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

You're mistaken and confusing the leaving age with being in school at all.

Compulsory education came in before 1900. The school leaving age in the early 1940s was 14. Since then it's risen, gradually.

This is so awful. I hope he is able to recover from this.
Sadly, this is what happens when all useful forms of discipline are eradicated.
Gone are the days where kids largely had respect for their elders. We are in an age where even the slightest sanction needs justifying to the nth degree, and even then you run the risk of hordes of lefties threatening you.
It's gone on for years now, and those brats have now bred. Their immense sense of entitlement is there for all to see in all aspects of life.

Really? I don't live in the UK but school attendance here was compulsory, at primary level anyway, from the late 1870s. I can't believe that it was so different in the UK.

Please don't try and minimise the utterly deplorable record the government has on education. As a parent of dc with additional needs it's incredulous to me that anyone could claim the tories have have helped children with SEN. I'm not sure how someone could say that with a straight face.

I'd be staggered if any teachers agreed with you.

This is the painful thing. We go on and on about poverty in the U.K. and how it is to blame for all manner of ills, but if you go to places with REAL poverty - the respect for education, discipline and family values are there despite incredible hardship. Why?

I listened to a podcast a while ago which was discussing poverty in Kenya and what struck the presenter was how focussed and well behaved the children were. They told her how lucky they were to be at school, their hopes for their future careers and how they wanted to earn well to look after elderly relatives. It brought me to tears actually - these were little kids around 7/8.

The only thing I can think of that ‘they’ have that ‘we’ don’t is generally a wider/closer family, no money for junk food/weed/vapes, probably much less screen use and a more outdoor lifestyle. As well as harsher discipline frankly.

Go figure 🤷🏼‍♀️

Many of the children back then, including my dad, left school at 14 out of necessity (his dad left school at 12)they had to work to help support the family. No state handouts back then. Or NHS.
Bad behaviour back then was punished harshly. Persistent criminals were sentenced to the birch, or a short sentence in a nasty institution. People tended to behave themselves because they knew what the consequences would be if caught.
I remember as child, my Dad's favourite expression was "you kids nowadays don't know your born!!" Kids didn't answer back for fear of a thick ear. Looking back my dad was probably right

@MaryMaryVeryContrary totally agree and in most poor countries people eat generally relatively healthy home cooked food.

@Willyoujustbequiet
do you represent Labour party here? it's ok to say this, it's an open forum, but your posts are really out of context on this thread

I'm in my 30s and desperate to get out but I have a child and want another and we can't absorb the payout.

I have been a teacher for many years and mainly enjoy it, but if I had my time again I wouldn't choose this and hell will freeze over before I allow my children to become teachers. I'm glad my children are older as I dread to think what state education will be like in 10 years.

They won’t because it’s wrong. I trained over 20 years ago when we had the literacy hour, then phonics came in.
I remember the day in 2010 being told our budget was to stop immediately when the new government started. I remember the new curriculum from Gove who wilfully ignored research done under labour about how children learn (the Rose report) where teachers and education experts were consulted and published his own curriculum based on his grammar school days. The curriculum is too hard for too many children and leaves them struggling and disengaged.
To try and say the Tories have done wonders for education is bizarre.

My DD is in her 2nd year as an Early Years Practitioner (a good old fashioned Nursery Nurse), she is responsible for 15 children aged between 2 and 3 yrs old. She has been bitten, headbutted, had black eyes, bloody nose, boobs squeezed, kicked, spat on and told by a 3 year old girl she was going to get her 'fucking throat cut' by said girl. She said a lot of the children swear regularly and she has at least 4 children who are definitely SEN but when the parent consultations take place the parents of these children simply expect the Nursery to diagnose the children (rather than the parents taking the children to the GP etc. ) So it starts young it seems with some children.

So you're choosing to ignore the improvement in literacy with this government?
The implementation of phonics was the direct result of the Rose Report.

I doubt it's expertise. I remember attending an interview at a local secondary school. On being shown round the school I noted a classroom in which the pupils (students) were jumping on the tables. No-one turned a hair.

That's terrible but I think it really depends on the management in the school and how they deal with behaviour. I have worked in education since the age of 21 (I'm now 39). I was a TA and then became a Behaviour Mentor/head of behaviour in one year group and even though some of the children played up a lot, I always felt well-supported by management and always safe.

I find it bizarre that you say my posts are out of context when they were only in response to your own.

No. I am not a member of or affiliated with any political party or organisation that is. Indeed I have voted conservative in the past. I'm merely an angry member of the electorate that seen this country ruined and countless lives destroyed by years of an absolute shitshow of a self serving bunch of arseholes.

You still think phonics was introduced by the Tories? I’m amazing they didn’t scrap it in favour of rote learning.

