To think that students have more rights than teachers ( and that this is not good.)

[malificent7]

If i treated my students the way they treated me id be sacked.

They swear, answer back, are extremely rude and patronising . One even tried to stroke my arm today.....ugggrrr!

Yes, it’s absolutely disgusting.

Teachers need far more rights, greater freedom of speech, and greater freedoms and systems in place to protect themselves and other students.

I taught in one particularly awful Secondary school a few years ago, and some of my experiences were terrible, including being ‘squared up to’ by a student holding a weapon in front of my class, and swearing repeatedly at me. Some of the things that my colleagues experienced were truly horrendous. The school and its’ management were completely inadequate.

A Teacher punched in the face twice on two separate occasions by the same student in front of a whole class - he didn’t get excluded.

A Teacher had a large, steel laptop trolley full of laptops and chargers violently and deliberately rammed into them, leaving them hospitalised and off sick for a long time. She wasn’t excluded.

Another Teacher was pushed and shoved repeatedly and had a stack of heavy GCSE Maths text books thrown at them. She wasn’t excluded.

A Deputy Head was repeatedly punched and kicked and spat upon and called ‘a fucking ugly fat cunt.’ Sent to a Pupil Referral Unit. Student had a huge catalogue of violent behaviour towards staff and students prior to this.

Another senior member of staff was pushed and shoved and sworn at, whilst being threatened by a student with two pairs of fabric shears. One was held to her throat, the other pointed at her chest.

Most of us would be sworn at, or in front of on a daily basis. The sexual language, gestures and threats we had to put up with were also systematic and vile. Being told to ‘suck my dick,’ ‘give us a bell wank’ and ‘squirt on my big dick’ were commonplace, as were threats to ‘cum on your tits,’ and ‘bone you up the arse.’

My sincere apologies for the graphic language. That was the reality of it though. Can you imagine being routinely subjected to that kind of filth, and usually in front of whole classes or large groups so as to completely undermine and intimidate you? Imagine if it was your partner or Mother being subjected to that. Totally disgraceful.

Argles Its shit isn't it. The sexualised language is grim. I would love to say the kids don't really know what they are saying but after catching several year 10 boys watching porn that frankly should be illegal I don't think that's true. This is turning into a teaching /school horror story board, but someone needs to say it!

I was doing supply as a TA. Girl was disabled...we hobbled into vlass late( she could hardly walk.) We got jeered at. Classmates wouldnt give her a seat.
I endured an hour of class bullying the teacher' your such a crap teacher etc' when i decided to help my colleague..
I bollocked the class and sent kids out. One girl refused to stop eating so i put her kitkat in the bin.( but silly of me but was at end of rope.)

Girls complained to Slt. I was asked not to go back. Slt told my agency. Girls are notorious for being awful but you shouldnt have disciplined them like that.

I have no regrets at all. The reason why the students are so awful is vecause SLT wont dicipline students
...scared of them and mummy and daddy.

Worst behaviour ever was at private school actually. No sanctions at all as 'our kids are perfect.'
I was filmed, threatened had pens chucked at me...everyone hated me tbh.
called parents 'our child is lovely.'was the reply.....ugggrrr!!

maleficent, I went to a private boarding school (on a scholarship, initiated by me to get away from a horrific home life). The bullying, sexual, physical and emotional abuse and behaviour were appalling. There was a culture of brushing it under the carpet (and lying to parents) because image was everything. No bullying policy, because officially there was no bullying. My first year there was unadulterated pure hell. As you and others have pointed out, it's not just "rough" kids that make people's lives hell.

I only teach primary, but I've been in a few schools where I'd have been happier with a helmet and shinpads. The best school I worked in had a very mixed catchment area and some really challenging kids/families, but it had a culture of high achievement, high expectations and zero tolerance on abusive behaviour. Head and deputy head were visible, involved and knew everybody personally. The kids were happy, and so were the teachers. I was there for a about a year and never saw an exclusion happen.

Secondary teacher here. I think that for a lot of the kids I teach, the rigour and academicness of the new Gove-inspired curriculum leaves them feeling frustrated, not good enough, pressurised and frankly, bored. Which manifests as tension in the classroom.
Teachers are under huge pressure to meet performance management targets related to their pay and job security, so every lesson is chock full of targeted work planned out to the minute. There's not much room for flexibility, fun, interest, teaching around the subject (you know, the fun and interesting bits) or even a bit of nurture. They hate it, they can't breathe. This is what they tell me and I believe them.

Greensleeves. You are spot on. It’s leadership and culture at the school. The vast majority of schools are decent but we know a number are awful and don’t have good leaders. I always find it interesting though that teachers walk away rather than getting themselves into a position to do anything about it. Obviously some do stay and are wonderful. No-one wants to work in an abusive atmosphere so why don’t school leaders support their staff more appropriately and manage behaviour of the children? It’s probably because they are not good enough.

YANBU. Unfortunately the parents will side with the children, the governers will, everyone apart from the people who have to actually work with them.

I think the solution is for CCTV in every classroom, and for all teaching staff to have bodycams / microphones. This would hopefully reduce the number of false allegations and would provide concrete proof if a teacher actually did assault a child.

Plus, edited lowlights could be played back on parents' evenings... a few parents might be shocked at how their children actually behave!

I remember being given "community service" of litter picking ... instead of double games. A win for me - I hated games. So what would have worked for me? Somebody who took time to realise the social exclusion I was subject to, to understand that the only way I could avoid the bullying and hostility was to be the naughty girl of the class...and fortunately one teacher did, one who took time with me even though (perhaps because) she'd never had me in her class. Would today's impersonalised sanctions have worked? No.

