I know it's been done to death but I don't think people realise how hard it is to work in a school!

[user4692821]

I work in a small village primary school in the north. I'm so used to hearing people saying "oh I'd love to work in a school so I could have the holidays off" or something along the lines of "well you can't complain as you get so much holidays with the kids" etc.

My week normally consists of:

Being called a bch 3/4 times a day
Told to shut the fk up at least once a day
Being punched
Spat at

And that's just some of the 'bad' incidents. It's not mentioning the other more 'minor' incidents that happen constantly through the day.

I work with 6/7 year olds. In a mainstream school. It's not uncommon, most TA's have similar in their classes. When we meet people from other schools they say the same.

Yet we are constantly told to be grateful we have a job that gives us time off for our kids. I 100% get that it's lucky we can have the holidays off so we don't have to pay for childcare. However what I ask myself everyday is: is this worth my mental health? Because honestly (apart from NHS jobs or similar) where would you go in to work and expected to be treated like this and paid minimum wage?

Sounds appalling tbh. If that is what most teachers and ta’s are facing each day no wonder they are fed up, who could blame them. I always thought it was strange at parents evening, when teachers would make a point in saying how well mannered our DS’ were, obviously not the norm sadly.

I agree.

Due to the type of role I had which involved being in different schools I’ve been in a variety of private schools, state schools in affluent areas and even state schools in deprived areas.

They were not all like this and i’m not solely judging things through my personal observation but from what I learned through speaking to the more permanent staff too.

I think more people need to be prepared to leave their role or even their profession. It needs to be done en masse. Let society know this is unacceptable and we can’t normalise adults - mainly women - being kicked and spat at and abused and insulted by children and teens.

I understand that isn’t possible for everyone but if it is , they should move jobs even if means leaving education if this is their usual treatment at school.

This thread is awful.
But surely it is the school's fault for not backing up their TAs.

If a child swears at or kicks a TA or teacher then the school needs to do something.

It is not a common case in UK on daily basis and it ends up with immediate suspension. I think the OP is TA to children with behavioral issues

Not all schools are like this. I've worked in some lovely schools but even in those the constant behaviour management and crowd control/Intensity (especially with younger ones) just really wore me down after several years. I was so drained and exhausted, anxious too.
Most of the children were lovely though and it is rewarding but I just felt I couldn't do it anymore and that's in Good schools. I wouldn't last long with some of the behaviours people have described from children and parents. I'd be wanting to give them a piece of my mind!
I am very respectful of teachers even before I worked in a school I could see how hard they worked. Some parents are just disgusting.

I'm sure teaching is a living hell these days and thats why i dont do it, but the holidays ARE bloody cushy and i think what gets people's back up is teachers' seemingly instinctive reaction to minimise and complain about that. I have a family member who 20yrs ago would breezily say 'i ONLY get 8 weeks holiday a year!' ....i got 2 from my employer 🤷‍♀️.

The other thing is, if the holidays arent enough of a perk to justify being a teacher, dont do it. When i assess whether im doing a job i look at the whole package and weigh up job cpntent, pay, commute time and costs, holidays, health cover etc.

Same with lazy employees who say it's their mental health and get signed off for weeks while the mental health of their team actually suffers for covering their work.

There’s two sides to this. It’s definitely not black and white.

No doubt some people do need weeks off or even months off. We don’t know what people are going through and can’t automatically write them off as lazy for signing off with mental health. I had a friend who was so hardworking in every area of her personal & professional life but got burnt out partly due to her lazy cheating husband as well as the demands of her job and childhood trauma popping up .

She was signed off first but then had to take two years off work altogether to deal with the various stress related health conditions she’d developed as well as her mental health. And she got PIP. She has now worked on her diet, lifestyle and mental health to the extent she’s now ready to enter the workforce again.

That said I think some people just need to admit they can’t cope with their role and it’s maybe best to leave altogether. There’s a woman in my team who joined in 2020 and has taken 3-6 months off on sick leave every single year! Bizarrely last year she went for a promotion and she got it. I remember thinking is that a good idea? Needless to say she’s off again and has been for months. We are short staffed and with her position being a more senior role with greater responsibility, it makes things more difficult than before now she’s off again. This is basically someone who only works 6-9 months in a year. And when she comes back she isn’t shy about taking her annual leave 😬 no doubt she is struggling but at some point we need to ask if she’s capable of doing the job ?

I don't think any of my contemporaries who went into teaching stayed until retirement. A couple who did have still retired early, all said that behaviour standards have plummeted.
I think this is a thing that is widespread across society. I used to work in a library and I was regularly sworn at, verbally abused, physically threatened, had a knife drawn on me, and had death threats made to me. I left several years ago, but former colleagues tell me that behaviour just gets worse and worse.

you've never been in the position of being pinned up against a wall by a child who is taller than you with their arm pulled back to punch you in the face and stood there

OP is talking about primary school. Not a secondary. There are no children talker than her in primary. Unless she is TA to a child with huge behavioral issues, I don't believe in her 6x per day

I’ve got to say I’ve been a primary teacher for 20 years and have never been spoken to like that.
Parents can be hard work, especially middle class gentle parents who indulge their children and are afraid of saying no.

