Burnt out teacher!

[Supermummy88]

Good evening everyone,

I just wanted to get some advice from fellow teachers and people from other professions. I think my schedule as head of department is insane and I feel I am on the verge of burning out. I am constantly ill and my migraines are horrendous. I am beginning to hate being in classroom as I am simply too exhausted to teach. Below is my weekly schedule:

Mondays: School have 6th period so don’t finish until 4pm

Tuesday: CPD until 4:30pm

Wednesday: Pastoral meeting 7:50am-8:15am

3:00-4:00pm department meeting

4:00-5:00pm year 11 intervention

Thursday: 7:45-8:15am year 11 intervention

Friday: 7:45-8:15am heads of department meetings with SLT

Do others have similar schedules? I am struggling to juggle everything as I have 2 small children.

Thank you xx

Those hours are face-to-face contact hours. Working hours are entirely different thing!

Seems standard to me. My teaching day usually longer. We would normally have that kind of schedule plus a Thursday evening event of some kind - parents evening or presentation of some kind.

Secondary teachers don't seem to spend as much time resourcing things for classrooms but I still don't really understand when you do stuff related to actual teaching. Apart from one staff meeting night, it takes me 1.5 hours after school and 1 hour before school minimum just to mark, print and prepare lessons. I work in the holidays, am well-prepared and not a faffer so that's just to achieve the bare minimum (admittedly half form entry school so no shared planning and having to double up on some things). I think sometimes SLT forget the actual job is to teach and we need time to do that. Your current workload sounds unsustaibable.

Sounds tough but don't you get school holidays off?
I do similar hours/ longer in child protection and wrap around with my daughter and get 26 days off a year!

That doesn’t alter the burnout and unfair expectations in term time. And just to be clear, we don’t get paid for the holidays.

This is the same as me. OAT?

I disagree it doesn't alter the burn out- it's easter holiday imminently which is a a 2 week break for state schools!

Also salary is paid monthly unless supply.

Im not trying to negate the fact OP is burnt out - teaching is a difficult job. The hours are not so bad though when there are breaks frequently.

I didn't read the end of your message @RainbowColouredRainbows due to staffing and having to be a mentor (which I hate) I have 0 leadership time one week and 1 hour the next.

It's a tricky one. The 80-90 hr week somebody was doing is just awful - that's really not acceptable. There was a story in the news recently about a lady in my profession who had died following burn out and mental health struggles- but I think the difference is nobody really seems to have much sympathy because we're doing a less "worthwhile" job so IRL I don't feel able to complain.

On the face of it the hours don't sound awful per se - but would I want to do your job - no. Yes there is a lot of holiday - and as a set off, I worked out recently we spend around £20k of gross income on holiday club cover. I think there are so many factors to consider.

However, the bottom line is, teachers are leaving the profession and all saying the same so as a society we can't continue to ignore it as there are obviously huge issues.

No, but a very similar one

Like others have said you need to look at your directed time. I am also a HoD and my day officially starts at 8:15 and the school cannot tell me to do anything (meetings etc.) before this time, although I do get to work around 7:40 to get things done, but that is my choice. The day ends at 3:15 and again they cannot tell me to do anything after this time. Except for the one middle leadership meeting a week and the late finish on a Thursday for CPL and this is all included in our directed time. Also, I always do year 11 intervention at lunch time, which works well for me. The kids bring their lunch with them. Could this be something you could do? In addition, make sure you are using your free periods effectively. I’m not suggesting you don’t, but at the start of a week I create a list of all the things I need to get done and allocate which free periods I’m going to do them in. I also avoid sitting in the staff room or with other staff in frees as otherwise I’m not as productive. This avoids me taking work home with me as much as possible.

@tearsandtiaras

We are only paid for term time work. It’s spread over the 12 months.

You can say whatever you want but it doesn’t alter that teaching is hard and it is unfair and we are not paid for the hours we do. The holiday does not help when you are in the middle of term time burnout. There is a reason hoards are leaving the profession and recruitment is impossible.

The above doesn't sound normal. I'm a HoD of a large faculty and I generally work from 8-5.45 every day, but no evenings and weekends. Our school limits meetings after school to one per week, along with two early morning briefings.

