Teaching

[Sallydimebar]

Am I being unreasonable to think teaching is on its knees . It’s a job soon enough no-one will want .
Was having a conversation with SIl , her best friend has decided to quit this year she’s had enough . Teachers are leaving Ds secondary school in doves it seems .
There seems to be a endless stream of supply teachers and just heard his favourite English teacher is leaving a Easter .

Seen today some parents protesting outside a school as it was stopping pupils using toilets during lesson time , it’s a story I see time & time again esp about toilet use and i just have to ask do parents know that kids meet up in toilets to vape, Snapchat ect so unfortunately can’t have a endless pass on toilet use as classes would be half empty and seniors would just be going round all day getting them back to lessons .

The point I’m making is being a teacher in today’s society is a really tough job and parents just don’t give enough support in getting behind Childs school . I would love those 50 parents there today to maybe go and spend a day in the school and see why toilet passes are needed and how hard it is at best of times to engage a class of 30 12-14 yr olds or 15/16 yr olds .

Listening to Sil friend who’s a really good teacher feel so deflated and unhappy is sad .
Also the teacher who committed suicide this week the day before she was due in court for catching pupils hair while confiscating phone, leaving a husband and 2 daughters devastated as well as many colleges.

The toilet issue is one that bothers me - DD is a good student but does need to use the toilet in lessons at times to manage heavy periods.

Me too and my dd just walks out if she needs to. The teacher knows she's a good kid and must be going out of the room for a reason. I've told my dd the worst that can happen in this situation is that she gets told off or she gets a detention and that's just the way it is. Life isn't always fair.

What I haven't done is phone the school to complain or make a placard.

I have an ex teacher working for me. Very good and she opened up about why she left. Lack of support. Senior leaders that didn't know what they were doing aside from teaching which made them qualify for leadership posts. No support from parents with which there was constant aggression if their child was challenged. Unfortunately a lot of rights driven stuff the stops teacher controlling the class, although coupled with some teachers that just had an inability to control a class.
Afraid a lot of the public sector is having this as pay is dropping behind and the market is simply working as it should do, and people are getting paid more moving elsewhere

I feel we put too much emphasis on teachers getting good grades out of the kids and not the kids getting good grades themselves with the support of teachers.

Well, this! League tables and Ofsted are to blame for this. Children are nothing more than statistics and numbers on spreadsheets.

This!
I am leaving teaching not because of pay or conditions - I work in a naice indie - but because of weak leadership that panders to parents who expect teachers to get the grades for the kids and no sense of the children taking responsibility for their own learning. I am considered a good teacher - have a good relationship with the children and they behave well and will I miss the classroom but not the endless 'clinics ' we have to run (on the behest of entitled parents) or the pointless reports and endless emails.

I've been a year 6 teacher for 10 years and I'm leaving this year. I can work less hours for more money at the council so it's a no-brainer.
I know that I'm a good teacher. Really good. I love teaching and I have fought the system for so long to try to help, putting myself on the line to do so. But nothing changes!
People think it's great but the last 10 years of life, my 20s, has passed me by through working 50 - 60 hour weeks then being exhausted and ill over the holidays. No holidays abroad because I couldn't afford to go in the school holidays. I feel so much regret and wish I'd left sooner. The nail in the coffin was marking books on Christmas day this year so that I'd be able to go on a family holiday between Xmas and New Year and not take work with me.
I don't know what the answer is but the public perception and attitude towards teachers can be, frankly, disgusting. I'm sick of being hated.

This ten fold.

you have hit the nail on the head here.

leadership who are pandering to parents.

another issue is leadership are ex teachers. They are not trained managers to be able to run a school efficiently.

It is the will of the people. That is why they keep voting for Tory governments.

Don’t see the relevance of ‘Tories’ - can’t see a labour government reducing the demands of parents or ofsted or insisting that school leaders are properly qualifed professional managers.

Yes and while using a hammer to fix this problem, these systems manage to cause UTIs, do not prevent flooding or the embarrassment. Last month my daughter was not well enough the first two days of her period I suspect because of the leakage. For a girls school her school in particular has an unusual attitude to the female situation

User65412, well done for leaving. I'm so sorry you feel your 20s passed you by
At least now, you won't look back aged 45 and regret missing out on your children's first decade. I've spent so much of my kids' lives, including birthdays and Christmases, exhausted because my policy has always been not to bring work into their waking hours, so all planning, marking and admin is done after they've gone to bed and before they wake up.
I know of no female teachers with school aged children who feels able to work full time. I've now dropped to 4 days, so I can work from home one day per week, to lessen to work I do on evenings and weekends.

