Teachers!

[MsFannySqueers]

So retired/ex teachers are being asked to consider returning to the classroom because of possible staff shortages in the New Year. Is this something you would do?

Schools haven't been given any extra budget for more teachers. My school rarely uses them as we're in deficit (LEA). There's a pay rise next year that schools have to fund from their non existent budget so I'm not sure this is going to be an option. My DC's school sent a letter out at the end of term advising it may be closing classes next term if it can't staff them so they're not planning to use supply either. They're an academy and should have a bigger budget than us too.

I earn quite comfortably self employed not to consider this.

And as I said on another thread, I'd sooner be forced to have sex with Michael Gove than set foot in a classroom again.

Slightly taken aback by the contempt from ex teachers on this thread. Can't think of another profession where this view is held so strongly.

I have QTS and a DSB for my DC's school. I'm the wrong age range but know many of the KS2 pupils. Not sure how well I could handle y6 grammar (loathed the subjunctive in A-level French, did not compute) and y6 maths. Equally, I'd struggle with KS1 as it's so far removed from my experience.

I did actually offer to help in March 2020, but it's difficult where parents aren't allowed on site and those relationships I had with the school have wasted over nearly two years.

Going anywhere else is not an option due to childcare.

I decided against returning to supply when my old agency was offering £10 day/ £50 per FT week LESS in 2016 than I was paid in 2010.

We are short on supply teachers because they were early victims of the austerity years in education, and it wasn't a reliable way of earning a living. Many more must have been lost since 2020 when there was no teaching work and later when schools were worried about bursting bubbles.

@littleowls83

I'd go back to teaching, except having been out so long (10 years) I would have to go back as a cover supervisor etc for a while and I can't take that much of a pay cut. I won't do supply as its not practical with primary age children. Shame there is little support to get ex teachers back in the classroom or even keep the ones that are already there rather than just funding more teacher training.

If you can talk you can go back as a QTS teacher at the moment.

I'm a current teacher and I don't want to go back. I wouldn't want to go back even if covid wasn't a thing!

Thanks, for insulting us all.

@tiredanddangerous

Are the government going to give schools the money to pay for all these supply teachers? Because schools sure as hell can't afford it otherwise.

Lots of budgets are actually quite healthy at the moment as schools have been unable to get supply, run events etc No need for supply during either lockdown etc

Not all- but a fair number have moved out of deficit as a result of CV19.

Supply teacher rates are terrible-take home pay is less than £100 round here.

Basically the government know things are going to be really bad in schools after Christmas and their big plan is to tell ex-teachers they can go to a supply agency and earn much less than a contracted teacher. Presumably every teacher was already aware of that!

No extra incentives at all??!

Teacher retention is a major problem and the government thinks that its a good idea to ask these people to come back to a profession where they have been treated badly.

You really couldn't make this shit up.

Ah yes, DH will leave his new job paying more than twice his teaching salary with a max 45 hour week to get treated like crap working in excess of 60 hours per week for peanuts. Nope!

A supply teacher can earn £110 a day for day to day work in my area. It is less when you take off holiday pay. This is the problem, agencies take so much money that financially its not good money that has remained stagnant for so many years. I've never had a pay rise for day to day work in 10 years. Fortunately I get paid to rate by a school I work in regularly.

@thisisavalidusername1

Slightly taken aback by the contempt from ex teachers on this thread. Can't think of another profession where this view is held so strongly.

Honestly, they're treated like shit. It's contempt for how they're treated, not with people still in the role.

It is one of the most secure jobs going at the minute 😂

Are you sure? Expensive teachers being ‘managed out’. Shit treatment of staff by MATS. Bullying, toxic environment. Teaching’s just awful at the moment.

Rather than recruitingretired teachers, they should use Ofsted who seem not to be inspecting schools again. So that’s who should be teaching if they know so bloody much.

I organise supply and this has been happening already, I’m no spring chicken, but some of the supply staff I’ve had this year are far too old to be coping with a class of teenagers. One was early 70s and I’m sorry to say was not fit to be in, the other couldn’t read the register on the computer. And some of the younger ones, newly qualified in the pandemic, were totally out of their depth.

Honestly, they're treated like shit. It's contempt for how they're treated, not with people still in the role.

Your previous post didn't quite convey this nuance.

This thread has reminded me why I avoid teaching threads on here.

I’m a teacher and my mums retired. She nearly choked laughing when I asked her if she were considering it. Her retired colleagues have done similar when they’ve discussed it.

Absolutely not. No, never.

If people are so keen to do it, why is there a huge problem with teacher retention, why has there been a huge problem with supply, and there are many vacancies waiting to be filled?

And why would anyone want to go into COVID soup if they didn't have to?

I'm an ex teacher and, like many, I have a job in another career, so couldn't go back. But I can't think of any circumstances where I'd choose to anyway. Doing cover lessons was the worst part of teaching. I would also think that a class with a teacher off sick with covid would be very likely to give me covid. Going in to teach the unvaccinated is really risk. We need to vaccinate children now.

It really smacks of desperation. They know things will be bad after Christmas, yet this is the thing they are deciding to spend their precious time (well, the 5 minutes that it took to write the plan plus the repeated tweets of the advert every hour) focusing on.

If/when there are insufficient staff to open safely and schools are forced to close, I imagine Nadhim will be on the telly blaming retired teachers for not stepping up. It won’t be their own fault for a lack of planning.

yes part time if they pay for the dbs as mine expired some years ago and they pay good money....i will go back for few days a week or full time for a few weeks !!

if they pay for the dbs as mine expired some years ago

Have they said that they will?

and they pay good money

It’s probably around £100, maybe less, after tax. Depends what you count as good?

Will it be like the special visas for hgv drivers? They got about 20 of them, I think. Just punting enquiries on to supply agencies will mean it's hard to see how effective it is, so may mask the complete failure.