Is behaviour this bad in all schools now?!

[Growingmyhairout]

I am a supply teacher who's in a long term role but don't think I can deal with it.
I'm in a non core subject which doesn't help, one that pupils find difficult and don't have to do a GCSE in.
I was covering a 2 week sickness in one boys school, but couldn't have done anymore as behaviour was awful.
I'm now at what's been called a very challenging school. However I've walked past some other lessons and all kids are silent pretty much.
I've been here for a few weeks now so the kids know I'm not there just for a day or anything, yet no improvements.
I've been suggested to ring parents but if I did I'd be making 45 calls an evening which there is just not the time to do, especially for £110 a day gross.
I do give detentions, warnings etc. But it doesn't make much difference.
Some kids will just get up and walk out of your lesson when they feel like it. Or kids who aren't even in your lesson will turn up and sit in the room.
Coats on, phones out, earphones in, eating. When I tell them not to, some kids will listen but some will literally just ignore you. Swinging on chairs, shouting across the room, fighting, swearing.
Each lesson I send a few out to other classrooms which helps to an extent.
The worst are cover lessons though, as I'm used for cover as well as my own classes. Cover is an absolute nightmare.
I record everything but don't know what difference it makes.
Throwing things across the room, putting make up on. Answering me back very rudely.
Just all talking loudly and ignoring me. I refuse to shout over them as I've already got a hoarse voice from raising it.
I email heads of year, sometimes they will come in if they're not busy.
Some lessons are alright, but there's an insane level of disrespect.
As I said I've been here a few weeks now, how long is it going to take?
I've got a TA in all lessons which I'm really grateful about, but they don't seem to respect her much either.
We had an ok class this morning once the worst were removed, but had an absolutely horrendous year 7 group. She said she'd never seen a school like it.
I've been offered long-term, part time cover in another school. I'm tempted to go, but I'm thinking what's the point?
It's just going to be the same everywhere isn't it? I'm not expecting kids to sit in absolute silence for 5 hours a day but the behaviour is unacceptable. I'll be trying to speak and many students will just carry on having their own conversation.
I also feel like I'd be letting down the school who've even given me a TA when most other teachers don't get one.
I feel like a failure as a teacher. I think I've been firm but fair, but I don't think I can do this. Is behaviour really this bad in all schools?

I don’t work in a school and my twins left 6th form 8 years ago but, from what I hear from friends, it seems to be like this in the majority of schools now. The pupils rule the school and something must be done urgently as it has a knock on effect outside school too. There is so much disrespect for each other and it’s awful 😢

Christ I hope not. I hope that's not what my kids school is like. They certainly tell me about some shit behaviour but they haven't told me about anything as relentless as that. I'm 46 and I remember being in one class where the behaviour was always that bad though and it wasn't a particularly rough school. Even as a not very empathetic teen I felt sorry for the teacher. I don't know how she kept going really.

I'm not able to advise, but the people on this board might be able to help if you wanted to get your post moved there. There might be more people on the board with the experience to be able to help
www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_staffroom

No, it wasn’t like this in the school l taught in.

Most kids wanted to learn and were lovely to teach. I did teach a practical options subject though.

Thanks for your replies, and I didn't even think of the staffroom board..
The TA went to tell some girls to be quiet and they told her to 'get out of their conversation'. Wow ...

Perhaps you need a private school to teach in
im sure people wouldn’t pay to send their children to a place like that ,so they must be better

A lot are. TBH it’s how I remember many classes being two decades ago.
They do say that schooling isn’t very well set up for boys nowdays as there’s been so much push to help make it better for girls over the years that the way school is taught and structured doesn’t suit boys minds now.

That doesn’t explain the girls shitty attitude totally but when you have totally out of control boys who don’t respect teachers or the school it has a knock on effect

Definitely the experience I'm having (some, not all classes) and that of colleagues in other schools. Huge issue of malicious fire alarms, running riot in corridors, vandalism. It's a very mixed catchment, and it wasn't anywhere near this bad before covid. It's absolutely wild, and if I could easily move to another career, I would. I'm 13 years in by the way and an excellent teacher with mainly good relationships!

