To ask: how many good teachers are we losing this year?

[SachaStark]

I am one of you.

Asking partly out of a place of seeking solidarity as I plan to leave a profession I love very much, but which has exhausted me both mentally and physically in just six years.

And partly because I think many parents still need to be made aware of how many teachers their children will lose over their school careers these days. I think, really, we need to rely on their voices to speak up in vast numbers before any changes will be made in state education.

We are a month now from the end of the school year in England, so notice hand-in period has ended, and I wondered how many, like me, who are passionate teachers, who in another life would have spent another few decades in the profession, are going?

I left two years ago. The reason I normally tell people is because £2,000 a month childcare swamped my £1,800 a month pay packet (which is true) but it had also become a very different job just in the 8 years I’d been teaching. The workload was excessive and the expectations were unrealistic.
I was an outstanding teacher, but it wasn’t sustainable. I wish I’d chosen a different career.

Also lack or teaching assistants.
Lack of admin support.
Learning walks observations book scrutinies.
Changing expectations so often.
😭

SignOnTheWindow Very interesting. The longer I taught in mainstream school, the more I thought I don’t want this for my own children - and I’ve considered Home Ed. Clearly I’m not alone.

All of the above reasons.

Left 4 years ago to teach in Forn Parts, as a single parent of 3.

We have not looked back! Very nice life now, & loving teaching again.

It's an absolutely fabulous job if you aren't, well, negotiating the current U.K. shitstorm.

You couldn't pay me enough to go back to that. Not that anyone's offering - I've easily doubled my income by teaching overseas. I'm not about to be tempted back.

Primary teacher here with 15 years' experience. Currently working as a SEN TA and loving it (although struggling on the pay!) Never want to return to the endless stress and hours of teaching unless financially I have to.

Thanks to all those who replied. It does sound like a troubling, near-sighted and restrictive system now. I wasn't aware that coursework seems to be getting phased out; as someone who has always traditionally been a strong performer in coursework vs. exam conditions, it seems logical to conclude that the 'final exam' format does not necessarily allow every individual to best represent their capacity and capability. It does, however, sound ideal for someone external who might have to, say, produce standardised league tables. What a coincidence.

Is there anything that parents can do to assist the process then, or plug gaps in skills/knowledge that the current setup seems to be creating? I am already pretty hands-on with early reading, numeracy, literacy etc. with ours, have an ok-ish general knowledge/life skills base which I am trying to impart to them as they start to ask questions and am definitely not a precious parent. Is this a decent start at least?

What annoys me the most is that it doesn’t have to be like this-there are so many things that could just be removed, tomorrow and the job would be viable again.

And it would actually be BETTER for the children. Not worse.

The mental health problems I’m seeing in children as young as y1 beggar belief. What are they doing to our children. I do NOT mean the teachers by ‘they’!

I'm leaving this year after 13 years secondary science teaching. I'm retraining got be a pharmacist. I start a 4 year FT uni course in September and absolutely can't wait!!

This is sad to read. I home ed and the majority of the parents I know were teachers, I know 7. 2 were deputy heads.

The changes over the last 15 years have led to this and the last 5 years have just decimated teachers and schools.

It's sad as children have to get an education and not everyone can home ed or go private.

The state system is a failure and its failing teachers, parents and of course children.

Sammy867 my daughter' home ed education sounds very much like your Indie education.

@fedup21 summed up the situation precisely. I lasted 3 years after working as a LSA and volunteering in lots of schools before training. I know the first few years of teaching are hard but if there is no support from more experienced teachers or mentors then you’re on a loser’s track from the start. No allowances were made for being a NQT or an RQT, you had to be outstanding from the start. No job security, one year contracts are the norm, power games from SLT, endless marking, pointless training and no equipment to teach ( broken rulers, scales, no pencils or books.)

I got out as I wasn’t prepared to be treated like that. A shame as being in class is great, the rest is rubbish.

