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.

Is private suffering in the same way? Do they have high staff turnover too?

things are bad. Lots of vacant roles especially support staff which heaps pressure on others. Lack of subject specialists in key areas like maths and technology.

My greater fear is not now (which is bad), but the projected cuts/increased costs to come over the next few years. Education needs a massive cash injection but no sign of it to come.

many many more good teachers will quit profession over the next few years and it makes me so sad!

my son is in reception and has special needs, at the moment he is not allowed to go to
school ( only for one hour and I need to be his TA), until I can get his ECPH that I could take more than 20 weeks.

It's the same here in Germany. Severe understaffing and classes being cancelled because of it. A friend was told by a teacher that it's likely to be the situation for at least the next three years because there are no trainees and so many people left or have cut down hours due to the stress. It's probably partly COVID but seems to be a perfect storm of everything.

Not at ours. And tbh I don't recognise any of this behavior at ours. I have younger dc but friends with older dc at private schools and it's not like what's described here. Zero tolerance for bad behavior, private schools can manage that out.

My nine year old son was chatting to me this morning and said 'I wonder who our teacher will be today'. He's had so many supply teachers this term already its unreal.

Run away and don't look back

I returned in an admin role Sept 21 after a year's sabbatical to care for a dying parent during the pandemic.

I lasted 4 weeks before basically having a bit of breakdown, signed off for a month and handed my notice in.

The staff turnover/loss since the pandemic started has been insane...even people who have been established in their roles for 10+ years and virtually anyone within 5 years of retirement has jacked it in.

Personally I wouldn't work in a school again under any circumstances.

This is me, every day. I almost cried I front of my class last week because I couldn't cope anymore.
TA's being pulled out of class to cover teacher absences, children struggling with the basics of listening and forming sentences due to the impact of covid, endless lists of extra work with no impact on the children but ticks another box for LA, parents, anyone looking in, putting an order in for basic stock and wondering if it will be refused because we are in a deficit budget already. I'm so drained with it all.

There are so many minor things that are making life so much harder in schools. I have been teaching over 10 years, this is my toughest year yet - and that includes the two lockdown years.

Feels like zero support, horrendous timetable I am in Maths and all but 2 of my classes I share with other members of staff, or two, this is extra work as we need to have more communication weekly.

One week I teach 19 hours out of 20 I am in school so no time to deal with anything else that might get thrown at me. I work every break, every lunch, I am still behind.

Students behaviour is worse, parents rarely back you up, I have one student who screams abuse at me if they are in my lesson, I am supposed to be grateful they turned up - their words.

Stress is having an impact on my health, I've relaxed tonight - only due to the fact I have been told to have a day off tomorrow as I spent 5 hours in a&e on Saturday due to chest pains caused by stress.

Not planning on giving up anytime soon - still love the job, the majority of the kids, and the majority of my colleagues.

So many schools are struggling significantly at the moment. In many cases, schools are looking at going into a deficit and there is nothing that can be done about it; everything that can be cut has been cut.

The unfunded payrises will further strip budgets; I just don't understand why the government holds the profession in such contempt.

Experienced teachers are leaving in droves and ECTs (newly qualified teachers working their probationary period) are jacking it in before they attain qualified teacher status. And not a single one that I know of is doing it lightly; they're all on their knees and a bit broken, walking out without necessarily having another job to go to.

A few years ago, our current staffing levels would have been referred to a 'skeleton staff' and would have been a rare and very temporary occurrence during which all staff on site would have been on high alert as it would have been considered a safety risk. Now it's just the new normal.

Teaching assistants are increasingly rare. My class has a high level of SEN and medical need and a very large percentage of EAL. Ditto pupil premium. I've no assistance in class, despite it being Y6. But that's nothing unusual. I'm on a few social media groups for same year group colleagues, and the fact that it's a SATs year doesn't matter anymore; many of us have no or very limited support in class to the undeniable detriment of pupils with additional needs.

We've lost several colleagues recently and as a result, those of us remaining are drowning under multiple subject leader roles and other strategic, development and administrative roles, adding to workload immensely. Those working part time are all doing what a PP described -resigning themselves to working from home on what should be their non-working days as it is the only way to get everything done.

I’m leaving at Christmas. I’ve resigned but the Trustees and the DfE are literally refusing to let me go by sustained campaign of emotional blackmail as there is quite literally no one to take over.

