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.

I'm standing on the edge, looking down into the Pit and I wonder why anyone would think I'd want to go back. I flit from school to school, I get my chance to teach and I enjoy interacting with up to 150 children a week, sometimes more. Then I leave at the end of the day or the week and my heart is light.
I'm not part of the corrosive atmosphere, with stressed and bewildered staff who are mostly trying their best in impossible circumstances and on constantly shifting ground. Crushed from above and piranha attacks from below.
How could anyone last, sane and fully-functioning FT in that environment more than a decade?

Pay is also terrible, considering the pressures and the workload.

If only Xenadog
A lovely dream..............that won't happen in the near future.

I have taught in Ireland, England and Scotland.

There is considerably less paperwork in Ireland, Scotland is catching up and the wooliness of Curriculum for Excellence makes this a particularly difficult task. In England the paperwork is obscene, and does nothing to support the children.

I teach a large class of 30, 5-6 year olds in Scotland, it's a lot of children to teach to read and write that's before all the other stuff.

I love teaching, but as a single parent am constantly pulled. Mostly I survive because I am well thought of in the school and am mostly left alone, but this could change at any moment.

Teaching feels very precarious at the moment, you are told to support the children and be positive in your feedback , two stars and a wish crap,(which the children can't read)but as a teacher you are always not quite right, could always do much better , but no one will tell you what is the right thing.

So how can it get better?

As a previous poster mentioned, trusting teachers to do their job would be a start.

Not everything needs to be documented. For example, if you don't trust that I have given verbal feedback to the children in my class why would me writing it on their work make it have happened? I can write what I like.

And if it's 'for Ofsted' then Ofsted need to be doing their checks in a different way.
Writing what I have suggested a 4 year old do to improve their work on top of their work not only ruins what they have done but is also a massive waste of time as most of them can't read it.

Pebble what an insulting post, which underlines your lack of understanding of teaching in Scotland.

Can we get this thread forwarded to th DofE?

And don't forget the parental complaints about training days and the suggestion that teachers should do them in their holidays. They do. They were taken from teacher holiday entitlement in the first place when they were introduced.

Also: five page lesson plans. Sod that.

I agree Ego

We must have the most measured and targeted children in the world yet we are still not getting the desired results. Has anyone measured whether current methods and targets have made any impact in improving education.

Do we look at best practice and successes in other countries? How can it be best practice for teachers to spend as much time planning as they do teaching?

I have always worked in 'challenging' schools. Many children have chaotic home lives, little stability and parents with serious needs of their own. I want to help. I think I do a good job. Given time, my classes settle and focus. They make progress. But it doesn't happen overnight and does not follow a continuously increasing line of progress. We have tough days. I cannot predict what state of mind my pupils will arrive in. An awful night at home can have a huge impact in class. We deal with it - or try to. But woe betide us if a lesson observation has any hint of low level disruption or tired, hungry pupil does not make enough progress in the time observed. My magic wand doesn't always work. The very reason I went into teaching will be the reason I leave because I just can't help these children as I want to in this climate

I love my job. But I work bloody hard at it, get to school at 7:30 am, often leave at 6:30 pm and then have work to do in evenings and weekends. I run clubs, trips and extra activities. If you work it out I probably get minimum wage for the hours I do. I accept that there are hoops I have to jump through to please Ofsted and the govt. My school is better than most at allowing me to cut through the rubbish and focus on being a creative and inspiring teacher. It's hard, but I chose it and I'm tough. I love the kids and I love seeing their excitement, learning and progress.

Most parents appreciate what we do and understand that we can't micro manage all of the children we teach, that there are some things we can't control but that when things go wrong we do our best to fix them. They laugh at the lost property pile and understand that you haven't got two minutes in the day to go to the toilet let alone spend 30 minutes looking for the lost PE shorts which they forgot to name.

Then there are the other sort who fire off emails at midnight complaining that we haven't given enough to their one little darling and that we're rubbish at everything. Who forget that their little darling is one of 28 in my class and that they are all someone's little darling. Who forget that some of those children have complex medical and social needs. They are the ones who break us.

When I haven't seen my own children all week because I've been doing parent consultations. When I haven't been able to be a mum because I've been manning the school disco. When my children just 'get on with it' and they don't complain because I'm the only breadwinner and its important I work.

Those are the parents who break us.

Absolutely Camille
Then because those children aren't able to make progress in that lesson you're faced with a verdict of RI and in some schools that can be a fast track to capability and dismissal.

This thread SHOULD go to the DofE and to Cameron.

I really want to know if the minister for education (of whichever party) has ever sat down and talked to real teachers at the chalk face and asked them, all bullshit aside, what they need to: make their job easier; to make them more effective in the classroom and to genuinely give our children the best education possible.

Estelle Morris was an ex-teacher but unfortunately wasn't in post for long enough. We need someone who champions the teacher and the pupil. This isn't idealistic it's just fucking common sense!

I met Estelle Morris when she came to my school. I thought it was sad that she resigned because she didn't feel up to the job.

I won't be on the thread much today as we have visitors (sneaking off to MN might get noticed)
I really appreciate all the posts. I have learnt a lot and see the situation very differently now.

More than 44,000 teachers filled out the Workload Challenge survey and wrote about exactly these issues. They also took the time to give suggestions of what could be done and what was working in their school.

No one is listening, which is why everyone is leaving.

I don't think that given the rate at which teachers are leaving and the rise in birth rate it is an exaggeration to say that teaching is in crisis.

I really want to know if the minister for education (of whichever party) has ever sat down and talked to real teachers at the chalk face and asked them, all bullshit aside, what they need to: make their job easier; to make them more effective in the classroom and to genuinely give our children the best education possible

It's been done. More than 30,000 teachers responded to Nicky Morgan's Workload Challenge Survey in 2014. As far as I know, its findings have not led to any changes in teachers' working conditions.

Yes ilovesooty despite the fact that we DO make a huge difference to children. I find the uncertainty hard to accept. After 20 years in the job, I have started doubting my own ability and professional judgement.

Camille you're evidently a good, experienced committed teacher and that is a really sad indictment of what is going on.

The attitude seems very much to be that teachers can't be trusted to just teach. This is not the attitude of the other countries that we are chasing in league tables. We want the results but fail to explore how these are achieved and fail to understand what might work here.

In general teachers in other countries are held in high regard as professionals and allowed to get on with their job. They are not tied up in knots with paperwork and new initiatives leaving them too exhausted to teach.

The system is broken and it's not working for anyone.

Thank you ilovesooty and I completely agree shebird