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.

@KattyKattyKatz the parent's don't back school up.
We have a particularly obnoxious yr9 girl. When she is given an SLT detention, which is after school, her parent's keep her off that day.
Because the parent's need to be informed if it is an an after school, there is no chance of keeping her back for an impromptu one.
She is absolutely untouchable, she is rude, disruptive and quite honestly rather unlikeable.
Sadly, she, and others like her, are our future. And when they reproduce, the circle will forever decrease.

Yes, I agree @cansu has nailed it. Also, @KattyKattyKatz , I started teaching about 30 years ago and this was one of the first things I noticed. When I was at school ( primary or secondary) and misbehaved, I would never have told my parents. I would have been embarrassed and ashamed. Now, and indeed, 30 years ago, reprimand a child and their parents defend them. No support, whatsoever.

You are very much in the minority, both your experience and your opinion.

Teachers are not supported by parents and management who don't put good systems in place, for instance around mobile phones in schools.

No. A small rural school= responsibility for all curriculum subjects shared between only a small group of teachers. Never ending playground duty, assembly duty because there aren't enough teachers to share the load. And don't imagine for a minute that rural = no social issues as that is categorically not the case.

I was talking to my Y10 about phones in class and the punishment. After telling me about handing them over and a detention, she went straight into, “and if you refuse to hand it over which means SLT have to be called, that makes it an instant C5”… the fact that they have a clear and well known policy for escalation shows me just how many children just refuse 😡

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

I would genuinely be interested to compare the retention and recruitment rates of teaching with a cross section of other jobs. Are there countless other ‘Exit the X and leave’ type Facebook support groups, I wonder?

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.

It's awful that teachers like you are being driven out of the profession by the awful conditions. I'm one of the lucky ones. Financially needed to go back to full time work age 51 after over 15 years of sporadic supply and very pt roles. Didn't think I could face it and was about to quit teaching and try and do something else. Then landed a job in a lovely girls' grammar school. I will never leave except to retire. It's terrible that only schools like mine make teaching bearable. The workload is still massive, but the environment makes it worth it.

A tragic story op. I don't blame teachers for not wanting to do it anymore. Parents need to start supporting and backing the school, removing devices and being engaged in their child's education and, more importantly, their behaviour. Otherwise the world just gets worse and worse with the new generations absolutely not giving a shit about anything or anyone.

I had a truly inspirational English teacher who went on to teach at another school where an allegation was made against him. He took his own life and the pupil confessed it was made up. I often wonder how that pupil copes as an adult and what, if any, trauma they carry as a result of their actions.

I work in a small village school and there are different challenges. Some very entitled and rude behaviour for a start. Kids from quite wealthy backgrounds often think they're god's gift and can be very spoilt and entitled. Answering back, thinking they're right, the list goes on.
And I'm talking about primary aged children. Also children who spend far too much time on games at home, often into the night.

Responsibilities in a small village school can also be huge. I'm MFL leader and I can't even speak French, never mind put the curriculum together for the whole school with good progression.
I'm also English and phonics lead and I only work 2 days a week.

So yea, don't be fooled by the 'nice village school' thing.

Yes. Kids are controlling their parents instead of parents controlling their kids . It all starts in the home .

I couldn't do it any more. To be honest the thought of walking into a classroom makes me feel panicky and I haven't taught for 10 years. I love teenagers and still work with them in a different way but couldn't handle the stress of teaching. Schools should ban phones really because students can use them to control and humiliate teachers in class, this was just starting to happen when I was in schools but must be more prevalent now.

I've been teaching (secondary and FE) for 23 years. Barely anyone I qualified with is still teaching.

New teachers coming through last weeks or months, not years

I still love some parts of the job but reading about teachers working in warehouses for £150 a month less than their teaching salary is more appealing every week.

I'm lucky not to have been attacked but most colleagues have at some point. FE feels like Year 9 this year behaviour wise.

That is definitely part of the problem - parents being unwilling to believe that their child could be at fault.

I think in terms of teachers losing control etc, it's not just behaviour. When you are put under pressure in every aspect of your work, you have less patience/resilience to deal with poor behaviour, as well. A lot of it comes from the culture at the top of the school.