Exponential rise of children with Mental health needs with no staff or funding or frankly the expertise to deal with them. These children do not need a teacher or TA who has been on a 3 day ‘mental
health training course’ they need serious proper psychological therapy

Exponential rise in children with send needs and no staff, funding or expertise to support them. Utterly unreasonable expectations from parents that school must provide support when there simply isn’t any. And before anyone says it I know it’s the LA job to ensure provision but they don’t and can’t

Exponential rise in children with challenging behaviour. Dangerous violent children who hurt staff in a regular basis and stressed out parents with no where to go who just scream at staff through sheer frustration

Endless complaints from parents about everything all of the time and who expect an answer today, now, immediately

Blame culture where parents and children take absolutely no responsibility for every thing and expect staff to do everything

And it’s not ‘better in some schools’ for any other reason than the have selected out the first three issues above either by money (private or expensive catchment) or by exclusion (either explicitly or by stealth by gaining a reputation for ‘zero tolerance’ by deliberately not meeting send or mental health need until parents give up and remove their child or the child just stops attending. It’s blatant and so soon children with needs go to the next door school that’s then swamped.

I’m done. 20 years down the drain. Going to torpedo my pension but nothing is worth this

I’m nodding my way through these threads-it seems to be the same in most schools.

What’s sad is that you’d still get some posters saying that it’s probably good that those teachers who are leaving do something else as the children deserve better, more enthusiastic teachers.

Thus missing the point totally really.

Yy to paying TAs better, but you can't recruit staff who don't exist to reduce class sizes.

I do still think some schools have it better than others, but it depends what options you have locally. If things are bad at your school it is worth looking around locally to see if there is an option where things are better, particularly before GCSEs.

You can use the DfE website to keep an eye on the schools you're considering and see if lots of vacancies are coming up mid year etc.

But obviously that depends on where you live and if other schools have spaces too. If you have concerns about your school, I would jump early if you can find somewhere better - otherwise other local schools may get filled up.

Alternatively, supplementing with tutoring is a lot cheaper than going private.

I'm saying either of these are morally right, btw, but if it was my child I'd definitely consider both.

Why am I not surprised that someone who has been working in "educational policy" had no idea what so ever what was going on in schools

There are no teachers. Even before covid, we were merging classes and teaching children by the hundred sitting at exam desks in the sports hall.

Since then, the situation has deteriorated

I don't have personal experience but what I would say is that private schools in some cases can pay over the odds if they want to recruit someone. For example I have a friend who teaches Astronomy GCSE in a private school, it's not a common skill set and they offered him quite a bit of money to come and teach for them.

I do have friends who've moved to private and most of them prefer it, but it does depend on both the school and the person.

From the outside I would say they don't have the same issues but long term the issues will impact them, because the experienced teachers many private schools like to recruit won't exist, or they'll be paying more and may have to pass that on to parents in some way. I do think they sometimes have similar issues recruiting eg maternity cover etc in shortage subjects, though. But again depends on the school.

I'd say it's only in the last few years these issues have started to impact the majority of state schools. And as teachers leave state teaching it can help private schools recruit. But I think if things continue as they are you will see some impact in private schools over the next 5 years or so.

Private schools are also seeing increased costs in terms of energy, stationery, food, teacher pay, and yet if they put their fees up by the amount needed to cover this, parents would be unable to afford the rise and be taking their kids out (parents with kids in private are also feeling the cost of living increases).

So I assume that their provision is also being reduced (although from a much higher starting point!). We know that private schools in recent years have seen quite a lot of strike action around taking their teaching staff out of the teachers' pension scheme because they can't afford the employer contributions - this would also affect recruitment.

There are so many vacancies in my borough. I have never seen this at this time of year. This is normally the recruitment levels you see pre summer holidays for the new term. And almost all say starting immediately/Jan, even for SLT posts.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl I think you're right, it'll impact them more in future but mostly the ones in expensive areas. I think London is suffering with a deluge of teaching professionals that no longer afford it and are moving to cheaper areas. I imagine it's the same story with affluent suburban and rural areas. If they're not there, even the privates won't be able to recruit.

I quit after 30 years. This will have a serious impact on my pension, but on balance I thought that trying to save what was left of my sanity was more important.

What finally did for me was a change in management. There is a serious, and I mean very serious, shortage of good, decent Headteachers out there. Schools are appointing from the pool that they have - and frankly, many of them should not be in management.

