To tell teachers bashers to go and complain to their own fucking schools

[Frozenfan2019]

Aibu to be fed up to the back teeth of ignorant comments like "do your job like everyone else" and " it's your vocation" aimed at all and any teachers who happen to be on a thread. If you have a problem with the teaching provided by your own school contact them. People commenting have no idea of the workload that the people they are trolling online might be struggling with. It's bullying plain and simple and wouldn't be allowed to be aimed at other groups.

Do you honestly believe that every single teacher in the UK is lazy? If not why not contact YOUR school about the issues you have with YOUR child's teacher instead of starting yet another general teacher bashing thread.

As a teacher on here I have to say I have never been more demotivated. I work hard for my kids at school while also homeschooling my own three like so many of us. How dare you make me feel like I am failing because you have an issues, unfounded in some cases I am sure, with your school?

They are your children take some responsibility, contact the school if you have concerns and accept that most teachers are fired for the children they each but we don't make many of the decisions. They are made at a much higher level.

Maybe a Darwinian moment to cull those who are just in it for the holidays and the pension.
Wow.

Slight problems:
Teach First have just effectively 'sacked' 150 trainees.
There is a recruitment crisis.
There is a retention crisis.
A recent survey showed experienced teachers are now considering going part time to spend more time at home.
Another recent survey showed a larger than ever number of headteachers now want to step down.
It's a perfect storm. But, never mind: let's just keep pushing the dodos over the cliff.

Some of the most outspoken teachers are the most passionate and talented. HTH.

Within our school, provision has been inconsistent.

I haven't complained because I normally spend a lot if time volunteering in school (ex teacher so utilising my skills) and I don't want to sully relationships. I also know that teachers can't do right for doing wrong whatever they do, and we do have some very critical parents treating the teachers like downstairs staff 200 years ago. We've also had an email reminder about zero tolerance for abuse via the messaging system. The majority of teachers have their own families and their laptops are antiquated to the point of barely functional. There have certainly been challenges so I have cut some slack, but I am within my rights to have a whinge about consistency of provision on MN.

I'm fortunate to have time and experience to do some learning suitable for my DC's needs particularly the one with SENs so I have just adapted around what is avaliable.

Ironically it's the teacher of my NT child who has done more checking in. He's now teaching outside his year group, plus doing a weekly Zoom social/ quiz for his original class. His work has been well presented and pretty much "good to go". My other DS's hasn't. The only direct contact has been a 20 minute phone call discussing his SEN targets.

Complaints don't go down well at school. DH was a govenor at one point, and even internally they are very resistant to feedback. So I'm not rocking the boat. I'm not fully satisfied, but we're doing OK, I'm just not sure that school knows really. OK is easy to pretend.

I know so many teachers who have left the profession in the U.K. to go and teach abroad. All of them are so much happier. Better pay, better workload and better respect and no anti-teacher government rhetoric.

The retention and recruitment crisis in this country is alarming. They are literally giving away almost 30k bursaries for some subjects, full tuition fees and living expenses paid for and they are just not being taken up. And the ones that do, leave almost immediately. Class sizes are overstretched, schools underfunded, under-resourced and many in urgent need of maintenance and repair, teachers burnt out, overworked and no healthy home-life balance with having to work at weekends and late into the night.

Teachers are leaving in their droves, especially the most talented ones. Love for a job and wanting to change young lives only goes so far. A rubber band reaches a breaking point at some point.

Many teachers brilliant, many teachers not
Many schools amazing, many frankly appalling

Ofsted ' outstanding'school - primary
No class teacher contact, no marking, no feedback.
No welfare check or call from class teacher. Nada

I have complained and offered constructive feedback to the deputy head, head,exec head, chair of governors, MP, Council member responsible for Education, Education Secretary.

And my parents and in-laws have raised same concerns with their own MPs and Education Secretary on our behalf

I had a nosey at the local prep school website (up to 11 years) and I was astonished at the fantastic online provision with daily assemblies, interesting activities etc. I suppose if you are not delivering well enough to a paying customer you will get your arse kicked

I suppose that if state schools were as well resourced as private schools they might be able to make similar provision. They might need additional resources to enable in-school provision for key workers' children as well though.

