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.

Maybe not @crumblingschools but even if my head said "hey Mrs H, leave those gcse papers and pop along to the kitchen to get dinner on", I'd be telling him to get stuffed. And then calling a union meeting.

It's bollocks.

@crumblingschools marking is expected in all primary schools I know of!

I'm a teacher and this thread is just so depressing. I know it's the reality but it's heartbreaking. My story is similar to others: high need SEN, part time TA who is usually taken to cover 1:1s, children with no English, parental expectation etc. luckily behaviour is ok where we are, but the workload is insane. It's completely overwhelming. I would love to get out. Most of my friends WFH or work flexibly so can do the school runs, attend events, have appointments etc whereas school staff are missing out on their own children and then trying to get appointments at 4:50pm in the hope they'll be able to leave school early and make it.

Whether it's a troll post or not, I was asked to do this for my tutor group at my previous school- trust wide policy, we were supposed to phone home on the first day of absence- the expectation was this would be done after school. Realistically, of course, it didn't get done every day- I usually did it if there was an absence I was especially concerned about, and I also sent emails which wasn't policy but was a lot easier time wise!

We were made to put attendance targets for our tutor group in our PMR, so there was lots of pressure to do this!

This was far from the only issue, but was a contributory factor to me leaving. FWIW, we did also go down the route of union action on this and other issues, and things did partially improve but by that point I had a new job!

The other issue is that some ECTs etc don't realise these expectations aren't normal, and so will burn themselves out trying to comply.

The one advantage of the teacher shortage is that teachers can vote with their feet when heads/MATs bring in insane policies.

Teachers in my primary still spend plenty of time marking. I have never seen one serving up dinners except at Christmas.

The other issue is that some ECTs etc don't realise these expectations aren't normal, and so will burn themselves out trying to comply

Luckily, as well as being the induction lead, I'm also a union rep. I have my ECTs' backs. They're not cooking the bloody dinner or chasing attendance either.

That's really good- and I do think most reps do their best to educate new teachers as well.

I'm also on a teaching sub on reddit (I know it's a bit of a cesspit) and it's scary how many ECTs don't understand basics like directed time, or PPAs.

In so many schools, lunch duties have effectively become compulsory because too few staff know they can refuse, for example.

As I say, in my prior school, chasing attendance definitely became a thing- there was a lot of pressure on us to do it. I did become a union rep after it had become a thing, and we did somewhat successfully push back on it, but by that point it had been a policy for about a year across the MAT. And we were the only school with reps, so I dread to think what it was/is like in their other schools!

I’m not saying marking books doesn’t happen but feedback during the lesson can be more effective than spending hours marking books, both for the pupil and the teacher

Wtf?

Indeed. Many schools and MATs still have very high marking expectations though.

I remember you from posts before. No one believed it then.

@Shinyandnew1 would probably be another stick for parents to beat teachers with if their child’s book isn’t fully marked.

@FishyTree is this a state school?

@Philandbill maybe the question should be is this a real school?

I also wonder how many parents are aware that non specialists e.g. PE teachers have to teach out of specialism and fill gaps. This isn't a dig at PE teachers, many of whom do a pretty good job of teaching e.g. KS3 science (better than I'd do at KS3 PE). But I still think parents don't necessarilyknow.

This happens at my sons secondary. I know he has many cover lessons because he tells me, but I only know about the PE teachers as I have a friend who works at the school. They are pulled out all the time to cover the science / maths/ computing lessons that don't have teachers. It's a mess. * *

My dd who is in Yr 8 has been complaining that they don't have a proper teacher for English.
She says her English teacher is really good and she enjoys his lessons but they have a shortage of teachers higher up the school so he has to cover their classes and my dd's class get a string of substitutes.

She says that the lessons have no consistency to them, they have random lessons and don't feel like they are learning much.
Their proper teacher says he's set out work for them to do but the subs don't stick to his lesson plan.

My dd said the teacher has apologised to them and that he said he's had a lot of complaints from parents and he has complained to his bosses but there's just nothing he can do about it at the moment.

My dd doesn't really enjoy school except for the sport, but English was one of the few lessons she did enjoy, it was one of her favourites and now she hates it.

It was the deputy head during DC EHCP review.

I said no one has left and they haven't. Those involved in the subjects DC are taking are confirmed.

I did not say parents as a whole were informed, I said I was told.

I said I was informed. I didn't say other parents were.

No state mainstream.

I was formally told in a meeting attended by the LA. Please stop making assumptions on a situation you nothing about.

But it doesn’t mean anything @Willyoujustbequiet. The staff don’t have to honour their word and school can’t enforce it. Things change, budgets get worse

They’re always on maternity leave so pay can’t be too big an issue

Hugely irresponsible. They cannot guarantee that for this year, let alone next. Red flags would be waving high.

@ThrallsWife

Someone I know has summed it up quite nicely when they pointed at the staff car park the other week and said, just look at what our teachers are driving these days. Many cars were 13 years old or older, often very old bangers that are lucky to pass their MOTs every year. I drive one such car and at the last MOT was advised to now just drive it until it falls apart instead of attempting repairs, but I also don't have the money for a replacement when that happens. I'm an experienced teacher paid on the leadership scale. One of my colleagues lives at home aged 25 because they can't afford to live on their own on an ECT salary.

• *Yet when we had Ofsted in just before Christmas one of them was driving an electric Porsche 😳. Now we can see where all the money is going in Education. We are also getting a new Executive Head this year, the job was advertised with a Salary of over £100,000. It's not a very even split is it.

@Midwinter91 As a teacher how very DARE I have a family of my own!!!

It's a possibility yes. But it's more likely based on what I was told that they will stay the same for DC.