Nearly half of teachers plan to quit in the next 5 years

[freebritknee]

I saw this from a survey carried out by an education union.

Unmanageable workload is a significant factor.

This is madness how have the unions allowed the state of teachers employment to get this far where nearly half of them want out?!

Why is it the unions' fault?

It's not I shouldn't have worded it like that.

It's the central government fault.

Unions represent the teachers though and have or should have more clout than that if a single teacher, SLT or school, so I guess re is perhaps some responsibility on them to push back in any which way to make things more manageable for the staff.

I've worked with teachers who've been planning to quit for the last 20 years. The reality is the salary is nowhere near as bad as they think it is, when they start looking for alternative work.

I wish they would go, instead of just talking about it though. Staying and moaning/kidding themselves they're leaving is doing no one any good.

If the unions are at fault, it's because they've managed to get the job so well paid it's hard to leave

The govt pay zero attention to the teaching unions.

My lovely husband is quitting teaching after this term. He doesn’t yet have a job to go but he’s so unhappy, he can’t stay.

@noblegiraffe

The govt pay zero attention to the teaching unions.

Is that because they do nothing above convenient lobbying

What about teacher strikes? Quickest way to get the whole country to sit up and pay attention

It's not the unions' fault although they aren't particularly helpful either

The problem is unqualified ministers and advisors setting policies and the trickle down effect. No idea what happens in a classroom on a daily basis.
Ridiculous curriculum which is completely out of touch with what children need to learn. Formalisation of everything. Ofsted. Underpaid TAs who are expected to plan, resource and assess lessons with responsibility for their groups' progress. On shit pay. Teachers dealing with increasingly challenging behaviour and entitled parents in some cases with little support from SLT. Shockingly low budgets. Performance management meaning impossible targets defining progression up the pay scale. Overloaded timetables with little time to reflect and enjoy the learning process. Tired little children often with no structure, routine or boundaries at home- I'm talking 5 year olds who might have been awake for much of the night on an ipad in bed (parents admit this a lot) then expected to do English, maths, guided reading, phonics and foundation subjects, mainly with written outcomes in books, sitting at tables when what they need to do is to PLAY and explore at their own pace

Stress of producing the right data to show children's progress. Stress covering for colleagues off with covid, setting home learning and losing your TA to cover elsewhere. Planned interventions that rarely happen. Having little control over what you teach, when and how. Classes that are just too big. Ever moving goalposts. Lack of respect from children and their parents. All these things plus more in combination are driving teachers out. We are knackered and unappreciated by many.

What about teacher strikes?

Teachers went on strike in the Gove years. It achieved nothing and whipped up public hate. Now teachers unhappy with conditions quit instead (as many on MN have told them to do).

@freebritknee

We don’t like striking. The public hates our guts (take a look at the comments section on any teacher-related story on the Daily Mail website if you are not sure of this). They hate us even more when we go on strike, because it’s massively disruptive and causes parents hassle.

It's a good thing.

There are clearly lots of teachers who hate their jobs. That's not good for them or for children.

They should leave and do something else with their lives.

What's then needed is plenty of recruitment of new teachers.

Is that all? Thought it would be more.

@MajorCarolDanvers

It's a good thing.

There are clearly lots of teachers who hate their jobs. That's not good for them or for children.

They should leave and do something else with their lives.

What's then needed is plenty of recruitment of new teachers.

Or we could improve the job, retain experienced teachers, recruit new teachers (currently govt failing to meet targets) and that would be better for everyone, particularly children.

Or we could improve the job, retain experienced teachers, recruit new teachers (currently govt failing to meet targets) and that would be better for everyone, particularly children.

Nah too easy.
Besides why bother when you can just blame existing teachers?

@MajorCarolDanvers

It's a good thing.

There are clearly lots of teachers who hate their jobs. That's not good for them or for children.

They should leave and do something else with their lives.

What's then needed is plenty of recruitment of new teachers.

It’s not quite like that though. Lots of teachers love teaching but struggle with unrealistic expectations/workloads, inflexible Senior Management etc. If they leave the new recruits are going to have the same problem so it really isn’t a solution. I started teaching 27 years ago and the landscape has changed enormously; email so much more direct contact with parents and students, much greater anxiety all round and students who are much less resilient and need more help, in state schools huge amounts of paperwork. Older teachers often Managed out in favour of younger teachers who burn themselves out. I’m lucky- I work in an independent school and we are treated like intelligent human beings- I don’t have to teach someone else’s PowerPoints and my age and expertise is seen as a plus. It’s still very hard work but very rewarding. I can’t imagine working effectively in some of the environments other teachers have to work in.

Not surprised. Same with other public sector jobs. Doctors and nurses leaving in droves too

Not surprised. I left after 12 years, I am so glad I did. It's no life. I now work in a job which pays me more for less work. I don't need to be on antidepressants now either. Wish I'd left sooner.

The recruitment crisis has already started. Both DH and I are teachers, separate schools, and we have several vacancies in each for teaching roles that have had to be readvertised due to no applicants or totally unsuitable applicants. Only a few years ago we would have had a strong field for the vast majority of subjects.

What's then needed is plenty of recruitment of new teachers.

The newly qualified teachers are the ones most likely to leave the profession.

I quit teaching after two years. It was the school mostly. If I’d been at a nicer school, I probably could have stuck it out but lesson after lesson of disruption, feeling like it was more crowd control than teaching, being racially abused (eg I ain’t listening to no white b*tch like you innit) and finally physically assaulted all whilst being given no support whatsoever from SLT, I decided I could go earn more money doing something where I didn’t have to put up with that nonsense.

This government has never really understood that teachers aren’t slaves.

Tragic for the children and indeed the teachers. At our school the experienced class are all quitting, they are replaced by newly qualified teachers who stay for anyear then quit in horror. The kids are learning sod all.

Teachers have been saying very clearly what needs to change for YEARS but the Tories are so full of themselves they assume that their back of the envelope made up strategy must be better than the advice of experienced experts.

Not a teacher myself but it’s like watching a very avoidable car crash happen in slow motion.

At least it shows how little clout unions have, so hopefully the idiots who go on about the unions closing schools in lockdown can finally shut up

I would have loved to enter teaching but I won’t bother now as I have family members who “teach” without degrees and qualified teacher status. So I would rather put my degree to good use and do a post grad in something like occupational therapy whereby I know I’m going to get paid a decent wage. Schools don’t like paying out now for fully qualified teachers, not when TAs do the job for half the salary (and in my opinion they’re great but they don’t “do” the job as effectively as fully qualified staff) so it’s a no from me!

@MajorCarolDanvers there is a recruitment as well as a retention crisis, perfect storm really. You don't want to encourage good teachers to leave

This is madness how have the unions allowed the state of teachers employment to get this far where nearly half of them want out?!

What can unions do?

Most of it is caaused by national factors (low pay, terrible resourcing, big chains sucking schools dry, pissing around with support structures). Many of these are longstanding, complex problems caused by the policies of the democratically elected goverenment- it's not a simple issue to strike over.

In ordinary times there would probably be a general strike over pay and conditions but these are not ordinary times and there is little appetite when kids have suffered so much.

Ultimately we, the electorate voted for schools to be like this consistently for a decade.