Okay, about teachers...

[KitKat1985]

Okay I'm being brave here. I know a few people who happen to be teachers. Whenever they talk about their jobs, there's a real 'no other profession has to work as hard as us' vibe to their speech. I am fully aware and in agreement that it's a stressful job with long hours and ridiculous amount of pressure if you don't count the long holidays but it's hardly the only profession that has these issues. I myself am a nurse, and 14 hour shifts on an under-staffed ward with no breaks and several severely ill / abusive patient to look after are hardly a picnic either. But whenever I discuss work with teacher friends there's a definite 'if you want to talk about stress you should try being a teacher' element to the conversation, and it's starting to really get on my nerves. Lots of jobs are stressful, teaching isn't the only one! And it's only teachers I know that seem to have this general attitude about their profession. AIBU? Is it really more stressful than any other profession out there?

@noblegiraffe

*Perhaps because they’re not very good?

Not in my experience. Try again*

Well the experience of @Piggywaspushed is that she had not been successful in getting another job for 15 years !

Despite the fact she is SLt and therefore one of the very expensive teachers everyone seems to claim is managed out.

15 years worth of not being able to get another school.
You’d do less time for Murder

Teachers being bullied doesn’t = teachers not being very good.

Lola. You have no idea why people may have been offered a settlement because confidentiality is a legal part of that agreement so again that’s just anecdotal again.

And noble is telling us that teachers being managed out isn’t rife anyway so you can’t both be right.

Being a school governor is not quite the same thing and you know it. You have more than a smidgeon of knowledge? So let’s call that a smidgeon and a half, shall we?

I do know hence why I'm repeatedly saying "I'm not a teacher". Equally though it has meant that I've spent 18 years immersed in the changes and practicalities of school life. I've spoken to many teachers and have heard issues from the side of SLT and from classroom teachers. Ive chaired pay review committees so have heard details about target setting and what constitutes SMART targets, I've chaired personnel committees and written policies with SLT. I think I have a good idea of the challenges faced by teachers and also by management in trying to balance the needs of students, staff and budgets.

I am not SLT !!

Thanks for the promotion! 15 years of effort and I just needed to go to silly.

Ah right. So when we watch the bullying an see friends and colleagues have a breakdown and see the conduct from SLT that is bullying, that doesn't happen.

It's like there's an open secret in schools, which is conveniently able to be dismissed by you by saying "oh anecdote"

Not every teacher who leaves is managed out. The challenges of the profession at the moment are enough for people to leave.
Workplace bullying and bullying people out absolutely happens.
This isn't difficult.

And noble is telling us that teachers being managed out isn’t rife anyway so you can’t both be right.

That’s a lie, I did not say that.

You said that teachers were leaving the profession because they weren’t very good. I said that wasn’t the case.

@Piggywaspushed

Ok apologies not slt

But you’re a teacher with at least 15 experience...so top rate? You know the very expensive ones everyone seems to want rid of .

You have been trying and failing for 15 years to move to a different school.

Not get a different job

Not Train is something else

Just a get a job in another school.

In the context of massive vacancies everywhere....

Ok. 😂

@Piggywaspushed

Why not go for promotion. You are experienced and forthright.....

Or maybe just more robust on a keyboard

This thread is going to go on and on and achieve nothing. People will come along and tell us their neighbour/SIL/great-gran is or was a teacher and they say teaching is a breeze. The teachers on here will get jumped on for disagreeing, despite the fact they have first hand experience of the job. And at no point will any of the teachers say that their job is easier than a nursing/policing/social work, despite the fact that the non-teachers will claim teachers are always comparing their job unfavourably to other professions.

Yes, because other schools don't want me because I am too expensive. Surely, that is obvious. the massive vacancies are below my payscale. SLT posts are often handed out internally. But, yeah, I'll take a hefty pay cut.

I won't take advice from you on my career if that's OK silly.

You still haven't told me what job you do. Careers adviser , perhaps.

Out of interest, do English teachers read posts and mentally mark posters on their grammar?

Asking for a friend...

@Piggywaspushed

Oh my god!!

Piggy you are my idol!!!

I need to channel my inner piggy when I don’t get a job . Definitely can’t be anything I could improve on.

It’s all their loss. All 15 years worth!

But surely 14 years ago you were not so expensive....?

But still not luck then ?

It's not the grammar I worry about.

I rang a child’s parent today to let them know they had a detention for being overly chatty in class.

The parents response (and I quote) “ I think you had better go check you have your facts straight. I don’t think he’d do that”

😳

Then I come on here to posters saying “just because we’re not teachers it doesn’t mean we don’t know what it’s like being a teacher”

I wonder if I should just stop turning up sometimes, as everyone else seems to be able to do teachering better than me 😂😂

*Parent’s 🙄

silly returns and haud goes. Like a tag team. /

God forbid everyone has a personal life or shock horror posts on a public forum

They are in the shower

I was actually at a multiagency conference the other month and a few of us were discussing why teacher and a few other professionals were leaving the professions.

On speaking to a few heads, there opinion was that teaching just simply wasn’t for them, they just didn’t like the job, or a few who were trained were so poor they where subtly “pushed out” and also that teachers who qualify then go to have families within the first 5 years, and cannot afford or reach a work/life balance so then join an agency, rather than be in full time employment, was one heads opinion

Another head stated his opinion was due to the pressure of the job, not the teaching but the government targets and the over testing of pupils, and that there simply wasn’t the standard of teachers he expected.

Some also leave due to parents/pupils, dislike of heads, dislike of policy and procedures.

However all of the above can be said in most professions, social services for example are currently in a recruitment crisis.

We can have a pissing contest to our hearts content about what job is the ‘most difficult’, but the fact that there seems to be such a huge response to any thread about teachers proves it’s certainly one of the most scrutinised.

I personally don’t rank my job as being unbearably stressful, thanks entirely to the fact that I now work at an incredible school. It HAS been overwhelming awful in the past but I now think it’s the best job in the world and mean that sincerely. On the whole I look forward to work everyday and my work load is manageable. My impression is that most people are woefully uninformed about what teaching is like but love to give an opinion on it

silly you are just actually being really rude. 15 years ago I was top of scale . I was paid more or less the same as I am now as it goes. I am pretty proud of what I have achieved and I don't need your silly, nasty points scoring.

I actually have over 25 years experience in the classroom. But am not in a position to comment on changes to teaching, workload or stress. because anecdotal.

English primary leaders, definitely!

Lind57. Then I don’t think you’ve RTFT because there have been numerous examples on here of where teachers have done exactly that and suggested reasons why their job is more stressful/worse than other professions.

We’re allowed to have opinions about people we know who are teachers and how they behave and what they say around us.

Incidentally, @silly248, I was a really good teacher and you have an absolute cheek suggesting otherwise. In fact, according to my HT, I was an outstanding teacher. But my mental health was suffering because of the demands of the job.

But @Dorset, the people you know aren't necessarily being completely honest with you, because after all people might think they weren't very good at their jobs or not managing their time properly.