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

Forgive me Skybluepinky but you sound like you might be one of the parents who is part of the problem. Have you actually taught?! It's just that the rather tired comments about holidays and mythical 'respect' that teachers either do or don't command very much suggests to me that you haven't.

(15 years in teaching - mainly in inner cities with very tough kids inedded. Currently senior team - no longer on term time only contract - find it vastly less stressful).

It sounds awful and it’s unacceptable.

it’s the main reason I send my DC to fee paying schools. I cannot imagine them having to put up with that level of disruption. It’s weird how parents who make that choice are universally castigated for doing so.

I work in schools and don't recognise this level of poor behaviour. I worked in a state school today where the behaviour is generally excellent. I'm sure he could find a job in a better school.

Saddened to read many of the responses. Several of my family were teachers, last one retired (normal retirement age) about 15 years ago.

It may sound extreme, but every time a teacher is assaulted by a child who is the age of criminal responsibility or above (or a parent assaulting), involve the police.

Sounds like he's not right for teaching. Not everyone is and it's best for the children that he moves on and they get someone who can do the job properly.

You are lucky!

Except 40,000 other teachers left last year before retirement age and the government recruitment targets haven’t been met, so where are these people ‘who can do the job properly’ going to come from and how are we going to persuade them to stay?

I made this decision at Easter for similar reasons. YANBU

It can't be clawed back can it? Once respect and discipline has gone, once parents see kids as their best mates and put them on a par with themselves rather than moulding them into good humans, once they spend so much on them due to peer pressure and what the media tells them to, once kids have more power than teachers.... the stable door is well and truly open.

Yes, my DD worked in a girl's grammar in Essex. There was a fair share of deprivation, but her experience was much, much better there, than in the private London school she teaches in now. She has had to deal with much worse behaviour in the private school...quite nasty parents, unengaged, dismissive etc...
And students telling her to "Fuck off, my parents pay your wages", and the like. A lot of entitlement. The only good thing is she had a really good, supportive SLT.

Should a teacher expect to be abused then? I can't believe given some of the experiences described here that someone would deduce that basically if you can't put up with that then you're not right for the job! The issue is with the behaviour, not with the teacher!

Education system is at crisis point, very tough for teachers, parents and students. I can totally see why teachers would leave. Going back quite some years ago, when my DS2 was in primary, key stage 1, his really lovely teacher left for a totally different career choice, very sad to lose good teachers.

Been teaching nearly 30 years. I don't recognise the severe behaviour you have quoted but I know it happens. The system is broken because there more demands re SEN, poor mental health and lack of postive parental engagement. Behaviour is getting worse but, IME, management are in denial. This has helped me decide that I am going 5 years earli. I don't have a financial plan. I just know with the conditions as they are, I can not do this much longer . Deal.with the root of the problem: indiscipline, workload and pay.

See this is why I think the money/torries issue is a rbit of a red herring, one of the biggest issues I can see in schools (especially in senior school) is the appalling behaviour and attitude of both pupils and their parents....no one is addressing this and I think extra money will be a sticking plaster....it is a deep societal issue in this country and it's scary.

I left teaching 7 years ago, albeit for personal reasons rather than teaching reasons. It does depend hugely on the school. I worked at 4 schools in total, all primary in KS2. 1 was very supportive. 2 were not. 1 was amazing but then the head changed and then it was awful. Support from senior leaders is key. I had a child who would strangle children, they were all terrified. I had scissors thrown at me. I was called a whore. I had a parent screaming at me about the school’s latest ofsted. We had to call the police when a parent turned up to collect her child extremely drunk and wanted to drive them home and when parents were physically fighting in the playground. I don’t how many times I was called a stupid bitch by both children and parents, several at least. These were across all the schools but the thing that made the most difference was the reaction of the SLT. I will add that most of the children were wonderful and I miss teaching children like that a great deal but I would never go back it.

I left teaching over a decade ago and moved abroad.
There was far too much pressure and stress created by senior management. The job was unmanageable. I was expected to take on all kinds of roles without any monetary compensation (because there wasn't the money apparently).
I loved the children, working with them and seeing them progress but my health was starting to suffer so I left.
In the intervening decade, and especially in the last 2 or 3 years, I've been appalled to see that the vast majority of my friends from the last two schools I worked in have also left. One after another. Like dominos. They were all excellent teachers and were people I thought would be in it for life. But no.... they've gone on to do various things such as tutoring, driving instructor, office work etc. I found it particularly sad that two wonderful nursery nurses who did degrees (and that involved an immense effort juggling study, family and job) and became teachers have also since left saying that it just isn't like it used to be and it isn't manageable.
It's appalling. Something is very wrong when the profession is haemorraging people like that.

