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.

There isn't a recruitment crisis soots as we would define it : UK & overseas supply agencies have sufficient cannon fodder in the shape of desperate/keen/misguided 'teachers', let alone recent grads who don't know what else to do. Unemployment in the EU eg Spain, and teacher surplus in eg Irish Republic & Canada contribute to this.

It doesn't matter to Cameron, Gove, Osbourne, Morgan that kids' education is being ruined by huge teacher turnover - their own kids don't attend schools affected by the factors discussed on this thread.

I mean no disrespect to OTTs, NQTs or anyone else willing to risk / sacrifice their mental & physical survival by this post.

Fair point Amanda but they certainly can't summon up cannon fodder for head teacher positions.

Exit interview? I wish! The members of staff who left ours this year didn't even get to make speeches at the end of year send off on the last day, as I think the head was worried about what they might say. Even someone who was retiring after 20 years got nothing more than a token goodbye, it was disgraceful!

When I qualified there were often hundreds of applicants for one job. The last time my school advertised, we had 10 applicants, selected 3 for interview and only 1 came.

Yep, I know schools who are hiring boatloads of NQTs from abroad who stay for a year or two then go back home.

This is a sticking plaster.

I've been teaching for ten years and I know I am way better at my job than I was when I started. I've seen and dealt with so many different things that inform how I teach now. You can't replace what I offer with a fresh graduate and a golden hello.

It doesn't matter to Cameron, Gove, Osbourne, Morgan
And you think Labour are any different? Their new spin doctor Seamus Milne, eschewed the dire comp I referred to earlier - which is his nearest school - and sent his kids to Tiffin - super-selective grammar, in the next borough.

I've used this analogy on here before but I'll say it again.

Imagine you've been driving for 20/30 years. You're pretty experienced and know what you're doing in a car, having driven hundreds of thousands of miles in a range of models. In comes a ruling (from Government) that before every single journey, you have to submit a plan, detailing the car you'll be driving and its performance details, where you're going and why, where you went last time and how the car performed then, who owned the car previously (and how they looked after it), your proposed route and what your back up plan is if you happen to meet roadworks or traffic. Any detour you make will need to be detailed and annotated. At the end of the trip, you will be required to assess how it went, and what you would do differently next time to improve journey times, even if the reason you were late is because the motorway was closed and there was gridlock in the surrounding roads. This will be your fault. Every. Single. Trip.

Would you do it? Or would you say, "Bollocks to that," and take the bus?

Great analogy clam

I left this summer. I loved teaching, but not all the other nonsense. In the current climate I wouldn't go back to teaching if you paid me £50k+.

Clam, the gvt has never insisted on lesson plans. Its SLT - but no-one ever stands up and tell's em to stick it. So of course they will carry on inventing more stuff to do - monitoring it keeps them in a job.

And worrying for those wearing 'P' plates or used to driving on the other side of the road to be driving kids along in the minibus when a 10-ton truck bears down towards them ... But that probably wouldn't be allowed, would it ?

Brilliant post clam. Saved for future reference.

It doesn't actually matter who insists on the plans. The analogy stands.

UnlikelyPilgramage

I can only speak for my school but we allowed pupils that got a "C", "B", or "A" to resit.

thanks to the cut backs and gove we are losing the ability to send children who are ideally suited to vocational courses to college or work placements as they will not achieve their "progress 8"

Clam - it's a good analogy but it's not the case in every school and we can't blame govt or even ofsted for it. I don't get asked for lesson plans, and never have.

MrsUltracrepidarian

monitoring it keeps them in a job.

Surely monitoring is part of their job.

Excellent clam.

The only reason I'm still in the job is because my HT doesn't insist on them either. She says we can write them if we want, but she's not reading them, she's got too much else to do.

But many teachers on here are reporting that they do have to do them, which is ridiculous. The SLT of a school can make or break its staff.

EvilTwins, that's good to hear, but you are definitely in a tiny minority.

In Primary schools it would be almost unheard of not to have to produce planning on a prescribed proforma that is regularly scrutinised. And although govt and OFSTED haven't said they need this, they have most definitely shaped the climate of fear, judgement, accountability and scrutiny that makes SLT feel they need to insist on it in many/most schools. My school has recently announced that they will no longer look at planning unless data and lesson observations raise cause for concern. This is after huge pressure from staff on work/life balance. But I know that my data won't be good. Progress will be, but attainment levels will always cause concern in my school, so it doesn't really help.

Interesting about planning and primaries. On the FB supply teachers' group people are always being told they have to plan for schools they are about to do a day's supply in. So seems that many schools don't require planning to be done in advance of the very day the lesson is delivered...

padkin I agree about OFSTED causing the climate of fear.

However, i don't think I'm unusual in secondary teaching. My sister teaches primary and I know that's a whole different ballgame.

MrsUltra Not necessarily. Sometimes it can be quite difficult to teach from someone else's plans, and it can be hard to know whether it was done as the teacher intended. So, it could be that, for a one-off day of cover, it is more straightforward for a supply teacher to plan their own lessons, albeit within certain parameters.

There is also a school of thought that if a supply teacher is to be paid for teaching for the day, why should the class teacher do all the planning for that? Or the marking, come to that?

You cannot properly plan for a class you have never met, with no idea of the prior knowledge and attainment/SEN/EAL etc.
When they ask supply teachers to plan, it really means - plans something to keep them occupied - not to further their learning.
And if the planning has been done - it is there to be used.
Would actually make sense for the class teacher to have emergency plans in place for the class, and assessment that does not require marking - immediate verbal feedback is more effective anyway.
I no longer do primary anyway because of the ridiculous marking regimes.
I do secondary, and the best use of the children's time is when the regular teacher has left their plans and resources, so the children get a proper less on and do make progress. In the best schools they do this.
It is evident though that some actually don't really want progress to happen when they are not there...

"It is evident though that some actually don't really want progress to happen when they are not there..."

Really? Who on earth would that benefit?

It's impossible to plan for any length of time for classes where you aren't there.

I also think that it's ridiculous for pressure to be put on sick teachers to provide work.