To feel the rage with “teacher tired” posts

[Rainbowsandglitterbullshit]

The season of teachers posting SM messages “no one knows tired like an end of term teacher/TA/dinner lady” is almost upon us.

I want to scream, what about the fuckers who work stupid hours all week and don’t get 6 weeks off in the summer, half term, two weeks Easter, two weeks at Christmas.

I wouldn’t be a teacher for all the tea in China but these people chose their career.

Grrr, actually don’t care if I’m BU.

Having been rejected from everywhere else, they'll try it for a bit, realise you actually have to work and have a specific skill set, and then leave.

How does your theory accounts for all the established teachers leaving after years?

Saying that holidays are unpaid doesn't really help the case for martyrdom. £25k rising to £40k for a non year round job is pretty cushty.
The GF levels really are rising today.

The sooner we stop entertaining GFs and justifying our own existence, the better.

Think about it this way, it boils down to 'another adult has a different job to me with different pros, different cons, different pay and conditions, so I'll look at anything good in their job that I don't have and then bitch about unfair life is'.

The company I work for took on three teachers recently who were all fed up with teaching. Not one of them has lasted more than 9 months in a, fairly low pressure, office job before choosing to return to teaching. Mainly because they were expected to work 9-5 every day with only 28 days holiday, plus bank holidays, which is pretty generous for an average office job.

They thought the grass was greener and found out that it's really not.

Apologies, I'm Scottish and was referring to the 13% rise but that seems to only be in Scotland.

That and the McCrone deal that protected non teaching time.

I love all the “lesson planning” nonsense too. You taught the same stuff as you did last year, and the year before, and the year before. What exactly are you planning different this year?

As I understand it, the biggest drop out rate is during the first five years. I would conclude from this that the majority of people recruited just aren't very good/are unsuited to the job. We see the people filtering through there in my workplace - we have a lot of graduates, the majority of whom do fairly basic tasks to begin with. If they're decent, they'll progress. Almost without exception, the ones who leave because they want a "professional" career and won't get it with us because they're not good enough, are successful in securing places on pgce courses. These are people who struggle with inputting data accurately and cannot have coherent phone conversations.

@NotBeingRobbed - you think teachers don't work at weekends or in the holidays? 🤣. I'm not a teacher by the way.

it boils down to 'another adult has a different job to me with different pros, different cons, different pay and conditions, so I'll look at anything good in their job that I don't have and then bitch about unfair life is'.

It doesn’t boil down to anything of the sort. If I wanted a job where I only worked term time, I’d go and get one.

It’s all this “my job is sooo hard, and I don’t really get all those holidays and I work late every single day, and I’m so exhausted” stuff that grinds. Teaching brings the perks of having great holidays. Own it, don’t try and pretend it doesn’t happen.

Not to mention we’ve had four teachers retire in the past two years and not a single one of them was anywhere near retirement age.

If I taught the same as I did last year and the year before I'd be fired. Because we have had massive curriculum changes and new exams. Which have meant a complete revamp of lessons.
And we tweak these every year to take account of the new exams and guidance that comes out of them.
If you don't want me to do this I'm very happy not to. But your kids will fail their GCSEs. And I'd rather they didn't.
Also I tailor my lessons to the classes I teach. So one year 10 class may need different content to another one, because the classes have different kids in them.
I am old. I have done many jobs, worked 13 hour days in the city, worked in hospitality and many offices. Many have involved v long days with little holiday - we used to get 3 weeks max in the olden days.
So I feel pretty qualified to comment on the various job I have done. And many have been tiring. Teaching is the only one I've ever been so tired I can't construct a sentence after doing it for a week.
But I'm sure many other jobs are the same, I've just not done them.
And I'm not a martyr. I'm a person who believes every child should get a great education and I'll ignore all the snipping and being called lazy and stupid, because the kids are worth my time and effort.
But it's getting close to me quitting as it's the parents who cause the issues. And the fact that I'm having to teach subjects o have no experience in - because there aren't any teachers who do.

