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.

The workload is unsustainable.
The expectations are unachievable.
The level of scrutiny is intolerable.
The behaviour of many children (and their parents) is appalling.

I'm stunned there are so many people still in teaching.

One other factor is young, commitment- free teachers (usually women) who not only happily accept a workload that is unreasonable they actually cheerfully add to it and in doing do create expectations that become the norm for all of us.

@Jifmicroliquid

Perhaps all the teacher bashers on here should start realising that they are playing a large part in the amount of teachers leaving the profession.

Agree with this. The current attitude towards teachers isn't really helping the situation. Numerous threads on MN complaining.

It's rarely money that makes teachers leave the profession. They know the pay scale before they train up.

It's really hard to find computer science & maths & science teachers in secondary school.

Younger staff don't seem to have the same attitude & willingness to go above & beyond as middle aged staff. So I think once we're all retired schools will be very different.

Every year at my school for the last few years there has been at least one A-level class having to teach themselves A-level for months because we haven't been able to recruit a teacher for that subject, in a variety of subjects.

We've also got GCSE classes being taught by people who haven't a clue about the subject.

Kids come to my lesson having had nothing but cover lessons that day. Their behaviour is then all over the place.

Parents may think that cover lessons in secondary are like in primary where stuff is taught, but generally cover lessons in secondary are seen as doss lessons and very little gets done.

I apologise for not having read the full thread, but I agree wholeheartedly that the state of education at the moment is incredibly concerning. I’m a teacher and, like others, am only just about coping because I work 3 days a week. I worry about my own kids in the system. The love of learning is just being sucked out of them.

Join the Facebook groups for teachers wanting to leave, and you will get a snapshot of what it’s really like!

But CEO's of Academies are being paid huge amounts - how is that allowed to happen when schools are supposedly desperately struggling with finances?

According to the NASUWT's research, CEO remuneration in the 20 largest academy trusts in 2018-19 – the latest year for which figures are available – was £4.72m, or an average of £236,000 per CEO.

I agree with pp's that it's a scandal.

This is spot on.

But CEO's of Academies are being paid huge amounts - how is that allowed to happen when schools are supposedly desperately struggling with finances?

Because no cap was put on CEO pay when the academy programme was first started. Lord Adonis now agrees that this was an error. It is certainly not all CEOs who are being paid large amounts though, and the government has attempted to rectify the problem.

However, CEOs of some MATs are in charge of huge numbers of schools so the pay does need to be commensurate with the responsibility. We're not going to get people to do that job for buttons.

Parents being expected to buy books and equipment actually reduces the number of pupils senselessly defacing and destroying the stuff English schools are expected to just keep replacing. So, for that alone, I'd welcome it here.

@itsmyp4rty if the MAT has say over 25 schools, more than 10,000 pupils and in excess of 1,000 staff, what pay scale do you think they should be on?

And I think the average salary is closer to £140k

Plus

The addition pressures from league tables.

The additional pressures from OFSTED.

This pair lead to ……SLT going batshit crazy, worries about redundancy, subjects dropping off the bottom of the coupon. Thoughts about what is best for pupils vs what is best for the school. Pupils expected to get results way beyond their real abilities. Academisation.

Terms and conditions of employment.

State schools have to follow the ‘Burgandy Book’ This sets out details about employment, sick pay, pensions etc etc.

Academies and free schools don’t have to follow the Burgandy book.

I was shocked to find out that my daughter’s partner, who teaches in an academy, only gets 10 days of sick pay. A state school teacher gets 6 months on full pay, then 6 months on half than you can be sacked on terms of competency.

So people wonder that there are shortages.

So how much were LA directors of Education on? Far far less.

With far more schools and staff under their control.

The Academisation of schools and formation of MATs created an extra layer of expensive management.

Do MATs provide subject consultants, advisors as LAs did?

A triumph of ideology over common sense.

Academies are state schools.

I’m a secondary school teacher and we’re having to make our classes bigger after Xmas in order to make sure all students have a teacher, as staff have left before Xmas. We’re doing our best by putting students into combined classes rather than them have non-specialist staff. We can’t get enough supply in to cover. Yet parents are being awful towards us, I’ve had people swearing at me saying their child doesn’t want to be in a bigger class or that I don’t care about their grades by allowing more students into my class and spreading myself thinner. It’s causing a lot of stress and is increasing my workload massively, and to be honest I’ve also been looking at vacancies outside of school. It’s such a big problem.

As of last year, primary schools in Ireland are given a grant with which to purchase books and copybooks for each child, so parents don't have to field that cost. However, this money was made available as the usual grant for ICT was sadly removed. Paying teaching centrally and not through individual school budgets is surely a no-brainer in terms of fairness and retention though.

Up until a couple of years ago I would have said workload was more of an issue for me than pay, but the cost of living crisis had changed that. Looking at having to downsize mortgage due to huge rises in that/ childcare/ bills etc. People can’t afford to teach anymore. Plus seeing how many parents appear to have jobs that allow them flexibility to do school run/ attend events etc. I feel the world has moved on in terms of flexibility and work life balance but teaching hasn’t .

