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?!

In my school we have a non-verbal 5 year old who does nothing but scream constantly and hit any adults or children who go near him. After 6 months we have still not been able to get a single professional into school to see them.

This is a huge problem in my school, and I'm sure many others. There is no staff or money available, either in school or to hire, to support SEN children. It's no good people saying 'but they have targets and funding!'
The funding is woefully inadequate and doesn't cover what those children need. When you've got a class and that 1 (or more) child you can't ignore the 29 to constantly support the 1. Those children are not gaining from being in mainstream education as it stands.

The poster who claimed that the only requirement fir teaching English is to have an English degree is clearly completely unaware that subject knowledge is only one part of teaching! Experience outside education requires flexible skills that are absolutely required for good teaching - pity those ‘ taught’ by someone regurgitating the same old lecture notes for 25 years

I'm an advisory teacher and I voted in that survey and to be fair I think it's just because working in education is a bit of a trade off.

I've got a relatively stable job with 13 weeks holiday a year and childcare in the school holidays is never an issue. I don't enjoy my job but I think while my kids are young, I'd be a fool to leave. So I do plan to leave the profession when my kids are older but more because I feel it'll be time to put myself first and prioritise my enjoyment over something that fits around the kids.

I've got an English degree. And a pgce. And I used to be all enthusiastic and keen. When I first started teaching, that was all that seemed to be required. No one even asked me for my Record of Achievement, or anything.

I've managed 20 or so years without using my ancient lecture notes though. I mean, I could try using them, but I'm pretty sure the kids would notice if I wasn't teaching what's on the actual exam spec.

@WhatAHexIGotInto

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

Oh the naivety!

No one wants to be a teacher now because it's shit. Over the last 5 years I've lost count of the amount of lovely, bouncy new teachers who leave after their first year because the job is nothing like they thought it was.

People really have no clue.

Isn't there on the job training before teachers qualify? Nurses have to spend time on the wards etc for months, actually doing/witnessing the job. We know what we're going in to, pretty much (which is why I never worked on a ward). Is there not the same kind of immersion for teachers?

@lameasahorse

A child like that should not be in the mainstream. I cant imagine he is getting any benefit out of his schooling at all.

That's the point. It's obvious that certain children with SEN cannot cope in mainstream schools. But it takes years to get the official visits/diagnosis/paperwork to grant them a place in a specialist setting that they desperately need.

Not read all the posts but the Sports Direct one made me laugh.

I'm a secondary school teacher, 17 years in. I love my job and my school and most of the kids. But it's unsustainable for me to be doing this until retirement age. I don't think my pay is bad. It's the conditions which make the job hard. For me, the following are the areas which make the job challenging:

• lack of parental support and engagent
• lack of parental responsibility
• lack of adequate planning and marking time. 10% of your timetable so for a full-time classroom teacher 2.5 hours a week to plan 22-23 hours of teaching and learning, marking, inputting data, report writing...
• in some cases weak SLT, high giving shit bags in the corridor rather than taking a hard line with their feral behaviour
• massive accountability for exam results. I'm in school on Wednesday unpaid, delivering revision sessions. My fault I know for saying yes before anyone jumps on that bandwagon
• meetings which could easily be emails
• budget issues - glue sticks are like hold dust at the time of year
• technical / admin / photocopying support, my current school is poorly resources in this area so my previous 10% is often spent photocopying, a job which was deemed as a non teacher job quite a few years ago

I've started to consider branching off my main subject to work in a more specialised area of teaching in the hope that when I need to start winding down I can still work in a school but not as a full-time classroom teacher. Mid 40s now and it's hard going.

@lameasahorse

A child like that should not be in the mainstream. I cant imagine he is getting any benefit out of his schooling at all.

But they ARE in mainstream!

Why on earth do teachers moan so much? If the job was that bad, they wouldn't be planning to quit in the next 5 years, they'd have quit already and wouldn't be teachers anymore.

Do they think everyone else enjoys their work or doesn't think they should be paid more? Why do they think they are so special?

