Who would want to be a teacher now?

[Painauchocolats]

I've just read an article (found on the DM) that a 53 year old teacher has taken her own life before she was due to appear in court for accidentally catching a pupil's hair. This was whilst she tried to confiscate the girl's mobile phone.

A male teacher (also in the DM) faces being struck off for shouting 'Who the hell do you think you are?" At some pupils who filmed tik toks during his lesson, and slammed his hand on the desk.

Sometimes teachers lose their temper, especially if this behaviour is incessant. Who can blame them? This is why pupils' behaviour is so poor these days, because there are no consequences, and because of things like this.

This is one of the hundreds of reasons why I left the profession. On too many occasions I considered crashing my car on the way to work so I didn’t have to face it.

You could say that about any job, though. People are suited to different things and all jobs come with different challenges and rewards.

I love teaching. I can't imagine wanting to do any other career, ever.

I can think of many other jobs that I would hate and/or not cope with due to my personality and skill set. Lots of people would hate and/or not cope with teaching because of their personality or skill set. There's no need to say that you can't understand why anyone wants to teach just because it's not for you. Thousands of us do it and love it.

Teaching is an awful job, even if you love it and went into teaching for the right reasons

I completely agree. What the fuck are kids doing with their phones out in lessons?

I can't imagine doing that in the 90s!

I was assaulted twice last week. One of them meant I had to go to hospital. Nothing done and the parent not even told. This is a primary school and I teach 8 year olds. .

Time to bring in Battle Royale.

I trained in primary and now teach secondary. People think I'm nuts but I live my subject and want to share that with my pupils and I found primary quite limiting in that respect.

Yes behaviour can be very challenging. One pupil at my previous school posted a death threat online about me.The secondary schools I've worked in are in areas of high deprivation and that makes it more so, but also the value you can add to the kids you get through to is massive. A lot of these kids have absolutely no aspirations or self worth because of their backgrounds, they need teachers to show them they have value and options. Sometimes they just need to see that someone cares about them and that they do their best, not for the data but for them... they might only achieve a 3 but if their target was a 2 then that's a massive achievement for them.

Pay is shit considering the workload and stress and of course there are bad days when I think why the hell am I doing this. But I honestly don't know what else I would do (aside from maybe uni lecturing) that would give me the same job satisfaction.

SLT can make or break a school and if you have decent SLT who support you then you get through the tough days. Bad SLT will hang you out to dry to cover their own inadequacies.

My dc started teacher training but became very frustrated by pupil behaviour. The majority spoiled the lessons and not just his and ruined it for the small minority who wanted to learn .

I'm not saying the grass is always greener somewhere else...but I wouldn't come back to teaching in the UK if they paid me double. I've been a teacher for over 15 years. Im good at what I'm doing and I quite like my job. However, I wouldn't want to do it in the UK anymore. We moved abroad 4 years ago. I work less, get paid more and my pupils are well-behaved.
It's also nothing new. Years ago (10+), DH taught Year 1 and was accused of having poked a child with a pencil. He was suspended while they conducted their investigation. Even the police officer involved with it told him that it was ridiculous and that the parent who had made the complaint was a well-known nutter down at the station. Regardless, he got suspended and eventually cleared. He left the school soon after. DH is a brilliant teacher and his mental health really suffered due to this accusation.

I love teaching. I can't imagine wanting to do any other career, ever.

I can think of many other jobs that I would hate and/or not cope with due to my personality and skill set.

Teaching is my vocation too. But I have variously loved it and hated it, depending on which school I've been working in. Of course you need a particular skill set and maybe certain types of personality to enjoy it. That's not what people are talking about here though. The system broken. The things which are making teachers miserable and suicidal are not inherent things about teaching. They are problems with the system. Unfortunately there seems to be no realistic prospect of anyone solving them.

If I ended up in a nice small rural school like the one I went to I would be fine

Hmmm, with the current Ofsted model of ‘Deep Dives’ in curriculum subjects, I wouldn’t be so sure. Each primary subject lead is expected to face the same interrogation as a secondary subject lead, except the secondary equivalent probably teaches that subject the majority of their time-with maybe a degree in it as well.

In primary, you might be expected to lead a subject you have no degree in, get no additional time for and certainly no extra pay. You might get geography one year, DT the next and science the next purely because people leave. In a small school, you might end up with 4/5 curriculum subjects all the time and expected to be an expert in them all-the stress is immense, the marking, assessment and planning expectations are huge and it’s no ‘easy alternative’ to secondary teaching.

People seem to believe schools should be able to create an environment where no pupil would dare bring it in but conversely don’t want their kids to be told off or do detention and complain that teachers should never shout or point out anything negative.

