To think droves of teachers will make the decision by husband made today- to leave

[Peakyshelby]

Well after 6 years of teaching my husband has broken down, gone to the doctors, been signed off and says he is done.

he has done 3 years in 2 schools and then done supply for 3 years. There is too much to list but the highlights have been

been told to go and fuck himself and other insults thrown at him by kids with hardly any consequences from parents and schools

having stuff chucked at him

having to appear as a witness in court when a parent beat up his own child at home time in the playground

having parents create a smear group on WhatsApp against him and 2 other newly qualified teachers because the parents said there little darlings behaviour must be down to inexperienced teachers not being able to handle them.

having parents laugh and him and tell him he is picking on their little darlings by trying to sanction them.

have children laughing at him and saying my mum and dad don’t care what I do

hardly any support from above.

There is too much more to write but today he had a 10 year old child walk up to him and pour a water bottle over his head.

he is done. He qualified with a group of 10 others and 8 of them have since quit. 2 did not get through there NQT year.

He says the system is broken

I left teaching. I'd had too many years of being laughed at, being walked away from when trying to deal with shit behaviour, having children lie to me and parents backing them up, having parents lie about me, chairs thrown, around class, having to break up fights, tables tipped over, kids swearing, kids tearing work out of books and then getting pulled up on state of books, constant scrutiny from SLT and parents but most of all it was just dealing with teaching the most god awful curriculum I've ever seen.

No worries for us, we have plenty of maintained places. Admission statistics for 2023 show about 70% of our schools with spare places.

My LA have supported governing board requests to close, losing 16 schools in just over 5 years, due to low numbers impacting on sustainability, financial and the quality of education provided.

We would be delighted with more children.

National data supports this.
72% of schools have spare places. 93% of schools have capacity or only exceed numbers by 10 or more pupils.

Around 18% of state-funded schools were at or in excess of capacity in 2022/23, this is similar to 2021/22. The majority of these exceeded their capacity by less than 10 pupils, with around 7% of schools exceeding their capacity by 10 or more pupils.

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity/2022-23#

It’s not underfunding though. It’s lack of standards and vile attitudes. Where have these come from in our society that things have changed so much? I’m just more and no re shocked every day.

I think it’s probably a lot worse if you work for the police force

Some of it is. Some of it is social media and ubiquitous screens, including parental use leading to disengagement with child-rearing. Some of it is the shitty state of schools full of unqualified staff simply being the required warm body in a classroom while chaos reigns unchecked due to inability to hire teachers. Some of it is an increasingly young and inexperienced teaching workforce who simply haven't built up the knowledge of how to create routines and consistency. Some of it is the lack of pastoral staff due to budget cuts to mentor these kids into better choices. Some of it is the lack of SEN provision that is needed to help some of them be able to engage.

A lot of it is the last 14 years of underinvestment and lack of care for education and young people, particularly during covid, and post-covid.

A £15 billion covid recovery programme for kids was proposed by the government's own advisor and then rejected for being too expensive. Very false economy.

I've worked in a high school as support staff for two years. I'm job hunting and I'd never work in a school again.

I've lost count of the times I've been told to F off, called a bi*, a c**t and generally disrespected and shouted at. The way students speak to teachers is appalling and I'd be ashamed if my child spoke to them like that.

Some parents do not want to parent and just blame school.

I'm sorry your husband has had to resort to leaving, I hope he finds something that brings peace and happiness.

It’s all very well saying that certain children or groups of children should be excluded, but it really isn’t straightforward. The aim is for zero exclusions and Ofsted don’t like exclusions.

I’ve been kicked so hard I had a bruise from ankle to knee for six weeks. By a five year old. I’ve had an attempt to choke me, an attempt to wrestle me to the ground, thwarted by another member of staff. Being sworn at was a fairly regular occurrence. But there were more good days than bad. I don’t think that’s the case any more.

I’m not surprised so many teachers are leaving and it really is at crisis point now. The education system is broken and I don’t think it can be fixed, at least not quickly and not easily.

This.

That's absolutely appalling!!!!
Your poor DH. 😕
Kid's behaviour is obviously getting worse and it's disgusting that the parents allow and condone it.

You only have to read some of the threads on here…

Attendance, party invites, uniform, phones, transition, new class, friends…etc etc.
Adults who don't want to follow the rules, who are not willing to be accountable, adults who can only see ‘my child’ rather than a community, adults who do not make any effort.

So many parents aren't actually doing any parenting and schools are baring the brunt and we will all bare the brunt when these kids grow up to become unemployable adults.

People tend to forget that your job as a parent is to raise a child to be an capable adult after 18 years. Not to be their friend. Not to ensure they are never unhappy or challenged. That's part of the process.

This is depressing reading. I know things are bad but it makes me feel really depressed about the future of society.

OP I am sorry to hear this and all the posters who have had similar issues. It’s appalling.

Teachers in senior school may have 6 classes a day. It’s really only possible to mark 1/2 class’s work in an evening, as well as doing prep. Hence the feeling of never keeping up, and never being able to take an evening off. I gave up when I was menopausal, coming home,making dinner, falling asleep, then waking up in time to do 2 hours work. Going early bad,y affected my pension butbI just couldn’t do it any more.

I now only do a bit of supply. (I'm in my 60s.)

New build schools have open plan toilets with the sinks open to the corridor so that staff can monitor behaviour. I'm seeing secondary pupils vaping openly.

In one school, I was allocated a classroom opposite the toilets. I reported the kids hanging about the toilets vaping. The school is not allowed to issue punishments these days. (The LA won't allow it.) Staff are allowed to have "restorative conversations", very brief detentions - if the kids agree to stay behind - and to phone parents.

Typically, the parents reply "I can't stop him/her..." or "It's better than smoking..." or "It's all right: we'd rather have him/her vaping with our permission..."

@jouper that's terrible.

Interesting. I wonder how that is split across the grading of schools? I’m sure there is plenty of space in an underperforming school. But who wants their kids going there?!

Schools need to be a lot more strict, and stick to the rules, if pupils break them, expel them at the first instance.

Parents are on phones or at work, so disengaged from children. They think being on the child's side against the school is good parenting. Maybe it's a guilt thing. I've also been called a cunt and sad old bitch, and I work in a school with an excellent Head and SLT. I just have to remind myself that our students are children and their brains are not fully developed yet.

Gosh, this is a very different view of state schools being painted than the dozens of VAT on school fees threads. On those, ‘little Henrietta’ will do just fine in state school and nobody can understand what the fuss is all about.

I would add the stealth privatisation through the academies and SEN provision to your list. I don’t think the decline of education and the rise of the above is a coincidence.

Our primary school's behaviour isn't quite that bad, but has been bad and stressful enough that we have lost at least 7 teachers over the last 2 years to non-teaching roles.... The local secondary school has a shocking rate of turnover and are struggling to keep decent teachers due to the behaviour in school.

Parents really aren't getting it ... there will no one left to teach their children if they don't start teaching their children to behave and face consequences at home!

This is the problem - the enrichment of a few at the expense of the majority.

But at least someone would be arrested for assaulting a police officer. Nothing happens if you assault a teacher in most cases.