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?!

Exactly @CheesecakeAddict. Very good points well made.

those who seem to do their teaching hours, perhaps a bit of work in the weekday evenings, and mainly have their holidays and weekends free
I mostly manage this -it really is a case of working more efficiently. Yes of course there is work to do outside the classroom but sone people do faff a lot - and would stress in any job. I am working on a scheme of work today but will take me a couple of hours and is interesting - I’d hate to just teach the same thing in the same ways for endless years as the FE poster referred to. It matters to me to refresh and change lessons and to never stop learning myself -I don’t see it a monstrous imposition by a dastardly employer.

Problem is where do you go? I’ve worked in the private sector all my life and it’s no picnic.

Where do we go?
Tea hers have a truckload of transferable skills. Those who leave are finding jobs elsewhere.

There's been a recruitment and retention crisis for pretty much the entity of my teaching career (15 years). It's not a new thing, but it's certainly getting worse. If the dozens of teachers who I know who have left teaching, only a handful have returned. And those teachers who have returned left to have a complete break whilst they had young children. I don't know a single teacher who has left for a different job and returned to teaching. Wherever ex teachers end up doing when they leave, they seem to prefer whatever they leave teaching for, as they never return.

Hmm, autocorrect really messed up my post there, but you get the gist!

Agreed.

I have seen numerous experienced, good colleagues leave for pastures new. None have returned to teaching, bar one who does occasional supply around her SEN child.

"it really is a case of working more efficiently."

I think that is very dismissive of many teachers who are at the mercy of unreasonable SLT demands. Perhaps you're lucky in that respect.
Of course, the subject one teachers can also play a part. What do you teach?

@JangolinaPitt

Depends on what you teach, Year groups etc. I teach essay based subject with 2 years 10 classes, 2 year 11 classes and 2 A level classes. As efficient as I try to be the marking is out of control.

A TeacherTapp question last week revealed huge disparities of marking load between subjects and key stages. Jangolina teaches neither KS2 nor KS4/5 English, at a guess.

But it does no service to other teachers to be smug about how you manage your own workload and just do this as a way to criticise others rather than listening.

I like marking and planning. I acknowledge that other teachers are drowning and that the constant assessment focused / exam factory/accountability system needs addressing.

If I was the Minister for Education, I would get in a team of brilliant teachers and get them to write every single lesson needed for every year of school. It could be proof read a hundred times and tweaked until it was 100% perfection. Then upload them all to a central database, for every teacher in the land to teach from.

My primary school has started treating Oak Academy like this (because Ofsted like it apparently) and we are expected to teach directly from it. It's gone from a happy school with motivated and proud teachers to a place where there is suddenly huge dissatisfaction and stress. It doesn't help that of course OA was designed for online learning, so many lessons are not suited to a classroom environment, but really it feels like the last bit of autonomy is being taken away. The joy of research, of designing a unit of learning specifically for the current cohort, of thinking up exciting and memorable hooks and outcomes - those things are part of what makes teaching interesting and fulfilling.

FWIW I'm a career changer from the charity/arts sector who appreciates the pay and hols but also has seen that the absolute baseline needed to produce a merely adequate day of teaching takes a huge amount of commitment, work and energy. To provide excellent teaching, pastoral care and contribution to school life takes even more. As someone still learning, my respect for teachers has never been higher, and I am dismayed and disheartened to see how they are held in contempt by government and media.

it really is a case of working more efficiently
Everyone has different workloads this is down to the school, SLT, other demands. I lead 2 key stages and 2 core subjects. I am DSL. This year I have had something to deal with within school which has resulted in me actually pulling an all nighter before Christmas due to a deadline where I was given 1 day to compile something. How could I have worked more efficiently to produce a 48 page document overnight with 1 days notice?

But one size does not fit all in terms of lessons. My top set year 11s need a very different lesson with very different resources to my lower set. And what a top set needs differs every year too. Content stays the same, but other than that lessons should be tailored to the class.
We have banks of resources we share which saves lots of time. But still need to scaffold for individual children. I teach over 380 students this year, the highest ever. Bigger classes cause much more work.
Marking at this time of year is always higher in secondary as exam years are getting ready. English, history and all essay subjects have horrible marking loads all year round.

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Did you scroll to the bottom of that and she all the other good mortgage deals for other jobs?

@mumsneedwine

But one size does not fit all in terms of lessons. My top set year 11s need a very different lesson with very different resources to my lower set. And what a top set needs differs every year too. Content stays the same, but other than that lessons should be tailored to the class. We have banks of resources we share which saves lots of time. But still need to scaffold for individual children. I teach over 380 students this year, the highest ever. Bigger classes cause much more work. Marking at this time of year is always higher in secondary as exam years are getting ready. English, history and all essay subjects have horrible marking loads all year round.

Totally agree. One solution set of lessons would never work. It also stifles teachers' creativity and independence.

I agree with the planning-I would much rather do my own planning BUT have access to class sets of quality text books which-because in my fantasy land, the government hadn’t completely changed the curriculum again-wouldn’t be totally obsolete.

I would also like if it the government decided that it’s current free phonics scheme was suddenly not working, then they should revise it and re-release it, again free. What they have done instead is released a list of approved schemes schools have to buy, and completely match their reading scheme to. This will cost us thousands of pounds. I wonder which Tories have mates with stakes in the publishers?!

I'd also completely do away with GCSES. There is no need to test students at 15/16 and put everyone through stress and anxiety. They were designed for when students left education at 16, and most countries do not have them, such as the USA.

So what do you suggest that we do for those students who leave at 16?

@hernamewasrio many students still leave education at 16. 🤷‍♀️

Often it is the least worst “choice”

I doubt most people feel nothing, but it is the best outcome choice and the right thing to do at the time.

So you'd have them leave with nothing.

Wrong thread

@MrsHamlet

So what do you suggest that we do for those students who leave at 16?

Ok so test those who leave and not those that stay till 18... our entire education system is far too restrictive, narrowing subjects too early.

Ok so test those who leave and not those that stay till 18... our entire education system is far too restrictive, narrowing subjects too early.
A good idea in theory, except you then have to make them decide what they want to do post 16 before they take exams. Some students don't know what they want to do. If you close down their choices by making them decide at 14 what they want to leave with at 18, you're making it more challenging.

There need to be more 'A' teachers and less 'B'.

No! You are entirely wrong.

We need Teachers in Group C. Enabled, supported, capable of doing the job in a way that supports and uplifts students.

Group A teachers hang on in until the bitter end, die of stress related illnesses, go off sick with stress and rarely fully recover themselves

Group B teachershang on in until the bitter end, die of stress related illnesses, go off sick with stress and rarely fully recover themselves

Neither group is a success. They just have different coping mechanisms. Neither group is a better or worse set of teachers. Suggestig otherwise is ridiculous!

We need abetter system. We need a government willing to see that embroidering round the edges is useless. It needs a root and branch change!