I left primary a few years ago. Now I tutor a few hours a week. I actually have a life outside of work! When the working day ends, work actually ends. I don't go home to continue working anymore.

Today's TES makes reference to the latest DfE workforce figures. One thing that stands out is that the number of secondary teachers has declined again this year, as it has done every year since 2012, with the number of FTE secondary teachers at its lowest number since 2010. This is worrying given the number of secondary aged pupils is now increasing and projected to continue to grow.

The figures also show that teachers are now more likely to drop out after their first year in the classroom than at any time since 1997.

I’ve done 30, primarily in a variety of challenging state schools, the last 4 and a half in a small independent. Stopped in Feb due to stress. Not going back. Accepted voluntary redundancy and turning my life upside down to move somewhere I’ll get enough supply, as I never want to work on contract in a school again.

Secondary English teacher, by the way.

Over the last couple of days I have heard of 4 teachers leaving their profession in July. The eldest is 54 so not of retirement age. Sad 😢

Well, just look at the state of AIBU tonight...

So many teacher bashing threads, so little realisation that by the time they get to secondary, their kids will be taught on a constant rotation of supply teachers, since we are all leaving in droves. A third in the first five years is what I think TES reported today?

And there are some people who still claim that teachers can do no wrong on MN.

I knew at the start of my 3rd year that I had to get out. By end of 4th year I had hatched a plan. After 6 years 2 terms I left, and I will probably never go back.

This is so depressing to read.... great, outstanding teachers feel as though they have no choice but to leave. As a parent, I really appreciate all the hard work that teachers put into planning, lessons, marking and putting up with crap behaviour!

Out of interest, those that are going off to do supply instead, are they primary teachers? As I don’t think secondary use supply teachers, they have cover supervisors instead?

God I’d forgotten about cover supervisors they’re long gone up here gazillions on supply instead

Why is the situation better at private schools? And does this mean that (aside from the usual reasons) the gap between state and private education is getting even bigger as they retain teachers and lots of good state school teachers move over?

Private schools have:

Smaller classes = less marking. Marking time is a huge issue for my subject (English).

A selective cohort = better behaviour. Generally more able kids. Generally more supportive parents.

Ability to exclude = better behaviour.

More traditional teaching methods & learning ethos = less time fannying about making every lesson 'engaging' and 'exciting'. Less time planning & resourcing but also less of a performance needed from the teacher. Private schools are the only ones I've taught in where textbooks are still in regular use.

No Ofsted = no ridiculous new initiatives designed to satisfy Ofsted that change every 2 years so you are constantly scrapping everything you've just got in place to do some new shite that you know full well will in its turn be scrapped in 6months to a year.

I left classroom teaching last year after 15 years. I was ground into dust and has no confidence or stamina left.

I have been very lucky to get a job with my county's Health Provision service and I now tutor children who are too ill to attend school.

It is hourly paid, and capped at mps 6, but I have a life, my child has a much better parent and I am now able to come off the antidepressants I've been on for the past few years.

Oh lord, I'm in the middle of applying to do secondary PGCE via schools direct programme. Currently a social worker (probably the only other job as stressful, unrealistically target led and poorly paid). This is putting me off a bit-might be better then devil I know.

As a side bar-The application process is quite laborious and tricky-which to some degree you'd expect. But I had two days to lesson plan and then go and teach year 7 history yesterday- which I did-but having never taught before at all, I found quite hard.

I've got to go in next week to teach again and act on the feedback given yesterday (which was that I needed to emphasise the overall question for the lesson more-fair enough but having never taught before that's not something I could really know before having been trained or given any guidance at all). The head of year also suggested I 'act out' some of the themes in the lesson-which again would be fine but a bit maybe a bit much for your first time in front of a class.

I enjoyed it a lot and hopefully will be fine next week but as yet I don't know what lesson I will need to prepare and I will also need to take more time off current work which won't go down well.

They said there aren't very many applicants-and that might be some of the reason why I guess. Not quite on thread, sorry!