Being a primary school teacher is INCREDIBLY HARD or AIBU 🫠

[BoneTiredandWired]

Today alone as a teacher I have: Intervened in three fights. Had multiple restorative conversations. Given up both my break and lunchtime to sort out arising issues. Unexpected fire alarm chaos. Taught music and German and had a real laugh with my class. Saw real positive developments of my kids abilities. Shortly later spoken seriously and told off my class.
Dealt with multiple crying children who don't want to leave my class next week. Sang and coordinated our summer concert songs.
Written the last of 28 individually written reports for all my kids.
Tidied up and emptied my entire classroom.
Had a 2 hour after school meeting.
Cried on the way home out of sheer emotional exhaustion and having to be strong carrying the emotions of so many throughout the day.

I ❤️ my kids so so much, but teaching is HARD and so so much more than people think it is

Currently off with exhaustion secondary teacher here it’s never happened me before just couldn’t take the demands and pressure and an awful parent and then an 11 year old called me a fucking bitch and that was 2 weeks ago and all I’ve done is cry and sleep since horrific time table one person department. I hear you x

Cried on the way home out of sheer emotional exhaustion and having to be strong carrying the emotions of so many throughout the day.

Not everyone is suited to teaching. You do have to take things a bit less personally. Not all teachers get as emotional as this

The thing is. Teaching is hard. Its draining, its physical.

But its also uplifting. Fulfilling. You get fabulous feeling the day that kid who struggled opens the GCSE results and is made up with his grade 5 maths and has got his college place.

The kids can be lovely, hilarious, kind, amazing, creative.

Its a roller coaster but some people need a job with the feel good factor. Office jobs can be a another kind of grind without any of that sense that you've done something worthwhile, made a difference.

Over a third of teachers leave the profession within 5 years of qualifying. We are not getting the required number of teachers into teacher training. Plus we have teachers leaving at the upper end of the scale. Can posters not see that there is a huge problem lurking, even bigger than we have at the moment.

Do people think it is acceptable that students have to teach themselves because there isn’t a teacher. We are not talking homework or the odd day but maybe for a term or longer.

Despite their claims, I suspect they would immediately find it unacceptable as soon as it was their kid.

It's fine for you to say this and you should never stay in a job which makes you unhappy or ill but with teachers, you need politicians to intervene in order to make sure there are enough qualified teachers to take care of children's education. Experienced and new teachers leaving the profession on this scale is bad news for society as a whole. Teachers do so much more than teaching, they can often be the steady reassuring go to person in children's lives as their parents/carers are not able to look after them properly. What do you think will happen when there are not enough teachers to teach? Who will take over?

You can’t have it both ways. Either you’re devastated about the career you love being impossible to recruit for, or you don’t want to work an extra 2 and a half days during your 4 months off. Maybe your union can arrange pay if you really don’t want to do it. It’s not just teachers that do work outside of their contracted hours you know!

As I responded to a pp, all public servants do this. And private industry is much worse.

See above. Maybe you’re in the wrong career if you don’t want to work outside of your contracted hours. Imagine a paramedic complaining that they’re off late!

I have worked and am currently working in private industry and its really not.
Maybe you need to find a better company to work for?

You seem to be ignoring the hours that teachers work outside of their directed time.

I sort of think that comparing different teaching roles is pointless when the schools are very different. Yes, I imagine it’s incredibly hard in schools where behaviour is very challenging. I wouldn’t call my job “incredibly hard”. I find it draining and tiring and am often absolutely wiped after work but I have a condition which causes chronic pain and fatigue so I don’t think that’s normal.

It’s busy, and it’s full on as a rule. I haven’t cried because of work since my NQT year, though. I would absolutely rather do this than some kind of hospitality role where you’re on your feet for 10 hours. The holidays are also such a massive perk.

So yes, it’s a hard job, it’s tiring and the hours are long and it is emotionally demanding but I don’t think it’s like “incredibly hard”. That is purely my opinion and experience, though.

Also, bar the 2 hour meeting, this sounds fairly standard and not something that I would find particularly overwhelming but also it can totally catch you on an off day when you’re feeling run down or tired anyway.

Our directed hours are like 1265 a year or something which for the weeks we work is 37.5 hours a week. I’m pretty certain that is right! No teachers work 37.5 hours a week. It’s just a fact of the job that we work well more than the directed hours. There’s not a lot of point moaning about it, but literally every single teacher has to do it.

No thank you. I love my job, and don’t mind doing the extra hours.

Yes, that’s my point. If the hours are so intolerable that 2.5 days extra are unbearable (which it seems is the case for some) then maybe it’s the wrong career. Again, my original point, don’t do a career that makes you unhappy…

No, I just think it’s not a secret that you will be expected to do this when you decide to become a teacher. Don’t become a teacher if you don’t want to work extra hours. Same goes for lots of jobs in private industry and public sector.

Teachers are already working between 50 and 60 hrs per week. This is as you say accepted. Why would they accept to work another 2- 3 days unpaid.

You are just adding to the problem whilst ignoring the rest of the problem.
But as part of the problem you already know this.

It’s your attitude that you’re “happy to do the extra hours” and we aren’t, as if teachers aren’t doing that every day as normal too. Last week I worked 55 hours and was obviously only paid for 37.5 of those. Fair enough if I’m utterly out of touch, I have only ever been a teacher in my adult life, but I don’t think that is routine in loads of other jobs? Maybe it is - and I don’t particularly think it should be. It isn’t a race to the bottom or a competition about who is prepared to give more to their job. Teaching can be hard and I’m sure your job can be too. Both things can be true without negating each other.

Also, I live with people in three different professions and the two who don’t work in schools get paid when they work extra hours, which teachers don’t. However, they also don’t get all the holidays, and I will happily hold my hands up and say I would take my situation any day!

I’m not adding to the problem at all. I’m saying that if you don’t like the working conditions and it makes you miserable then leave. A 10 hour working day is pretty standard. I don’t know anybody that doesn’t either work a 10 hour day or doesn’t log back on after work or at the weekends.

@ttcat37 A 10 hour working day in which you are paid for how many of those hours? Overtime?

Honestly, anyone in any job who is out here regularly working 15+ hours of unpaid overtime a week shouldn’t have to do that. I’m not sure when “all workers should get paid for the hours they work” became a controversial opinion.

Have you missed the threads and posts on this one where teachers are leaving the profession because of the workload?
Teachers are leaving because they are unhappy. (which should by your posts make you happy).

And you are adding to the problem if you think they should work more hours.