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.

CheesecakeAddict

I agree with what you have posted but the biggest difference would be having HTs and SLT that actually know how to manage a school and teachers without having their favourites and using the system to bully and force teachers out of the profession.

sorry that should be

"one of the biggest differences"

I completely agree but this is purely down to retention. Leaders are getting younger and younger with less experience because a) our workforce is getting younger and less experienced; b) no one wants the job. Someone mentioned here being DH 8 years into a job, which is less experience than I have now.

And for the few of us left with experience, it's very hard being critised by a young SLT with only a few years classroom experience when they are recommending the latest fad that has already been and gone during your career and has been recently resurrected.

Not to mention, the NPQSL is a joke now. There is literally no way to fail it. There is no whole school project at the end, no work expected during the course, just log on for seminars and you pass!

@CheesecakeAddict you've summed up exactly my thoughts on teaching t the moment. I currently have to cope with a GCSE class of 31, not to mention KS3 classes which go up to 33 and contain a wide range of special needs and students with ECHP plans. We don't have LSAs despite the school advertising for them, because no-one is willing to do that work for the ridiculously low salaries on offer, so I'm coping with all of the students myself.

At the start of my career, I was earning more or less the same as friends from uni, but that gap has drastically increased as we've all gained around 8-9 years experience - I now earn considerably less despite working much longer hours. It's embarrassing when you have to turn down invitations both because you can't really afford it and also because you have to work.

And finally, the icing on the cake is the recruitment crisis, as it's making my job as a Head of Department impossible. I've said it before on this thread, but teachers leave, we can't find replacements, so I end up setting cover work for them and taking over their exam classes. When we do get supply teachers, they are often not great quality, to the extent that they can't even use a computer properly, so I end up dealing with parental complaints about them or having to basically do their planning for them.

It's really sad, because I really did like teaching when I started out, but I owe it to myself to give myself a better standard of living than this.

I don't mind if the fad is based on peer reviewed research and we are given time. It's hard having to plan an entire curriculum in the time we have and make time for regular retrieval quizzes etc or we are doing something because another school does it like that even though they get an hour per day of that subject, not 2 hours per week. Or they have time to plough into work, usually because upper management tend to be men IME and have a wife at home doing the housework, childcare and cooking. They forget they wouldn't have the time if they had to be home for 6 to pick up a little one from after-school club, they have an hour of traffic, then cook dinner, do homework, put the kids to bed, and by that time you are knackered so whatever work you do will be error-ridden.

I teach in an indie so teaching time is max 20 of 30 periods, including 2when we are ‘on cover’ for absent colleagues so cover lessons are much more like real lessons -obvious not perfect but not just worksheets.

This makes for difficult reading. For the past few years, my daughter's dream job has been to teach history. Even at the age of 14, she is certain that this is the right path for her. I dread to think what teaching will be like by the time she qualifies.

In addition, I would also like to add that schools are currently no friend to many pupils with SEND and their families. I see families on their knees trying to fight for provision for their children, battling a system where there is no money and no time. It should not be so hard, and the onus should not be on parents to secure SEN support.
I am consistently tempted to throw in the towel and electively home educate as I know the system from the inside, and know there is no real solution to support my mildly SEN DC in mainstream education.

@TheMotherSide that isn’t always down to school’s control, normally down to lack of funding and services being available

My HoD (since Sept) has been teaching 7 years. I am old enough to have given birth to her. When I first started teaching (2000), SLT and HoDs were “old” and therefore experienced. Now, younger teachers start and want to get out of the classroom as quickly as possible - either leaving or promotion.

I am bored of teaching.

DH and I are teachers, so are my in laws. Our children do not want to be teachers.

This is not the fault of the teachers. Blame the government for the horrific funding. I have approximately 8 children in my class who are waiting for diagnoses or support. The SENDCo is run off her feet, there's no time or money for funding.

Crumbling, I know, I'm a primary teacher. I should have said the education system and government education funding policy which puts schools (and local authorities) in impossible situations where they are unable to meet need. It is my biggest ongoing regret both in my professional practice and as a SEN parent; that there is only so much I can do.