I don't think OP is saying working in a school is harder than all other jobs. I think she's saying that a lot of people think it's this really easy cushy job with loads of holidays and cute kids and actually it's one of the jobs (like some other jobs mentioned here) where you get a lot of stress, long hours and abuse.

In response to "people need to leave these jobs"... they are. In droves. Some people just want to let people know why education is collapsing on their way out. I didn't because most people either didn't care or didn't believe me. Instead I just metaphorically ran out of the gates and didn't look back.

The PP who couldn't possibly believe a 6 year old capable of calling a teacher a a bitch made me laugh at loud. A lot of 6 year olds are saying a lot worse than that. I do understand it's not everyone's experience and some schools don't have swearing and violence but the ones I taught at did. Same for all my teacher friends. It's not uncommon at all.

I know people like to talk about how kids have always been the same and we have been saying "kids these days" for thousands of years. I think a key difference is that up until recently, kids were scared of the consequences from teachers and adults. Now they feel untouchable.

@JustWingItLifeEyelinerEverything I'm
5 foot 1 and there were quite a few year 6s taller than me actually!

6 times a day? Honestly? In a primary school? What is it, a special need school or a particular child with challenges that she is TA to? 6 years olds?

Unless it is specific child, it is hugely exaggerated

It is massively hard work and there is a reason I’m no longer classroom teaching! But your school sounds particularly bad. I go into about 5 schools locally and only one sounds similar. I’d find a new school.

You have no idea whether it's exaggerated or not.
Stop assuming you know better.

And they regulary try to beat you up? 10 years old? 🤦🏼‍♀️ Is that a special school or the lamy school where there are no consequences. I have year 6 son. And trust me nobody swears at the teacherand tries to hit the teacher 6 times per day. It happens only with 1 kid at school who have EHCP and there is an assistant who follows him non stop

I am 5 foot 2 and some of our year 5s are taller than me.

I have a child that attends primary. He is grade 6. One of the staff members I know very well. Unless it is a TA to some hugely challenged child, it is not an every day case that a child is spitting and swearing at a teacher. And it ends up with immediate suspension in our school and rumours about it go for months among kids. This is primary school

I think it depends. I was made redundant from my professional job when dd was 18 months old. Other job options in my field were an hour’s commute so I took a job in a school working mostly with the “naughty” dc in life skills/work etc and I absolutely loved it. I set clear boundaries and in corridors I’d hear them say to their mates “stop swearing, miss doesn’t like it so we don’t do it in front of her”. I had a fab relationship with them. Sadly the pay was terrible so wasn’t a long term option for me but it was a great period of my life. I loved the long holidays too. It was great for when dc were tiny.

No they did not regularly try to beat me up. I was responding directly to your statement that there are no children taller than OP in primary school.

When I went to primary school, 90% of the teachers lived in the village of the school.

Now majority of teachers live miles away. My parents' neighbours are both teachers. One works in the neighbouring county and the other works the other side of the county. My friend is a teacher works 30 miles away from her school as the town and neighbouring villages are about a third more expensive than the town she lives.

As teachers don't want potential abuse from parents if they are shopping, taking dogs for a walk. Want to keep their job life and outside job life separate.

This is one of the reasons schools often close when its snows. The teacher above who works in the next county drives down country roads which are inaccessible when it snows.

If a child swears at or kicks a TA or teacher then the school needs to do something.

We do.

We record it. The child is spoken to by senior leadership, they miss breaktime, there is a phone call home, if its very serious a child might be asked to collect them and then what..?

Because they come back in for it to happen again tomorrow/a couple of days later.

We can use all the de-escalation techniques we like but some children recognise that you're doing it and fight back harder.

It's easy to say schools/teachers/leadership should do something. Everyone agrees but no-one knows what that something is.

I think a key difference is that up until recently, kids were scared of the consequences from teachers and adults. Now they feel untouchable.

I 100% agree.

I often wish parents could spend the day as a fly on the wall in their child's school. The behviour and language is shocking. Unfortunately there are many parents / carers who think their child's school is immune from these sort of problems, it's not. It happens in every school. You might not see it or hear about it, and your children might not mention it, but that doesn't mean it's not happening.

it is not an every day case that a child is spitting and swearing at a teacher. And it ends up with immediate suspension in our school

No school is going straight in with an immediate suspension for swearing at a teacher. At most it's a chat with SLT and the child's parents, then back into class again.

You are obviously not happy working in school. Do you think your pupils are happy? You at least have a choice not to work there, they don't have the option not to go.