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've told this story on here previously.

My final permanent post was in a Scottish secondary school: PTC/HoD/Faculty Head.

We were down a teacher, so I covered a senior class during my management non-contacts.

One particular girl was a real horror. As a junior, she'd complained about "a smell" emanating from a foreign girl in the class and the mother demanded that the class seating plan be changed. (In actual fact, there was no smell and the complainant simply wanted to sit next to one of her pals.) The SLT caved.

This time, the girl claimed that I was bullying her. SLT took a formal statement from me and from every single pupil in the class. All the statements matched: I had told the girl to be quiet. The mother maintained that I was bullying her daughter and that her daughter always told the truth.

As I told my depute, perhaps the mother needed to be told that her constantly truthful daughter had also told her classmate that the mother was a "slut", because she'd been [local slang word] at 15 and the daughter was the result.

Daughter had also disrupted the class by loudly informing the class that she had been put on the Norplant implant at 15 in response to the mother's behaviour at that age.

Im not voting because this thread is on repeat.

you know the answer. The system is broken. Many people are strong enough to learn how to cope. And some, like your husband, ate not cut out for the job when there is chaotic behaviour and chaotic parenting. Not every school is like that. If tour husband can’t learn to cope, how can kids from bad homes?

The only reason that I'm still on the supply list is that I'm now a widow with nothing better to do with what's left of my life. (Sorry - I no longer see teaching as a vocation.)

The money is currently quite decent for an experienced supply teacher (until I get my state pension) and I don't have the stress of being responsible for getting kids through exams. I still have the stress of dealing with behavioural problems, but I refuse to take temporary contracts of any description, so I can just walk if it gets too bad. Knowing that makes a huge difference, particularly since my mortgage is paid and I have my reduced teaching pension.

I feel sorry for young teachers who see this stretching before them. It's never been an easy job, but it's so much harder now.

If you're in Scotland and in the profession, my recommendation would be to look for jobs in more rural areas. I have friends who are very happy working in the islands and in the rural areas of the Highlands. Don't take a position in any of the cities or in the central belt.

Teachers do not go into teaching for the holidays or the money.

I qualified as a secondary MFL teacher in 2016 and left in July 2023. I just couldn’t see it being sustainable for a long term career, especially if we wanted a family of our own. We were frequently expected to keep doing more and more “for the kids” or because it “needs to be done” and the ever increasing workload meant I was making myself ill trying to do it all. After 4 years of laryngitis, tonsillitis and complete aphonia, I decided something had to give- either my health or the job. So I resigned with nothing to go to and felt an intense rush of relief. Strangely I enjoyed my last term teaching more than any of the previous ones, but I knew the insane pressure was gone so that helped.

I adored being in the classroom, and loved working with teenagers. It’s something I really miss in my new role outside of education but for the first time in 7 years I finally feel like myself again.

Seriously.🙄

I did 32 years. I left and I’ve never been happier, I wish I’d left years ago. It’s always been difficult but the last decade has been un bearable. Even in schools with supportive management. I wish your husband well. It’s not him, it’s the system.

There is often agreement that the system is broken. I have never worked in a school, but I have seen the behaviour and heard the language used by infant school children on the bus in the morning, so I can imagine what it is like in the classroom.

Fixing the problem may be as simple as having parents come into school and sit in lessons occasionally as observers. What do others think?

My dil is a teacher. She has special needs pupil in her class who throws furniture at her.

Another thread about teachers....every area that receives public funding is broken. While children are poorly fed from school meals loaded with sugar and cards and no one wants to pay more tax who can expect anything to improve.

"Fixing the problem may be as simple as having parents come into school and sit in lessons occasionally as observers. What do others think?"

My daughter was appalling at secondary school. I mean so bad she broke the morale of some of her teachers.

DH and I were perpetually apologising to the school & to her teachers, and trying to stop her kicking holes in walls/running away/self harming, at home.

My other two were perfectly well behaved at school & at home.

Not all badly behaved kids have parents at home who don't care. Many parents are at their wits end.

This all rings true sadly 😥 There are some places you just really really can't teach at due to these reasons. It's survival of abuse, mockery and threats.

You wouldn’t dare do that now!

Boarding schools for everyone with strict discipline.

No phone or social media use, at all!
Ban sugar and sugary foods.

So lots of cabbage at Dotheboys Hall

Bet that’ll go down well here 😳

Another thread about teachers....every area that receives public funding is broken. While children are poorly fed from school meals loaded with sugar and cards and no one wants to pay more tax who can expect anything to improve.

There are plenty of things which can be done to improve things in schools which don't cost any money. As can be seen on this thread and many others, a lot of the problems are down to SLT failing to support teachers in managing behaviour. That's got nothing to do with taxes, sugar or carbs.

Fixing the problem may be as simple as having parents come into school and sit in lessons occasionally as observers. What do others think?

I ccertainly agree that parents would be shocked by what they saw, but I don't see how it would actually fix anything.

So much pressure on teachers now, even more since the introduction of the dreadful academies and the amount of data needing to be approved. Teachers have become computer jockeys, rather than spending time in the classroom. Trying to fulfil the wishes of egotistical Heads/executives, that employ more unqualified teachers than ever.
No wonder our education system is now one of the worst in the western world.

The behaviour you describe would not have been tolerated in any of the schools I've worked in. IME the key is to find a school with a supportive LT who understand that "staff wellbeing" isn't about flowers in the staffroom or cakes on a Friday, it's about workload and behaviour.

Thinking about Teachers I know who have left the profession recently, their chief complaint has been the increasingly demanding and entitled behaviour of parents, not children. Unfortunately, some school LT's pander to unreasonable parents for fear of complaints and don't recognise the impact on staff Mental Health.

I left after a few years, many of my peers did the same. I have the upmost respect for anyone that can stay in the profession.

@AllProperTeaIsTheft what would you want SLT to do?

I sit on a number of exclusion/suspension panels. I then sit on number of complaint panels where parents are challenging the suspension!

Seeing the situation would surely spark some parents into positive activity?

That,

plus you mention the huge mortgage. Any chance you sell/move from your perspective op?

Tell him to get out of teaching. It's a toxic environment. I taught from 1982 to 2014 and would not do it again if I had my life over again. Put it down to experience and move on. It's just not worth the stress. Private schools are just as bad, the discipline tends to be better but there are other pressures. Get out and stay out!

I literally could have written this today! I am done with the entitlement and consequential behaviour that exists these days.
I have even tried a different school but it's even worse. Behaviour is the same but parental support is 'what have you done to support my child'
I'm like ' what can I do when your child decides to walk out of the room because they don't want to do their work??' All I asked them to do was open their book 🤷🏻‍♀️
It's at every level too.

I don't think its the case that OP's husband " can't cope"

Why should he " cope".

he is not at fault here.