To ask if parents of secondary school students are aware…

[Curtainsblue]

I’ve seen some posts about the impact of lack of teachers on primary schools and also some discussion about impact on exam classes, but I wonder if parents of KS3 students are fully aware of the situation schools are currently in.

My friend is a science teacher in an oversubscribed, high achieving comprehensive school and has told me that from September around a third of KS3 science lessons will be being taught/supervised by cover teachers.

Maths are losing curriculum time (so fewer lessons every week) in KS3 as there simply aren’t the staff to teach them. He’s said this is a common picture throughout local schools, with maths and science departments in particular being impacted- he knows of 1 school in the areas that are fully staffed in these subjects.

A colleague of his at a different school has said they are preparing for it to become common place for students to be in ‘super-cover’ classes, where if there are staff absences, students will be sitting in exam style venues in groups of 60-90 working silently and independently while being supervised by a senior member of staff.

This isn’t being communicated to parents. I spoke to a teacher at my sons school and she said she doesn’t know what’s happening there yet but they are also incredibly understaffed from September.

Are you aware of staffing levels at your children’s secondary school and how this is going to impact them?

I have slowly become aware but no, I did not know the full extent of things.

As PP say, many schools hardly communicate at all. Let alone be clear about the shitshow they are in. Especially 'good' schools that don't want to lose popularity, so as to attract new students.

DD has been mentioning occasionally that they had a supply teacher, but had made me suspicious was having several teachers leaving in the middle of the year. This is a school that until recently had to fight off applicants for most teaching jobs.

Totally agree with lots of others here about the chronic underfunding and understaffing.

At my school this year we have had to cancel so much: visits, workshops, providing them with class texts, lots of the additional things that brought learning to life and made school more fun.

@ BiscuitsandPuffin
Something parents need to understand is the current crisis all started with the "satisfactory isn't good enough" drive of Michael Gove in 2011-12.

Satisfactory became "requires improvement"

This.
To be clear, it was just a change of terminology for the same 'grade', but what a nasty, spiteful, counter-productive change.

I'm sure there are plenty of mediocre lawyers and accountants out there, but as long as they do the basics and are good enough, no-one knows or cares. Why are teachers singled out to be berated and shamed in public in this way?

Teachers are no longer respected as professionals, and this started at the top, with government. Yes, teachers haven't been respected for decades, but it has got so, so much worse since the Tories started their campaign to metaphorically beat and flog teachers into 'improving'.

As a new teacher, at the start of my career, this was the final straw. On top of the insane workload, the lack of basic respect from management (who didn't seem to realise I was an adult employee, not a teenager they could bully), I was told I was no longer 'satisfactory', but instead 'required improvement'. FFS I already knew I required improvement, that is fundamental to the job. It is called 'continuous professional development'. At two years in, just beginning to find my feet, of course knew I needed and expected to improve. But meanwhile I was not given the dignity of being called 'satisfactory', in other words I was "not good enough". What a slap in the face.

The requirement for new teachers to be all-singing, all-dancing, with suitable differentiation for every pupil, and fun, engaging but rigorous activities, and all pupils showing progress, all from day one of the teacher's career, with no time to grow into the role and develop, is a major cause of burn-out and staff leaving.

Would I go back? Ha. I would love to be able to, I miss it, but I now earn about twice as much as a mid-level teacher for sitting at a computer all day long.

Yep! I and many parents I know stumped up for maths, english and science tutors this year to get our Year 11s through GCSEs ... school just wasn't reliable enough and providing the support they needed, and it's an 'excellent' school acc to Ofsted. Righto then. No doubt they'll take credit if they do well, too, even though I know fine well it was the tutors that will have done it.

We got tutors to plug the gaps
Went against a lot of my beliefs,but didn’t think I was left with much of a choice

This is a major problem. To be clear - schools do not tell you they are having issues - you have to dig a hell of a long way to get past the facade.

One local school to us is ‚good‘ and gets decent results. But it’s not good. Looking at the job adverts, they are understaffed for both maths and science. Add to that the fact that every family we know with kids there has hired a maths tutor outside of school. Then add the conversations I overheard/have had which include gems such as „he hates how they do maths - he wants to do it at Uni but he’s bored out of his mind“ and „I hope the [school] doesn’t beat her love of [maths] out of her. I hope she’ll be ok“.

The school’s results seem to be entirely propped up by a hidden army of tutors - but any parent who just sees the result will think the school itself is doing a good job.

I was thinking the same.

@TMHE it's a state school.

Not everyone can afford to go down to one salary so the other parent can stay home to home school their children, even assuming they were capable of doing so.

Well I'm not counting on it, because nothing is guaranteed, but when the school is partially closed they prioritise year 7, 10, 11 and 6th form coming in.
A cover teacher has already been replaced with a full member of staff in one of his subjects so fingers crossed.

With regard to the original question, I think lots of parents don’t know. It probably doesn’t occur to people to ask ‘how many lessons did you have this week without your teacher or without the teacher you started the year with’.