Unfortunately the need for bodies in front of classes means the standard of trainees coming through is increasingly mixed.

The profession isn't in a good state due to staff leaving and a too many schools don't value or invest in staff and early career support is minimal beyond the occasional mentor meeting in your NQT year. The drop out rate is high but it's not because teachers are rubbish. It's because they can get better elsewhere so leave.

Weaker applicants getting onto a PGCE isn't a sign that teaching is easy. It's a sign that there is not enough people to actually teach the children. I've seen people pass their training who shouldn't, but they've ended up on day to day supply because no school wants to have them as a permanent member of staff so they cover supervise lessons planned by experienced staff (which adds more work onto the shoulders of experienced staff and so on).

Experienced staff and strong staff get themselves into nice schools and tend to stay put, they seek promotion in nice schools, or they leave the profession.

There are schools in this country having GCSEs taught by graduates from a different area with a couple of weeks summer school behind them. There are whole core departments I know of where there is 1 subject specialist in the team.

So please spare us the patronising bullshit of how tough the 'real world' is vs teaching. Some of us have done both and can safely say you're either poorly informed or being deliberately goady.

the biggest drop out rate is during the first five years

I think the biggest drop out rate is female teachers aged 30-39. Because teaching isn’t compatible with having a young family and schools are shit at offering part time working.

noblegiraffe
And if you do get yourself a TLR then it has to be paid pro rata if you go part time, even if you are doing 100% of the job. It doesn't make it worth doing really.

Of course someone will come along who has never taught to inform us that nobody could have to do all the responsibilities of a TLR post whilst working part time because they're experts on jobs they've never done.

You taught the same stuff as you did last year, and the year before, and the year before.

In some schools teachers move yearly and across key stages. You might be reception this year and ks2 the next. Even without that each class is different there will be differentiation, catering for the needs of all the children (be it at the high or low end) and changes in the curriculum/expectations or SLT requirements (it's ok to stick things in this year,but completely unacceptable to to it the next). Oh and it most schools you can't fully "recycle" plans anyways and they do check they're not.

@Pieceofpurplesky

Already said that I have looked at my contract. This includes the burgundy book.

I would go further but you never listen.

The Boney you will know that the burgundy book tells you that you are paid for 190 teaching days and 5 min contact days. Statutory holidays in the UK are 28 days. I do listen - but you clearly don't want to hear the facts.

Then and none

I have always accepted my workload as part of doing the job I love and I don't moan about it.

My ex, though, would get really, really annoyed. He works in a high stress industry and works extremely hard. He would always answer work emails on holiday and seemed to be constantly working.

But he looked at what I had to juggle and would get angry. He'd say the expectations are so unreasonable and the pressures so many that, in his industry, they would take on more staff, people would say 'no' far more often than teachers do.

He got angry about my 'it's just the way it is' comments.

I actually started not telling him when an extra job landed on me (organising sports day, the Christmas play, the school council, a trip for STEM club...) because he'd invariably say 'just say no' or 'I assume you're being paid more for this extra job?'

And something that hasn't been mentioned when talking about going up the pay scale is that you don't get monetary reward for being good at your job, you get it for the extra responsibilities your seniority 'wins' you.

Things like (and I'm primary so this might be different for secondary)

Mentoring student teachers
Leading multiple subject areas
Leading a team or key stage.
Leading on a new school-wide initiative
Re-writing policies
Leading staff training
... it goes on...

We are managers of staff as well as teachers. I am on the upper pay spine and have a TLR, but I manage a large team and am responsible for monitoring, managing and supporting a quite large team of teachers and TAs as well as monitoring and supporting the whole school in my subject area.

When a teacher in my team is off, who arranges cover? I do. We don't have HR to organise it. The Head delegates it.

If a teacher isn't performing, who supports, mentors and monitors? I do.

When the end of Key Stage SATs, time's tables tests, phonics screening...times come round, who administers, assesses and data inputs? I do.

This is becoming more of an issue now with the new Ofsted Framework, which puts the pressure on subject leads to talk about how they are leading their own areas - and relies far less on what the Head says or what the progress data looks like.

