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

Good for him. I hope he recognises he has done his very best and goes on to do something much more fulfilling.
No one should have to put up with this.

This is exactly why we went private. DD did half a term term in a pre school attached to a primary school, rated as one of the top 100 in the country. We lasted half a term before moving her to a private school. A Class of 15 with one teacher and 3 TAs. She doesn’t come home hurt, no drug deals outside the school gate, no parents swearing and shouting in the pick up line.

It's not all bad, but increasingly the bad outweighs the good.
I think many parents from my school would read this thread and think at least our school's not like that'. We are an oversubscribed Outstanding school in a desirable area.
There have always been challenging schools and all schools have always had challenges. It seems now that all schools are challenging schools full of challenges.
There is a stat that says there are more qualified teachers no longer teaching, than qualified teachers teaching in schools.
It is often said that there is a recruitment crisis in teaching, but there isn't, there is a retention crisis.

Why is Henrietta any more important and deserves to be sheltered from this any more than Sarah, Billy or Jonny? No child should have to see behaviour like this whether state school or private.

Ah, I see. So it is, in fact, politics of envy and not at all about getting another 6,500 teachers into state school. Which it sounds like is going to be impossible to manage. Whilst bringing tens of thousands of new kids into to over burdened state sector.

What would entice teachers back. I did primary training in a challenging school and I lasted six months. The toughest job I have ever done. The only way I would go back would be two days of planning, smaller class size and a TA. The primary my daughter went to was great though - same London borough as "my" school and very similar area, so just better behaviour policy maybe?
I'm really sorry your husband went through this OP I hope he recovers soon.

TBF there have always been behavioural issues and some parents that don’t care. It seems to be coming from the top now with lack of support for staff that is causing this implosion plus the removal of experienced teaching staff. Current model seems to favour new grad churn and burn.

I'm a teacher and I don't want to quit, however I will probably go part time. My class aren't bad but the cohort I have next year are renowned for being difficult. Their current class teacher has been off sick with stress since Easter and they've had numerous supply in as the assistant principal refused to teach them due to the behaviour!

You need a Head and an SLT that stand behind the teacher and are prepared to stand up to parents and tell them to find another school if they don't like the behaviour policy.

And SLT need to start accepting responsibility for their jobs.

The problem is the lack of respect of authority to teachers. Students and parents have no respect for teachers and their sense of entitlement is beyond belief.
no money from the private sector would fix that. Labour is selling you a dream like Brexit.
But would fix it is enforcing sanctions, exclusions, envoloving the police and protecting the poor teachers who are getting all the abuse.

I‘m a teacher and whilst pregnant, was attacked by a pupil. Nothing was done so I signed off with work related stress.

Teaching is not for the faint hearted and I think is massively underestimated. All I hear is I get great holidays so should just put up with the behaviour.
All I hope is that my own children don’t become teachers when they grow up.

There seems to be the widespread belief among some that if a child hits/kicks/doesn’t achieve their potential or do well in their exams or is arsing about not getting on, that it’s the teacher’s fault. They weren’t engaging enough, they didn’t spend long enough planning an exciting lesson, they didn’t adapt the lesson sufficiently, they weren’t ‘inclusive’ enough.

When you are working as hard as you can, but you’re still blamed for the above, and represented in the papers as being lazy or whinging, it can get demoralising. I don’t know a single other person from my PGCE still teaching which is pretty sad.

As the stats shown above evidence, the state system isn't overburdened by numbers. There are plenty of school places.

Wtf is wrong with the schooling in our country?! This is horrific!!

Oh look someone that doesn't know jack about what is going on in education at the moment.

I do think the rise of smart phones has caused the change as without realising it, parents spend time looking their phone instead of their baby and it creates an attention need in the child. They are competing with a smart phone and behaving badly gets parents off the phone to deal with the fact their kid is writing on the wall. So kids learn that bad behaviour gets attention so they do it more.

I se kids t tablets in trolleys at shops instead of being talked to.

the nursery at my old school is basically feral. Kids crying because other kids trash the place. The teacher is leaving as they have broken her and all the lovely resources she set out. Not one complete jigsaw left that have been complete for many years.

None of us want our children in underperforming schools, some of us don't get a choice.

Underperforming or not, there are plenty of places. That isn't the point of this thread.

Schools in my LA are oversubscribed - and lots of independent schools too so if any of those close there will be chaos. For context, our local junior school was 2nd on the times league tables 12 years ago; we live 486m from it and still did not get in - had to appeal on special circumstances for one child in the infants, and then the sibling rule kicked in. And only then because, as a bulge year, they created an extra/5th class and took 35 more children in that year group.

The elder one had also had to go to an infants in an outlying village that was 25mins drive for 3 years at that point. The situation has not improved since. If any of the local schools close down, I am not sure where any of those children will go to.

As far as I can see, the oversubscribed schools are often in the same areas as many of the private schools. Kids from leafy middle class private school catchment areas are not going to be bused to the nearest underperforming school in neighbouring counties.

It's shocking what's going on in schools. My daughters friend was kicked in the stomach at a secondary school. This is a girl who ran one of the roughest pubs in the area and nothing happened to her. My partners niece left a rural primary school after her life was made a misery by a 6 year old. I'd rather sign on than do their job.

My year 9 goes to school in a wealthy, rural village.

School had Ofsted in earlier this academic year and some kid 'whose Dad is really rich and who knows he doesn't need an education because he'll just inherit all the wealth' ran out of her maths classroom to 'have a word with the Ofsted inspectors and told them how shit the school is'.

Ridiculous comment from someone who has never been a teacher.

DD attended a sought after cofe girls school with a fab reputation.

The 'new" head assured every parent at open day that the school was 110% committed to excellent standards of behaviour.

It quickly became apparent that there was a significant minority who disrupted, were rude, bullied, etc. They did not have church places.

The head not only made excuses but introduced two behaviour codes. The main one punished hard for minor infringements like a rolled over waistband or forgotten clarinet. This was for the well behaved, well parented girls. The other girls had far more licence because they were less privileged. Even when five of them beat up a girl and banged her head on a pavement the maximum sanction was a three day exclusion. There were more excuses.

Fortunately, we had the means to switch our dd to the independent sector at the end of year 8. The miscreants were allowed to miscreant until two weeks before GCSEs when they were removed.

If parents raised behaviour issues the head shut them down. PTA meetings were an inappropriate forum.

The head was replaced with a better head. The school was turned around and regained it's former reputation within a couple of years.

It isn't all down to parents, weak leadership is also a significant issue and it takes far too long to exit a poor head and meanwhile toxic cultures develop.

We need more pupil referral units and there have to be consequences including expulsion. The poor behaviour of the minority has a reprehensible impact on the performance of the majority.

Definitely need more of this. Far too much pandering to difficult parents who challenge every decision and policy.

an adult who’s fingers were posted to her in a box

Wait … what? Where was this school?