It was interesting to research around this topic. You can find huge amounts of info around parents / children's rights at school but the only info that came up around teachers rights related to work place bullying or pay and conditions. Obviously employment law stands but that is in relation to adults dealing with adults.

Being unable to exclude permanently is a major part of the growing problem imo. Kids are in charge and they know it.

These stories are just terrible. To contrast, I've worked in a secondary school in the inner city depths of Glasgow for 23 years and have never come across anything like these stories!
Our catchment is one of poverty, social issues and low , familial expectations, yet I have never walked through a door without it being held open for me. If anyone is heard swearing in a corridor, never mind a classroom, they are immediately dealt with and sanctioned. We do have a strong, supportive SMT, a hugely visible head teacher and a very successful team of professionals guiding pupils into positive destinations including work and college placements whilst at school. We also have plenty kids going onto university and achieving far beyond their own expectations. We also have a young person's support unit, where girls across the city who are pregnant / have a baby are offered a place to study with their babies in the school nursery and parenting/ financial classes. Many go onto university / college/ work.
Like PP said, staff don't want to leave, which is an excellent measure of how good a school is. It's not all bad out there. I look forward to work every day and thank my lucky stars for wonderful colleagues.
If any of u fancy moving, I'll see what positions I can wangle for you.

wildbhoysmama lovely offer! I agree but am now in a lovely school with a vigorous head that stands up for her staff and takes action quickly and efficiently on poor behaviour. Senior management are on the whole really good and the school has restored my love of teaching. The kids learn so much more in a calm and respectful environment, and instead of running myself ragged dealing with behaviour non stop I can push and stretch the students. Unlike my last week at a previous school where I got asked by a couple of year 11 if I fancied being "double teamed"

Also to the poster who suggested that litter picking wouldn't work for her - are you suggesting that teachers not only differentiate teaching but also sanctions?
Some teachers are teaching 150 students per day.

You arevtheir teacher-of you can't handle your students youvreally should look for a different job.

They were not my students, I was on duty when that happened. Thanks for the advice though, what's one less teacher in a current deluge of people leaving!

as PP have stated, since OFSTED started taking a very keen interest in the number of exclusions I have witnessed a clear downturn in behaviours as witnessed in this thread but I also believe that parental support has really diminished of late.

When I first started teaching in secondary 14 years ago I was in a very rough school, the type where no one really wanted to send their DC to and in a very rough area of the city, but whilst the kids were tough, very street wise and had no intentions of a career they would not dream of swearing, threatening etc a member of staff as they knew that this was wrong, they would be excluded and the other students and their parents would take a very dim view of their behaviour.

What I witness now is that schools are scared of excluding, parents either unable to control/believe their DC's version without question, fight schools when they try to instill a punishment and think that we are no longer educators but are there to 'baby sit'.

For example we have a couple of students whose parents really think that staff are bullying their DC - when all staff have major issues with the behaviour/attitude/language used against them/accusations to the point in which no staff member is allowed to be on their own with them to ensure that false allegations are not made - there is a common theme with regards to these students and it is not the staff!

But the parents often email the governors and OFSTED so SLT are running scared and it is the teachers at the 'coal face' who have to deal with these students, deal with their friends/peers seeing them 'get away' with this behaviour and it has snowballed.

This is one of the major reasons why there is a recruitment and retention crisis within the profession together with ridiculous work loads and diminishing pay

OutyMcOutface
"You are their teacher-of you can't handle your students you really should look for a different job"

can I ask what your job is? How you would 'handle students' who display this behaviour day in day out? Because I would love to hear your insights....

OutyMcOutface your attitude is disgusting. If you condone anyone saying that to anyone else, you are part of the problem. I'm hoping you are just a gormless goadby gob sh*te looking for a bite, and not someone who genuinely thinks making that kind of sexually explicit comment to a complete stranger is OK under ANY circumstances.

We were penalised in the last OFSTED inspection for having too many fixed term exclusions. Our HT told the lad inspector that we were not going to stop or relax our high expectations because of statistics. She's absolutely right and we retained our outstanding status

Highway Dragon - Hurray for good head teachers!!!! They are out there!

OutyOutface is just being goady.

Picture the children that you're having to teach and put up with the antics of now - see them grown up and that is the result.

I applaud teachers, I really do. I would never enter the profession because it's not respected at all. It's needed of course, but these stories are just so frustratingly routine now aren't they?

The only way I think this is going to be cured is that the teachers' union calls out ALL teachers on strike, a wildcat one, let the horrible parent of these thugs put up with having their days disrupted and see what teachers have to put up with.

I would happily pay into a fund for teachers to be able to do a one-off very hard Strike to get the system changed because it badly needs it.

LyingWitch there would need to be concrete, specific changes stipulated for that to work, though - what changes do teachers want to see? It's too nebulous to say "better Heads" or "parents that don't take the piss". That's what worries me - teachers (and kids) are being plowed under by poor behaviour and bullying, but even those advocating radical shock-treatment strikes can't always articulate exactly how the system needs to change. It's stalemate.

Exclusion leads to automatic enrolment in home school? I personally would LOVE to see this. I knew of one parent who pulled their (extremely rude and disruptive) child out of school because he was being victimised by staff and planned to home school him. He was back a month later....

That wouldn't work; most parents need to go to work. You can't homeschool a child and work full-time. It's practically unworkable.