To feel upset how unpopular teachers are.

[Jellymuffin]

Great news about public sector pay rises - yay! Que countless comments along the lines of 'not all public sector deserve a pay rise, only, nurses, paramedics, police and firefighters'. Everyone except teachers then? Should have expected it really .

Teachers complain because they get shit from every direction. Disrespectful kids who don't give a monkey's, parents who slag teachers off for little reason, senior leadership who expect miracles but fail to support their staff, government who constantly meddle and mess up the system. And the endless remarks about the 'paid' holidays. Which a) aren't paid and b) usually involve a lot of school work. I half expect the government to announce they are getting rid of the holidays too. Then let's see how many teachers they have left...

People can disbelieve teachers' complaints as much as they like. But eventually something will have to be done, or there will literally not be enough teachers to keep schools running.

Strawberrygate can your DH PM me some tips then?
Really, it's like me commenting on the state of IT networks on behalf of my DH who works in that industry, you have no idea. Move along.

As a teacher living in an area whose average wage is very low I would agree that I am well paid love to know how anyone can teach in the south ; however, given the pay freeze, increase in pension contributions (countless studies have shown that the teachers’ pension pot is not in deficit and the government have turned down numerous requests for clear accounts to be published) and inflation we are (as others) are living with a decrease.

Yes, we have 13 weeks away from our physical place of work, but we don’t get paid for this, often work at home during this time and go into our place of work during this time to run revision sessions etc.

But, as PP have pointed out the pressures from OFSTED, changes by government, the change in ownership of results from students to teachers, the pressures from SLT, the behaviour, constant depreciation of your role within society is the reason why retention and recruitment is the worst it has ever been.

I love my job - but nearly every week I am close to quitting and at some point this will happen, thereby another experienced teacher being lost

Education is the key for anyone, anywhere to succeed – without teachers to aid this then we might as well give up now

It just seems like teachers need constant gratification and praise for the awful, challenging work they do, going far above and beyond what's expected.

Gets a bit dull, really.

Part of the issue is pay. If you don't pay well you don't retain the best. Teaching well is extremely difficult and I don't agree with performance pay or other compensation structures outside of an annual salary that is in the top 10% of salaries by industry.

Here in the US the salaries of my DCs teachers are published and DDs teacher makes $102k a year. She has 20 years of experience and is an excellent teacher. She has earned every single penny of that salary this year.

toffeeboffin
It just seems like teachers need constant gratification and praise for the awful, challenging work they do, going far above and beyond what's expected.

What teachers want (IME) is that people get that the facts right, which would stop most of the bull that people post.

Not at all Toffee.
I knew what I was getting myself into (sort of).
You seriously have no clue.

strawberrygate

Could you tell me what his contact hours were?
What he was actually responsible for?
What classes he shared?
What classes he led whilst sharing?
Whether he was mainly KS3 or KS4?
What SoW he wrote?

Well, the Tories have just voted for another pay cut for public sector workers. Anyone surprised?

Reminder: They've had an 11% pay rise since 2015. Not all public sector workers are equal.

No, Toffee. That is not at all true. All they wang from the general public/ parents is not to be constantly and inaccurately slagged off. That's really not the same as wanting praise.

boney well I could, but like him can't be arsed to put in unnecessary work. Surprisingly I did know exactly what he did and what hours he worked; you know, being married to him and all that. The teachers who knew what they were doing got it all done in a normal working day. the ones who didn't, well, they didn't; same as most jobs

Oh, I do remember he was almost all KS4 and wrote most SOW for that, if that helps?

Some teachers work longer hours than others because their schools have different expectations and policies. A bad marking policy can increase workload substantially. One teacher who can get their job done in reasonable hours doesn't mean that other teachers who can't are lying or somehow inefficient. Some are luckier than others. Some are also more diligent.

strawberrygate

I will take that as you don't know mainly because you also post this piece of rubbish.

"The teachers who knew what they were doing got it all done in a normal working day."

Unless you want to specify what a "normal working day" is.

I think most teachers are dedicated, hard working professionals....

Leanne it's fairly niche, related to what I used to do before teaching although the teaching experience definitely helped me get this particular role, so don't want to out myself. There is a lot out there though that we are qualified to do if you think about the skills you need for teaching, rather than the job itself. I have former teaching colleagues who have gone into freelance journalism, educational publishing, research, advocacy, counselling, working for private foster care agencies, museum education type things, running their own before and after school clubs, training within big corporations, high level customer service and also some who escaped to teach in private schools overseas - Dubai, Thailand, Europe (Yes, I know a lot who've got out, that's Academisation for you). All very happy, and those who took a pay cut initially still think it is worth it for the work life balance. Not to mention the perks in some of the jobs that would be unheard of in teaching - mileage for travel, free coffee and tea, people saying thank you! Believe it or not we have a lot of transferable skills that are much appreciated by the other sectors - our resilience, ability to multi task, to smile even when the going gets tough, we are qualified to at least postgraduate level, used to learning on the job and reading loads around the subject in our own time due to regular syllabus changes, skilled at dealing gracefully with stroppy people, and are very grateful for a job where we can actually switch off at the end of the day so prepared to go the extra mile during working hours.

strawberrygate

It makes a huge difference. given that his SoW planning can be done during his increased free year 11 time after the exams.

Revision lessons leading up to the exams (reduced marking) and the modular form of ISAs and the ability to resit the ISAs to increase grades.

But it does seem that teachers are the most vocal at complaining about how hard their work is. I'm not denying its hard, I'm not denying it's vital and invaluable. It's just that sometimes I glaze over when I see yet another MN post about how hard it is. You don't see other professions complaining half as much

This, absolutely.

I got out of nursing, it was hard, no appreciation, no breaks, crap pay. Vote with your feet, leave then.

Strawberry, you have no idea. You really don't, so stop embarrassing yourself.

boneyback I'd asy a normal working day was 8 - 4;30 / 5pm which is what he used to work. What would you class it as?

There are some shockingly nasty people in the profession still and they seem to rise high up in the ranks.

Well I would hazard a guess that there are some shockingly nasty people in all professions who can rise high up in the ranks-that's not isolated to teaching!

boneybackAnd the increased free time is during the working day, or am I mistaken?
I'm assuming you have time / work management issues? I can ask him to pass on some tips if that would help? there really is no need to be working excessive hours

lizzy why do i have no idea? I'm married to someone who was a teacher till a couple of years ago and when he was teaching I worked at the same school so could see exactly what was happening. not sure embarrassing myself is the phrase you're looking for.

Surprisingly I did know exactly what he did and what hours he worked; you know, being married to him and all that.

My husband and I are both teachers and even I don't know exactly what he does, all day, every day and how he uses his time at work-why would I? Same as doesn't know everything I do...

And only/mainly doing KS4 makes a huge difference-especially when you only have that to mainly focus on and not KS3 and KS5 as well-no wonder his results were always so good!

For example, in the last month, my colleagues who mainly teach KS4 and/or KS5 exam classes have had very light timetables and plenty of time to write SOWs/resources in readiness for next year. They have had no KS3 reports to write (I've had 278) and lessons to still teach and books to still mark. It's all relative but you really cannot judge all teachers to have exactly the same workload-heck, I could never in a month of Sundays do what Primary teachers do.

So I'll take your anecdotal evidence with a pinch of salt, thanks.