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

£12.50
People don’t realise how little teachers get paid. Yes £12.50 is accurate for early career teachers, and FE has removed the pay scales so if you teach 16-18 then you’re permanently stuck on that low salary.

And you get paid that amount for 40 hours but you work more like 60 hours, so actually you’re getting more like £8 per hour.

Yep. Better off working at Wetherspoons

I think 14 years of Conservative policy have made things much worse-a bloated yet rigid and narrow curriculum with too much pointless spag and not enough music and art, a lack of anywhere to refer pupils and families onto for support, mass academisation taking money away from pupils and channeling it into the pockets of CEOs, huge drops in SEND funding, lack of pay portability meaning you can more school and end up back down the pay scale, too much testing etc etc

Its not just about behaviour for me, but none of those things help with it.

This is why parents send their kids to private school, because they don't tolerate behaviour like this. This means the teachers can concentrate on teaching. Having a max of 12 to a class helps too.

Non of my friends, who send there kids to private school, have any intention of taking them out and sending them into the state system, even if they had room which they don't. They'll find the money the pay the increase somehow.

I left my job for the same reason, it was dire.
2 years down the line and I never take for granted my ‘boring’ desk job which I can do from my spare room all on my own in peace for better pay and more flexibility.
The rot had well and truly set in there, the abuse the staff put up with was soul destroying. I gave up caring about the kids. That’s when I knew it was time.

I don’t have kids yet and I can see it from both points of view in terms of some being for or against the ideology of paying extra for education, but I just wonder why parents like you are criticised but parents who buy in certain catchment areas aren’t. It’s the same thing surely?!

Not to mention those who attend state but pay lots for various private subject tutors?. Why is one more acceptable than the other? Seems odd and hypocritical to me.

OP, I feel it really depends on the school, I’ve worked in so many lovely state schools back in 2012-2016 era but one I went to as a supply cover supervisor was awful. I was sworn at and threatened by a tiny 11 year old boy within minutes of being there in a particular horrible class .

I had a girl in one of the “nicer” classes who was my height square up to me and try to block me from leaving the classroom when I squeezed by her she shouted out “you’ve hurt me”. I really thought she was going to lie and say I’d shoved her or something but she was just being dramatic I think and didn’t say anything about it again when I returned with another teacher. I know I was supply but I was told by the only two studious kids in
the class at the end that the kids had actually behaved better (less worse!) for me than their usual teacher and they wanted me to teach from now on. I was like that’s sweet but sorry kids no chance! It’s unbelievable to think that was the class on their “good” behaviour!

A teacher described the students there as vile. I was shocked about that but I can understand him tbh. One day was enough for me I told the agency not to send me there again. I found the nicer schools that I went to were usually in the nicer areas - it was 100% down to parent engagement and support and how much parents value education.

I don’t work in schools anymore, except occasionally I visit some to deliver workshops so I have less of an idea of how things are like in the past 8 years.

Yep!!! I hear this from the coaches of my children’s teams.

They’re giving to their time for free and these entitled often middle class/ WORKING parents making their life miserable.

Complaint after complaint while their little angels get ruder, more disrespectful and mouthier!

I don’t want to be nasty, but
You really need to familiarise yourself with how to use a comma.
The OP’s writing has absolutely no bearing in her dh’s teaching ability.
Perhaps you also need to work on your reading comprehension.
If you really didn’t want to be nasty, you wouldn’t have posted such an unpleasant comment.

Was a TA and you couldn't get me to teach for double the salary.

I work in a male dominated industry now where I am respected, I log off on time and I am asked if "that's ok?" Would never ever ever go back.

This is true but also true of society in general how people behave is worse so children are growing up with poor role models as parents. Teen DCs work part time in customer facing roles and are astonished by how rude children and their parents are. It seems to be acceptable for a child to demand and parents just pander to them giving them endless attention and options and making sure they are never upset. If I said to someone working in a cafe 'hey give me an ice cream now' my DM would have been mortified, made me apologise, she would also have apologised and we would have left without said ice cream. Children need role models and boundaries.

I simply don't recognise the dreadful behaviour described here. It just doesn't happen in our school. It is private so I assume that makes the difference?

Parents are to blame fully for their feral children. Respect and kindness starts at home.

Simply blaming the Tories without facts has become the fallback du jour on here.

There are loads of places to get support. The fact is these people don’t want it. Or they’ll engage for a short period of time then give up. They don’t care, they don’t give a shit.

10 billion was spent on SEN last year - how much is enough? That’s 15% of the entire schools budget.

This is why we send our kids to private. I’m fed up of disruptive kids ruining it for everyone.

A friend of mine said he knew he thought he might be getting there when a boy shouted 'Fuck off sir!' That was 20 years ago.

He stuck it for a bit longer then went into 6th form teaching only.

If Labour want to improve education they need to tackle this, rather than just take down the good schools. Once they have knobbled the independents they will destroy the grammars, then the naice comps in leafy suburbs until only the hellish distopian hell schools are left and then everyone will be equal. Hoorah!

