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 .

Vote with your feet, leave then.

Teachers are, in ever increasing numbers. If you've got secondary aged kids, dare you ask your school who is teaching them maths?

X -post with the one before mine:I worked at the same school as my husband did, for 6 years and still didn't know his every move-he was/is Science as well...

strawberrygate

I am more than happy for him to pass on his advice, but I suspect as he is on a reduced timetable due to being management and only teaching KS4 and I have a full teaching commitment most of his advice will be useless.

I ask about normal hours because you seem to think that office hours or similar are the normal working hours and not taking into account that many people work 12 hour days (and nights) or have days where they work earlies and lates due to the shift rota.

And the increased free time is during the working day, or am I mistaken?

You are indeed correct but if you only teach KS4 you will get more free time. Not much help if you are teaching KS3.

If you're almost all KS4 then you'd probably be teaching the same lessons over and over which would really help with planning. I teach Y7 to 13 so none of my classes are doing the same thing.

Teachers are, in ever increasing numbers. If you've got secondary aged kids, dare you ask your school who is teaching them maths?

Dare you ask who is nursing your relatives?

Seriously, it's constant moaning, every thread on here about teaching is moaning.
As if no other profession is suffering, it's insulting to every other person giving blood sweat and tears to their job.

every thread on here about teaching is moaning.

There are more threads moaning about Teachers. Daily. Not sure how you can miss them.

Not surprising teachers get ground down.

I have been on here since 2003, if anyone starts a thread composing about a teacher, that complaint is swamped with moaning about how hard they work, harder than any other profession etc.

I am not sure how you miss that frankly...

*complaining

We venerate teachers in our house. Having said which, I'd rather see their workload cut than their pay increased.

Dare you ask who is nursing your relatives?

Nurses have a totally shit time of it, their pay and conditions are completely unacceptable. If nurses want to come on here and complain about their working conditions, then I'd probably be horrified and supportive. I was recently horrified and supportive on a thread about police funding cuts when police officers and their spouses came on and detailed how shitty their working conditions were. Why would me suggesting that your kid is probably not going to be taught by decent qualified maths teachers be seen as somehow slighting nurses?
And why would pointing it out be mere 'moaning'? Is the assumption that parents won't care and teachers should shut up?

In my current workplace we get so many ex-teachers who have moved to an admin role due to the ever increasing stress and demands placed on them at schools with no support, little budgets and very little or no reward apart from seeing the children/students develop and grow. It really is eye-opening.

composing about a teacher, that complaint is swamped with moaning about how hard they work, harder than any other profession etc.

Is composing a typo? Did you mean moaning? If so, you kind of backed up my point. There are so many threads moaning about teachers that teachers have learnt to defend themselves. Why wouldn't they?

If you had lots of threads moaning about nurses, you'd get lots of posts from nurses defending themselves. But of course, that would be ok for you-it's just when teachers do it, then that's not acceptable is it?

Surely the logical process would be to reduce the number of posts moaning about teachers and you'd reduce the number of teachers having to defend themselves. But no. It's much more fun to teacher bash!! It's not rocket science....

boneyback you are indeed in a most fortunate position in your school if you reach management level from the sounds of it, in my DH school, assistant heads of department were given a more or less full timetable of teaching as well as the management crap. as i said, it's all about time and work management which you are obviously struggling with.
genuinely, would you like some pointers? He mentored many people very successfully and these were the ones who didn't waste their lives taking home work as opposed to people mentored by others.

Has it ever crossed the mind of anyone who claims that "teachers are constantly complaining" that perhaps we have something to complain about? And just like anyone else, we have a right to make our views heard if we so desire?

Oh, and I think most people are aware of what are "normal" working hours; teaching in a school fits into this.

The way I think about it (to avoid losing my mind with frustration) is that most parents are lovely, kind, rational polite people who want what's best for their children and are very reasonable to deal with. We don't always get the praise, but if they have a concern they respectfully raise it and we sort it amicably. They support us and value us.

