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?

DancefloorAcrobatics

Well, my first thought is, if you as a teacher can't capture the attention of a classroom full of children/ teenagers then maybe you are in the wrong profession...

Hopefully you will think again and realise how stupid your first thought is.

You sound dim

I never liked schools or the staff.

But parents with their gentle parenting are worse.
News flash your kids can be little shits.
For what i read on MN parents dont no how to parent always pal them off on someone.
Always starts with SEN for an excuse.
If there is no SEN they are being tested for some sort of SEN.
Mums are getting older kids are getting worse teachers have had enough.

Dont forget always blame the teacher or someone else.

I hate SEN being used as an excuse too because so many kids with SEN are so gentle and creative and also just want to learn. It might be something to work with but it's not an excuse for bad behaviour.

This is a huge part of the problem you only need to read many posts in this site, poor Cherub was twaauuumatisssed because a teacher had the temerity to raise their voice. I always recall by brother coming home from school, in the '60s,

Dad Why are you so late?
Bro I had detention
Dad What did you do?
Bro Nowt!
Dad What should you have been doing?

That's a supportive parent, supporting the school and letting his son know he was on his case.

... and 30 years ago.

Class of teenagers actually threw bits of chalk at teachers back.

Then there were the ones turning up stoned- also known as mush heads.

Teacher had an affair with the deputy head- I won't repeat what was written on black boards and walls around the school.

Then there is the pupil to pupil violence- I know 2 of my class mates ended up in hospital.

...

My point is, this type of shit has been going on since the year ● of secondary schools.

How to tell people you don’t have a clue without saying you don’t have a clue

So you can't really blame people for not wanting to deal with it.

Part of the reason I left teaching was the constant negativity, it honestly didn’t matter what it was the level of complaining was off the scale. This is what wore me down not the actual teaching. Teachers do have an awful lot to do and shouldn’t have the addition of crap SLT but the culture of negativity is draining. Just leave if you don’t like it anymore. But most stay and carry on moaning because they don’t want to give up 46K and 13 weeks holiday.

Someone I know told me how her teacher DD is called the c-word on a daily basis, to the extent she no longer bothers to report it.

I have worked in schools. If you are miserable teaching because the pupils make your working day Hell then you should leave the profession. To be a successful teacher you need to have the right personality and attitude and so many teachers just don't have it.

Would it be OK to label all kids from a particular ethnicity as bullies, because a single child from that particular background was bullying your child?

Why are we blaming kids with SEN as a collective? SEN is a shortcut for disability. So a few posters are saying disabled children as a collective are the problem. Nice.

Back to the op. If the working conditions in your school are shit, and violence in the workplace is not acceptable, raise a grievance, escalate it if need be, go to your union, go to tribunal if need be, find another school, stop working evenings and weekends, point blank refuse.

I think education would be much better if teachers were less passive, moved schools, said no, raised grievances, took collective action. Etc.

It's an all-consuming job, and emotions run high. When it's going well, it's the best job in the world. But when it's going wrong, it can quickly become unbearable.

I love teaching. I enjoy the fast pace of the day, I really like teenagers, and I don't mind working hard. But when parents still complain, often with totally ridiculous expectations of what human teachers can achieve when they teach up to 200 students a week each, it feels like the most thankless, pointless job in the world.

Non-teachers: "If you are not enjoying teaching, you clearly hate kids, so you should leave."

Teachers: <leave in their thousands>

Non-teachers: "Ffs, why doesn't my child have proper subject teachers in x, y and z subjects? How is she meant to do well in her GCSEs? It's a disgrace!"

I agree bad behaviour has been an issue for decades in some schools but the teachers had far less stress and accountability! I was at a bog standard comp in the 90s swearing, drug taking, chair throwing, lots of low level stuff. Luckily for the teachers loads of kids skived school and nobody seemed arsed. They are in the building now causing the issues 🤷‍♀️

The difference, I think, some of the teachers were as bad! Or they were more disinterested. They would swear and scare some kids into submission! Board rubbers being thrown was a real thing! Also, they'd turn a blind eye of you just wanted to sit and chat and piss about. There was no Ofsted back then, no league tables so they weren't that arsed! Lots of my teachers went to the pub on a Friday lunch!