I do wonder if the drive for mixed education has finally come home to bite us. Round us the outstanding local comp basically limits intake by house price so has a largely middle class intake who although loud aren't as challenging. They never seem to be looking for staff according to teacher friends. We will likely send DS there or the local Catholic school if we don't go private.

Whilst the other schools have merged so the majority of the challenging kids are concentrated into one school that is always trying to recruit. It has a reputation now for incidents.

We also seem to expect more from teachers and every little things must be dealt with by staff. I can remember being at school, if their was a fight the culprits would have been sent to stand outside of the deputy heads office (he was a scary man) for a telling off and that was the end of it. Now MN would have the fight as a police matter and expect action off the head immediately.

It's not a job I would want to do and that's coming from someone working in the NHS. At least once I'm home it's over until the next shift teachers are expected to work after hours which is a big no in the public sector for me. We don't get paid enough or have bonuses to make me want to do that

I think people who haven't been in school since they were a pupil themselves would be seriously shocked if they went into some schools today.
I can't think of many jobs where you get told to fuck off, sometimes multiple times a day, and where the clientele actively try to break or deface equipment.
There are some lovely pupils but for every lovely one, there are numerous aggressive and rude ones.
I'm not sure why but I am still shocked at the appalling behaviour, despite being 7 years at the school.
School prior was much more genteel but apparently that is going the same way.

Teaching is my vocation too. I love it.

However, it's hugely bad for my own mental (and physical) health and has a huge impact on my family.

So I am leaving. I am sad, because I love the job. And I am bloody good at it. But I just cannot see myself doing another 25+ years without it breaking me.

As for behaviour we were always told by our parents " In trouble at school, in trouble at home " and they stood by it too . I remember being grounded on top of the detention I got for being impolite .

In a small rural school you would often be expected to lead several subjects as they don't have as many teachers for one each!

I wonder if CCTV in every classroom is the answer - any violent outbursts referred to police

This is so awful pupils destroying equipment when there are kids around the world who are desperate for an education but don't have the resources or are denied schooling. As for swearing at a teacher omg that would have been instant detention and parents informed. The consequences at home would have been dire to say the least . What the heck has gone wrong where kids can swear at a teacher multiple times and get away with it ?

The biggest factor is parenting and lack of support. The drive to excuse behaviour and make teachers responsible for bad behaviour is also a problem. Child refuses to work must be the teachers fault that the work is boring. Child tells you to fuck off when you give them an instruction they have anger management problems or they have problems at home so that's OK. Parents will also support this bad behaviour by looking for an excuse for their child when they are given detentions or are excluded. It is also the case often that they themselves have lost control at home. If the child tells their parent to fuck off then what chance does the school have? Can the parent impose sanctions at home? No they can't.

@cansu You have nailed it!

Yep! Ineffective parenting, particularly with younger kids whilst the parents have more influence and can mould behaviour patterns

By the time they're 14/15 and huge, it's far, far harder to effect any sort of change or control them. The stable door needs bolting before the horse has bolted over the horizon

No! It would just be an excuse observe teachers and get rid of the ones whose face doesn’t fit.

I taught secondary for many years in a nice are. The kids were lovely. It’s the only thing l miss. l don’t miss being the answer to everything and the pressure.

The only way to get phones out of the classroom is for Ofsted to mandate it. ZBut l taught subjects that required a lot of research. The school computers were broken, slow and had all the keys missing. It’s easier to use a phone. There are also other school based activities that can use a phone in class. It can be a learning tool.

Glad l got out.

Luckily you get to choose where you work but I don't think there's a clear split between "small, rural" and "big, inner city" anymore necessarily.

There are small rural schools with massive issues including drugs etc, there are big city schools with lots of resources that are great places to work.

And underfunded rural services for mental health issues etc create further problems for schools.

I have worked in two schools where they are banned. Kids still bring them in. Parents argue the safety aspect heading to/from school. But then temptation exists and they are out. In both schools I have worked in kids have taken pictures have been taken of staff and recordings more than once and there have been some exclusions. Did it stop the behavior? Absolutely not. And as stated by another poster you can have the sanctions but the biggest barrier to enforcing it is parents. Only need a few to argue their child will not be sanctioned for it and it all falls apart. And no you can't just tell them to leave in case this is suggested.

Teaching is not what it was a decade or two ago, but many careers are not on balance. Still I am one of the many who want to leave because there are better and easier ways to live than this...

Yes!

I teach a Yr 9 student who regularly puts their head on the desk and “sleeps”. Not just my lesson but others too. Pastoral contacted parents to see about placing them on a behaviour card … we were told our lessons must be boring by the parent. Before said child can be placed on report we now to need to prove how we’re making our lesson engaging enough.