Just another 'me too' - Left teaching after 24 years because of unrealistic workload, pressure from SLT being leaned on by Ofsted etc. It took me a breakdown and, once recovered, the offer of a job unrelated to the State Education system to get me out. The pupils, even in the most deprived inner-city schools, were the good part of the job and I miss them.

Exactly. Why are those in charge so obsessed with creating new things instead of mending broken systems. There are vast numbers of experienced teachers who would return to the job or not leave it if they had support over pupil behaviour, if they could focus on teaching not tickboxing, if our society promoted and fostered respect for teachers and proper discipline in schools (I don't mean physical.)

So we can imagine the types of homes these children come from can't we?
Children learn their vocabulary from what is spoken at home.

Sadly, we now live in a society where fewer people respect authority. We see it on our streets, with knife crime, muggings, phone theft, where people blatantly shop lift, in sport where footballers challenge referees in ways they never did, and yes, in schools and in medical settings. Everywhere.

Teaching used to be a respected profession. I've seen a slow decline and it's not all outside teacher's control. I've noticed a decline (and you may think this is petty) in how teachers dress for work (mainly in primary schools.) They don't look professional, in clothes that are far too casual, not suitable for a professional role. Children notice this.

I also think that - as has been the case for decades- that many graduates drift into teaching because they don't know what else to do. They aren't cut out for it and they realise that fast. Even going back to my old school days we all knew the teachers we could mess around with, who just didn't have 'it' to control a class (and this was a grammar school.)

And the worst thing is that many heads are just downright useless. I've seen it where I've taught and without a strong head, the school sinks.

@MaryMaryVeryContrary I’ve worked and lived in two affluent areas, both different Home Counties / villages / commuter areas and considered very middle class and expensive.

Both local secondary schools have some real issues with behaviour. Anyone with real wealth educates their children privately. In both areas I have lived, there are easily half a dozen private schools compared to one or two large state schools. This means that the state school attracts children from the less affluent areas. Although I do concede that many of these children are a result of their upbringing and not at fault, these are the few ‘bad’ kids that ruin it for the rest. Swearing, attitude, anti-social behaviour, just generally being vile. One or two terrible children in the classroom can ruin it for everyone else, as others have mentioned there are no real sanctions and it’s almost impossible to exclude a child.

I have been sworn at, called names, had teenage boys behaviour violently around me, for example, one aggressively smashed a laptop to pieces as I was attempting to help him. These are schools in very ‘posh’ areas!

Do you now know the Rose report was led by labour and ignored by the conservatives? That phonics was implemented by labour?

The Government will not go ahead with plans for the new primary curriculum, drawn up under Labour, following Sir Jim Rose's review.
The curriculum, was due to be introduced in schools from September 2011, but the reforms of the curriculum did not make it through the passing of the Children, Schools and Families Bill before the election, because it was opposed by the Tories (News, 15 April).
The new curriculum, was due to be introduced in schools from September 2011 but the reforms of the curriculum did not make it through the passing of the Children, Schools and Families Bill before the election, because it was opposed by the Tories (News, 15 April).

On Monday schools minister Nick Gibb said, ‘A move away from teaching traditional subjects like history and geography could have led to an unacceptable erosion of standards in our primary schools.

‘Instead, teachers need a curriculum which helps them ensure that every child has a firm grasp of the basics and a good grounding in general knowledge, free from unnecessary prescription and bureaucracy.
‘It is vital that we return our curriculum to its intended purpose – a minimum national entitlement organised around subject disciplines.’

I will also say - and I know some won’t like this and it will be controversial - but the quality of teachers has definitely slipped. Teaching used to be a respected profession which attracted intelligent and academically successful individuals.

I have known many teachers in recent years who have scraped passes at GCSE / A Level, then achieved 2:2 degrees who go on to teach in secondary schools. How can you possibly teach children how to get those higher grades (7, 8 and 9s) if you yourself performed poorly. This is unacceptable, but unfortunately teaching isn’t attracting high achieving individuals for all the reasons mentioned on this thread.

@LoopyPooly I think if you yourself live in a glass house, you should refrain from throwing stones. Whilst I agree with you, (rather than yourself), you have scored an own goal there.

TBF my dd is teaching in a challenging school and aged 26 is absolutely thriving and managing 15/16 year old six footers with all sorts of problems really well. They seem to respect my dot of a daughter and she has had some lovely cards of thanks from parents who clearly struggle with the chaos in their lives.

DD is not struggling with prep, marking or assessments. Some the children's circumstances sadden her but she is finding the children and their parents manageable, despite having had to break up fights. What she finds more challenging is the calibre of the SLT and flakiness of some other staff.

And generally these children are happy and proud to be able to attend school 🥰