I'm not more tired than anyone else. Or more overworked than anyone else.

I'm only saying this because it irritates me that people assume they know what my job is and what it entails because they went to school, or send their children to one.

Yeah I don't know what the answer is re recruitment: it's relatively well paid and the opportunities are there. But, certainly amongst graduates, the mindset seems to be that if they can't do anything else they can at least teach - and they get onto training courses on that basis.

I don't know what that's to do with. Maybe public perception re government interference/lack of autonomy which of course is a real concern for anyone with a mindset of self determination.

But then, again I can see that there does need to be some oversight, having myself been at school in the 80s and been "taught" by people who were definitely just marking time, with no vestige of professional mindset. Talking to my parents who were at school post war and taught by people given positions because they had been in the armed forces and there was fuck all else for them to do, no real training etc, it sounds like for a long time it was regarded as a professional job that you got without having to adopt a professional attitude, and I think there's a hangover of that way of thinking that persists in terms of the calibre of entrants, despite the fact that the starting salary is actually pretty good, especially when you take into account the fact that it covers just 45 weeks of work a year.

And if you do get yourself a TLR then it has to be paid pro rata if you go part time

In my school it has to be given up if you go part time. No promoted posts for part timers.

I love how this thread is, surprisingly, full of teachers STILL moaning about how tired they are.

500 posts in and they still don't get it

@managedmis they're allowed to be and feel tired. They're allowed to moan about it(most working people do). They're definitely allowed to reply to goady fuckers who have no idea what they're talking about and explain why they're tired and that the job is not 9-3, playing all day and teach the same stuff every year.

@managedmis
We are defending ourselves from being called lazy, thick and work-shy (among the other charming generalisations that have been flung at us today)

I haven't seen teachers moaning. What are you reading?

brainache78
👏👏👏👏👏
I agree. When I career changed to teaching, I accepted I was moving into a different area with different pressures and different perks. I don't moan about workload, but I am in a nice school and have previously contemplated leaving the profession.

I have no time for people who've never done the job making grand pronouncements on how much they know about the job, how they know teaching more than teachers, they are experts on workload because they have a job in a different area. That's before the 'I went to school and have a child so allow me to tell you how to teach and manage behaviour'

Threesoups
With all due respect, your school days in the 80s are irrelevant to teaching today. Teaching has changed.

In terms of graduates, of course they think they can walk into teaching. There's adverts every day saying 'train to teach and we'll give you £20,000 even if you never step foot in a classroom after your training year' stupid sodding policy .
Some training providers take people unsuited to teaching and then pass them. I've had heated discussions with course leaders when I have had substantial concerns (can't share on here but I would be mortified if any child had the misfortune of being taught by them) and I've been told they're passing them. Unfortunately, this is what happens when a profession doesn't value hugh quality staff and has had its funding cut so much that schools can't afford to pay what a strong, experienced teacher costs. The pool of good NQTs is smaller, more less effective NQTs apply for jobs and get them, experienced staff have to hand hold and help plan and set cover and give up lots of time supporting behaviour of the weaker new colleague and then get fed up of the additional hours and pressure so leave.
The system is broken in many places but people wilfully misrepresenting the profession as some sort of easy cushy ride doesn't help anyone (and understandably pisses off experienced staff who are doing the job day in day out).

Oh we get it. Non teachers seem a bit slow on the uptake though.
We are tired. That's allowed. We are not more tired or more overworked than any other profession. We never said we were. Lots of other people said we did but not one of us has ever said that. We have been called lazy and a bit stupid and only doing the job because we can't do anything else. Not true but whatever makes you feel better about yourself.
I've worked all day today but I assume that's because I'm crap at my job and can't write 32 reports during my normal working day.

Lovely fellow teachers, enjoy the sun. And fellow tired people, please try and get some sleep. Wine helps 🍷

noblegiraffe
Wow! That's awful, but similar to other schools I know.
My current school is great with part time and job share, including part time middle leaders. It's a nightmare for timetabling by all accounts.