To be mildly irritated by most tiring job ever?

[brasty]

A friend who is a teacher has been saying how exhausted she is, and that only other teachers would understand. She is not joking. AIBU to be mildly irritated by this? Yes teachers do a hard job, but there are other jobs that are also exhausting.

I work with Immigrants and what they would give to be able to train for a secure, professional job with a pension and a union.

What is stopping them training?

letseatgrandma

What is stopping them training?

Possibly the £36000 it takes to get the BA Hons degree with QTS. + the qualifications to go on the course if they don't have them.

And the travelling expenses for the placements.

The head said that he had advertised twice but simply had no applicants. The letter asked if any parents knew of anyone who could teach maths at the school in the September
And yet people still bleat that they have to put up with unacceptable conditions because schools won't negotiate. That school would have. But some teachers prefer to moan and whine that someone else should wave a magic wand and take us all back to the 1970s when life was great for teachers, but for the pupils not so much...

Teachers who try to negotiate at my school end up leaving. We've lost two maths teachers recently because of this.

That school wasn't negotiating, Mrs Guy, it was desperate. There is no negotiating. My husband is head of his dept and his budget for the year is £0. There is no negotiating.

There is always always some human being willing to work harder

Maybe. But there sure as hell aren't enough maths teachers to go around.

Crikey this thread just keeps on giving! As Guy says surely it is the SLT's best interests to negotiate terms to keep experienced teachers, but they don't appear to be willing to do it. Could it be because NQTs are cheaper? I have no idea what the answer is, but i hope someone comes up with something, I'm due to qualify at the end of this year!

Yes, NQTs are cheaper and the school budget just keeps getting smaller. The rate of retention of NQTs is dire and so it goes on.

Experienced teachers are also very useful to train and support NQTS (when they are given the time to) they are also useful when it comes to behaviour management. Because no matter how long you've been teaching, when you go to a new school the kids will push to see your boundaries. When you're an NQT And have no support, behavior can slide and have a knock on effect to the attitude the kids take to their next lesson.

bleat - why so disrespectful mrs? - is it not possible that other people have had a different experience?

Experienced teachers are also very useful to train and support NQTS
Not if they are cynical and bitter, which to judge by 'experienced' teachers who have posted on this thread is synonymous with 'experienced'.
But if young NQTs can't hack it, ( maybe because they are brainwashed by the 'experienced' ones that all is doom and gloom, there is no hope etc -) maybe that's why more innovative and successful HTs are welcoming older people into to teaching from professions. People who have had a life outside education, who will have had DC of their own and and don't cry in the toilets because of the behaviour of some teenagers.
Sure there are still plenty still with their heads in the sand who as a previous poster said 'won't negotiate' - too bad, there will always be HTs and staff with fixed mindsets that can't change - sad for the pupils in those schools, stuck (for now) with teachers like that.

Are you Michael Gove in disguise? indeed there will be some teachers who shouldn't be teaching and who shouldn't be passing that experience onwards. But that is no way the majority of teachers, being pissed off at being mistreated by the Government (as it is their policy and lack of funding that has had the knock on effect to overworked teachers) or not generally teachers will always pass on their passion to embolden and bolster a younger generation of teachers in the same way they do the children. As someone else posted, your attitude about 'negotiations' comes from.your own singular experience. If you're talking about negotiating with time and money then you need to accept the fact that despite what they'd like to do they have neither the time nor money to do it.

And by they I mean the majority of schools.

MrsGuyOfGisbo

maybe that's why more innovative and successful HTs are welcoming older people into to teaching from professions. People who have had a life outside education, who will have had DC of their own and and don't cry in the toilets because of the behaviour of some teenagers.

Is your record stuck on this? Posters have already said that they (and I) have experience outside of schools in other professions, yet you are still pushing your agenda that this is better, the move to train ex-solders in classrooms failed, teach direct (in its many forms) is failing, these are all professionals that said fuck it and left.

There is very little negotiation because there is no money. Schools cannot keep experienced teachers nor can they afford to pay them more, they bring in NQTs (that are becoming a rare commodity) that are cheaper and they don't stay.

Oh yes, I have two children, didn't start teaching till I was 28, having travelled and worked in industry. I'm by no means bitter, can see the failures in the system, the way that teachers are let down consistently and derided by the Government and people generally. I'm also (for what it's worth) OFSTED outstanding. So where do I fit in your narrative MrsGuy?

(I've also cried in the bathroom over teenagers behaviour and my own mistakes)

I can't believe some people actually lower themselves by joining the teaching profession. Seeing as though long serving teachers are apparently bitter fuckwits, incapable of time management or doing anything that doesn't involve crying to a union rep or moaning, why put yourself in with them when you could get a proper hard job in the real world!

I tend to find the difference between bright new recruit and bitter old has been is the year someone can qualify for ups.

MrsGuy I teach in a school in a leafy middle class town. Behaviour is pretty good, as were results.

However, on the last two years the head has started to feel the pinch because of changes in the funding formula, especially for sixth form.

As a result, we are not replacing teach who leave in non-core subject. We're now down to one Music teacher for over 1500 kids.

On the flip side, there are two vacancies in English and three in Maths that cannot be filled. No one has applied- despite one of the English posts being advertised three times. The head doesn't have the money to let people negotiate their conditions.

And before you say it: no, it's not just my school. The picture is pretty much the same in every school in the county.

Handbag, I can't figure out if you're joking or not. Which is sad either way. I have a feeling you're not though.

Also had "real world" experience. Have my own children.

Don't "negotiate" and get my own way because actually I don't think classrooms are isolated, I think teachers are part of a school. And for schools to work, we have to work together. Unfortunately that means "thinking outside the box" and supporting each other, often doing more than the budget stretches to.

I'm taking the piss out of several posts upthread :) Not so much about the pay scale though. Seeing as though I doubt many will ever get to the giddy heights of ups1 with performance related pay it might not be such an issue in the future.

Oh thank goodness

I'm afraid I'm a cynical old timer who is currently draining the public purse dry by having the audacity to claim maternity leave! Don't paid me no mind ;)

Ah me too, just returned from maternity though. I've got to the point where I no longer boil with incandescent rage when threads like these pop up. can't win everyone over!

True. People will always believe what they want to believe, regardless of the evidence to the contrary.