We've got to the point this year (granted DD is in Year 12, so also has study periods), where some days DD is coming home and hasn't had a single lesson with an actual subject teacher (any teacher, not necessarily her named one. So it's pretty hard to avoid knowing. A teacher went on maternity leave and was not replaced. She's had another teacher out on long term sick leave; complicated timetable of trying to cover with a mix of other teachers and self study.

She has only 3 lessons this week between strike days and staff absences. And she's in Year 12 so presumably might have more prioritisation than other years.

I agree with teacher strikes by the way, and I hope the message about why they are happening has filtered through to the general population.

I joke with my son that one day I'll pop into reception to drop something off and before I know it I'll be taking a class.
My son tells me that some supply teachers are just reading off Power Points.

A lot of teachers do the same as there's no textbooks. Has been the case for ages. Not to say they're not teaching, but it's almost always off a powerpoint.

Nothing wrong with PowerPoints, but there's a bit difference between just reading off them and using them as a tool to teach the lesson.

Cover supervisors aren’t expected to teach, they’re not teachers.

Pay for everyone in the public sector needs reinstating to 2008 levels. Schools need at least double the funding per pupil, Councils need to actually provide support for kids with SEN instead of forcing parents to take them to tribunals and disruptive kids need to be permanently expelled and go to separate provision. Kids should also be able to specialise from 14 like they can in many countries, with a more appropriate curriculum tailored to their skills and interests. Good luck finding a UK politician that actually plans to emulate the successful systems from elsewhere, though.

Perhaps if this country had been run properly with proper long-term plans for industrial policy, international trading relationships, infrastructure, food and energy security, technical education to meet our skills gaps, state pensions that aren't a ponzi scheme, a vaguely functioning health system, supporting startups and growing businesses, etc, then this would be affordable as it is elsewhere.

I'm a teacher. I'm aware. I thought I'd share something I needed to look up today, the UK is in need of 268,000 teachers. The shadow cabinet is talking about bringing in 'super teachers', do they think there are a quarter of a million teachers hiding somewhere?

Apprenticeships from 13 - offer incentives for businesses to take on a youth apprentices

Take learning out of the classroom - COVID (and before then people like the open university) have shown us virtual learning is possible. Teenagers want to earn money and are bored of classroom one size fits all teaching. Let them work and learn at the same time through day release.

We will never get enough teachers to plug the gaps so we need to be resourceful with what we have and be innovative about solutions.

That would be a nightmare and most business would just exploit these teens.

Also, I am actually thinking we need teach more subjects, not less. Go away with the early selection and drop of subjects. Maybe restrict exams to some, English, Maths Science, language and humanities. Keep options to broaden the knowledge but don't drop basic subjects.

Why do we need 4 test papers in English or 3 in Maths but don't offer decent arts, D&T and humanity teaching when the children are only 14.

And pay teachers better, get rid of too much red tape.

Yes, this is why I decided to send my DS private. A major cost burden and financial drain, but I'm biting the bullet.
Biggest fear is Labour threats to remove charity status from private schools which will result in 20%+ increase in fees and then the state system will collapse as parents like me can no longer afford private and return to the state system.

It can be managed and monitored. Most places have training schemes to do CPD/city and guilds style training. Part of growing up is also learning to stand up for yourself, part of the curriculum could be learning employment law, the purpose of ACAS etc. We aren't in the Victorian era anymore!!

Until they pay a fair wage and stop expecting teachers to provide outstanding lessons to all of the students 110% of the time, this will be the scenario. There are no shortage of actual teachers. Just a shortage of those willing to be kept on the lowest level of salary for apparently not meeting targets that aren't even measurable. The schools are frequently academies run by trustees who seem more interested in a ludicrous amount of office staff and new buildings but not interested in spending money on decent staff wages and staff retention.

Also parents should ask how many of their teachers are unqualified! There are 2 pay scales - one for qualified teachers and one for unqualified! It happens a lot and parents have no idea.

You're living a pipe dream. Where do you think the money would come from when the Gov already spends 50% of its 'budget' on Health and Social Security. You complain about the lack of long-term planning for industrial policy, international trading relationships, infrastructure, agriculture. Guess what we were part of the EU and had to abide by certain rules.
The problem with education system started in the 70's with the drive to a comprehensive system and treating everyone the same. We should have stayed with the grammar / technical system whereby academic pupils followed one track and the less academically gifted followed a different track and learnt a trade - this maybe what you're alluding to with specialism at 14 and i agree with you.
That said if you think the grass is greener think again. I've spent most of my career working overseas, Europe / Asia / Middle East / US and most of the education systems of the western world are in the crapper. The best system I have come across has been Singapore, but that is very academic and if you have more of an artistic bent you aren't really supported. Outside of that the only way to get a decent education for your kids today is to pay for it.

@Anothernewnamechanges Totally agree with you. From what I gather, the grammar school system worked very well, fit for purpose. Academic kids from any background were prepared for university. The secondary moderns needed improvement I think we should return to the 2 systems but with secondary moderns linked to guilds to develop highly trained/skilled trades. Good God, just finding a plumber is a nightmare. It took me 6 months to find a plumber and another 6 to persuade him to do the work. I failed and he has taken my money. Just a thief really-another thread maybe.