Yes and while using a hammer to fix this problem, these systems manage to cause UTIs, do not prevent flooding or the embarrassment. Last month my daughter was not well enough the first two days of her period I suspect because of the leakage. For a girls school her school in particular has an unusual attitude to the female situation

Whilst I agree with you, what's the alternative? Like @Chickenly says, teachers don't actually want to stop teenagers going to the toilet. But what's the solution? There just doesn't seem to be one.

whereas I’ve told my daughter she won’t receive a detention if she does this but she won’t just walk out, because she does as she’s told even to her detriment. Not that she can go during lessons since toilets are locked.

im speaking to the school not to complain but to open dialogue on a better way to handle this situation cause staying home will not help the situation.

Maybe a solution would be to lock all the main toilets during lessons but have one emergency one / say by reception or by the nurses room/ that they sign in to.

whereas I’ve told my daughter she won’t receive a detention if she does this but she won’t just walk out, because she does as she’s told even to her detriment.

I know what you mean as my oldest is exactly like this and I've always said she would get in a strangers car if they told her to as she's just so ridiculously compliant.

However...this is just exactly highlighting the problem. Not with just the toilets issue but with why people are unhappy with teaching.

Everyone has something. Everyone has a reason that they have to go to the toilet or whatever else is the issue. Everyone.

It's all of this that's putting the pressure on in the first place.

I don’t know the answer. But let’s start from the position locked and blocked toilets are not it. And liaise with parents. Maybe we together can deal with a solution that works.

Retired teacher here, 38 years Inner city Secondary teaching English/SENCO/ GATCO/ Assistant Principal. There is no way I would go back, or even start teaching in today’s climate and I’d like to think I had a lot of strategies to deal with poor behaviour, both from students and parents. I often think of those teachers who are doing a marvellous job despite all their difficulties, thank you.
I worry for my GCs education.

I do agrees with you @Faultymain5 . Locking them is not the solution.

Hmmm, having been a teacher since the 90s, I know that things were substantially better in schools under a Labour government and have decreased hugely since 2010.

For me, it’s less about parents and ensuring school leaders are ‘qualified managers’, it’s about reforming Ofsted, workload expectations and funding. I want a government that is interested in making changes here-even agreeing to discuss it would be a start.

I taught in FE and HE for 20 years, we’ve always been the poor relation to schools tbh. Am out of it and won’t be returning - for much the same reason as school teachers really, although at least we didn’t have parents to deal with. I’ve a good friend who’s just done the same. We’ve both gone into unskilled work where we get paid more and have more flexibility. A colleague who’d had a similar length of service left to become a van driver.

Teacher here. It is brutal at the moment. We have no staff - support staff are leaving as they can't cope and we can't find replacements. Teachers are going on long term sick leave due to stress and parents are constantly complaining and telling us how to do our jobs. Respect for the profession has plummeted and expectations of what a teacher should do have risen. I love teaching and can't imagine doing anything else but the workload and stress is slowly killing my passion.

It's a shame that pupils who do not want to learn or are excessively disruptive can't be easily and permanently removed from school. If only there was an alternative to mandatory public schooling for them. School should be a privilege, not a right.

I'm a teacher of 23 years and it's the constant scrutiny and nothing being good enough despite working 50-60 hours a week. The OFSTED focus on Deep Dives in primary is just too much as well and the added pressure that now brings. For those who have left what do you do now?

I think Labour started a programme of wanting properly qualified teachers. They wanted them to have an MA.

And they made lots of money available for management training courses and support staff.

I honestly think if parents are abusing staff then their kids should be sent elsewhere. They sign a home/school agreement.

Years ago we had a kid who’s parents thought it was fine for him not to wear uniform and backed him to the hilt. It was pointed out to him that these were the school rules and if he was unhappy he could send his child elsewhere. The kid eventually wore uniform. It’s lack of SM back up that contributing to entitled parents.

I teach in an independent school, and I've always loved my job. We didn't have the class sizes or anything like the behaviour issues that teachers were struggling with in the state sector.

But recently (ie post covid) this is changing for us as well. Class sizes are bigger, because the cost of everything from heating to paper has gone up so much. Behaviour is worse, because parents don't support us telling their children off, and consequently learning is negatively impacted, which leads to frustration and lack of job satisfaction.

So parents comparing keeping the children in a room for a whole hour so they can actually LEARN something, to "prison like conditions", I'm afraid you're not helping!

Going to the toilet as a teacher is pretty impossible, so I do have sympathy for students. I have just changed careers after twenty five years teaching a core subject, and I am enjoying being able to eat, drink and use the toilet as needed. More money for more staff would fix the problem, as toilets could be staffed during lessons so students would be able to go safely, and there could be staff to come and watch the class when teachers need to go.