Teaching in UK is Shit

[Bumper1969]

I was a teacher for 20 years in London, and it was for most of it, dreadful. I was by all accounts an excellent teacher, but it did me in. Constant pressure, I mean constant, every thing I did had to have paper work to support it. I threw my hat in and moved to Ireland. Still working as a teacher, BUT the difference is, I go in at nine, leave at 3.30, get paid more (65k), get more holidays. I am trusted to do my job and I do. Not one parent has been in touch, all these MN trying to barge into schools. Has UK education system just gone wrong?

But for children and parents? Only when the school is well run and there are no issues.

I dunno, I think that Irish children benefit hugely from much less stress and anxiety about their education overall. Even the stresses of the LC aren’t as acute as A Levels as far as I can make out.

Parents also benefit from a much less dictatorial attitude towards holidays in term time. There’d be absolutely conniptions in Ireland if fines were introduced. Just imagine the calls to Liveline!

I agree, it's among the most shit careers in the UK, especially if you're an NQT. SMT's have the tendency to operate in cliques and are usually great at dividing departments. They preach wonderful strategies for teaching and behaviour management but are rubbish at doing it themself.

Many academies promote a culture of fear where teachers are over worked beyond and above thier stress levels.🙄

I'd also actively discourage anyone from becoming one. 📣

NO idea where you are but you've clearly never come across the academy structure . There are no older teachers. They have been drummed out in favour of cheap NQTs, and often they aren't even NQTs.

Truest thing ever written on here. I’ve seen it happen to several colleagues. They were placed on competence procedures. Oddly, they were all 15/20 years older than the extremely young staff body. They were given impossible targets which they had no hope of achieving and their union (the big one) told them the best thing to do was to make a deal to resign so they could stop the madness. The stress was immense for them. One resigned and went to live in Spain 🇪🇸, another went on supply and dropped all responsibility points, which will screw her pension. Fucking horrific.

I saw an advert last year for an academy which posted very proudly about how the profile of the staff was very young. I read that far and stopped. I can’t believe a school is allowed to advertise for hunger staff: surely that’s ageism and hugely discriminatory?

It is a unpopular industry to crack that’s for sure. I love teaching homeschooled children (it’s a co op). There is no more unnecessary pressure to achieve a decent exam result. Lack of communication between the school is one main reason I am homeschooling my children all 3 of them. Another is the marked obvious decrease in funding for schools across the country. Too much homework is another factor in the decision. We discussed everything carefully before making a decision.
Perhaps ring fencing some funding can help. With homeschooling I can control the level of homework.
Off to read the article now.

I LOVE my job, been teaching 24 years in different parts of the country; inner city, small town. I honestly and truly love teaching, even very challenging kids. Today is an example of what's gone wrong. My colleague and I spoke to the year group below ours, who are drifting along and not putting in much effort. Had a chat, showed them the standard we'll be expecting in less than a year's time etc. Praised them for things that were going well. Result? Emails of complaint to Head and parents going ape on social media as we had suggested some of them (no names) needed to step up a gear. I mean how dare we try to get kids to do their best!! Dealing with parents is the only side of teaching that gets me down.

And the amount TAs get paid is an actual disgrace. Minimum wage for working 1:1 with some vulnerable and sometimes aggressive children (with no training), taking whole reading and writing groups, unpaid breaks, etc. It would be impossible for me to live on what I earn (even though full-time), let alone raise a family.

I'm Irish....I know of lots of teachers who qualified here and worked overseas for a few years. In the UK (usually in or around the big cities), the US, some in Oz, lots in the Emirates.
They all come back with an appreciation for their jobs here. Not that they don't work hard, they do.
But, they are appreciated for their work, they are (usually) supported by management. The job is well regarded and valued.

I even know of several business people (PR, banking and an architect) who retrained as Primary Teachers, and love their jobs.
If you come into the system with that extra (business) experience, you will move on to a middle management post fairly rapidly.

Teaching isn't a cushy number but it's certainly not hard graft.

I can vouch for Irish hours!! I teach here and start at 9 and most of us leave by 3.30.
As for the wage, I have only started back and haven’t sorted my increments yet, I am in a supply position until September when my permanent position kicks in. I just got paid for 15 days work and got just under 2.2k after tax. And that’s basic wage!

And the amount TAs get paid is an actual disgrace

I agree but I think things are only going to deteriorate for support staff, especially in primary. With the way budgets are looking, I think they will be cut and cut until it’s just a teacher with 30+ children like the ‘good’ old days with the few TAs left shared very thinly just amongst those with EHC plans.

€36,382 is bottom of the scale. Not € obviously but £36000 is the top of the unpromoted scale in Scotland.

Sorry for misunderstanding of previous post. I am in Ireland and was speaking about teachers teaching until retirement age.

I think it’s very important that that wealth of talent is not lost. It is of benefit to the children to have new ideas mixed with experience.
We have a very different structure here. Teachers / Snas (special needs assistants)salaries and recruitment is governed by national guidelines. The principal has no say in these budgets.
I do think your early years are fantastic from what I can see here and on social media

I have a relative who is a teacher in Ireland. She works hard, but good-job-sensibly-hard, not quite the blood out of a stone perfection that is expected in the UK. Her school is one of the most challenging ones in her city, but it's not the constant battle for survival mode that the UK has where a bad OFSTED basically gets the school new management and risks everyones' jobs.

I remember a meeting where we had to go through the data analysis of our GCSE groups, identify those under target and justify their barriers to learning. Factors such as divorce were common. The imminent trial concerning the murder of a close family member was mentioned for one student. Still they are expected to get their progress 8 targets based on how well they were coached in SATs, 5 years earlier, in a different subject in a different school, never mind how their worlds have been torn apart in the meantime. Needless to say teacher is to blame if unrealistic targets are missed.

I went into teaching to pass on my love of my subject. I left teaching because of the loss of integrity, and because I was begining to resent classes for getting in the way of the paperwork I had to do to prove I was teaching Also to be able to do my best for my own children which I was stretched too thin to do when working 14 hour days (which gave a bit more time to have most of a thing called weekends)

This makes me so sad. I’ve been teaching 25 years and still live it. In the independent sector so much less paperwork and a lot more trust for us to just get on with the job.

I am a primary teacher in Ireland. I work from 8.40 until 2.20 every day. I leave school at 2.30 to collect my own kids.
I earn 68k euro, I am 46 , teaching since I was 20 !
In September/ October I do a few extra hours at home during the week but now all is up and running I don't really need to.
LOVE my job!!
Feel sad when I read how awful teaching seems to be over in the UK.

I attended a British school overseas, and in my secondary years had many young-to-middle-aged teachers come over from the UK. While many agreed the expat lifestyle and travel options were great, often the first thing many mentioned was how awful it had been working back in the UK - mainly the attitudes/abuse they’d get from students. It’s easy to hear about where our old teachers have gone to, and I’m aware most have not yet returned here... And now as a parent who can not afford private, or to live within the catchment of an ‘outstanding’/great school, I worry A LOT about how the teachers of our children are faring.