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/

Just generally not being abusive would be a good start from parents. If all parents could just be polite when speaking to staff rather than announcing their child is going to fail because of me, that would be fab. (that was a genuine comment at parents evening one time). Or not being violent, like the dad who came storming into my classroom to "rescue" his son from an after school detention, that the son had willingly turned up to because he knew he'd behaved badly in the lesson.

@nowhheeeyyy

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?

Not excusing bad behaviour would probably be the best thing parents could do (I know not all). Actually supporting the teacher when they say "X has missed his break because he hit y", rather than complaining to the head who then has to investigate and even though you've absolutely taken the right course of action, you feel shit and question everytime you tell X off, because you know there will be accusations of 'teacher bullying'. If you have a good SLT, who deal with it you just feel shit. If you have a bad SLT you eventually stop bothering discipling X because your questioned over every tiny thing and X learns he can get away with anything because he can run to mummy and daddy to complain, which makes every lesson with X absolute hell.

But you are still held accountable for X's progress.

Parents don't tend to send things in at secondary, and tbh my dept is drowning in biscuits at the moment because everyone knows that things are tough and that the only thing that can be done is to buy biscuits.

I want parents to be shouting more about what's going on in schools, and in the right direction (government).

I would like more funding for ICT as ours is woeful - half the laptops don't work, ditto smartnoards and classroom computers. Yet SKT are saying there isn't enough ICT being used on their fucking pointless learning walks.
We can't fundraise for more stuff as it has to be bought from the council's suppliers

@noblegiraffe

Parents don't tend to send things in at secondary, and tbh my dept is drowning in biscuits at the moment because everyone knows that things are tough and that the only thing that can be done is to buy biscuits.

I want parents to be shouting more about what's going on in schools, and in the right direction (government).

Probably depends where you work. We have at least 8-10 per year group, where you know if you keep them in for break/set a detention you will have the parents shouting down the phone by the end of the day.

God knows where the biscuits came from! ^

Not intentional!

Oh yes, we have parents on the phone too. We're buying our own biscuits.

Sometimes the parents are moaning about petty stuff, but plenty also have valid complaints. Kids without a teacher, that sort of thing that we can't do anything to fix.

Headteachers have written to the Secretary of State again, following a totally inadequate reply to their queries about the impact of reimposing brutal Ofsted inspections during a pandemic

www.headrestuk.co.uk/blog/dear-secretary-of-state-again

I think the most galling thing is where the DfE reply apologised for taking more than a month to respond due to the pressures of Covid. No leeway is being given to schools.

I think the most galling thing is where the DfE reply apologised for taking more than a month to respond due to the pressures of Covid. No leeway is being given to schools.

I saw this yesterday-it is just appalling. Nobody is listening-it’s like March 2020 all over again.

Can I ask what the best bits of your job are, if there are any?

What keeps teachers in the profession or are the really leaving in their droves

Can I ask what the best bits of your job are, if there are any?

For me-it’s always been the actual ‘teaching’ bit-being with the children. I’ve always quite liked planning my (hopefully interesting and engaging) lessons as well, but that is so prescribed and arduous now in primary that I don’t enjoy that anymore.

The worst but for me is that the ‘being with the children’ part is very small compared to the rest of it and I’m now almost waiting until 3.30 so they are gone, so I can ‘get on with’ the actual job that SLT care about-the paperwork. For every hour you spend teaching, there’s another hour or two planning/marking/assessing. Those of us who have been teaching a long time, know that it’s all this bit (that a huge paper trail is needed for) is totally unnecessary and children used to learn really well without it. It just wastes hours of time after school that could be spent planning good lessons. Or, you know, even sometimes spending time with my own kids to have a bit of work/life balance. We must spend hours typing out, printing off, cutting out and sticking in learning objective strips, whereas years ago we would have just got them to write ‘Letter writing’ at the top of their page. It’s a pointless time-consuming distraction and there are hundreds of them.

@nowhheeeyyy

Can I ask what the best bits of your job are, if there are any?

What keeps teachers in the profession or are the really leaving in their droves

Children

@noblegiraffe

Ofsted won't ask for data anymore. If you want to show off your lovely spreadsheets you have to thrust it under their noses.

Ofsted won't ask to look at spreadsheets of data, but they absolutely will ask the question 'how do students know what they need to do to improve'?

So if you can wheel out a sheet of strengths and weaknesses generated from a spreadsheet of scores typed in from assessments, Ofsted are appeased.

We had Ofsted in last week. They definitely DO look at your spreadsheets of data and then criticise they don’t have enough detail even when they have all the marks for individual questions for each pupil.
They do want a data sheet of strengths and weaknesses, so the burden of generating more feedback for students, which most don’t bother to anything with, let alone read, will be enormous for teachers.

@nowhheeeyyy

Can I ask what the best bits of your job are, if there are any?

What keeps teachers in the profession or are the really leaving in their droves

The kids. Every teacher will tell you that being in the classroom with the kids is the best bit. Well, most of the kids.

No one stays in teaching because of the data entry or marking.

I guess some might also stay for the holidays, but if you don't enjoy being in the classroom then it's a non-starter.

It's such a difficult one as it sounds as though you wouldn't even be aware of any of this unless you are a teacher. Ok maybe your friends and family may have an idea, but how on earth would parents even begin to understand the stress and strain that comes with being a teacher??!!

Even parents on PTA or governing bird I don't think would pick up the extent of the issues described in this thread. So asking for parents to highlight the problems with government is never going to happen.

It's like a best kept secret and I feel that the only way anyone outside of teaching would have a slight understanding is if something went drastically wrong with teaching / schools / grades something national.

I'd say it keeps you young, and is constantly mentally stimulating and can be intellectually challenging. You definitely never stop learning new things. Every day is a school day! I do love some of my classes. Not all of them and schools have become exam factories.

It's like a best kept secret

I had to post this thread in AIBU with a clickbait title to even get people to read it. Parents don't seem to want to know.

As for things going drastically wrong with grades - they're set nationally so that the same proportion pass each year. Kids are getting objectively worse and yet exam pass rates stay the same. Research shows that the value of work for a C/4 grade pass at GCSE has gone down by about a grade in a decade.

When I posted this on MN at the time, it was tumbleweeds.
www.tes.com/news/gcses-grade-4-devalued-now-worth-1-years-less-work

As for things going drastically wrong with grades - they're set nationally so that the same proportion pass each year. Kids are getting objectively worse and yet exam pass rates stay the same.

Or get better.

It makes me laugh every year when the papers talk about the rising percentages of students "passing". That's not a surprise! The STA / DfE know exactly how many people want to achieve at each level and make it so.

Ofsted is no better. Judgements are based more on the local picture, national percentages, the needs of the current political leaders, etc. than they are on the actually schools. Absolutely not worth the paper they are written on.

Something did go drastically wrong with algorithms . There was a parental and student outcry then. Shortlived. Government even managed to wangle that to make some teachers the target of vitriol and abuse.

Things went drastically wrong during lockdown with wildly varying provision.

I started a thread about how maybe now that parents had a slight insight into the inequalities in provision in schools because it was being made visible to them, they might realise that it was reflective of the reality of state education and there might be action for change.

People were furious. And yet as soon as schools went back it was like ‘oh, everything’s ok now’. Even though it’s not. And despite being furious at inadequate lockdown provision, threads I’ve started about how the government has given barely any funding to catch-up, and then outsourced it to a Dutch HR company who have completely ballsed it up - no interest.

I think a large number of parents aren’t bothered as long as some sort of education is being provided (and that definition can be very loose) and it’s not them having to do it. In my experience, anyway.