My DS’s go to a boys school in a relatively deprived area and I think the behaviour is good - my DS tells me “omg so and so talked back to the teacher today and got a detention” every now and then and I have to feign shock and horror, so behaviour like that is not a common occurrence at all.

I’m going to guess from your description that it’s languages?

It isn’t every school, especially to that extremity but I am hearing horrifying accounts from colleagues across our area who are in anything from special measure schools to outstanding.

My school has historically had an excellent reputation for behaviour.

I fell pregnant not long before COVID hit and so due to only the key worker pupils being in for much of my pregnancy and my maternity leave, I only did about 5 weeks of full classroom teaching for about 18 months. When I returned to work after my Mat leave I was truly shocked by the behaviour in my school. Totally different to the previous 12 years and makes me question whether I want to continue with a career I truly love(d)?!? It felt like in that period of time I had gone from being able to push pupils to be their best (in my subject and as humans) to pure and simple crowd control! I am currently on Mat leave again with my newborn but before I left (very heavily pregnant) a pupil from one of my
nicer groups threw his pencil case directly at my stomach because I asked where his pen was.

A lot of them are horrific particularly for cover supervisors and supply teachers. I do wonder what the end point of this will be in regards to recruitment. A lot of the problems schools face is awful treatment from management but even the kids are pretty awful these days. There’s literally nothing to retain staff anymore is there?

• management is often woeful
• pay is woeful
• behaviour is woeful

I despair.

I used to teach in a nice comp in the SE and although my lessons weren't that bad, they did behave like this for cover teachers.

Having said that, in every y8/9 lesson there was a few kids who hated my subject and we're rude, disruptive and did no work at all. Some even chose to carry it on for GCSE!! This was after having taught in the school for 10 years, so it wasn't that I needed to establish my authority. It took huge amounts of physical and mental effort to teach the kids who wanted to learn while containing the behaviour of those who didn't.

This is why I left teaching.

• there were a few kids.

• They were rude.

Sorry, I can spell and punctuate. Honest.

My phone always corrects 'were' to 'we're' - it's enraging.

Sounds awful.

Have you looked into career alternatives? Adult ed? Primary?

My son’s school is pretty bad from the sounds of it. They’ve recently implemented a new behaviour policy which he said has helped slightly. School is in a decent area itself but a very mixed catchment. My DD is at a single-sex grammar school and is nowhere near as bad. And my sister who is a teacher says the years 7 & 8 are some of the worst she’s ever taught, but she doesn’t overly struggle with behaviour as the teachers seem well supported by senior management.
I guess the Covid chickens are coming home to roost. Keep kids out of formal
education for so long and think of how much intervention and support they’ve missed in that time.

Cant speak for now but when I was at school 15+ years ago my year group bullied 2 teachers into nervous breakdowns and a further one to suicide.

After that they just brought in supply teachers, many of whom didn’t even finish the day

💐💐💐💐for you OP, I wonder what will happen in the future, I can’t believe the behaviour of school children today. So glad I got out ten years ago and I wasn’t even the teacher!

Take the other job. Not all schools are like this. In future look at the Ofsted report before taking a job at a school as reading between the lines in these can give you clues to how well run a school is.

Part of the problem is the size of the classes, which are huge nowadays.

There are also lots of kids who really shouldn't be there too who just can't cope with any of it and therefore put all their effort into destroying the lesson / creating drama instead for entertainment. It's sad.

And then there are the kids who have a mess of a home life and are in no frame of mind to be ready to learn ....

There's good and bad classes. Some are as described.
It has got worse since the pandemic though. Most schools are similar across the town. Speaking to other colleagues.

I think behaviour would be better with smaller classes and more support, but this government aren’t going to pay for it.

Thanks for the replies.
It just frustrating when Mr X Head of year walks in and suddenly they're all silent!
I'll try the other place, but if It's the same then just going to give up

Gosh this sounds horrendous OP. And the government want to make home education more difficult for people? Everytime I hear things like this, I breathe another sigh of relief that my children aren't in the school system..