Does your child have a teacher to go back to next week?

[fuckityfuckityfuckfuck]

My reception child doesn't.
There are 12 unfilled primary teacher vacancies within a 10mi radius of us. Only 1 of those I could perhaps be reluctant to work in due to reputation. There are also another 16 vacancies with later start dates.

Primary has historically been oversubscribed. I know this has been an ongoing issue for a while in secondary maths/science but now it's seeping into primary which has always been more desirable, I don't see how parents can continue to ignore the issue.

Gillian Keegan has warned the independent advisory board to "consider school budgets" when recommending a pay rise for 24-25 so I would imagine there will be even more classes without teachers next year!

As its AIBU... its time parents started complaining to their MPs to protect state education.

I dont think there are gaps exactly at ours but
1 off long term sick 9m
1 off having had medical issue 4m
1 off mat leave

And these arent really old.

I think pay is an issue but working conditions need urgently addressing.
The workload in many schools has spiralled out of control. It's become worse with the rise of academy chains as many have created their own systems of bureaucracy and accountability for teachers which run alongside ofsted etc. Face to face teaching is just a small part of the job now. The rest is paperwork & ticking never ending boxes.

I don't think it's going to get any better any time soon. I qualified in my late 30s and am now 4 years in. I work 70 odd hours a week and the workload is incredibly high even though my contract os 32.5 hours. This would be impossible as that only covers the school hours. Many schools have quite toxic leadership teams who want more and more. There is no budget and schools are getting rid of experienced staff as they cost too much.

Our area is known for having fewer behavioral issues, generally well funded schools, and students ready to learn. We are still losing teachers. They aren’t citing pay as the reason for leaving. The working conditions are the problem. They can’t keep up with everything they are being asked to manage.

I can’t help but wonder if they should be reviewing every step of the process. Does it really make sense to have teachers spending time making entries in the grade book? Things like that.

Read some of the teacher bashing threads on here.

Pay isn't necessarily the key driver in people leaving. Working conditions and the attitudes of parents along with the general poor behaviour of kids are the key drivers.

Based on the dire applicants we have had recently too many people go into it because they thing it is great to have all the holidays, primary kids being cute and easier than mouthy teenagers etc. The reality I'm seeing is 5 & 6 year olds still in nappies, parents dropping them off without having changed them from the overnight nappy etc. Teachers are being expected to parent kids because the parents can't or won't.

It's not the pay.

It's workload, expectations of parents and slt. No money, large class sizes, high level of need in terms of SEND, ofsted, SATs, lack of flexibility.

It’s the workload and the stress/pressure
Many teachers retire early and many leave after a few years. There are many good qualifies teachers out there who are doing anything but teaching.

There are plenty of qualified teachers in the UK. They just don’t want to teach because the workload is too heavy. My youngest DC’s teacher has just left to take up a retail job. The school is great, the kids are lovely, the parents are supportive - it’s literally just the workload is preventing her having a life and seeing her own kids.

I'm a qualified teacher - will have been for 20 years next year. For the last five years or so I've been working as an HLTA on just over minimum wage. My work-life balance is great even though it's very hard financially. I actually have time for my own three children and husband. Nothing - nothing - would get me back into teaching. It's relentless and all-consuming. The hours (many unpaid) and expectations are unbelievable and there is very little respect for the profession nowadays.
Also, I've never known such appalling budgets in schools as I am seeing now. It really is frightening.

My son's school doesn't have any gaps apart from one teacher who is recovering from open heart surgery and also his primary teacher who is off on mat leave. Really gutted because she is amazing with them but equally, very happy for her! Sounds stressful having no teacher available at all.

It's not just maths and science at high schools either. You can't get computer science tea hers for love nor money here and schools are dropping the GCSE'S as a result. We have been struggling for modern foreign languages as well. Have only had one full time member of staff and supply this term.

It's not just pay. Because if the teachers only had to do their contracted hours it wouldn't be so bad, but they have to do way more then this and only our part time science teachers find it manageable with having young children. They are then working on their days off to get the paperwork done, so they can spend time with their kids. But also the behaviour of students and lack of backup from parents along with multiple SEN children and fewer TA's are all making the job harder and less inviting then it used to be. People start as teachers but then realise what a bad lot it is so only do a few years and get out.

its time parents started complaining to their MPs to protect state education.

It is way beyond time parents started complaining to their MPs to protect state education. If education had been further up the list of voter priorities there is no way they'd have treated teachers as shittily as they have for so long.

And with the prospect of yet another pay cut next year, things are only going to get worse and worse.

I left a year ago. I wouldn’t go back.

No backup from parents or SLT for anything. Friend was beaten by a child and she had no support.

child was only suspended when other teachers complained.

It shouldn’t be like this but it is.

Like PP said, parents either can’t or won’t parent. Too many poorly behaved children and the majority aren’t SEN or even close to SEN - just raised wild.

Agree it's the workload and stress that is the issue far more than the pay. It's an awful work life balance for most. Unrealistic expectations. Too many children per teachers. Not enough TAs or the only TA is one to one with a SEN child so the teacher has no help with the rest of the class. Constant reinventing of the wheel; changing the marking schemes, changing the phonics schemes, changing the planning formats. And burn out. Massive, massive burnt out.

At my school (secondary) it’s definitely the behaviour more than anything else that is an issue and why so many are leaving.
strangely enough people don’t like being called fucking c by 11 year olds.

and tbh while I’m sure they will put more money in I don’t see Labour helping this situation as they are generally against personal responsibility and judgement.