Pupil behaviour has been declining for years, but it is now at crisis point. No-one seems to have the first idea how to manage it, so in order to find quick, cheap solutions there are 'experts' out there peddling behaviour management techniques that place all of the blame and responsibilty onto the classroom teachers - not the children, not their parents, and certainly on on senior management. The students are well aware of this and play the system. As a teacher it is exhausting and utterly demoralising. I went from being a well thought of, successful teacher to a shadow of my former self. I had classes that I was literally shaking at the dread and fear of having to stand in front of them. I got next to no support because the behaviour was so poor from so many children there was either no one to support, or because managment were busy saving themselves by keeping well away.

One thing that would have made a massive difference would have been to reduce my workload in other areas. Instead the opposite happened. Ridiculously complex and pointless marking schemes and constant assessment and data collection that took hours and hours before and after school, at the weekend and in the holidays. All of this utterly draining. Constant scrutiny of books, lessons and data - all under the guise of improving teaching and learning. All of it totally pointless.

I am so glad to be out of it.

Teachers and TA are regularly being hurt. My friend is TA at my sons school and she's been hurt numerous times this term.

My son and his best friend have also been on the receiving end.

It just feels like the situation is so bad that the school hasn't got the ability to protection staff or kids from children who have exceptional needs that just aren't able to be met.

I don't believe it's a lack of will by the school. It's just they have run out of options.

Its an outstanding school in a nice area. It's always had a good reputation.

My suspicion is that if it had an ofsted inspection tomorrow it would be deemed failing. And parents would be up in arms.

Yet I also think the head is taking it seriously and is between a rock and a hard place.

The school system is failing teachers and students alike. It's on its knees and needs a complete overhaul. The current system as it stands it not preparing students for the world we live in today. There's no need or value for older students studying at school, they are bored stiff, it can all be done at home online, it will teach self discipline and independance, valuable life skills.A lot of jobs are WFH these days.

YANBU OP. It really is dire.

I’m not in teaching but I have friends and family who are and I’m trying to convince them all to leave before they have breakdowns. There’s not one of them who isn’t experiencing violence in the classroom (whether targeted at them or generic like throwing chairs), as well as constant verbal abuse. The parents either blame the school or accuse the teacher of lying. The main common factors are poverty (too many kids at home) and SEN.

The majority of them now have up to half their pupils with SEN (either diagnosed or being assessed for) and no additional support is provided. They work long hours and weekends and just seem to be constantly numb to anything other than the job.

To me, no job is worth being assaulted over. I feel desperately sorry for them and for the kids in their classes who just want to learn something educational, and all they’re learning is that an adult can be hit and nothing will be done, it’s acceptable and normal.

I don’t know what the answer is. The government has failed us all, and some parents want locking up for how they’ve dragged up their children (not the kids with SEN, obviously).

Get out while you can. God knows what it’ll be like by the next General Election.

Private schools are also suffering from lack of teachers. Very few can offer to pay over the odds and most the pay is similar to state, often without the good pension. Hours are longer (especially in boarding) with no limit on contact time (even theoretically) so demands from management are extreme. Parents expect us to be on call for them 24/7. Our budgets are stretched and we are buying our own board pens. Staff are leaving in droves every year.
This year we had a few teachers join us to fill most of our our staffing gaps from the state sector. A couple of them lasted less than half a term. The others are struggling. It's obvious that they were hoping private would be better but have discovered it isnt, it has different challenges. At this rate, the state teachers will switch to private, try it for a year, realise it's just as bad in slightly different ways and leave the profession altogether within a couple of years.
The very top private schools will be fine. Most are cracking but Heads are desperate to cover that up to parents to prevent them pulling their kids out.
Behaviour is much, much better but staff are just as worn down from the understanding and workload and leaving the profession exhausted.
My friend is on maternity leave and her private school havent been able to get cover. Her classes, including GCSE, have got a cover teacher and a textbook for the whole year.
So, in conclusion, the private sector will be a couple of years behind state in falling apart completely with the exception of the very top tier schools which will be fine.

We are at a point where we are considering moving DS to a private school but we are really torn about it.

I certainly remain unconvinced its in his best interests and it will be a magic bullet. Because what I'm seeing is a lot of kids with problems trying to get into private schools so the issues aren't being contained in state schools.

I suspect it's better in some respects, but it's not necessarily in others. Stuff like the travelling and extra pressure also needs factoring in.

I really am in despair over it.

DS is being utterly failed. The teacher has practically admitted it.

I have a school survey to fill out and I just don't know how to reply to it. If I'm brutally honest, its unfair on the staff but if I'm not I don't reflect where the situation is.