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?

Why would anyone do that job? For £40k+ a year, 14 weeks holiday, every Bank Holiday, weekend and Christmas off guaranteed. Occasional days, INSET days and half days, not to mention the ridiculous 'snow days'. Working day starts at 0830hrs and finishes easily by 1530hrs. If you cannot control a class, there is probably a training course for that.

I don't know, but it's been happening for the last 40 years that I can remember and plenty of teachers children train to be teachers so it can't be all that bad. I genuinely don't understand the constant hysteria over teachers leaving the profession - I know loads of people that have changed their jobs for all sorts of reasons with far less drama.

Couldn’t you say the same for parents with out of control kids?

Maybe reread your comment: Op - if it is that bad, then leave.

Edited as just realised it wasn’t @Sk8erboi who said that, apologies

Teachers who feel like that should leave. There are plenty of other jobs out there. No one has to stay in teaching.

I’ve worked in schools & the moaning is ridiculous. But most of them never actually leave, they just stay & moan.

Agree - none of the recently (last 3 years) qualified teachers I know have managed to secure a permanent job.

Another friend is applying to one of the Scottish teacher training colleges and has been told that their are 800 applicants for 100 places.

There's clearly lots of people still choosing to become teachers.

Those who hate teaching should leave and do something else.

I’m looking at early retirement (so I can access my lump sum) but don’t want to give up teaching. I ruddy love my subject and the kids, but omg, some kids/schools make it really difficult to keep up the enthusiasm. My head of faculty thinks I’m mad to want to keep going.

What with teachers increasingly quitting and the government failing to meet its recruitment targets (only recruited half their target of secondary trainees last year) it does seem that we’re going to be needing to look for an alternative to the current system of education. Currently the government is looking to fill the gaps with immigrants.

I have left teaching.

I was officially working a three day week. With planning and prep on top I was doing a five day week.

My hourly rate was about 16 an hour.

I'm tutoring now for 30 an hour.

But 48000 joined?

Won't demand start to decline anyway with the falling birth rate? I know where I iive, a lot of the smaller schools are closing or merging. I'm not saying it's not a shit job - I certainly wouldn't want to do it - but numbers of teachers seems to be growing not falling?

Loads of jobs are shit unfortunately. NHS don't seem happy. I'm not either but I work in neither sector. I'm not sure where you'd go once you left that's not also shit but just in a different way?

Won't demand start to decline anyway with the falling birth rate?

Primary, yes. Secondary not for a few years. Best hope you don’t have children currently in or close to secondary age.

I think the “general public” and their offspring just became a lot more rude, entitled and aggressive. There should be long term consequences for terrible behaviour in schools, GP surgeries etc etc - criminal records, benefit cuts, huge fines for those who can afford it. People need to start valuing public services or have them cancelled for themselves. There is no deterrent to behave in a civil way if such people feel it is their entitlement. No sorry, the basics have to be met. Children in developing countries are not like this because they appreciate and value the opportunity to get an education.

I'm a TA and all the teachers I know work from 8am - 6pm. 3:30 is laughable.

I'm supposed to finish at 3:30 but don't finish until 4 most days and I'm just a TA.

Kids need discipline and boundaries. Without it, it's chaos. Whether it's teaching or anything else.

Why has the country gone so soft?

I love my school. (Primary)
I enjoy nearly all of my job.
I am enthusiastic and I know I provide interesting and engaging lessons.
I’ve 20 years experience and am nobody’s fool. Behaviour management has always been a strength.
I’ve still finished today wondering why I bother.
In 1 hour today in 1 group of 30 kids I’ve had -
1 child with the most severe case of hyperactivity disorder I’ve ever seen.
3 children with the most challenging presentations of asd that I’ve ever had.
2 complete emotional melt downs involving sobbing, rolling on the floor and attempting to tip over furniture.
Never mind all the other children and the things they need.
There is no support and at least two of those children need specialist provision.
It’s untenable.

@worstofbothworlds oh I agree, there's lots wrong with the university sector. I do feel well protected in terms of not being spat on or having chairs thrown though which my children have seen in their classrooms. There are threats to academic freedom, but very few lecturers run the gauntlet that say secondary teachers do, which is why I enjoy uni lecturing.

It's all relative.

Some subjects have much more people wanting to be teachers than jobs. PE is a classic example.

Other subjects - maths, science, anybody with a stem degree can very very easily get a better job than teaching. It'll be better paid, and it won't involve people swearing at you or throwing things. Well, unless you go into finance😀.

So there is a massive shortage of physics teachers in state schools. There used to be starting to be a similar shortage in maths teachers.

Most primary schools are pretty well staffed. But the impact really comes when your kid gets up to gcse and you realise they're going to fail maths because they've had cover teachers for the last year.

Hence the massive boom in maths (and other subjects) tutoring.

Considering how much discourse there has been about teacher workload and retention over the last few years, it's hard to believe that anyone is still so bloody pig ignorant about it.

In all honesty you should leave teaching and do some else. It is not an easy job, especially at secondary level - don't be a martyr to it, just leave. When you are crying in front of your children it is time for a change.

Personally I strongly feel schools should be able to exclude children who are dicking around or abusive. Nothing is being gained by keeping them, and they could all go to some PRU type school and let the children who are willing to learn be taught by the teachers who just want to teach.

What a load of drivel.

INSET days were taken from the holidays of teachers in the first place.

CPD is not a perk. Are you expected to do it in your own time?

That was to @peakygold

Maybe this is a parent/child problem. No discipline. It wasn't this bad 15 years ago

Agreed.

I have never been sworn at, let alone experienced any physical abuse, and my SLT aren't too bad, but I will be leaving at the end of this year, almost entirely due to behaviour. An increasing proportion of students seem to be incapable of understanding that the rules do actually apply to them and they cannot do whatever they want. The constant battle to get them to stop talking and do some work is draining. We have had to increase the number of staff supervising detentions, but most of the students don't care (some are in detention most days every week). Add to that the over-full, one-size-fits-all curriculum, and the unrealistic expectations when you have students in a class who cannot access any of the curriculum, and several with additional needs, and the loss of evenings and weekends to work, and it is no longer a rewarding role. Most of my colleagues are only staying because they have mortgages to pay.

What would teachers think of a massive expansion of PRUs (are they still called that) for pupils to be referred to either temporarily or permanently? To allow the teaching and (more straightforward) classroom discipline of the remaining 30-odd children who do want to learn and can behave?

I'm not a teacher but I would vote for this.