hard we work, whatever the behaviour of the children - it is always our fault!

I think all teachers should hand in their notices on a mass resignation day. Maybe then the politicians would stop this lunacy. I could weep for British education - where teachers spend more time proving their teaching than actually teaching.

I was at college with Nicky Morgan. She is from a very priviliged background & as such as very limited understanding of how the majority of people live. She was a political hack at college & left Oxford for law in the city. She has limited understanding of education & a very fixed idea of what educational 'success' means. We need someone in charge who will conpletely rewrite the mess Gove introduced. No chance of that with Nicky Morgan.

I think it isn't even always a case of relaunching careers. Loads of people teach as part of their career before moving on. The biggest barrier to teachers leaving is the notice period not that it's impossible to get anything else. Basically you have to resign first....then look which is scary. Teaching for me was an important part of my career that enabled me to get my next job. Personally I don't feel humbled by it any more than anyone else who gets a new job would. I guess I only taught for 7 years so that probably made a difference.

I have just started my 7th year of teaching, having spent the 6th on Mat leave. I have gone back part time and I am just about keeping my head above water.

I can't put my finger on what is different but I constantly feel I am chasing my tail and running in circles.

I am spending 2-3 hours of my week sortinging homework, the majority spent making phonecalls home about homework not being completed, setting detentions, giving up my breaks and lunchtimes to get work completed from students - if I don't I get into trouble for not having homeworks set. We also have to add it to an online system which parents/SLT can monitor to make sure we are setting it which the students don't bother with so if I set a sheet and upload it I still get the excuse they have lost the sheet as to why they haven't done the homework.

My performance this year is expected to get 24 A and 8 A's from my top set year 10 class for the exam they are doing in 1 yr. At no point in the past 6 years has the top set in my nice, middle class area, comprehensive with boys and girls grammar school locally, EVER achieved that level of A's from a top set.

I guess there will be a failed performance management heading my way in 12 months time! (The only way I think I could achieve that level of results is to do the whole classes controlled assessment and exam for them!) I have 5 exam classes all doing their exam this year as well so my focus can't just be on this one class.

I do love my job but agree with others it is very different from what my parents had to deal with. I spend a lot of time thinking I am failing everyone, my students, my husband, my daughter.

I have had to keep my daughter in nursery next week for her 3 days so I can attempt to get on top of things to assist with next term.

The words thank you are very rarely heard in secondary.

I taught for 23 years tobysmum and my current company took me on with old references because my previous head teacher flatly refused to give me a reference - even a basic one confirming my 10 years there. My current employers took a leap of faith with me and I do feel humbled by that.

Good point about the notice periods making it difficult just to move to alternative employment.

2 years ago something happened that left me utterly convinced that SLT in our school are totally and utterly spineless.

Walking to the train station I noticed one of our students who was just in front of me 'doing' something to another student. It looked like he punched her in the arm but she really reacted to it and shrieked. I confronted the student and, after a bit of an argument, got him to give the me thing that he was obviousy hiding in his blazer pocket. It was a small black box with two screws attached to it.

I got his name, took it home, and DH and I did some investigation. It was a sort of homemade taser which was putting out 430V ac. Naturally, I gave it straight to the HoY the next day who did a very thorough investigation and found out how the boy was using the offending item around the school on himself and his 'friends'.

It was escalated to the assistant head, who called the parents in. Dad thought it was all quite funny - he had helped his DS make it based on instructions from Youtube. He thought his DS was really quite a technical genius for having made it (mum looked a bit mortified).

Here's the best bit....... assistant head asked dad if he wanted it back. Dad said yes. She gave it back to him.

FFS, why did I bother?

She is fucking useless. She is in charge of pupil support and guidance and safeguarding....

I agree Nicky Morgan is Michael Gove's puppet as far as I am concerned - the fact she was initially given two cabinet jobs spoke volumes about the importance on the job.

Also as someone else said up thread - schools and teachers seem to be the answer to a lot of problems - from memory in the past couple of years:

Radicalisation - it did make me chuckle that the reported number rose from July this year compared to other years - Teachers can now be in trouble (possibly prosecution but I can't remember) if they do not report possible radicalisation occurring so yep the numbers probably did increase a lot!

Safeguarding - I DO NOT have an issue with this but the fact in serious cases there is often media blame straight away towards teachers about things slipping through - I spotted by complete chance a self harm case the other day - due to the fact I was stood near the child and could see down their blazer sleeve - unlikely to have spotted it in a normal lesson. We can only do a certain amount.

Teeth brushing - dentists think primary school should do it as parents aren't
First Aid training - frequently being asked to be added to the curriculum - half agree but we are already tight for time

Internet safety, potty training, manners, behaviour, careers education, the list keeps being added to and added to, obviously not all ages but it still keeps on going.

It seems anything the government need addressing they throw at schools to do.

A bit like teh wrap around care - even if teachers aren't expected to provide it (wonder who will be expected to step up if others aren't available) I stay at school to work until around 5pm - used to be 6pm but have to collect my daughter from nursery an hours commute away - having a school full of students stops it being an effective work environment. One idea was a homework club bit like prep - but I can see those who run it saying oh pop up and see x for some help as they are still here - disturbing valuable work time.

Rant over - apologies

Lots of parents are supportive, lots aren't.

Oh yes, online homework systems. We've just got one this year.

Sounds great, but actually now every time I set homework I have to spend an extra 5-10 minutes uploading it (depending on how slow the network is being). So if I set three homeworks in a day, that's potentially an extra half hour work, on top of my normal workload.