OP, I think I remember your username from a thread about marking an unreasonable amount of mock papers earlier this year. I think it's fairly clear your current school has unreasonable expectation. Given the teacher shortage at the moment, you'll walk into another job so I'd really recommend you start looking for something now before the resignation deadline so that you're not in the same position next year. What you seem to be expected to do is not normal and the only way conditions will change is if teachers vote with their feet and leave schools which can't manage workload properly.

i don’t think the early start is an issue to be honest, are you full time? What time do you tend to finish? I’m part time 0.8 and so two long days (7.30-5 30 minutes unpaid lunch)and two short days (8-2 no break)

if I was full time I’d do 4 of the long days

It isn't the start time as such that's the issue. It's that it's ON Top of an otherwise very intense and full day of work. So the equivalent is if your start time is say 8 it's coming in at 7... It's over and above what's needed.

When teaching (like several jobs - I imagine nursing is similar) there is no down time. Each individual hour is intense and contains a ton of learning. You can't slack for an hour or just push paper around/deal with emails. All that is Outside of teaching time. So having added contact time above what is usual and before usual start time is the issue here.

You are being cheated out of holiday then. That is below the legal minimum amount of holiday entitlement in the uk. The legal minimum is 28 days.

You work those hours in a school? Including all the planning, marking, meetings m, data analysis and admin?

No, I’m one of the other professionals OP asked about. NHS

I’m also an HOD and a Mum to 2 young children.

On my timetable it looks as though I have 5 free periods per week, but I’ve only had this once this academic year. Most weeks I have to cover 2 lessons, and other weeks it has been 1 lesson. Most weeks therefore I only get 3 hours PPA, which for an HOD is just not correct. Any time I raise this issue with the person who arranges cover and my line manager, they tell me I’m under allocation and therefore they’ll use me in this way.

I’m now in talks with the union about the above, and about a couple of other things I don’t want to mention on here.

I also have a tutor group 5 days per week for 30 minutes each time.

Each week we have:
A 10 minute briefing.
1.5 hours of CPD & meetings

Every fortnight there is also some kind of meeting for HOD’s.

They keep on telling me I need to run an after school club, but I keep on telling them I can’t fit it in, especially due to my own childcare needs.

I am working every single night at home for at least 2 hours, but usually for about 4 or 5 hours from 9pm until 1 or 2am. If I’m too tired to get it all done and start dozing, I set the alarm on my phone for 4am and go to sleep and get up at 4am and do some work.

The behaviour and attitudes of the majority of the people I am supposed to teach are atrocious. Most of the time I cannot get the class to be quiet so that I can give a basic instruction or actually try and teach them something. I’ve been told to fuck off more times in this school than in my whole teaching career.

There is no TA support available despite three quarters of my students in most of my classes having SEN and/or behavioural needs.

I really can’t go on like this, mentally and physically it’s draining and I’m ill as a result.

I’m looking for another job. I’m desperate to escape teaching altogether, but I need to earn a least £48,000 to make this dream a possibility. I have applied for a number of education-related roles that are non-teaching, but I don’t even make the shortlist. Most of the salaries for non-teaching roles who expect you to have been a Teacher are so much lower than Teacher salaries, so most of them I can’t apply for as sadly there’s nothing left for my family and I to cut back on.

I feel utterly desperate and completely depleted. I just don’t smile anymore.

Yep. I've been looking at local authority roles at 27-30k which is so much less. But also thinking it will be a lot less hours and boundaried work... So possibly a higher hourly rate!!

Sendiass was even less. I was so surprised. But the work involves sitting talking to people one on one so far less intense.

Seems normal IF within start time for directed time? If not then no!

Would anyone mind telling me what's a standard teaching load for a classroom teacher and/or a HOD in a state school?

I'm in an independent at the moment, and the extra curricular and saturday expectations, and evening boarding duties during the week, are getting me down. But our standard timetable is only 38 teaching lessons out of 50, with one or two meetings on top. I also get an extra 4 period allowance per fortnight for HOD (3 for smaller departments).

@PickledMumion it depends on the school. Minimum 10% PPA is in the STPCD but the rest is up to the school.

Yikes. I think I'd probably rather spend Saturdays umpiring in the rain!

Looking at the hours from a different profession they seem like normal full time hours