AIBU to have done two weeks back in school and think oh hell no, nope, no

[OhHolyFuckNo]

Name change for this, long term poster.

I worked in schools historically, but moved into education policy/ancillary stuff around 8 years ago, and recently have been at home with very young kids. I still have a lot of friends in local schools, and honestly, wondered if a few years back in the classroom might be the flexible work I need for family reasons and am struggling to find elsewhere. I dipped a toe back in with a temporary cover role.

I'm just so taken aback by how understaffed the schools are. Half of the people in on any day so far have been cover. Hardly any work is set, and the kids seem bored and justifiably fed up, but the contempt with which the older kids talk to the staff is not justifiable. The stronger staff are on permanent corridor duty maintaining discipline, so not in the classroom either.

Deliberately not putting this on the teaching board because I'm hoping for a range of responses. Is this how it is now? Do parents know? Is it covid as everyone seems to think? How bad is it when hardly anyone knows me but pretty much everyone I spoke to offered me a permanent job?

I would love to think it gets better and I am finding my feet again, but don't know if this is just completely naive and I don't want my own kids to pay the price if it is.

Yep, school office staff here (attendance officer) - the assistant left so I was stuck doing 2 full time jobs (all the registers etc for 1000 kids and , y’know, my actual full time job) and being paid as a bottom grade receptionist. I left 3 weeks ago. It’s honestly horrible in schools right now, there’s no support staff.

I think the provision has reduced and the need has increased. I am a teacher in my early 50s. I like my job but I don't want to work so hard. I have gone down to 0.8 this year. On my day 'off' I do sch work so I can have free weekends. It the only way I could continue. It is getting more and more difficult. I think it a misconception that it fits in with family life. The contracted hours might but the extras you need to do to function don't. Have a long hard think because I genuinely believe the demands of the job negatively impact on 'normal life. Take care.

I gave up full time work for supply. Totally flexible. No responsibility. Loads of work (at the moment anyway).

It's pretty dire.
I have 12 children on the send register in my class (ks1) before you even begin to consider anyone else's needs. My send number is due to increase as a few more have now had referrals.

I have no TA.

My day to day situation is currently just surviving with nobody getting hurt or doing a runner. Not sure how much longer I can sustain it.

Is this how it is now?

Yep.

Do parents know?

Schools generally try to hide it from parents, maybe parents should ask their kids how often they have cover teachers.

Is it covid as everyone seems to think?

Covid is causing absences, although obviously not as many as when you had to isolate. Staffing is shit generally because schools have struggled to recruit due to a lack of teachers leading to supply not just covering sick teachers, but teacher vacancies. We've had staff quit with no notice this term and not been able yet to find permanent replacements, or even long term supply.

How bad is it when hardly anyone knows me but pretty much everyone I spoke to offered me a permanent job?

It'll be even worse in Feb/March when departments start to think about recruitment for next year and realise that due to a dire number of trainees, there won't be the usual pool of NQTs to recruit from. Really good schools looking to recruit maths teachers round my way are finding it extremely tough now, next year it will be nearly impossible.

My best friend is currently a supply teacher in special needs, and mainstream. The things she tells me are awful - just as you describe.

Yes, schools are a dire workplace in right now, often made worse by the head teacher shortage, which means some proper shit leadership at the top as it's hard to find a replacement.

No TA support unless it's an EHCP, and even then you struggle. No real office staff; we have just completed 6 months without even a head teacher's PA.

No supply, so overstreched staff take on even more, lowering their own quality of T&L. It's all a bit shit.

Things are very tough in schools right now, yes.

I am on SLT in a good secondary school with pretty good behaviour and a strong SLT…and it’s still rough.

Staff workloads are unreasonable because there is just no money available to spread the load.

In my school we have had to cut TAs to the bare minimum. We used to have a Deputy SENCo and administrator supporting the SENCo. Now just a SENCO who teaches 4 days a week and has just one day to do the SEN role. She is currently dealing with 15 EHCP consultations on her own and trying to stretch a small pool of TAs that legally should be supporting one EHCP student across dozens of kids without an EHCP but with significant needs.

We used to have pastoral support managers and a team of mentors dealing with all the low level pastoral stuff or bullying, and providing admin support to Heads of Year. Now those roles have gone and we have HOYs who are full time teachers responsible for all that stuff, too.

We used to have a student services team. Now just one attendance officer.

The DSL is also the Designated Teacher for looked after children and the mental health lead. He coordinates all the support for 40 children with social workers, 45 children having in-school counselling and manages all the safeguarding concerns that arise day to day. It’s an absolutely thankless task.

Personally, I am in at 7am every morning, no break at all during the day until I leave at 6pm. I mean NO break. I do break and lunch duties, I’m on call for behaviour incidents. And this is all on top of my actual job description workload. And still, I leave work every day with a list of things I should have done and disgruntled parents I haven’t called or external professionals who are pissed off I didn’t call them back.

And on and on…

Meanwhile the expectations on schools increase all the time. Parents, childrens social care, the police, mental health services, the local authority SEN team all expect us to magic up individualised support plans for students with no funding, no staff to deliver and fuck all support from their own overstretched services. And Ofsted act as if they are oblivious to all of this!

I resigned at half term after 20 years working with kids. I leave at Christmas and I will never work in a school again.

My school isn't like this. Maybe you should try a different school.

The Covid cover has died right down - you still get the tight cover days every now and then but nowhere close to how you describe.

The enclosed photograph is what my 12-year-old was served for lunch apparently due to Covid measures which are still in place which means the kitchen can’t be operated. Is it actually any wonder the behaviour standards are plummeting if that’s what kids are being given along with a bottle of water for £2.50 a day ? Never mind the poor souls that will only receive that as their only meal for the day.