Question level analysis is another bugbear. Now after exams I have to spend hours entering into spreadsheets every single mark gained on every single question on each exam paper. This then produces nice little graphs for each student which they stick in their book and then completely ignore.

I'm busting my arse so that they have to do less work. They don't need to bother writing their homework down. They don't have to bother looking through their exams and figuring out where they need to revise. I'm now doing it all for them!

Jeez sooty that's absolutely shocking re the ht. How do these people sleep at night?

Noblegiraffe - I could have written every single word of your post - I am also Maths!

We now have to set revision questions for them to do in green pen as my feedback to show I am aware of what they failed to do!

Agree with doing more so students can do less - someone came up with the genius wheeze of putting labels in each student's book with their targets for the year and spaces for them to fill in their level at each progress check. Except the program we use to enter data for the progress checks and targets won't export to any other program easily, so you have to make a manual list of the targets, then either type them back into Word or Excel and mail merge the labels (which is fiddly as I don't know how to do it properly), or type the list up,and give it to someone else to mail merge (which all takes time), or just take the 'easy' route of writing them In myself. If I object to this pointless and time-consuming task someone always suggest "get the kids to write them in!" But they NEVER EVER know their levels unless you tell them, so it means calling each kid up or walking round the classroom with a list saying "write 4b in there. No, not there, the other gap. 4B, not 4C, no sorry I'm reading off the wrong line" x28 or however many kids you have x however many classes you have.

A tiny thing that ends up taking maybe a full hour of your week where nothing that will actually improve teaching or learning has taken place. And if you don't do it you get a 4 in your lesson observation because they "don't know their targets" (apart from all the individual targets for improvement I have put in each child's book when marking their work, that is.)

DH and I are leaving the country to teach abroad. A total of 24 years teaching experience gone. We will be replaced by NQTs or quite probably unqualified supply (we have had an unqualified teacher teaching A-levels this year). Every good teacher in my department wants to leave. It's not a case of lacking resilience or not being able to hack it, it's just too bad to stay. It's loathesome and loathesome people are flourishing.

As, yes the notice period and references. It really is like feudal times, being tied to your bullying indentured lord and having to get his blessing to work elsewhere. In the rest of the world recruitment ahs moved on. Was amazed to find that teachers can only resign at specific points in the year, then have a lengthy notice period, and are dependent on Head's ref.
I think by law schools should be required to give nor more less than a reference that confirms that 'x was employed since x as jobtitle at a final salary of £y'. Most other industries do that now, and is all that is required for safeguarding.
Is also ridiculous and antiquated and demeaning to have all interviewees turn up on the same day and be forced to make small chat and some culled at lunchtime.
I came into teaching from industry and is like going back 100 years in employment practices.

noblegiraffe

If it the one that we used that is (still being) developed by an ex teacher, wait till it doesn't transfer your marks to their "gradebook".

tobysmum I actually asked one of the assistant heads but he went and asked permission to give me a reference. The head's words were "Over my dead body. She gets no reference from here. She's a troublemaker". Subsequent requests from my union for a basic reference confirming my 10 years there were refused.
I hope the bastard rots in hell but as I said I've thankfully been able to move on. He refused references or gave poor ones to serving members of staff too and once told his deputy that if he didn't toe his line he'd see to it that he never got a job elsewhere.
However there are loads of good heads out there and I feel sorry for them. One poor Ofsted and it could be all over for them. It's not surprising that it's difficult to recruit heads for some schools.

Lack of support from SLT (though our new HOD is brilliant and really fights are corner with SLT)

That even though it's the first day of half term I am currently wasting time on mumsnet making a list of everything I need to do this week just to be ready for next term. Up to item 10 so far.

That no matter how many interventions I put in place/ extra controlled assessment lessons after school my bottom set year 11's are not going to get higher then D's, which for them will be a really achievement but as far as SLT is concerned that will mean I have failed. (Some of these kids can barely retain information from one lesson to the next or write in proper sentences and I only have one TA with the group so giving them all the support they really need during an hour long lesson just isn't possible)

That I have to waste prep time on filling in endless appraisal paper work to prove I'm a good teacher rather than being allowed to get on with the actual teaching which would prove I'm a good teacher.

That parents expect me to spoon feed information to their children rather then teach them to be independent learners. That some parents don't think they play any role in their child's education and that every thing wrong with the youth of today is my fault as a teacher.

That after half term the honest results I've put on pupils reports will be blasted because their last teacher really over inflated their grades so it now looks like they have gone backwards.

I could go on but I may just go and cry in frustration instead.

This is why teachers (on rare occasions) have held strikes - to try to avoid the mess we're in now and make sure that children are getting the most of a teacher's time.

Sadly everyone seems to have been too busy getting upset about having to find alternative childcare to listen to why the teachers were striking.

I think many teachers are now past the point of even fighting anymore and are just leaving.

jellyfrizz - spot on.

The thing about the strikes tho is that - according to my Union - teachers are only allowed to vote about pay, not about educational practice.
So parents, (including me, before I saw it from the inside and knew better ) assume the whinging teachers who get all that holiday and get to spend quality time with all those lovely DC all day are just money grabbing selfish layabouts.

strike not vote

We could fight...what weapons and effective sanctions could we use to make the government, the public and our SLTs listen?
We have nothing but our labour to withdraw, so we leave.
I didn't bother with the survey that NM wanted us to complete; after years of naive credulity, I've come to realise that stuff like that is a sop to make teachers think thazt something will change for the better.
Smoke and mirrors to dazzle and deceive. And we stay silent and wait hopefully as the months roll by and nothing improves.