@JangolinaPitt

The poster who claimed that the only requirement fir teaching English is to have an English degree is clearly completely unaware that subject knowledge is only one part of teaching! Experience outside education requires flexible skills that are absolutely required for good teaching - pity those ‘ taught’ by someone regurgitating the same old lecture notes for 25 years

The curriculum changes far more frequently than that!

I work with several people who say they are fed up with the nature of the job and want to leave, but haven't. For several reasons.

They aren't keen to stay due to incessant paperwork, stress of the job never being seen to be good enough, constant curriculum change and reinventing the wheel, and of course behaviour issues.

They are still all in the job because, yes, the holidays and pay are good, but they also enjoy being in class with the children when they are actually being left alone to do the teaching. Everyone of them does a good job for their class.

I have my days when I'd really rather leave and avoid some of the pitfalls. But then there really isn't anything else I want to do and it is something I think I'm good at!

18 years teaching secondary and I'm leaving in July. Leaving teaching completely and it is a huge relief.

For me it was a combination of ridiculous, pointless paper work and initiatives (don't get me started on individual red pen comments) that don't help the students. Increasing parental complaints which never used to happen, behaviour is getting worse, more and more demands on my own time and the unsaid expectation that everything has to be done at home even though the head tells us to leave work at school over the holidays. I'm burnt out and ready for a change, it's a pity as I know I am excellent at my job.

With regards to pp and the recruitment issue. There's a recruitment and retention issue. It's a vicious circle. We must keep the experienced staff in to support the new staff otherwise it's the blind leading the blind. New teachers need the support, wisdom and guidance from experienced colleagues. One of our departments in school has had a new NQT for four years on the bounce. Most recent one is leaving in July as he honestly admitted that he cannot cope. This isn't a youngster either fresh out of uni, probably late 20, early 30s.

Isn't there on the job training before teachers qualify?

Yes. Placements during teacher training.

Oh and the curriculum changes. Just get used to one exam specification and along comes a new one which is often surprisingly similar to an exam spec about 15-20 years ago.

Government leaders leading education who have only ever stepped foot in a private school classroom as a pupil and have never seen your average comp on action.

I'm 22 years in and love teaching. I'm a GCSE teacher in a college now but I've taught in schools too

We've lost half of our very big department in the last 3 years. New staff don't stay - NQTs can't manage and rarely see out the first year.

This is the first year I've thought "I need a get out plan" as I can't see myself doing this for many more years (I'm 44) even though I'm fairly happy in my job.

This last term we've been battered - an Ofsted which was deemed Good then a bought in Inspection company who've ripped our department to shreds.

The constant pandering to deadlines and the never ending scrutiny is absolutely killing the job I love.

Left in July after 20 yrs, I loved working with children but my role as Senco just became impossible, not enough funding, not enough specialist settings and constant firefighting. Increased expectations, pressures and responsibilities and the negative attitude towards teachers during Covid.. had enough. Still work in Education but not in schools, took a paycut but my worklife balance is so much better.

@SonicBroom

In ordinary times there would probably be a general strike over pay

The average classroom teacher earns what would be the equivalent of more than £55k gross in the private sector. We were discussing it on another thread. Teaching is not poorly paid.

£55k? I don’t think so!

No, possibly more than £55k when you factor in the pension!

It's pointless saying that teachers would be paid £55k they worked on the premises at the same rate for 47 weeks like someone in a corporate role. They're not employed or paid to do that, nor can they opt to do so, so they don't and can't earn £55k as a class teacher.

@santaclara exactly and it sounds like a lot of them are having to work anyway for a substantial part of the holidays.

Unions have no power left due to legislative changes to the trade union legislation culminating in the 2016 Trade Union Act.

Stop voting Tory!

I’m a teacher. 20 years experience and would love to leave. Any new teaching staff who have joined our college in the last 5 years haven’t lasted very long. Some have quit after only a term. Others went on maternity and never came back. Another very well qualified and impressive new recruit who started in September is now out on long term sick with anxiety.

@Tulipblacksmith

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!

In Scotland it's illegal to put an unqualified teacher in a classroom to teach. Maybe the unions should work towards that in England.