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?

I agree I'm also an Irish teacher and I have been teaching 12 years. I've experienced some challenging behaviour but it's not daily and usually dealt with seriously and quickly. I admire anyone who teaches long term in England, I trained and worked a few years in an inner city school in East London. I left to return home and swore if I ever returned (husbands family are London based so we we left that door open) that I would never ever teach there again.

To be fair in my school it was an issue with the unrealistic expectations of management and the goverment/OFSTED expectations. The kids were lovely (the odd very challenging child but I had that everywhere!) and the odd awkward parent (again I've had that here in Ireland). The sheer amount of paperwork and "extras" made it very difficult to teach.

Here I do arrive at 9:00, after I've dropped my own children off at their own school, I leave between 3:00pm and 4:30pm depending on the day and/or workload. I rarely take work home except this year I'm in a new year group so occasionally need to do planning and in May I tend to do a few reports every evening just so I don't have to spend a whole weekend doing it.

I agree it's mostly parents though, every year it seems to be getting worse here but we have strong support from management and the union and when incidents do occur I don't feel burnt out as I have reasonable working conditions otherwise.

I feel like I was institutionalised when I worked in London, I was led to believe I had to do all the extra paperwork and nonsense to be a good teacher but coming home I've realised it's not true, we still plan, teach and assess effectively. Irish students do just as well or better than their UK peers in international assessments/league tables. Some of the stuff I had to do or was subjected to in the UK the Irish teachers would laugh you out of it (e.g. learning walks, double backed displays, excessive inset training).

There were 15 people in my tutor group in 2012 and I have still have them all on Facebook. Only 7 of them still teach due to stress/burnout. That speaks volumes. Here schools are full of lifelong teachers and its nigh on impossible to get a permanent job without years of supply outside of the cities as its a sought after role.

The behaviour you are being subjected to is not OK and your management should he stepping up and protecting you. But I know myself that often doesn't happen, my head in London wouldn't leave her office after an actual fistfight broke out in my reading corner. She said "oh just send them down to me".

How does that give you any indication of @user4692821's situation exactly?

Perhaps you should write a book, this sort of things need to be publicised as much as possible, it’s awful!

Not true. Our Primary school suspends kids who swear at the teacher. There was also an incident when I boy swore and kicked a teacher. He was suspended for a week.

We aren't only discussing 'your school'. 🤔

Do you work at the school? As you might be missing key information.

A school isn't going to suspend a pupil just because they swore at a teacher.

@Einwegflasche because in her post she is not only adressing her experience but refers to it as if it was common case and makes reflections as if every teacher was experiencing it more than 6 times a day. And that is a huge exaggeration.

I quit teaching as it was ruining my physical and mental health. I admire all teachers. It’s a v hard job, with not enough reward or recognition x

I have been a secondary school teacher and have also done numerous other jobs since. I now have a job that involves sitting at a desk with normal office holidays. There is no way on earth that the 13 weeks school holidays even begin to compensate for the amount of yourself you have to give and the amount you have to put up with. I would rather have a non teaching job and fewer holidays any day. And I am someone who loved the actual teaching part of the job and have always liked to have time to travel.

Have you read the original post at all? This is not a post describing one person's experience. It is a post that assumes that every TA in UK is spat on and hears swearing at him/her more than 6 times oer day. Not every TA is an individual assistant to a hugely disturbed child. This is a very individual experience in every .... PRIMARY school and there is no need to assume that it happens everywhere to every TA.

This is primary and not secondary school

They do. Ans if you write to me the PM I can tell you which specific school does it and most in my borough.

Which primary? My DS is starting primary in TW in September

Funnily enough I was discussing this at the weekend with two friends who teach in secondary schools. They have seen a significant change in behaviour over the past few years, the full impact of which is being felt with the current group of Year 7 students (age 11-12 for those outside the English school system!)

Back in the early 90s there were plenty of children who spent every spare minute of their time watching TV or gaming. I remember children sat playing their gameboys in restaurants. I remember plenty of children with negligent parents who spoke disrespectfully, didn't value education and whose children could do nothing wrong. However, the impact of this poor parenting was limited to come extent by the cultural climate they existed in.

Look at the content this generation of children are consuming compared with previous years. Never have we seen such a rapid shift in the type of media children consume.

Our children were born 2003, 2008 and 2010. The eldest consumed very little online content during his primary years. His early childhood was not so different from ours. The younger two were the start of the "iPad generation" but the content they actually consumed was generally long-form YouTube videos pretty similar in tone to the mainstream content we grew up with (Minecraft Let's Play videos, craft videos, re-runs of mainstream TV shows and documentaries). TikTok (then Musical.ly) was just dance videos. All rather quaint looking back.

Contrast that with the abundant, fast-moving frequently nihilistic content the current primary cohort are growing up with. Even if screen use had remained static between generations, the effects would be quite different.

TLDR: the media content that was available to children and the off-screen cultural climate used to partially ameliorate poor parenting.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk 😂

I've never been punched or spat at, but did many years in a customer service type job in retail. I've honestly got to a point now where people can be as rude to me as they like and I genuinely don't give a shit. Like a really don't care. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing but it definitely makes the job a lot easier.

I come from a family of teachers though and totally get how hard working in a school is. I think there needs to be some kind of public awareness campaign or something because the general attitude towards schools and teachers stinks.

It's diagnoses (more than one diagnosis)

I've been a teacher for 17 years and I now work in an inner city school in northern England.

I've never been called a bitch by a student to my face, or been told directly to fuck off. If they did they would be sanctioned effectively.

It's not like that everywhere and it's doesn't have to be if you find a supportive school with leadership who actually lead.

Well that's your fantasy dear.

I teach in a private school - not been sworn in in 20 years. It’s something that would be unusual. I’ve heard students swearing but never at a teacher. I love my job. It’s tiring and all-consuming in term time with a massive marking load but I love it. I’m in my 30th year of teaching now.

Gently OP but what is the point of this thread. Everyone's jobs are hard. Teacher's jobs are hard enough without perpetuating the myth that teachers all think they have the hardest job in the world.

These jobs all have elements of that:
Lawyers
Prison officers
Retail staff
Doctors and nurses
Hospitality staff
Transport staff
Anything to do with mental health
Banking
Small businesses with limited HR

I know that teachers work hard. But so do many many many other people. You'd definitely don't make minimum wage in that profession. If it's not worth it for you, then look into retraining. And just so you know that I know what I'm talking about, I originally trained as a teacher straight out of uni and realised that it just wasn't for me.

Sigh.

As a parent of a year 1 child it's hard to imagine them stringing together such a spiteful sentence I'm assuming that's what he hears his dad shouting at his mum.

@CaptainCallisto I agree with the above poster. Parents failing badly here. One can only imagine that in 15 years time, that boy will be a man screaming this at a terrified woman.

@60andsomething because I have worked in both sectors. Private school kids far better behaved, generally speaking. Of course there are exceptions.

For what is worth, you have my utmost respect and admiration for you hard work and dedication to such an ungrateful job.
I am sorry for your troubles. I think you are awesome and deserve all the credit for your courage.

Schools are a reflection of society surely. Teachers cannot be expected to “fix” these deep rooted societal problems. They bear the brunt of it though. Dreadful