@Mirabai 'But where would you send all the kids excluded from mainstream?'

PRUs and special schools, as appropriate.

I feel exactly the same (I haven’t experienced violent behaviour but just the lack of respect and answering back/trying to be funny). Also the constant not feeling good enough or like you’ve done enough. But I feel stuck as I only work part time and it’s all I’ve ever done. I don’t know what else I could do for similar pay.

Sounds familiar, we had a violent child in DS primary (yes primary!) class kicking off throwing chairs, kicking kids, biting teachers, smashing stuff over dinner ladies head etc, was in meeting in the school so many times saying this child needs specialist schooling can’t handle mainstream school and I was made out to be uncaring and non PC. In the end had to move DS. No interest from leadership in dealing strongly with the situation, everything brushed under the carpet.

I have friends in teaching and I've never heard anything like this. This sounds a particularly challenging school. I wouldn't want to do it. It seems schools are under more pressure to deliver more. From what I see of my experience with primary school there are not always resources to provide everything needed and the system then fails. There is an obsession with attendance put upon schools from government yet no real investment in the extra resources needed to manage some more challenging behaviour. A high proportion of these kids are likely to have extra needs I would bet. It doesn't mean teachers should put up with this! But the government is not funding the extra resources needed to deal with it. If you add in struggles at home/ with parenting there's going to be explosions in the school setting.

You can't always discipline these problems away. And there will be cases where the parents can't cope for whatever reason.

I teach over 18's at university, and am horrified by this- my students are polite, respectful and if they talk when I'm talking, I stare until they stop and they always do. I feel our management would back us as long as we were following procedures should there be a complaint (which there is occasionally). If senior staff bully others, colleagues get the unions in and occasionally lawyers. It's just not allowed. Schools seem to operate outside of the parameters of normal employment in so many ways!

There is more than one way to have an uneducated population.
No government dare say that people are not entitled to an education but what they can do is make that education worse than useless.
There are two main ways to do this.

The first is to ensure that there is no discipline in schools.

This can be easily achieved by outlawing, or at least frowning upon, any punishment. On these boards, children that are shouted at are seen as having been verbally or emotionally abused. Some even feel a naughty step is abuse of this kind.
Children are encouraged to believe their opinion carries the same weight as the teachers and often parents are very keen to compound this view.
Outrageous behaviour is rarely called out for what it is, almost every misbehaving child has a neurodiversity which means they can't help their behaviour. Society is encouraged to buy into this. PDA is the one of the latest but of course, all it is is children not doing what they are told to do. Generations of children have been like this but today instead of being told to do it or they will be punished, it is now a condition.

Much more of course but it all leads to classrooms where children cannot learn.

The second way is to ensure that the education itself is, in many places, shite.
Children are not taught, for want of a better phrase, the 3 R's.

However, they-and their parents-are encouraged to believe that they are getting a marvellous education-Grade A all round. Of course, this Grade A is useless-differentials have been eroded. Most of them get a Grade A-it means little but, understandably, there is a reluctance to take this on board.

Meanwhile, the ruling classes and those with serious funds-send their children to Eton et al, where I very much doubt that the 3 rs are off the agenda and where the sight of teachers regularly experiencing the horrors described on this thread is fairly rare.

How to ameliorate the situation.

A proper education will take a long time to reinstate so the best bet would be to restore discipline. I can't see that happening either so there is little to be done. Highly qualified teachers will leave and there will be a new type brought it-less qualified, less able to impart their limited knowledge and finally, our expectations will be so low that we mark as a genius, anyone who can distinguish between 'of' and 'off', 'there' and 'their' and 'aisle' and 'isle',

They're my thoughts. They won't be palatable but they are correct.

All of these things are common in the schools I know and I work for a large trust so talk to a LOT of teachers, I’m blown away that some posters think this is uncommon.

I don’t think parents really get just how awful classrooms are. I am sworn at on a daily basis and I have been pushed and hit. Teachers regularly cry in the staff room in my secondary.

If the school attempts to enforce strict rules to enable learning to actually happen, then parents and kids complain and whinge.

And the parents complaining come from all parts of society, believe you and me. They don’t have a clue how their ‘little angels’ are behaving when they leave their care.

I still really love my job, but society does need to wake up and FAST!!!!

Exactly. I want my kids to be able to learn in a calm environment, not the bloody war zone I remember from my state education (and that was many years ago, reportedly it’s m got worse since then).