It's definitely not just pay. There's a whole host of reasons, and not necessarily the same for every teacher.

Teacher shortages in secondary have gone largely unnoticed by the general public because teens aren't well-known for chatting to mum & dad about such things and schools don't announce staffing in the same way as primary.

Primary, its unavoidable for parents not to notice. I'm in a leafy, home counties suburb so definitely not a deprived area. Primary schools pre-covid were lovely to work in! (Bar one with an egotistical head on his own agenda).

Politicians obviously don't care. Actively damage rather than care. But if all they care about is votes, then parents and the general public need to show their MP that they will vote for education. Parents need to stand up for their child's future.

Teachers have been saying it for years and being accused of catastrophising or moaning. No, we are just trying to alert you to the fact (no longer opinion at this point, fact) that your child's future is at serious risk because of the crisis in the education sector.

I really wish someone would do an undercover investigation into how academies are run and financed.

Totally agree. Academies are an absolute scandal with money being siphoned off and away from education and a total lack of accountability.

Our teacher left at Christmas. There will be a new one joining apparently Not great for the children. My little one is very sensitive to change. There was a mass exodus of teachers soon after the arrival of a new head teacher last year

I've been teaching over 20 years in some of SE London's more tricky primary schools and have been in an EBD school for the past few years. I'm moving out of primary in the new year, not because I don't love the teaching itself but because as time has gone on I feel less trusted and more micromanaged. I don't want the font size of the pre-printed learning objective to be the thing SLT care about when they do a book-look, nor do I want them to pick holes in why it is that X (who was excluded from mainstream and arrived in Y6) hasn't filled in their self-evaluation sticker for every lesson. I want them to be excited that X has any work at all to evaluate! I want to be trusted to make adjustments to the planned curriculum/timetable so if it's windy, we take advantage of that and measure wind speeds on that day, or measure shadows in the playground on a sunny Wednesday instead of on a rainyTuesday just because that's what SLT has decreed I must teach on a Tuesday afternoon. I want to be involved in mid-year rewrites of the curriculum map, not told after Christmas that the RE unit that had been carefully planned to link with the next book we're doing in English has been canned...

I know that SLT is running scared of Ofsted and are under the impression that the font size of the LO and the rigidness of my timetable will make or break (spoiler, neither was mentioned when Ofsted came and did their thing in the summer term). I believe their hearts are mostly in the right place but as well as the perceived pressure from Ofsted, they are stressed about school improvement officers, the school's reputation in the LA and seemingly, what to include in the next passive-aggressive email designed to shame most of the teaching staff. Gaslighting is commonplace and it's not a good look.

Pay is part of what makes teaching unattractive and/or unsustainable but it's not why I wouldn't encourage anyone to go into the job at the moment. Primary teaching has lost so much of its spark, the opportunities for awe, wonder and following a thread have been shrunk so much as to be barely there.

I'm excited about moving on to pastures new but will miss being a primary teacher.

I just don’t understand why it’s not been investigated. It is a shocking situation.

Academies have their accounts audited and have regular meetings with Regional School Commissioner.

Salaries of senior leaders should be benchmarked

Pay is part of the issue but workload is also a massive issue which seems to be increasing.

i have several friends who are teachers both primary and secondary, they’re all early/mid 30s, they’re all looking for/considering alternative careers.

The pay is rubbish. The hours they have to put in ‘out of the paid school day’ is ridiculous. One friend is a secondary maths teacher, he spends most Sunday afternoon/evenings doing lesson prep and marking for the week so loses a quarter of his weekend every week. He doesn’t get time in the school day to do it so if he doesn’t do it at home it doesn’t get done. The small amount of time he does get allocated for doing this kind of thing during the school day is instead used for phoning and emailing parents about issues.

Another friend is a Y3 primary teacher, she also has to do prep on her days off. She has 11 SEN children in her class this year (normal mainstream school) so has all the additional resources to prepare for these children too.

It’s just ridiculous the amount of work they have to do in such a small amount of allocated time.

Leafy Home Counties is also half the issue. Schools can keep convincing young graduates to give teaching a go, but they usually want the excitement of a city. Teaching doesn’t pay enough to buy you a home in the Home Counties so unless you have a wealthy partner you will eventually move somewhere you can afford a home. If you do have a wealthy partner you will probably be the parent who goes part time or stops work when you have children. Only a few people with family ties to the area but no wealth will stay even though they can’t buy a home.

fyi I taught in London until I got pregnant and then left so I could buy a home. I bought It with the money I earned working overseas and I know reams of people who did the same thing as you can get paid a lot more overseas and have a lot more respect and better behaviour.

I'm a Head of Department in a London secondary school, one teacher in my dept left at end of last term and we haven't been able to find a replacement. So we will have cover teachers who have no idea of the subject covering the lessons when we go back in jan for the foreseeable future, while I have had my timetable redone to take over their Year 11 classes, while the classes I used to teach in those lessons will now also have a unqualified and non-specialist cover teacher. So lots of kids won't get any meaningful education in the subject, and my workload is added to immensely, as I have to set the cover work for these lessons. I have my exit plan all set up to leave at end of the academic year, as I just can't cope with this any more.

I honestly don't know what education in this country is going to look like in a few years time as there's such a shortage of qualified teachers who are willing to work under the current system. It's already in crisis mode but no-one seems to have noticed.