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

Very unlikely, most teachers enjoy the holidays too much.

Yeah that's why 40,000 of them quit teaching last year alone.

Feral parenting

Horrifying thread. Are any of these teachers experiences in private schools?

I've shared this already on Mumsnet.

20 years ago, I miscarried (very early on) the day after being punched in the stomach by a 15 yr old I didn't even teach. Two male teachers who came to my assistance were also punched.

We made statements to the police on the day of the assaults. I was in my 40s and didn't know for certain that I was pregnant - was waiting to re-test. Miscarried in the staff toilets the next day.

The local police "lost" our statements. I got a phone call from SACRO wanting me to hold a "restorative conversation" with the boy. I refused.

I was a HoD at the time. I made a point of phoning police any time there was a violent incident towards one of my teachers. Typically, the police said they'd "leave it in the hands of the school". (Scotland - the Children's Panel/Reporter deals with criminal matters when perpetrators are not yet 16.)

Later, a colleague in another dept was punched by another 15 yr old. He was shorter than the kid who attacked him. Stretched out a hand to block the second punch.

The perpetrator's parents reported my colleague to the police. The police said that there was no case to answer, so they called a tabloid and complained to the Director of Education for our LA. My colleague was suspended for several months. He was cleared, but was told that he shouldn't have stretched out his hand: he "should have run away".

I now only do occasional supply. Violent incidents are becoming much more common.

At one school, I stopped an assault my first day. The next day, I stopped a fight.

The following week a young teacher in my department was punched when she told two pupils to stop fighting. The same day, a pregnant TA in another department was hit.

Our LA does not allow permanent exclusions, though pupils can be given a whole-school transfer if the parent agrees. Pupils know that very little will happen if they get into trouble.

Typically (but not always) pupils and parents put the blame on teachers.

Verbal abuse towards teachers is more prevalent than physical abuse. We're also seeing the same scenario played out in universities, where complaints are made about the grading of internal assessments and cheating on coursework has become an increasing problem.

Former colleagues who have moved from the central belt to teach in the Highlands or Islands have told me that their life has become so much easier.

It’s awful at the moment, for all the reasons in this thread. Flaming pitchforks on Facebook naming staff, TikTok ‘hate’ accounts set up by kids featuring staff… I could go on.
The distress and embarrassment enters your home and can poison your life from the inside.
Hideous parenting is at fault too, the mentality that rules don’t apply to their child.
I feel too old to change professions now but I still have maybe another 15 years til retirement. 24 years in the classroom already.
We haemorrhaged staff this year. Awful.

Completely different job tbh. I currently work in a lovely girls' grammar school too. I have experienced the other end of the scale too though, and I will never do it again.

At least the police force have sanctions that they are allowed to use. If the SLT is weak and the local authority will not allow sanctions to be used then teachers are powerless against abuse.

Primary kids now in general have parents in their 30's. First generation I've taught where there's a serious lack of discipline and control instilled by the parents. They're also the first generation en masse to believe that their child is not to blame and it's obviously the teacher's fault.

So maybe actually we need to blam my generation (1970's born) for raising enttiled kids who have turned into entitled parents and sent these little sods into primary schools in the first place!

I have worked in primary and secondary. I saw far more extreme behaviour in primary than I do in secondary. Those children tended to be permanently excluded before they made it to secondary. In secondary it is more rudeness, disruptive behaviour, truancy within school and bad attitudes (with bonus swearing) rather than chairs being chucked around the classroom and physical violence.

One of my friends is a teacher, and a 15 year old threatened to kill them.

Rather than exclude the pupil, my friend had to be accompanied by another male teacher at all times when in site - and even had to teach the pupil who threatened him.

When he rings up parents to ask why students are absent, he estimates about 50% don’t care and say it’s the schools problem. He says he has parents swear at him regularly when making these calls…

I mean you can get them done in around that time or less if you use AI, which I know more and more teachers are doing… so if you don’t, as I don’t, it’s much longer 😞 SLT have made changes this year to make them easier though!

My cousin is a deputy head and on the first day of term last year she was spat at, slapped in the face and punched in the stomach. Parents don’t appear to care anymore as long as their children are out from under their feet for a few hours.

Yup.

I called the police after a 14 yr old boy prevented me from leaving the car park one winter's evening by standing in front of my car and pretending to copulate with it. (He hadn't actually attended school that day.)

