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

Just my opinion, probably not allowed one these days….

They are pampered, they get everything offered such as support from many professionals and teams, free meals, clothing grants and their kids get holidays away fully funded, we bend over backwards to get them and their kids the help they need. Many refuse to accept the help and don’t engage, most of these people won’t even come to collect their child when sick from school or if we ring and say they need to go to hospital, the immediate response is can’t you do it, we had a belter say she couldn’t attend because she was getting her extensions done so could we take her child to A&E - she was on the bones of her arse days earlier. The majority of these parents can’t parent!

I’m not sure what is pampered about having a parent who can’t even be arsed to pick up a sick child from school or go to A&E. Surely that’s the opposite.

That’s awful, I’m so sorry.

When I was in school a pregnant TA got punched in the stomach, my friends and I were absolutely distraught but the boy responsible had nothing to say except to spit poison and blame the poor TA.

I hope he’s grown up to be ok, his home life was terrible and he will be an age to have children of his own by now. It would be a shame for history to be repeating itself.

I think you have missed my point. I have been in y6 as a TA and the children absolutely are taught this stuff. My point was that it is too hard for a lot of them and they didn't really understand or learn it. Sitting in lessons that they don't understand is a big reason why a lot of children disengage and behaviour deteriorates.

At the time I was in y6 we did see some awful behaviour but it was dealt with and on the whole lessons ran smoothly. However, I now work in secondary and there is a lot more disruptive behaviour there. Most of the time it is dealt with and the lesson continues ( it can be a lot of hhard work from the teacher that makes that happen though) but sometimes the whole lesson gets derailed and heaven help us when it's a supply teacher.

There is no such thing as "too high" standards.

@Garibaldhead you are right. I have a first class degree in English. (My grammar still needs work at times 😬)

Yet, the recent SATS paper I saw shocked me! I couldn't answer half those questions. So many kids struggle with all this as my son tells me. Why on earth do they need to know about all this rubbish. No one cares about prepositions or whatever word is used to describe the composition of a sentence! The maths paper was ridiculous.
The curriculum is absolutely beyond a joke. It is such a ridiculous waste of time and a waste of all those little brains that could be learning important and valuable lessons for life, living independently etc.

So many kids really are set up to fail.

However, there is also stupid and slow @Garibaldhead. if an 11 year old doesn't get it, then there's a reason to release them to earn money at 12 picking veg. There's a very old saying: you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The slightly more sophisticated riff on it: you can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think. Some people don't have the capacity but it shouldn't mean they go without options to make an honest and decent living.

@Papyrophile oh come on 🤦‍♀️. I am inclined to think you would not pass the most recent SATS papers for 10/11 year olds.

Wow.

Plenty of kids would be perfectly able to learn the maths if they had more time building the foundations they need first. If they don't have a solid understanding of place value or the basic operations then it is pointless teaching them about fractions, decimals and percentages. If they don't really understand division they haven't got a hope of understanding dividing fractions. It's just too much too soon, not too much altogether.

As for the grammar I stand by my stance that it is just plain unnecessary. I'm not alone in having managed to get through life and qualifications without knowing this stuff. Michael Rosen has some interesting stuff to say about the grammar and all that is wrong with the way it is taught and tested.

Well, I don’t know you, and at 15 I think the ship may have sailed, but I’m genuinely surprised how you managed to raise a 15 year old (assuming no SEN) who refuses to go to school? I mean, school isn’t optional?

All I can say is that had I refused to go to school, I would’ve been sent flying out of the door and into school. But then again, immigrant parents, IYKYK.

Perhaps I just don’t understand British parenting - it does seem excessively permissive.

Well given the amount of abuse that is going on in schools, I really don’t blame children for not wanting to go!

Got out of teaching years ago. I once made the mistake of telling the school principal at really rough school that someone had thrown a pebble at the whiteboard. I got zero support and was glibly told to "be more assertive". Thank God I'm out of that asylum!

Oh my gosh this is utterly appalling and I am so sorry this has happened to your Husband and by extension you.

It is not your DH.

However solution could be an online teaching career?

Yeah this and then they wonder why children of immigrants are doing better than non-immigrant kids of the same social class. One group is more likely to have parents that value education and respecting teachers than the other. This doesn’t apply to everyone but there’s a reason why there’s tutor groups and centres set up in diverse areas of cities where many kids are not that rich. It’s not unusual for poor immigrant families to scrape their last pennies out to pay for tutors.

My friend I mentioned upthread is happy enough to buy iPhones outright for her kids but balked at the idea of finding some free or affordable group or individual tutoring for her kid. My mum was the opposite.

Yeah the past couple of months has been hard, she's been going to school since 3 years old no problem...no ship has sailed, just not resorting to brut force. But thankyou, I feel so enriched by your input.

Gentle parenting has backfired...

That or its neglect and no role models at home.

iPads iPads and iPads

I feel like I spend my days just being the custodian of the iPads now. Do a bit of work reward is iPad time and by work I mean a meaningless scribble. It’s as quick as they can get anything done to get on an iPad. Supposed to be educational games only but you can’t get YouTube off them and the little darlings are so tech savvy they can get on YouTube no problem no matter how many times you disable the WiFi. I’ve seen children aged 10 sitting with 2 iPads plugged in (they are terrified they lose charge) watching utter rubbish on YouTube for hours.

Some talk like a YouTube channel cannot even hold a conversation. It’s been proven that because their brains are going so fast flicking and they are so hyper stimulated once they are in the slow real world they cannot cope.

I have seen children handed an iPad the minute they come off the school bus until they fall asleep they even eat watching it. Apparently “to regulate”

Im not saying it’s all iPads faults but there’s a whole generation growing up absolutely addicted to screens. No fine motor skills, cannot turn a page or hold a pencil but can get on YouTube.

Are you on the right post? Absolute bonkers post if you are..

Obviously a Tory voter

My DC attended a leading four-form Grammar School. While not common, each year would have some children with 5 A A-levels to add to their 14 or 15 A GCSEs.
The expectation was 2 hours homework each night, 5 or 6 nights each week. The majority of those with the highest results were typically doing 3 or 4 hours each evening and were usually children of Indian, Chinese or African heritage - every parent was desperate to keep their children there.
I'm dyslexic, which makes reading and comprehension much slower than for others so I understand what it is to be disadvantaged, there was never any prospect of me going to university, but feel that in some respects, my most useful education occurred before I left primary school.

Don't forget 'Progession in Phonics'. Released in 1999. Was my bible when I started teaching.

Well if I’m bonkers, it’s only as a result of watching someone party while telling millions of people with dying relatives to stay at home. I wonder why I think the conservatives are disproportionate in all areas, including education 🤔🙄

And Labour want to ensure all but the very wealthy are schooled in this environment!

Well there is always hope that someone will actually listen us and take note at ground level, actually no I am bonkers , the other poster was right, that’s never going to happen 🤣