I try and channel the 90s teacher of my youth sometimes, if I don't get the data right or show evidence of tracking all the subgroups in my class, who cares? They're not going to sack me! Not easy though and I feel for my colleagues who are more professional than me. Pub at lunchtime is laughable!

I think a lot depends on the school you work in. Some are truly horrendous to be in, with appalling behaviour.

I teach secondary and I am a Head of Science. So a big, complex job. Our school is also in a very deprived area.
It's busy but I honestly enjoy it. We have strong routines, a very visible and supportive SLT - even the head is out on duty every single break and lunch unless she is out of school or in a meeting that can't be avoided. As a staff, we all support each other which helps.

I can teach my lessons without it being a nightmare. For example, today, I did a practical involving water - totally fine. Had a lesson with lots of mini whiteboard work - totally fine. STEM club experiments with water/food colouring etc- really nice.

There are difficult points and hard days, of course there are, but it is mostly enjoyable.

If you end up in a school like my previous one where SLT are far from visible and pass everything back to staff, where you are permanently short staffed, behaviour is awful and trying to teach some lessons is like wading through treacle, it's a very different matter!

Alternatively, if the Kids are making the teachers lives hell then the SLT should back up the teachers and sort out the kids and their parents.

But once again lets blame the teachers for the shit that they have to put up with.

Ofsted and league tables came in in 1992.

I have worked in schools. If you are miserable teaching because the pupils make your working day Hell then you should leave the profession. To be a successful teacher you need to have the right personality and attitude and so many teachers just don't have it.

There. Aren't. Enough. Teachers. If you got rid of all the average teachers, barely adequate teachers and not very good teachers, you would have to close a lot of schools. Is that what you want? Do you think a great big, new cohort of future 'successful teachers' are lining up to take their place? They aren't. And many of the keen, bright-eyed trainees only stick it for a year or two. Quite a lot don't make it through their training.

I've left teaching after 15 years and taken a job that pays 15 thousand a year lower. I'm much happier, better work life balance and feel like I'm making a difference. I'm a safeguarding practitioner in a college. The pressure to drag kids through curriculums that have no impact on their lives, skills that they won't use after school, battles about uniform as if their education depends on it, constant underfunding and a huge increase in additional needs make the role untenable and certainly not the job I originally trained for. Teachers now are social workers, carers, teachers, mental health practitioners, safeguarding practitioners, statistics specialists and the population's punching bag, as if they are the ones that make the decisions. The whole system needs overhauling!

Scotland and England have completely different set-ups / pay etc. Someone mentioned it on here the other day, how teaching in Scotland is so much better financially etc compared to England.

So Scotland have too many people trying to break into the profession and England have people running out

Yep, still loads of lovely kids but the daily abuse, usually from boys radicalised by all the shit that watch online is getting a bit much now. I'm just hanging on for as long as I can while my kids are young because of the holidays. 100% won't make anywhere near retirement age before I change careers.

My school is in the process of closing due to falling numbers and reduced budget. We had a meeting about support provided for job hunting and quite a large part of it was how to look for jobs outside of teaching and our transferable skills!

I am taking a short break to recover from this but I will be keeping on teaching. My class and colleagues have got me through this so far but I am dreading moving again to a new school.

Not sure.

My kids are 7 and 10 and I think by the time they finish school, teachers will be rarer than hen's teeth

DancefloorAcrobatics · Today 18:37

Well, my first thought is, if you as a teacher can't capture the attention of a classroom full of children/ teenagers then maybe you are in the wrong profession...

your first thought, upon hearing that a woman was called a bitch by a pupil, is that she can't capture the attention of her classroom? Aren't you just full of empathy.