I was fortunate in that two women officers attended and took it seriously, though the agreed action was that they'd have a word to impress upon him that he was heading for a world of trouble. (Scotland's legal system generally won't touch anyone under 16 and he'd not actually hurt anyone.)

Thanks to the mother - who made a point of telling people all about it - I found out that the boy had started swearing at the officers when they spoke to him. They left, but not before reminding him that they'd probably see him again once he turned 16.

A colleague later saw the boy in a local take-away. He was accompanied by a father who left much to be desired.

And then we have posters on the Private School threads shouting from the roof tops how great state schools are, so in their eyes there really shouldn’t be any need to turn to private schooling. I think your post OP shows the reality of what many of today’s kids are like. I’d rather chew off my arm than teach children who clearly haven’t been shown any morals due to lazy parenting. It really is unacceptable.

Why do these people even have children if they aren't interested in being parents?

Unless there is proper parental engagement the battle is lost. Pupils who assault teachers should be taken away in handcuffs and put in front of the courts. Along with the parents. The parents should be heavily fined and if they are on benefits a sum should be taken weekly. No smartphones allowed in schools. Anyone found in possession of a smartphone will be permanently excluded from school.
Anyone who thinks this is too harsh is welcome to spend a couple of weeks in a classroom trying to control a class of feral little shits

There are many people that are in denial about how bad state education is at the moment.

you can normally tell who they are as they are the ones saying that teachers are whinging, have too many holidays, should get a job in the real world, that are saying that teachers should be happy just to have a job and are the ones with badly behaved children.

nb. not to be confused with those that have a genuine issue with the the school

I've taught for 20 years, and it gets worse all the time. I used to be able to have a joke with the students, engage with them properly and really teach them something. Now there's no time or energy left after dealing with constant ridiculous behaviour.

For the first time ever last week, I was observed reaching a class where I couldn't actually teach - all I could do was manage really terrible behaviour continuously.

Going into teaching was the worst choice I ever made.

School and home should be a joint effort with parents backing up the teachers. I am shocked at some of the behaviour mentioned here and wonder whatever happened to discipline and boundaries. The trouble is that children are not prepared properly for school life and the outside world generally. To the parents they are still their ‘baby’.

Maybe, just maybe, these teachers and people working for the NHS are hoping that if enough of them make their reasons for leaving known then some problems might actually start being addressed.

Or are you too hard of understanding (to put it politely) to get that?

Of course you're going to get state parents defending the state system to a bunch of privileged parents. Their kids go there.

If 93% of kids attend state schools, they're not all going to be throwing chairs. My further maths A-level class are lovely and high-achieving. My bottom set Y10s are more troubled, and have, on occasion, thrown chairs. Very different experiences even within the same school.

It's a perfect storm...underfunding of schools causes lack of support staff and lack of resources also makes it difficult to retain experienced teachers/SLT who cost more. Increase in SEN means there are zero places in SEN schools and PRU units. LAs not giving EHCPs cause they can't afford it. SS crippled, no early help support/children's centers. High levels of parents with mental health issues and a fair amount of neglect exacerbated by cost of living crisis. Long waiting lists for NHS treatment or SEN diagnosis. And a real sense of entitlement and parents who are convinced their little darlings are always perfect and everything is someone else's fault.

Absolutely-those of us that have been teaching a long time, know it doesn’t have to be like this!

This is EXACTLY the reason why some parents "sell their kidney" to save their kids from schools like this. There are some (and a lot of) absolutely brilliant state schools, much better than many privates, but if you aren't lucky enough to get the place, then it's pretty much whatever it takes to ensure DC don't end up in a school described here.

On many PS threads people say that PS teachers who will lose jobs due to VAT will move to state sector - they won't. They will start private tutoring or do something else, but won't move to schools like this ever.
I really have no idea where those 6500 teachers funded by VAT will appear from.

Just last week, I was pushed over by a child I fell, hit my face on a wall and have 5 stitches in my head.

The reason? I had told the 9 year old he would have to turn his football shirt inside out for sports days as football shirts are not allowed in school. This is a rule that has been around for at least the last 5 years and all parents had been reminded of this the day before. (The reason for no football shirts is the fact the children will fight anyone who wears a rival team shirt).

The parent refused to make his son apologise because it's "fucking stupid" and I'm a "stupid old bitch" for falling into the wall.

The child was suspended for 2 days and was back in my class today having been taken away to their caravan for the weekend "as a treat"

And all this for £12.50 ph!