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?

I'm not retired but I've left. They'd have to be offering to pay at least triple, if not quadruple, the top of the salary range. I might think about it then. It's a hateful, thankless job.

Damn right there's contempt from ex teachers. Hell would have to freeze over before I stepped foot in a school again, especially now I'm out of date and with less patience than I had prepandemic!

I asked DH, retired headteacher, if he fancied giving it a go.
“No fucking chance “.

😂 😂 😂 No! 😂 😂 😂

Walked out last year. Was actually going to go back on supply, but the first wave and school closures killed any chance of that. Shame as I'm one of the people that actually prefer day to day supply to having a full time class.

Unfortunately, I see no advantage to me of going back. Supply wages seem to have been dropping, not rising over the past few years and there's no job security. I used to be willing to work in a different school each day (or even different ones morning and night) and I was happy covering for illness then. However, I wouldn't be able to afford to keep self-isolating or take time off ill. There's only so many weeks schools want supply usually (November - Early May usually). I couldn't afford to risk being unable to work in a busy period due to Covid. Being zero hours, there's no sickness pay. I can't see at the moment how I'd remain working full time going into so many struggling schools.

Also, to be honest I struggle to support many schools these days. The majority of SLT seem to be rubbish, most teachers seem over stressed and a lot of pupils seem stressed, frustrated and angry. Often they weren't nice places to work before I quit. I loved the kids and the actual teaching, but not all the junk that was thrown at schools. The government really need to look at schools and teaching after Covid and work out what they need to do to retain staff in the first place and help raise kids' happiness.

I work nights, so in theory I could go back, but it's not really an attractive offer.

Didn’t they do the same with retired medical staff at the beginning of lockdown? Or the vaccine?

They’re also trying to lure back all the Teach First members who were not only trained for free, but paid whilst they did the training. Hyped and praised, the way forwards and all that jazz.
60% left teaching within 5 years.

And yes, supply rates are low, haven’t changed in years and you get no support if you are ill or isolating.

My Dad is a retired teacher - retired mid 50's about 15 years ago. I asked him if he would consider it - bit of a pointless question as his wife is CEV and so has basically been a hermit for the past 20 months - so lets pop him back into the classroom where he will have contact with more people in a week than he has had in the past 20 months!

I am a teacher so get the need but I really don't think retired teachers are the answer!

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

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.

Well said. I'd rather cut my arm off than go back to all that. Good idea to recruit those teaching 'experts' for regular classroom work. What a bunch of absolute bastards they were

Perhaps they'll conscript anyone with a teaching qualification. I shall put two pencils up my nose and say 'wibble'.

@Pumperthepumper

Didn’t they do the same with retired medical staff at the beginning of lockdown? Or the vaccine?

Yes, and during swine flu. The difference being that most retired Drs enjoyed their jobs and a fair few were happy to answer the call (my grandpa being one).

Interesting to see how the supply rates paid to teachers and cover supervisors has gone down so much over the last ten years.

The rates paid to the supply agencies certainly haven't.

I wonder if somebody in a large agency/Teach First is close buddies with ministers? Maybe somebody whose agency now handles theory tests or employment consultancy for the unemployed?

I find that following the money is usually very enlightening in such matters.

Fuck no.

@ilovesooty

Perhaps they'll conscript anyone with a teaching qualification. I shall put two pencils up my nose and say 'wibble'.

Big fat nope from me. I've been supply teaching and have just got a new non-teaching job for the new year. I am going to be staying as far away from schools as possible. I could work until I start my new job in Feb, but I fancy the time off instead and no risk of catching Omicrom while being sworn at.

I think it largely depends on why they left.
We currently have two retired teachers who have stepped in to fill two long-ish gaps.
The head teacher treated them well while they were here and they were given a good send off. So they returned out of loyalty.

Ones who were treated badly or bullied out, well they'll feel like they're having the last laugh now.

It is bloody ridiculous. My colleagues who have retired are old and at risk of covid. They are vulnerable. Why on earth would they volunteer to work in a Petri dish?!

@FrippEnos

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.

I wasn't treated badly. I just couldn't be doing with the politics and all the blinking paperwork so that someone somewhere could tick a box.

twitter.com/educationgovuk/status/1472824123042766851?s=21

Here’s the tweet from DFE. Replies are not positive.

I wonder if all of the ex-teachers who are so quick to declare that they would sooner stick pins in their eyes have given even a single thought to how their serving colleagues feel about their comments.

I think their colleagues would agree.

@FrippEnos

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.

Well said. Same will happen for university teaching…oooh about 3-4 years I’d reckon. No one will want to do it anymore, particularly with the pensions being decimated.

No.

Retired DH and I have just spent 2 restricted and disciplined years carefully avoiding high risk places and crowds; NOT seeing friends indoors, NOT pursuing our normal indoor social activities and hobbies.

You couldn't PAY this older retired teacher to spend my days in a crowded room of unvaccinated people and risk catching covid (or taking it home to DH.

"Why I never want to teach again" would take far longer to explain

@YippieKayakOtherBuckets

I wonder if all of the ex-teachers who are so quick to declare that they would sooner stick pins in their eyes have given even a single thought to how their serving colleagues feel about their comments.

As the teaching profession is roundly so poorly respected and so widely criticised (here, there; everywhere) what our ex colleagues think about it is the least of our worries tbh.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

I think their colleagues would agree.

This one could do without the constant derision, ta very much.

@YippieKayakOtherBuckets

I wonder if all of the ex-teachers who are so quick to declare that they would sooner stick pins in their eyes have given even a single thought to how their serving colleagues feel about their comments.

Yes, I was wondering about that!

Nowhere except Mumsnet do I ever read these negative comments about teaching. And I have a number of friends and family members who are teachers. There are of course always frustrations, but nothing like the hatred for their jobs that I see teachers and former teachers describe here.

My daughter is currently training to be a teacher (school based) and enjoying it enormously. Yes of course she is young, keen and not typical of an experienced teacher, but she talks about a happy school in which all the teachers she comes into contact with are positive, enthusiastic and enjoy their jobs.

She moves school in January so it will be interesting to see if her experience in the new school is similar. I do hope so. Working colleagues who don't want to be there is very depressing.