I have a friend who would never tolerate her kids assaulting her but she was quick to make excuses about her Year 4 child slapping a TA. I was absolutely appalled.

She didn’t tell me at the time it was years later she brought it up that her child had done this. And yet she’s always on these teachers case even now her kids are in secondary school. She always believe her kids over the teachers even when I’m telling her what they’re saying isn’t adding up.
And her kids - now in secondary- will be openly mocking to teachers and she will share this to me like it’s a cute funny story.

She also has no ambitions for her kids. One of them came to her wanting help in a subject she was struggling with. Instead of finding that help be it paid or free- she immediately said don’t worry if you fail your GCSEs etc. I failed X subject too. Yeah I get the idea of not piling pressure on your kids but you should try and get them to reach their full potential.

Her oldest kid is now doing “beauty” at college with all her other mates, which is fine if that’s what she really wanted to do, but I can’t help remembering in her younger years teachers saying she’d make a really great engineer. If she’s been given more encouragement and guidance she could’ve looked in other things.

Well yes precisely. You do not get this level of disruption in private schools.

Which is why so many people are crippling themselves to send their kids. Because the alternative is - well, what is being discussed on here!

If Labour want to improve education they need to tackle this, rather than just take down the good schools. Once they have knobbled the independents they will destroy the grammars, then the naice comps in leafy suburbs until only the hellish distopian hell schools are left and then everyone will be equal. Hoorah!

Lol so true!

It's usually the parents.

If children aren't brought up to have some respect for teachers, and parents don't deal with it at home, who else is there to blame?

Yes, schools need a good leadership team, of course. Discipline in a school comes from the top .

However, there are also some people who are simply not cut out for teaching. (I say this as a former teacher.)

We all knew the colleagues who struggled and couldn't manage the class. They had no 'presence' and the students knew it and played up. In one of my teaching jobs, at least 3 new teachers left within a year because they couldn't control the classes (and this was in an independent school.)

This would be a good debate question.

Can't just throw money at the problem. Need to retain current experienced teachers. Even with 30000 bursary teacher training is not attracting enough STEM trainees.

I do know teaching was very different before 2010 as I taught both before and after.

Things that need addresssing which have been worse since 2010
Austerity, taking away sure start centres, less teaching assistants, bigger class sizes, it taking 5 years for a diagnosis and therefore in some authorities appropriate help, having to memorise huge quotes to pass english gcse. Cost of living crisis as poorer families who work as having to work more hours to make ends meet; therefore having less time with their children. Teens need parents to be present too. Even in many caring working families both parents have to work full time or more to be able to pay the bills. Many families are time poor.

Being a parent and a teacher is extremely hard in term time. No time for your own family.

Quality, flexible childcare is needed.
Holiday clubs for all children including teens, not just those from families who get benefits.

I'd agree with this completely after the problems we've had.

One child has even said to another parent after punching her child. "You can tell my mum. She never tells me off". And having seen his behaviour and her attitude to it, he's not wrong.

We had a spate of telling school about how he was attacking various children and recruiting others to do the same.

Mum spent years saying he wasn't SEN. Then when the issue was forced for an intervention has spent the subsequent years saying she can't control his behaviour cos he's sen. It's bullshit. He needs boundaries, not being dumped on others because she's going on holiday without him and she needs to actually parent him rather than expecting school to do everything and doubly so because he probably does have some sort of SEN needs.

He's just an inconvenience to her lifestyle. And that's ultimately the problem.

And then on all threads about school most posters seem to despise and/or hate parents who dare send their children to private.
Or at best they are told « it’s not worth it ».
Right. London indie school, no violence, no swearing, no theft. Amazing teachers and they seem genuinely happy to work there (v low turnover).

I have never actually been hurt by a child but I have had things thrown at me. Part of the problem is that in many ways children hold all the power. We are trained in behaviour management and told that behaviour is often down to trauma or anxiety and so the child cannot be blamed. We often know that some children are living very difficult lives but that doesn't help us deal with violence and aggression. Often we are told to distract them but that is often with something that would be considered a treat like iPad time or extra play time outside. Sadly some children are learning that if they don't want to do the learning they just need to start throwing things around and hitting people and they then get to leave the classroom, 1-1 adult attention and often a treat.

I have also witnessed a child hitting an adult and screaming at the same time 'You are hurting me'. Then when being spoken to about what they did they said the adult was hitting them. Luckily I saw it as did two others. The next LSA might not be so lucky.

We absolutely need support for these children and for us. We cannot continue like this.

At parents evening, one of my teacher friends in school was trying to explain to a parent why his daughter had been given a detention (that she didn’t bother to turn up for anyway). He laughed at her, picked up his chair and turned it so it was facing the other way. She was then sat looking at the back of this man’s head. If I told you this was a well-known celebrity, you’d be even more shocked. His child had been managed moved from several schools for behaviour.

You only have to read threads on this forum to see how little control a lot of parents have of their children. Or they don’t believe it’s their job to discipline them.

Sadly that means that the decent children, the ones raised properly and who want to do well and want to learn, have their education disrupted by the rest.