Exactly, yes! Plus when it comes to hiring, we are getting zero applications for short term contracts such as mat leave. Being a predominantly young-female profession, this is seriously dangerous if it continues, as it adds to the stress the following year. 10 years ago, we had a member of staff go off on mat leave and we couldn't hire for love nor money and the kids basically watched films and did worksheets that never got marked for a year, but we knew we had the staff the following year, the kids were really motivated and parents on side, to plug those gaps and it would be fine. And it was fine.
Now when our staff go off on mat leave, we don't know if they'll get the decent teaching the following year to plug the gaps. Plus the gaps from covid. Plus the larger class sizes means students are basically getting less than 1 minute interaction per lesson with the teacher. Plus the extra needs. So then the following year you get this class that have basically dicked around for a year and can't access the curriculum for their year group, think they are stupid and switch off.

I'm also finding a lot of newer teachers are not being taught in their PGCE to plan. They are taught to follow a pre-made lesson or to adapt a lesson from the shared area for their class but they are starting ECT not understanding how to follow a scheme of work and make lessons from scratch, or understand how to scaffold, stretch and challenge, or even have a repertoire of activities. This is putting additional pressure on me as a HoD because it means I need to plan every lesson for every year group/set ready for our new curriculum on top of developing a new scheme of work.

The quality of (some) of our new teachers aren’t great either. Before Christmas our ECT asked me what the word “earnest” meant. She’s teaching Yr 12 A-level Lit. I don’t worry about my own children. DH and I can see them through their education with our teaching specialisms and hire tutors but I do worry for all the other children out there (and our future workforce).

@TheMotherSide you’re right, it shouldn’t be this hard.

The role I leave tomorrow includes SENDCO, it’s broken me. I don’t have the money to resource the needs of children in mainstream, I don’t have a staffing budget, I have had to apply for funding for any additional need, with no guarantee that it will be granted. I’ve spent the last 3 years telling parent that the waiting list from referral is years, so their early ks2 child could be In secondary school by the time they get an answer and appropriate support.

I’m done.

Moving to a special school, where at least there is some hope of the correct provision for learners. Unlike mainstream they were happy to offer a permanent contract and pay UPS. I know there’ll be challenges but I’m up for that.

Also agree with PP about ECTs who can’t plan lessons. Our ECT wants slide by slide PPs with all knowledge on. I’m an English/Lit teacher, we don’t (or shouldn’t) teach by rote.

Wishing you the very best, QueenOfLouisiana.

@QueenofLouisiana I'm with you. Have been SENCO and DH in the past, it was demoralising. Teachers know what children need, the LA know what they needs, parents know what they need, a lot of the time the children know what they need... but there is l no money.

I have just left mainstream primary teaching after 16 years and going into the SEND sector. My main reasons for leaving are underfunded or unfunded SEND in mainstream and a curriculum that moves too fast for a huge chunk of learners.

We as adults are letting children down all over the place, and education professionals are being let down too. It's unsustainable.

CheesecakeAddict

I'm from a practical subject and the amount of new teachers that are coming through with almost no skills and practical knowledge is really troubling.

I've seen many fads in my 26 years.

They all follow the same format. Some bright rising star in the SLT is keen to impress. Some idea promising 'whole school impact' is implemented by rising star. There is a staff meeting, a new display has to go up in every classroom, there is new vocabulary that has to be shoehorned into every lesson, plans have to be adapted, the idea fails to produce any noticeable impact, the rising star declares it a massive success, the rising star is promoted and the idea is quietly dropped.

A new rising star slides in and...

Completely agree and I’ve been only doing this 5 years (had previous career). Unfortunately is like the Emperor’s New Clothes-people go along with it but it is just BS.

To become a teacher back in the days I qualified it used to be a very strict minimum of 2:1 degree. Due to huge teacher retention issues it's now been dropped to a 2:2.
Wonder what this has meant in terms of teachers who now qualify? Standard of ability etc...

Its been a 2:2 for many yrs (England), before that it in the 'golden yrs' (o'levels etc) you could get by on a cert ed, and at one point you had to pass extra competency tests for English, Maths and computer literacy.
Yes I have a 2:2 and successfully taught for nearly twenty years.