My DH is a teacher and was told by his head that the school has enough money for one more year. Any staff that are leaving will not be replaced.

Most schools are facing an unprecedented crisis, not just the OP's.

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/oct/22/exclusive-90-of-uk-schools-will-go-bust-next-year-heads-warn

It's not covid illness absence, it's lack of funding to deal with thr levels of challenge currently in mainstream education. Some of these challenges are to do with the impact of covid. I'm not sure that parents understand the impact of covid on children - I'm not talking about school closures in that either really, I'm talking about much bigger societal issues related to covid. Adults showed real weakness and anxiety, and children don't know how to process that (nor do the adults).

We had a pay rise which had to come out of existing budgets, this equals fewer staff. We can't recruit, even though we're trying.

Schools are not attractive places to work for support staff. Not enough money for the level of hassle, and it's an employees market right now.

I've just resigned too after 14 years. Schools are not thriving and are barely surviving. Roll on a la our government.

"Is this how it is now?"
"Yep."
"Do parents know?"
Well, Noble has done her best on MN to point out what's going on but just gets abused and accused of scare-mongering and trying to close schools.

The school I work in is utter shit. Scrabbling around everyday trying to ensure everyone is safe. No idea what’s happening from one day to the next.
I’m glad my kids have left.

Deliberate distraction re dire situation in schools in form of Ukraine Immigrants and cost of living - a perverse form of ‘bread and circuses’

Jeremy Hunt went on TV and said the biggest concern facing schools right now was energy bills.

It's not, it's the unfunded pay rise for teachers and support staff, that his government imposed on schools and said had to come out of existing budgets.

Jeremy didn't even mention this.

DS2 is year 8 in a good local school. He rarely gets homework and if he does, it's never marked. Complete contract to when DS1 (now 23) was the same age.

I don't blame the teachers or support staff.

*contrast

Thank you to everyone who has commented so far and for your candour. As someone from a teaching family and lots of teacher friends I'm troubled that I read the news and have my own children in school while not having realised quite how bad it had got.

I'm embarrassed to say that I am going to read and run a bit, but I am on my way to bed at 6.30pm, wiped out.

Thank you @ThrallsWife , @noblegiraffe and others, and @RuleWithAWoodenFoot for expressing it so well on covid. Some of the classes I am doing are covid catch up, and it's the social impact of the time out that is talked about in reference particularly to Y10 behaviour. I really feel for the kids who are so visibly clearly desperate to be learning and engaging, because there is a layer of what feels like complete alienation.

@TripleFret Thank you particularly for your post. I will remember it when making decisions around whether this is right for my family. Thanks to you all, I feel quite sad to think not.

I can't imagine how making that decision feels with all of the loyalties of a life in school, but wish everyone leaving the very best for their future. Our schools will be poorer without you.

Maybe it has to be worse for them to finally start trying to make it better. What a sad cost though.

Thank you also @OldWeegie, for reasons ;-)

Pretty much in the same boat. I’m in a school office and leaving soon, same with my colleague. Shame as I don’t mind the job, but pay in appalling.
dont get me started on TAs either, it’s a national disgrace. We are in the midst of a recruitment crisis and I don’t think the government have quite woken up to it yet.

honestly, wondered if a few years back in the classroom might be the flexible work I need for family reasons

I’ve not ever found teaching particularly flexible during term time, tbh.

Things are the worst I’ve known them to be in schools in 25 years-I’m not sure how aware people are really?

I do think some schools are better than others- it might be worth trying another school/setting before giving up on the idea of teaching completely? I moved schools this September, because things were getting untenable in my last job for a lot of reasons (some of them outside the school's control to be fair). That school had a range of unfilled vacancies in September, and there are staff leaving at Christmas. I'll be amazed if they are able to recruit replacements (again, it's not entirely their fault- expensive rural town, crap public transport etc means it's not an especially viable school for ECTs, for example).

In response to your questions:

Is this how it is now? Yes and no- as I say, I think some schools/areas have it worse than others. Some subject areas have it worse than others, and depending on the school you can have departments that really struggle and departments that are fine.

But there is a national teacher shortage and school budget crisis, so...

Do parents know? Parents know when it affects them specifically. Last year I'd speak to lots of parents in my tutor group who had concerns about the amount of supply. By the end of the year, parents were aware of how many teachers were leaving and did seem to have significant concerns. But a lot of parents didn't have a viable alternative, and so they want to believe the head when they say it's a temporary rough patch and things will get better.

But equally some kids are lucky and they happened to not have as many supply teachers, or their teachers weren't leaving etc. And their parents would be shocked when I'd say things like "oh there's no available maths intervention" or "we aren't running DofE this year due to staffing issues". So I assume some don't know.

Is it covid as everyone seems to think? I don't think it's solely covid- I think covid hasn't helped, and last year on top of everything pushed a lot of people to breaking point. But I think the CoL crises, the pressures on school budgets, and the teacher shortage which has really been brewing/happening for a long time have all come to a head. I don't think things are really going to get better without major changes that have nothing to do with covid.

How bad is it when hardly anyone knows me but pretty much everyone I spoke to offered me a permanent job? Well, it depends- my friend has just left a school (left teaching, actually) where he was the last teacher who could teach A-level Physics. I think they'd bite your hand off if you could teach physics at any level!

Equally, as I said, previous school had real issues recruiting. Couldn't get maternity cover in certain subjects for love nor money- we had non specialists covering effectively for a full school year. We had maths teachers leave at Christmas who couldn't be replaced. We had a few teachers leave at Easter, who couldn't be replaced, either- and when I say not replaced, I mean their posts haven't been filled by permanent staff still (according to friends who are still at the school).

There are lots of jobs currently being advertised in my county- including primary, for January or "as soon as possible" starts. This isn't usual.