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?

I absolutely loved teaching (even though the behaviour had me in tears in the evenings sometimes) but for me it was the workload that was insane.

I left this summer and without changing my diet or exercise I’ve lost 3 stone, my skin is clear, and my hair and nails have never been longer and stronger.

I didn’t realise the effect it was having on me physically until I actually left.

Whats funny is that my contracted hours are now longer and I don’t get the holidays but I still have a lot more free time and energy than I did when I was teaching.

I bet a chunk of the 48000 will leave within 2 years/have left already. Also of 40000 experienced teachers leave to be replaced with 40000 new teachers you can immediately see the issue especially around behaviour management etc.

No matter how much you paid me i wouldn't set foot inside a classroom again.

Unfortunately teachers are expected to be parents and social workers, as well as teachers nowadays.
It's very challenging to manage this on top of normal day to day teaching.

What turned you away?

Exactly this, no-one disciplines their children and wants to constantly self diagnose adhd/autism etc.

Schools constantly going on about pronouns and mental health.

Same as parents wanting to ban phones and anything else, so they don't have to parent.

Lucky most teachers are great, especially at my children's school, were they don't hesitate to help go over work in their lunch break, if a child asks them for help, I think because the majority of children are respectful at the school, the teachers will go above and beyond.

How long have you been a teacher for?

I left 3 years ago. It was grim then. By all accounts it’s horrific now.

The positives were very few. It’s a shit job now. And that’s not about ‘vibes’

Not me.

Slightly different but I always thought my son would be a primary school teacher - couldn't believe he had to pay for his own pgce - completely shocked - he has now gone off to a marketing role. No wonder we can't recruit teachers if they have to pay for their own training.

If parents did some parenting the kids wouldnt be feral.
I hate schools and im not keen on teachers but the crap they have to put up with not just from children but from the parents as well.
I can see why some are leaving.

It can be awful. Highly disruptive behavioural issues and a general decline in respect make it very difficult. Not a teacher myself but DP is one and he has plenty of struggles at his school.

Sadly there are many in the educational establishment and parents who simply refuse to believe things are as bad as they are and just blame teachers for being inadequate in managing behaviour. As if anyone can possibly teach why coping with screaming meltdowns several times a week sometimes requiring MAPA restraint - which I know some primary school classes experience.

I recently saw a thread on twitter started by a school administrator who was complaining that a secondary teacher should have avoided yet another screaming meltdown from a child by providing them with stationary that the teacher had to provide at their own cost as that child had broken their own stationary by "becoming frustrated" (but apparently this was an "accident"). The number of people jumping in and blaming the poor teacher for this incident when the school was not providing the resources and the child was not even keeping to basic standards of behaviour by damaging their own property and then acting out because of it.

Sadly this is just one part of a litany of problems that are plaguing teaching. I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to seek a career in it given what my DP has to go through.

The whole thing is a mess. In the short term they need to be throwing money at staffing in schools.

I did recruitment for a MAT. All the people who previously would apply to be TAs etc are getting roles in supermarkets or WFH around their kids. Why would you work in a school for minimum wage, the whole school support works on mums having no choice - now they do.

The knock on effect is not having to deal with students who shouldn’t be in lessons or need more support and so it’s pushed back onto the teachers. You can’t send a student out of a lesson if there’s nowhere for them to go.

I have had teachers leave, and come back. I know mumsnet is full of stories of teachers earning the same elsewhere but not in my experience. It might be because we are in a town in the north rather than a city. I had HOD science who came back in 6 months on main scale, waiting for HOD role to come open, because she couldn’t earn anywhere near £50k elsewhere.
I also had teachers who worked as ‘permanent supply’ so they only did the job and left at 3pm, because we needed them more than they needed us. Caused resentment though with staff.

My friend qualities in July, I don’t know how she does it. She’s been bitten so many times and punched too. She works silly hours, it must work out at less than minimum wage.

I'm in a city in the south.

We have a HE training institution in our city plus a couple of SCITTs.

The issue isn't so much HODs leaving (although some are stepping back to mainscale in easier/private schools)
It's more that early career teachers can't afford to live here. So they might train and teach for a couple of years while living in a shared house, then realise they will never buy here, and move North/home/abroad.

The people who have trained and stuck it out are mid life career changers who already have housing.

Teachers seem So dramatic.... I mean who doesn't moan about their jobs?

Where will you go to work which will be moaning - free?

I would feel dramatic if somebody spat at or punched me. Or called me a bitch, for that matter. Luckily where I work this doesn’t happen. Why should they put up with it?

TA here, broken and battered by the relentlessness of it all. The never ending demands from children, parents, staff.....the entitled behaviour......the budget cuts every year....I am done. Like OP, I am very good at turning it on and acting through my day, but it's taking its toll and I think that something will break eventually. My mental health is shot and my physical not far behind. I adore the kids I care for, but I cannot go on.

*Teachers seem So dramatic.... I mean who doesn't moan about their jobs?

Where will you go to work which will be moaning - free?*

In most workplaces you have a reasonable expectation of not being sworn at and assaulted.

Were the 40000 all experienced? I thought a lot didn't get through the first couple of years? Is there a breakdown?

I do agree with other comments about more PRU spaces though. It must be hell for both teachers and students having to manage this type of behaviour. I am very glad my kids are all past this stage of their education. But my future grandkids aren't...

94% of teachers responding to a TeacherTapp question yesterday said they were experiencing a degree of burnout. 98% said they felt under constant strain.

For those who don't know TeacherTapp, its respondents tend towards the eager beaver, optimistic end of the profession.

My sister left teaching after 10 years.

She said its a complete disaster. Pupils out of control, parents that think they are right all the time and the school business doesn't care about the pupil or staff.

Failed generation of young people

Would you work somewhere you were sworn at or physically assaulted?

I know I shouldn’t rise to the troll but:

I get in at 8am, and I’m one of the last in. I have just got home now, at 6 o’clock. I’m only 10 minutes away.

If you want all the holidays, £40k, and bank holidays (only one of which isn’t already in the holidays so I don’t know why you mention them) then do retrain.

I'm looking every day for other jobs. The thought of doing another teaching job kills me inside. All day every day I get abuse from students and parents. If people really don't get it they should visit a school.