@Italiandreams Agreed. Even if I was to return to teaching ft (which I have zero intention of doing), I wouldn't be earning enough to get out of the private rental we are currently living in. My salary would not be enough to buy a property, even after being qualified 20 years next year.
I'm working as an HLTA as it breaks my heart I miss all of my own children's school events, school runs etc. I won't even be able to take my child to school on her first day next September.
We've now also been informed that ANY urgent appointments in school time - dental, GP, hospital - we (somehow) have to make up the time. Not sure how but there you go.

I leave mainstream primary education on 31st December, it’s been my life for 26 years. I’ve missed all sorts of things for DS over the years as I couldn’t take time off, I’ve missed so much bringing up my own child as I was bringing up other people’s.

The holidays are great, but I’ve been ill for at least half of each holiday for years. This Christmas, I haven’t been unwell- I’m much less stressed and so much healthier all round.

I’m moving on to something very different. I won’t be doing crap, pointless admin (I really can’t see the point in having the font on my key questions stick-in checked, nor am I convinced that the colour of my pen makes a difference), I’ll be doing the things that are needed by the learners-not the latest fad produced by the government.

I’m really excited.

@QueenofLouisiana May I ask what you're going to be doing? My HLTA pay is shocking! I'm also a qualified teacher.

I teach at a high performing secondary school with good behaviour which you'd think would be appealing to applicants. But we're lucky to get one applicant for an advertised job and then they often don't show for interview. Students can go whole days where they have supply for every lesson. The more understaffed we are, the more stressful the job is, so the more likely teachers are to quit. It's a vicious circle. Money and workload both an issue for me. I can only cope because DP earns double what I do and works half the hours I do so has time to cook and clean.

A lot of it is in relation to conditions and workload, but also a lot of it is linked to pay. Previously, anyone going into teaching knew that they wouldn't be rich, but would be able to lead a reasonably comfortable lifestyle, while at the same time having a secure job with very good terms and conditions that would allow for a reasonably good work-life balance.

Now the work life balance is gone, and pressure is akin to working in high pressure corporate jobs, and the salary has been eroded in real terms so much that I don't see how a family of two teachers could afford to have 2 children in many areas of the south, and even a single person is struggling. As a result, there is zero incentive to enter or stay in the profession.

I left primary teaching in the UK over a decade ago to move abroad. I'd had enough of it back then - the workload, the unrealistic demands from SLT, all the assessment and ticking boxes, the planning which took hours, the lack of resources which meant hours and hours making and laminating stuff and spending my own money on things like glue sticks and coloured pencils (because we were allocated 6 glue sticks per year), teaching in freezing cold classrooms, large numbers of children arriving with EAL and NO teaching assistant support in year 1 and 2 classes, increasing children with SEN and again no support.
It has got worse since then. Of my friends and colleagues back then, I'd say that about 80% have since left and are doing all kinds of other jobs. A couple of teaching assistants who loved the job and then went to all the effort of getting degrees to become teachers have also left - they were sadly so disillusioned with the whole thing.
Some of the people I know have left have totally shocked me. I thought they were indestructible and could take anything teaching could throw at them and that they'd be there until retirement. But no, it got to them in the end too. Outstanding teachers giving up because it's simply too much and the pay is poor for what you are expected to do, no matter what all the teacher bashing threads tell you.

I have since worked in a variety of jobs abroad. There's absolutely nothing comes near the stress and workload of teaching. Even jobs where overtime is expected and people work long hours - it's not the same as having to be switched "on" all the time when the children are there and dealing with everything that throws at you and then having to work for hours after and before school each day to prepare and assess the children.

I have recently been persuaded to work a few hours a week teaching in a local primary school in the country I am in now. What a difference! I asked about planning and was told that one page of A4 per term is sufficient just to outline the topics I will cover. Obviously I do plan the lessons in more detail but there isn't the pressure of having every last sentence scrutinized. I don't have to provide detailed assessments either - that's the sort of thing that teachers are perfectly capable of doing in their heads, maybe with a few notes jotted down. You know which kids have got it, which have struggled and so on and what to do next without having to fill in reams of paperwork.
The children in the school I am teaching at do well, standards are high and behaviour is good without all of this micromanagement that doesn't do anyone any good.

Now the work life balance is gone, and pressure is akin to working in high pressure corporate jobs, and the salary has been eroded in real terms so much

Absolutely. Plus, the press and Conservative MPs have done such a hatchet job on the lazy/leftie/part timer narrative of teachers that lots of people think we do nothing anyway. Oh, apart from trying to indoctrinate young people with our ‘woke’ agenda.

A few weeks ago there was a thread on here about school's policies about confiscating mobile phones.

The attitude of a large number of parents is a significant part of the problem.

So many parents shouldn't complain about having no qualified maths teachers when it's their fault teachers are leaving.

It’s very worrying but also interesting that so many teachers say pupil behaviour is intolerable and appalling. Has it always been this way? If not, I wonder what’s changed, when, and why?

I expect someone will reply to me with an answer along the lines of ‘parents can’t be arsed to parent anymore’ but even if that’s the answer, why? What’s caused that social shift?