@Buttercup77 I'm sure there will be very very few graduate jobs this year sadly do recruitment shouldn't be an issue. Retention is obviously down to the teams and schools...

NEWS JUST IN: parents complain about someone on social media site for parents 🙄

Well that’s ok the peleton ... shall we all get our coats?

"I suppose that if state schools were as well resourced as private schools..."

Exactly. That's the bottom line.

Haven't read the whole thread

I was talking to one of my teacher friends today and a few new thoughts came up.

Doesn't EVERYONE have a smart phone? I mean everyone? (Teacher friend seemed to think they did)

No doubt about the discrepancy of service between state and private. However when it comes to the individual teachers - there is nothing which facilitates a private school teacher to do a brilliant job with lots of interaction with students and a state school teacher who would choose to give work sheets and no interaction.

If there were safeguarding issues with the likes of zoom they would apply to all schools no? I don't believe anyone was forbidden from using that free platform

Even in private schools you get the teachers taking advantage of being furloughed and having the choice not to work at the school because "they don't feel safe". Some will be for genuine reasons whilst others ........

@JimmyGrimble

Only if you don't care about your job or the kids you teach. You tell me

I suppose that if state schools were as well resourced as private schools they might be able to make similar provision. They might need additional resources to enable in-school provision for key workers' children as well though.

The independent schools in my area are providing in-school key-worker child provision as well as teaching online for at-home pupils.

Why wouldn’t independent schools be open to key worker children?

Many state schools are similarly managing to provide for both at-home pupils and key-worker children.

Sorry, ignore my last comment. I completely misread

I hope so @havefunpeleton! Could be one silver lining out of all this! Especially more applications for the 2021/2022 intake as most PGCE places for this Sept were filled by May and the application process takes a while but next year should hopefully see a lot more applications due to all the people and graduates that have been made jobless from this point onwards the many more that will be this year and also because of the starting salary increases that have been proposed for 2022. Although school budgets are being reduced/restricted so there’s little money to hire these new recruits for permanent positions ☹️ But like you said, retention is a different kettle of fish...

chopc no, not everyone has a smart phone. Most primary school children don't for example, and not everyone has Broadband and data gets expensive.

What facilitates a teacher to do their job is the guidance they have from their SLT, which may come from an LA or a MAT.

So if the guidance says not to use Zoom for safeguarding reasons (which are valid) and not to use personal phones for calling students, that's what teachers have to do, unless they want to be disciplined or sacked for gross misconduct.

Being furloughed is a decision made by an employer. In some organisations, it has been possible to ask to be furloughed for childcare reasons, but not for not 'feeling safe'.

Many teachers fall within categories who have been advised not to go into work if at all possible, including people with diabetes and other chronic illnesses, women who are pregnant etc.

Finally, teachers who haven't gone into school have been working at home.

Like the majority of the workforce who are able to.

@louisthetrumpetswan

People with diabetes and most chronic diseases are able to go to work. The people who need to shield fall into very specific categories.

And pregnant ladies are at no more risk. You can read the info on gov.uk/coronavirus

@Buttercup77 if there are unfilled vacancies there will be a second round. It's how these things work

[quote havefunpeleton]@Buttercup77 if there are unfilled vacancies there will be a second round. It's how these things work [/quote]
Ahhh yes! Haha Sorry, sleepy! Yes absolutely.

Pg women in third trimester aren't expected back in my work post holiday.

chopc you can say what you like. I work for my headteacher who follows the DFE government guidance to the letter. We are one form entry and don’t even have enough room for our R / Y1 children. We have our Y6 bubbles and our KW and vulnerable children and that’s it. We can’t magic up rooms and we can’t magic up extra teachers. Until there is a coherent plan we are very limited.

@JimmyGrimble such a perfect example of can't do attitude. It's a real shame but needs to be out there to be discussed. This is exactly what unions are saying. With no thought of solutions for children.

Please remember the angry parents on here are not typical of RL. In a large LA (just less than 500 schools) we have had about 20 complaints from parents (4%) during the course of COVID - a tiny minority.
Well done teachers, SLT, and HT's you are doing a great job working from what is appalling guidance from the government.

Won't somebody think of the children!!!

havefun - not 'cant' do - decisions are made using comprehensive Risk Assessment docs, which follow government guidance. RA's have to be in place because of liability and insurance. Safety is paramount