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 do people begin posts *I'll get flamed for this'?

Not sure what you mean by mortgage reduction.

Mortgage reduction?!

I can’t honestly say that my PGCE was hugely helpful in shaping my teaching. And to be fair, there are plenty of teachers with QTS who aren’t particularly strong teachers.

I think different teachers thrive in different environments. The best teachers in my first school (which was dog rough) were strong, take no shit, forceful characters. They’d have been on capability within half a term at the school I then moved on to. Likewise, some of the best teachers at that school wouldn’t have coped in the first one.

Of course, some teachers are just not very good, but where I think I differ in my view to some here is that I don’t see QTS as being what separates the competent from the incompetent.

@Bedsheets4knickers

Il get flamed for this but do the majority of teachers understand how it is to work in another environment?? I say this as most people I know suffer their job to pay the bills and that's without the 13 weeks holiday and mortgage reduction and not to bad pension .

Apart from the mortgage reduction point, I am not a teacher and I don't know anyone who hates their job. I like my job! Don't suffer it to pay bills at all.

@Bedsheets4knickers

Il get flamed for this but do the majority of teachers understand how it is to work in another environment?? I say this as most people I know suffer their job to pay the bills and that's without the 13 weeks holiday and mortgage reduction and not to bad pension .

What mortgage reduction? Have I missed out on a perk I knew nothing about?

I don’t see QTS as being what separates the competent from the incompetent.

But you appear to be a teacher who doesn't think that teaching is a skill that can be improved with good teaching.

Il get flamed for this but do the majority of teachers understand how it is to work in another environment?? I say this as most people I know suffer their job to pay the bills and that's without the 13 weeks holiday and mortgage reduction and not to bad pension

Yes many teachers (for example me) are career changers. Plus many teachers (for example me) work in schools in an area of high deprivation.
We are very aware that lots of people are struggling to feed and clothe their kids. I’ve had to arrange funding for school clothes for a few kids in my form.

mortgage reduction

Please tell me more.

@TortugaRumCakeQueen as helpful as that would be, you'd need to completely revamp the educational system to do it.

1. What happens if there is a fire alarm half way through a lesson, do you've straight onto the next lesson without finishing the interrupted one, or finish the interrupted one but be behind on the curriculum?
2. Different schools follow different exam boards who have different specs, you'd need to either only have 1 option of exam board or hire someone from all the exam boards.
3. Different schools allocate different hours per week to each subject. Some run on a two week timetable and some on a one week timetable. This will impact how much you get through.
4. It doesn't consider planning for behaviour. How my year 9s behave and the lesson I subsequently plan is very different when I see them last thing vs when I see them second lesson. Equally, when I see my year 8s straight after pe I know 5 minutes of my lesson will be wasted by kids getting dressed at different times.
5. Spacing of the lessons can impact how much is retained. If I get two hours per week with year 7, Monday and Tuesday, then likelihood is, Monday's work will be well consolidated but Tuesday's forgotten.
6. Different schools have different times on lessons. Some of my friends teach in schools with 120 minute lessons. That will differ vastly from my 60 mi lessons, which differ vastly from when I taught in schools with 40 minute lessons.
7. It doesn't take into account SEN whatsoever.
8. Schools like to micromanage e.g. emblems on the slides, a certain colour, I have worked in a school where students didn't write in books as true knowledge was remembered 🙄 and worked in one where if it wasn't written in the book, it didn't happen. I have worked in a school where the first activity had to last 4 minutes with a timer, and one where lessons started with all students standing behind their chairs and you had to go around each one individually and greet them, which took up time.

I could go on and on. In theory it would be a lovely idea, but in practice it is just lazy teaching that doesn't work.

@noblegiraffe

I don’t see QTS as being what separates the competent from the incompetent.

But you appear to be a teacher who doesn't think that teaching is a skill that can be improved with good teaching.

OK then

@Bedsheets4knickers - i can only assume that the many teachers who leave (there is already a retention issue), find that they prefer their new jobs or there wouldnt be a crisis as they would rapidly realise that teaching was better and would return quick and easily find work.

Teachers constantly moaning and thinking they could earn a packet doing something else is not a new phenomenon. Some love the work, some hate it but nevertheless stay at it and presumably like to moan and feel sorry for themselves.

Would be interested to know how many of them actually follow through. Almost all the teachers I know would have said yes to that question, maybe one of them will actually leave.

When they look at options the salary vs losing holiday never adds up for them and they stay

Cheesecake you've reminded me of a horrible time my Son had with a trainee teacher his English group had a while back. I was so glad that his English teacher (an experienced teacher who knew the class very well) was supervising the lessons. The trainee was a young woman who was out of her depth teaching this group of teenage boys and each lesson would disolve into confrontation, students being removed, little learning. She accused some students of racism and threatening behaviour but the experienced teacher stepped in. She was gone after half term. I don't know if it was her first ever class or what type of training scheme she was on.

@Bushkin

Would be interested to know how many of them actually follow through. Almost all the teachers I know would have said yes to that question, maybe one of them will actually leave.

When they look at options the salary vs losing holiday never adds up for them and they stay

The woeful retention stats in teaching are literally there for all to see.

@Charlieiscool

Teachers constantly moaning and thinking they could earn a packet doing something else is not a new phenomenon. Some love the work, some hate it but nevertheless stay at it and presumably like to moan and feel sorry for themselves.

Ahem.., they don’t seem to stay at it or there wouldn’t be staffing issues. It’s like people who tell Doctors and Nurses “ if you don’t like it leave then!” Errr they have been and continue to do so. There’s a massive recruitment and retention issue.

Yes sorry not a mortgage reduced but a better mortgage deal but really I think you are picking feathers either way

Better mortgage deal?
Fuck me, what have I been missing out on these last 35 years?

@Bedsheets4knickers

Yes sorry not a mortgage reduced but a better mortgage deal but really I think you are picking feathers either way

I don't get what you mean by better mortgage deal either. Better than what? Better than whose? I have never heard of a teacher getting a better mortgage deal than any other fully contracted professional, in a government or corporate role.

What better mortgage deal? I missed that!

And for context my closet friend is a teacher she's now worked her way to a deputy . Her struggles to get to half term
Or to a end of term holiday saying that she will have to work through her holiday then leaves it until the last few days and still gets it done . Working till 5;30/6pm 😂🤣🤣🤣
So yeah you all go leave these jobs that you think is so fucking hard then come and see how it is on the other side .... I dare you

Picking feathers?

Mortgage deal?

It’s difficult to take someone seriously when they make absolutely no sense.

Maybe you've missed it I don't know but if you are a teacher and go with the right people you get a discount

Or you could come into teaching bedsheets?

@Invasionofthegutsnatchers

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

Every word of this is true!