Those who think teaching is easy should put their money where their mouth is

[noblegiraffe]

Teacher training applications which rose during the pandemic have now fallen to 15% below pre-pandemic levels when we already had a critical teacher shortage. The government's decision to slash bursaries is now looking completely idiotic.

www.tes.com/news/teacher-training-applications-drop-pre-covid-levels

The only thing that the government has put an appreciable amount of funding into recently related to schools is £24 million to ensure that they will all be Ofsteded within the next 5 years. With inspectors expected to massively reduce the number of outstanding schools, this is a punishing schedule rather than a supportive one.

This is causing Heads to quit, on top of how terribly they were treated during the pandemic (this continued with an email late Friday telling them that they once again have to take on the job of the NHS and set up covid testing centres for January, with orders needing to be in by Tuesday).

We already have a critical shortage of headteachers.

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/nov/27/ofsted-inspections-headteachers-quit

I've noticed lots of posts on here from people who think that teaching is easy, that school funding is fine and there are no issues in schools, that you can leave at 3 and get lots of holidays.

So isn't it about time they put their money where their mouth is and trained as teachers? We are in dire need of them, and it's such a doss it should be a pleasure for them. A bit of a holiday even. And as it would be a public service, it would be guilt-free.

getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/

I did a degree where many of my classmates went into teaching. At the time I wanted to gain some life experience and thought that teaching would always be something I revisited later in life.

I can’t see that happening now. I would have to take a massive pay cut. Also putting up with shit from kids is one thing, putting up with shit from parent’s who look down on you because they don’t view your job as a professional role is just something I would not put up with.

Are there any well-being initiatives at the school? Anything meaningful happening to help with mental health?
At my school, no. No one cares as long as we turn up and teach. A colleague who was in tears on Friday morning asked to go home and was told no.

@MrsHamlet

Are there any well-being initiatives at the school? Anything meaningful happening to help with mental health? At my school, no. No one cares as long as we turn up and teach. A colleague who was in tears on Friday morning asked to go home and was told no.

I really feel for teachers, even more so after nearly two years of pandemic induced additional stress and work.

It's like they are unsung heroes and it's a shame that senior leaders cannot make staff feel more appreciated by taking steps to improve staff wellbeing.

I'm not a hero. I don't want to be. But a little bit of kindness wouldn't go amiss.

Wellbeing isn't a priority because it simply can't be. The actual things that would make a difference to wellbeing would involve cutting workload but that can't happen because the DfE / Ofsted / etc. demand so much. Some schools are better than others but the workload when done properly is so much larger than the job.

In some schools, a culture has been created where teacher wellbeing is ignored: deeply ironic given the focus on children's wellbeing. I've seen a headteacher remind a class teacher to send their detailed cover plans before tomorrow whilst said teacher is being carried away in an ambulance after sustaining a serious injury at school. And I know I won't be the only one with a similar story.

Im planning to move i to academia/lecturing at some point in the future. Does that count?

No.

I always think the problem is that everyone with kids has got skin in the game, but not for very long (unless they have a lot of kids or also teach).

So you become aware of e.g. the problems with primary admissions but only for a year or two and then you move on.

Whereas a problem accessing your GP can run and run.

14 years from reception to Y13!

I've read pages of outrage on here from parents on here insisting that masks in classrooms interfere too much with education to be acceptable during a pandemic, even during a school outbreak.

Yet it apparently doesn't matter who is stood at the front of the class, so long as you can see their mouth.

Yes, but it's a short part of people's lives and they put it behind them (and a lot of men get to ignore it completely).

When you're in the middle of it (as I am) it certainly doesn't feel short.

"Why we're facing an exodus of Early Years staff"

www.tes.com/news/why-were-facing-exodus-early-years-staff

TLDR - treating them badly, not giving them respect, forcing them into pointless assessments, expecting them to manage children traumatised by covid with no extra support.

Teachers further down the line rely on the EY teachers to have established solid foundations. The government has to stop treating education staff as essentially disposable.

Are there any well-being initiatives at the school? Anything meaningful happening to help with mental health?

The most stressful and miserable school I ever worked at (only for a maternity cover thankfully) with much fanfare carried out a staff wellbeing survey. People were pretty honest on it, I think, and everyone thought that maybe once SLT saw written evidence of how awful everyone was finding it, they might do something. They did do something... they provided cake in the staffroom one Friday a month.

My friend’s school brought in ‘breakfast Friday’ to support well-being, where the head took a Friday assembly alone, and all teachers had to go to the staffroom and have bacon (or vegan) rolls cooked by the deputy heads, and ‘mingle’.

There was no option not to go, as they were ‘lucky’ to have this. Going to your room to get your marking/displays/assessment done, so you might be able to leave 20 minutes earlier than normal was strictly forbidden.

That’s the sort of well-being idea that really misses the point.

The

We've just had a well-being survey, then we had a briefing where the head stood and told us all the suggestions people had made, and all the reasons why they couldn't happen. Most couldn't happen because they cost money, or require volunteers, but some had much more spurious reasons. He's even said no to people taking their PPA at home if it's at the end of the day, which is annoying (not for me, I don't have any PPA where I could logistically take it at home)

He's even said no to people taking their PPA at home if it's at the end of the day
Why??

So what reasonably could they do to help well being?

So what reasonably could they do to help well being?

The things which would really help well-being are probably mostly beyond individual schools to solve. They require funding, or major changes to the system. Abolish league tables; get rid of onerous, prescriptive and unhelpful paperwork, marking practices and initiatives; change Ofsted's remit; stop making teachers accountable for the grades of students who persistently refuse to cooperate, produce work or respond to help; provide more PRUs and make it easier for schools to exclude pupils with persistent extremely bad behaviour.

@MrsHamlet

He's even said no to people taking their PPA at home if it's at the end of the day Why??

Some rubbish about possibly being required to cover if other teachers become ill during the day. But that doesn't happen. Because we have cover supervisors, and staff don't have any flexibility in our timetables.

So he said all the right things, made us hope he was going to actually do something, then denied is even the tiny little things that are possible. What he's managed is giving us biscuits for meetings (counted out so we have exactly the number of biscuits as we have members of the department).

And actually he can't use staff for cover in their PPA so that's disingenuous bollocks

@nowhheeeyyy

So what reasonably could they do to help well being?

We'd like to be able to go off site for PPA. That would mean I could actually go to the dentist. We'd like staff workspaces where we can work when not teaching and get a hot drink. We'd like the staff toilets to be painted so they're not grim. We'd like to be able to do online parents' evening at home if that suits us better. We'd like an email rule that says that only urgent emails get sent after 4 on Friday. Because frankly if I need to know something for first thing Monday, it's either urgent or should've been planned in advance not sent out on Saturday afternoon. We'd like back up from SLT.

Yes but we've complained about being used for collapsed timetable things like extra citizenship lessons. At that point he quotes that we get above the minimum level of PPA (we're entitled to 2.5 hours a week but get 3 hours a week) so it averages out across the year.

Our new HT put out a staff health and wellbeing survey about 8 weeks ago. We were all very honest and most categories scored 1 or 2 out of 5. Needless to say the results have not been shared. What's the point of asking people's views if you don't like what they say?

No wellbeing initiatives for us - as long as there's a person in front of the class, they don't care. Even our pupils with ASN are going without the help they need as their teachers are being used to cover class absences.

In nearly 40 years, I've never enjoyed my job less - being asked to do more and more with less and less resources - and the staff morale is zero.

I feel like we work in the same school @RaraRachael

Would more appreciation from parents go some way towards improving your well being? I'm not saying roll out the red carpet or anything, but the odd thank you card or biscuits just because?