To wonder how much longer it will be before all teachers quit?

[FunionsRFun]

Been called a bitch and screamed at today. Kids are making no progress because 90% of the leason is dedicated to bad behaviour.
My detentions have been taken off the system to make behaviour look better.
Why would anyone do this job?

It is actually untenable. I have had enough of the constant derogatory abuse and battle to get anything done. An out of touch SLT doesn't help much either!
The trouble is society thinks that we have an easy life with tons of holidays. The truth is what down time I have I tend to sleep through I'm so exhausted.

I don't know. I wish my kids had been able to finish their schooling about 15 years ago really as they've been affected by teacher shortages for the last few years for Gcse and A levels. At least youngest is leaving school in 2025.

I know people only post/speak about negatives but I do worry that I see so many threads on here of teachers slagging their job off.
Maybe the children are picking up on your negative vibes and not engaging fully with you because of it.
My child is year 8 and some of the teachers sound like they don't want to be at work at all going on what I'm told at the end of the day. Some of them sound fantastic and there seems to be a correlation between behaviour and progress and the teachers.

I dont doubt it's a hard and thankless job but there must be some positives surely

Yet in Scotland teachers graduating can't get permanent jobs.

I teach and absolutely adore my job - along with my child it is the best thing in my life. Secondary, school in an area of high deprivation. Yes it can be challenging but we all work hard, love the kids, get on well.

There are better and worse schools to work in. Mine is great.

Sorry for those who are struggling - I have been there in a former school.....

I'm professional enough for them to never know. I know how to turn it on in the classroom and the countless interventions and clubs I run. Unfortunately, I do a lot of crying at home in front of my own children. They are the ones suffering.

@Sk8erboi teachers have been moaning for decades. I have family members who are now retired tired teachers and they complained constantly throughout their careers about the same things that are being moaned about now. It’s just we hear about it more now on social media and they have each other to agree with.
I have been a TA at two schools in the past and loved my job with the children. I left because of the staff who dragged everything down, hated the kids, treated them with utter contempt and threatened to leave every single day (never did though, most had been there years - wonder why).
Op - if it is that bad, then leave.

I am. 17 working days left but just feeling very fed up today. There's a lot of good things of course but also lots of reasons to leave.

Many probably don’t want to be there. There are more people leaving the profession (not including those retiring) than joining it.

I have 2 friends who've left teaching and gone back

I have a friend who left teaching, went back, then left again. I entirely understood why she left, I couldn't hack it in a secondary classroom for discipline reasons (I teach at uni and everyone is terribly polite and I like it a lot).

I have left teaching and will never go back.

I was primary and, as individuals and a group, I loved the kids. I lost all love for teaching though as I was dragging kids through a ridiculous curriculum with no support or funding to help them achieve it. I lost all sense of myself because I was either working or spending what little time I had left over being a mum. When I considered crashing my car on the way into work, I knew I needed to prioritise my mental health.

Doesn’t it depend on the subject?
I have a Scottish friend who qualified as a history teacher and couldn’t find a job in her field, but then that’s not a shortage subject in England either.

Change school? They aren't all like that.

My dsis was attacked by a parent, grabbed by the throat, took 5 other teachers to get him off, so I do sympathise. It can be awful.

I hope you find somewhere/ something better.

Our latest parent evening was half the teachers complaining in general about the class, not even our dc. I do feel for them and possibly they're looking for the parents to cone out in support of them but to do what exactly?

I assume the answer is more funding, more training and more teachers. That's going to take years.

OP I do really feel for you, I'd leave. You have valuable transferable skills and pretty much any job is likely to be better.

Effing hell and people criticise teachers who work in the private sector.

Our local secondary is like Lord of the Flies, I don't know how the teachers do it.

Can you move to a different school that supports you more. It’s not always like this. It shouldn’t be like this for anyone but you can only start by looking after yourself

That’s a tad victim blamey!
I am sure there is a connection but it probably goes both ways. If op is being called a bitch that suggests there’s a degree of misogyny involved. I can imagine it’s easier to focus on being positive and enthusiastic if you’re the 6 foot male teacher who even the lairy Andrew Tate fan boys naturally treat with respect, than if you’re the small middle aged woman they try it on with, sometimes to the point of violence, because she reminds them of their mums.

My sister just given up after 20 years. Can’t be arsed with it any more. Workloads too high and kids got so many problems it’s becoming the norm rather than the exception.

I'm at a university and they may be polite but they still threaten to sue, write their essays using ChatGPT and deny it, take drugs, write petitions to get lecturers fired who indulge in wrong think, or in the case of Rosa Freedman or Kathleen Stock, throw urine or smoke bombs.

I made a similar post last week OP. It's getting worse, and it's not as simple as moving school as everywhere is getting worse so it's harder and harder to find a decent school.
2 teachers are leaving this summer in my department who I never thought would leave.

Plus parents never believe their kid could do any wrong. Years ago the teacher was always believed and if you messed around in class, you knew about it when you got home. Not so much now.

I have been a TA at two schools in the past and loved my job with the children. I left because of the staff who dragged everything down, hated the kids, treated them with utter contempt and threatened to leave every single day (never did though, most had been there years - wonder why).

Have you not seen the statistics about the number of people quitting the profession and the utter failure to recruit enough trainees year after year?

People can call teachers moaners as much as they like, but the stats speak for themselves. If it were a nice, manageable job, it would be easy to recruit and retain staff, wouldn't it? Maybe your school is the exception, and teachers aren't leaving. That doesn't change the general situation though.

Don't get me wrong, I have no desire to be a TA, but the relationship with the students is different when you are held directly responsible for their progress and eventual grades. Slogging away trying desperately to make interesting lessons to engage them so they don't fail is soul-destroying when it's constantly thrown back in your face and all you get is disruptive and abusive behaviour and no shits given about their own grades.

I'm lucky enough to teach in a lovely girls' grammar school now. Workload is still a bastard, but at least the kids behave.

I think the same of several professional jobs. Vets and doctors are both leaving their respective professions in droves after a years with a growing shortage of experienced practitioners. Mistreatment by the public and crappy working conditions underlie a lot of it. I imagine this is the same for the teachers. Doing a profession because you care only goes so far.

Sorry yes, as someone who has a niece at uni doing her teaching degree & knowledge of a couple of teachers out if their probation I was thinking primary school