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

@noblegiraffe

As a teacher (sorry I addressed you specifically because I recognise your user name)
What practical or structural changes fo you think could be brought about to change teaching?

I read teachers complaining (about things that are not unreasonable to complain about) and I think there seems a lot of "extras" that seem to be tacked on outside the classroom but as a non teacher I have no idea what needs to happen within the education system to make teachers jobs more bearable, or the profession more attractive.....?
If I vote Labour for example, they say they will recruit more teachers.where will they get that many teachers and what else will they need to do so the new teachers don't think its a shit job and leave within 2 years?

I don't mean it as a goady question - similarly to the NHS I imagine state education needs to be restructured in some way but I've no idea what that looks like in practical terms

You’ve been told you don’t know what you’re talking about, and yet you persist.

It is not just about increased accountability.

If you hadn’t noticed, there has been, in the last few years, an explosion in the number of children with SEN, and children with mental heath needs, and children living in poverty. At the same time there has been a collapse in children’s services that provide SEN support and mental health support. Who do you think has been expected to step up?

Schools are now clothing, washing and feeding children on a wide scale (and not just free school meals), dealing with a huge amount of paperwork for SEN and mental health referrals that never go anywhere, EHCP appeals, and so much more safeguarding work.

At the same time funding to schools has been cut, staff have been made redundant, particularly TAs and pastoral staff.

And teachers have quit to be replaced by supply and non-teachers. Who does the planning and marking for them? Who picks up the pieces when they leave?

Increased accountability my arse.

Some people will never ever be capable of even trying to get it.

Far easier to chuck out lazy statements like:

'Quit then and someone else will do it'

• well they might, but chances are they will quit in a few years too.

Or

'Lots of jobs are hard'

• well yes, some jobs are hard. No one has said they aren't. Teaching is hard. This is a thread about that. Feel free to also start a thread about why your job is hard too.

But seriously - look at the evidence. If you don't want to take anecdotal views into account - which is fine. Just look at the picture of teacher retention over a decent time period - say 10-15 years. Then maybe you might see that there is a very real issue.

Do you also recognise that the teachers contract agreed that teachers would have 8 weeks paid holiday, as per the rest of public sector. You aren't paid for the additional holidays. You are paid for 195 days work with 40 days holiday spread over 12 months to give monthly salary.

No idea, it’s not my problem, or yours. If you want to leave then leave. I think having 4 months off a year and no shift work are good incentives to join teaching. Every job has shit parts, especially public service. I’m not sure why you would go into teaching thinking it’s all sweetness and light.

Schools have changed so much in the decade I have worked in schools.

Just this month I had a conversation where a cahms service were refusing referrals for a particular service because the children had suicide ideation. They said this was too complex for them and schools were best placed to deal with it. They do offer a crisis plan (which is basically watching the child like a hawk, remove dangerous objects)

Not blaming cahms as they have no staff.

But the average primary or secondary teacher isn't best placed to deal with suicidal children really are they.

Teaching is incredibly difficult. Especially primary in a difficult school.

If you are not enjoying it and it's affecting your mental health, you need to find another job that pays £40,000 a year and gives you three months holiday. That's the difficult bit.

And yet people leave, and people are not signing up to replace them.

And children are going without teachers.

Assuming you aren't bothered by the impact on children's education then @ttcat37 ?
Maybe you aren't - and that's fine it isn't top of everyone's list.

However if you are in any way bothered like many parents are - then it very much is a problem for them.

The impact of what? Getting rid of teachers that hate their jobs and recruiting people that love it? Yes, of course I care. If you hate your job then leave. The teachers I know do love their jobs.

@ttcat37 Are you struggling to understand what a recruitment crisis means here?

You do understand that the teachers are going but new ones aren’t being recruited to replace them?

The Tories missed their teacher recruitment target last year by nearly 14,000. And has been missing it for years. Who do you think is teaching those kids?

It's a hard job but no more or less than many others unfortunately.

The ones I know well personally find it tiring and frustrating at times but hugely rewarding and have no intention of leaving.

@ttcat37- I was perfectly polite to you.

The impact of a retention crisis of course.

A well documented and evidenced retention crisis.

Perhaps you haven't heard of it?

By the way I am not a teacher.

I'm married to one.

He teaches in a school for the most vulnerable children.

He loves it even though he has been assaulted three time this year.

It doesn't stop him or I understanding that the masses of evidence that this current system retaining the teachers that they have invested in and trained is a crisis that has evolved over time and is not showing any signs of abating.

Honestly I should know better than to bother.

Fact is some people don't give a shit and no amount of actual evidence will convince them because they care more about 'winning' then they care about acknowledging that they might not understand something no matter how impartial and vast the evidence is.

Brexit and Covid should have taught me that.

Well done. I wasn’t impolite to you.
The thing is, teachers shout about a teaching and retention crisis, then start posts like this where it’s clear they hate their jobs. Just leave. I would rather my child not be taught than be taught by someone who hates it. It’s clear that teachers aren’t aware of the extent of their jobs when they’re going into teaching or it wouldn’t be such a horrible shock. If we can keep people in jobs just as challenging as teachers that pay less then there’s clearly something amiss with the expectations of teachers when they go into their careers.

Its interesting that so many people on this thread are happy for teachers to leave when there are so many threads calling teachers names for doing so, or even worse leaving in the middle of the year.

The outcome of all of this is that you get the education system that you deserve not the one that you want.

Do you really think that someone that didn't love their job would do as much as the OP has?
I know people (teachers and others) that hate their jobs and they do as little as possible to get by. Just enough so that they don't get noticed.

You can have the last word @ttcat37 .

I cannot be bothered, genuinely.

I disagree with you and you clearly think there is an endless supply of trained teachers to churn through to replace the ones that are burned out.

I can't argue with the total lack of logic.

I would rather my child not be taught than be taught by someone who hates it.

I bet you wouldn’t.

I would, that’s why I said it.

I would rather my child not be taught than be taught by someone who hates it.

That is an interesting thought

When I left it impacted not only the two GCSE years in the school but also the option choices of the KS3 groups.
As the only specialist teacher of the subject in the school the SLT had to pull my subject as they wrongly believed that I would be easy to replace.

I really respect teachers and think it seems like a very difficult job… however, lots of jobs are difficult. What is the point of this post? Shall we get a nurse along to write in detail everything they have done today to compare? Or a barrister? Most people in professional roles work hard and work long hours, that’s life.