It's also the pressure teachers are out under dealing with students in mental health crisis and getting no support or those who have undiagnosed sen and no support or those who have very difficult home lives and no support.

Every other underfunded public service can increase waiting lists, increase thresholds for intervention and put people off, but these students are in school every day so the schools have to find ways to deal with these issues.

I'm probably going to get flamed here but our major issue is parental support . Some of our parents are wonderful, supporting the school, ensuring their kids are doing the right thing (following the published behaviour policy). Some of the parents won't support school - refuse to allow their kids to hand a phone over / do a detention/ even wear the uniform. Once that happens we have no where to go. Suspensions reflect badly on the school (although we do them) and have no impact on the student unless parents also discipline at home. Some parents don't want to deal with a student once they are out of their door in a morning - it's the schools problem. I have lost count of the times I have been verbally abused by a parent this year, we can do nothing about it as we still have to communicate with parents. Being told you are fucking useless on a daily basis gets to you after a while.

I finished my career in a small rural school in an idyllic village. The head was a bully and many of the parents were an absolute nightmare. Small is as shit as large

Lots of parents support strict behaviour systems - right up until it is applied to their own child!

So many parents wash their hands of their kids. Some parents we feel like we can't inform them of bad behaviour as they'll always defend them. I imagine this is because it makes life easy for them so they don't have to deal with the fallout of trying to discipline.

We have one parent who put a formal complaint in that our headteacher was unfairly targeting their child and treating them differently to all the other children.
He wasn't, it was simply that their child is an absolute little shit but now nobody can discipline him as his parents would only create more problems. It wasn't worth the stress but now this kid walks round thinking he owns the place.

I taught in a large primary in a largish town... Then I taught in a small rural school in a village outside the town. I was (un)pleasantly surprised to encounter children who had been excluded from the larger school. The rural school had places so had to take them!

I was threatened by a 15 year old pupil once. He walked over to me and calmly told me, "If I find out you've put another detention on for me there are going to be severe consequences."
I reported it, he spent a day in isolation then back to lessons as usual.

Another year 10 boy was misbehaving all lesson. I was in the middle of typing it up so that on call would come and collect him, and he came over and tried to grab the keyboard from me and physically rip my hands from it. Another teacher said she didn't feel safe with him in the room, but again nothing done.

If someone was filming a tik tock in my lesson I'd probably ask them too who they thought they were.

I suspect made-up allegations and vexatious complaints are incredibly common. Let's face it - if you are a horrible, appallingly-behaved 14yo, who is constantly in trouble, takes no responsibility for your actions and you hate teachers for telling you off and putting you in detention, why wouldn't you just maliciously tell your parents a teacher mistreated you and persuade them to make a formal complaint, when you know the school will have to investigate and probably at the very least suspend the teacher?

Often the teacher will leave regardless of the outcome of the investigation, because the whole thing is too traumatic and will always be a stain on their reputation. Lots of teachers are 'disappeared' like this. Bonus for the school if they are expensive experienced too.

I volunteer and see it first hand.

1. children should of course have their phones on the way to school and at the end of the school day.
2. they enter school property, in locas parentis

Parents can't dictate rules into the school.

Schools and teachers that want too can easily take phones then return them. Whether that's at the start and ends of each day or the start and ends of each lesson.

Every year we have two members of staff who come to work in the school from abroad. A variety of different countries. They are always experienced in working in schools and youth centres in at least two other countries before they come to us. More and more frequently they are appalled by the general poor behaviour and attitudes of our students. And this is at a ‘good’ school. This year one of these members of staff has said in the last country he worked in children have very few opportunities but they are motivated to do their best but here children have opportunity after opportunity and they do not care and many will prevent others who do care from achieving by being disruptive.

we have created through poor parenting, removal of any responsibility on the students and parents, and a system that has excused poor behaviour for years, a rot of entitlement. They will not work beyond the minimum but the expectations to gain decent grades are there.

it might change when the responsibility for grades goes back to the work the student puts in rather than how entertaining the teacher is. But that takes time.