Then there are the noisy minority who (in varying amounts) think that teachers are mean bullies, rules don't apply to their child, excuse their child from homeworks and sanctions, likes to post things like AIBU to be annoyed at the school for telling my child they need to wear school shoes when I just spent £80 on a pair of black trainers... I mean, they're black! and declare they would be reporting the teacher for daring to tell their child to behave.
They are the minority. But they don't half take up our time.

Oh, and I think most people are aware of what are "normal" working hours; teaching in a school fits into this.

But this is really not a 9 to 5 job. I work or have worked with teachers who work seven hour days; others who work fifteen hour days.

strawberrygate
Oh, and I think most people are aware of what are "normal" working hours; teaching in a school fits into this.

You clearly are not.

As for the pointers, I have already said that I will pass on his advice.
I have no complaints about my time management. Although you seem to believe that I do. (but then I also believe that you are goading)

And you seem to have very little understanding of what teaching different year groups and key stages is like. I'm sure if you talk to your DH he will be happy to mentor you.

Who said that ?

I love my job.

I love that I can inspire children to be the absolute best they can be. I love that they will laugh along with me, pretend that they think my lessons are lame, but show me by their work that they have loved it.

I love that in my free periods children seek me out to tell me their latest drama, love or heartbreak. That because they can do this, they know they can seek me out to disclose the shit stuff. I love that I can be a part of making some of that shit stuff better.

I love that I haven't had an uninterrupted lunch break since the dawn of time, and that today I ate lunch with a student who was having a horrible day. We talked about why he smoked so much: it's to make him feel less stressed, and his mum gives him fags. He's 13.

I love that I spend most Sundays working - genuinely, there is a sense of achievement when I know I've given high quality feedback to my students that will make them better. It's part of the job and I've been doing it long enough to have organised my life so it works, but not at no cost.

I love creating lessons that look beautiful and go well.

I love the holidays.

[This is the box for the stuff I hate: the paperwork and the endless, endless scrutiny. The battles with parents. The never having an evening mid week where I can think fuck it, I'm going to the pub.The expectation that I'm a robot who can be faced with a highly charged emotional situation then go on stage for 2 hours and still delver an outstanding lesson. The awful testing our children have to do and the emphasis on academic success regardless of the child.]

So, you see, on balance? I love my job. I can spell. My subject knowledge is excellent and I'm not a twat.

If I'm really honest superficially I find a lot of teachers (particularly primary) irritating because they seem to have a tendency to speak to adults like they do their pupils. But those that I know past a superficial level never do that. I think it depends what form the relationship is.

Although, that's a fairly common observation in terms of what puts the general public off teachers in my experience. Some patronising twats let you all down 😂

I would just like to say that my children's headteacher has bent over backwards for my family during an awful two weeks.

He went above and beyond because he cares so much for those children in his care. I cannot praise him enough and I am forever grateful for his genuine kindness, care and desire to make children's lives better.

Well, Eolian, I did say upthread I was a teacher. You can dismiss people whose views disagree with yours as "haven't got a clue" or you can engage with what they've said that you disagree with.

I do think that teaching is very hard work. But I also think that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. It's no use being able to sack poor teachers easily if you can't replace them with better ones (it must vary area to area, but in parts of London recruitment/retention is so bad that teachers who are plainly useless are being kept on, just as a warm body in front of the class). And yes, I'd dispense with some of the Ofsted nonsense too.

Re spelling/grammar, it's clear that this OP has a grasp of neither, and pointing that out isn't nitpicking (in the context). A good level of literacy surely is a very basic requirement for a teacher, and people with a good level of literacy don't make the kind (and frequency) of errors the OP makes.

(And the reason there are lots of complaints about teachers on MN is that it's a parenting forum. A neighbourhood forum might have more complaints about bin collections.)

Free time after year 11 leave ha ha! Not in my school. Also not everyone teaches Year 11!
I am a teacher but to be honest few jobs these days are without stress, shit pay and people interfering in how they should do their job.
My husband works in heavy industry and has been worried about his job for the last 10 years. His job is stressful and works long hours...12 hr shifts. He brings nothing home with him but I do. His job is no less stressful than mine. Management there are like SLT!

tinytemper66

You echo my point about year 11 and other peoples "normal working hours"