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

I have a close friend who went from being a lawyer to a teacher for better work life balance. He loves it and finds it much easier.

horses for courses.

@User2460177 teachers are leaving teaching for other jobs in their droves. Recruitment for teacher training is way below where it needs to be. If I had a child just going into the education system now I would be seriously worried

It's 8 weeks paid leave, as it is across the public sector. The other weeks are unpaid, as per the teachers contract. Paid for 195 days @ 7 hours per day with 40 days paid holiday and 15 minutes paid break, lunch not paid. The same as most jobs. You should retrain and then you could have the same.

I mean, my geography teacher taught PE, or did my PE teacher teach geography? I did pretty well in both. Most of my teachers at primary school taught 2 subjects.

@HeavingSuitcase I think what sets teaching apart in many ways is that it is rare to be able to leave work behind when you get home. Kick-out at my school is 17.30 but I'm rarely done by then and end up having to put in a few hours at home most nights / weekends in order to keep on top of the workload. That's not covering extras, that's basic in primary with a couple of subject leader roles thrown in, like many of us have. If I worked in many other stressful jobs, I might be stressed out of my tree while at work, but once I clocked off I'd be done.

You don’t get a choice. Lots of kids currently don’t have teachers.

The thing is, it’s not nationwide at every school is it? Many (most?) schools are fine for teachers. Some areas there is no capacity to train as a teacher as courses are full. Teachers want to teach at the nice schools, not the shit schools. I imagine these are the schools where retention is hard. My original point still stands. If you leave and pursue something that makes you happy, someone will take your place sooner or later and it will be fine. There shouldn’t be such a sense of guilt and responsibility that you stay in a job that makes you miserable, recruitment crisis or not.

Probably because the financial rewards are so much better. Sorry I replied to the wrong person, was supposed to be the person above @OhshutupSandra

financial rewards are better in other careers

My school historically didn't have a problem with recruitment but over the last few years it has been really tough. I don't think any schools are finding it easy.

In terms of 'capacity to train as a teacher' - that is going to be a HUGE issue next year. Teachers train teachers, the government has implemented a new requirement for those teachers to have to complete 20 hours of training alongside the immense workload that training a teacher takes. Many schools are now pulling out of teacher training because they cannot staff it.

Lots of jobs are incredibly hard.

When I say 'really tough' for recruitment I should clarify that means that we haven't been able to recruit teachers in many areas. There are maths classes who have had different supply teachers all year. A-level classes have had to teach themselves as they haven't had a teacher. GCSE classes have been taught by people who don't know the subject at all and have been one page ahead in the textbook.

I’m retraining as a primary teacher next year - my pgce course is full (although I think some or all of the secondary courses still have places).

i used to work as a solicitor in a London law firm, highly stressful environment with managing a small team. Hated it by the time I left.

i’ve been working in schools for a number of years in a support role, gradually taking on more teaching. I decided this year I was going to make the jump to getting qualified, because despite the fact that I cover classes on my own I’m only paid a TA wage (my MAT sucks)

i appreciate that teaching is also stressful at times, but I find it far more rewarding than my old job. I’m really looking forward to next year. I think (as much as I can!) I’m not looking at this with rose tinted spectacles - given my role I’m aware of the workload of the fully qualified staff.

The point is we should be angry at the government for making what should be a rewarding career into an extremely stressful one that people are now not even training for as they’ve realised it’s underpaid and over worked. Less exams, less targets, smaller classes, more TAs, more curriculum freedom, schools not having to act as food banks, or housing advisors to children and their families who are in serious poverty. All of this could mean we actually retain teachers and encourage new ones. People who are getting cross with teachers for feeling overwhelmed are really missing the point. We need teachers and we need them to be able to do their job effectively for our children. Get angry with the people in power not the teachers!

20 hours is less than 3 days work? Surely the teachers would work an extra 3 days for this if it’s compulsory?

You'd work 3 extra days unpaid on top of an increased workload for no pay and think that a reasonable expectation?

I often see people saying that teachers claim teaching is a ‘uniquely difficult profession’. I don’t think that is what they are usually saying and I don’t think that’s what most teachers believe. I think the main reason people are sharing their experiences is out of concern for a profession in crisis and the impact on those working within it and the young people they are trying to educate. I no longer teach and am much happier in another role. However, in my time as a teacher, I was spat at, had objects thrown at me, was called a c*nt, saw fellow teachers physically assaulted and subject to threats of sexual violence. I also witnessed a bullying culture where more experienced teachers were ‘managed out’ when they became more expensive to make room for less experienced, cheaper candidates. At its worst, I was also working ridiculous hours to keep on top of the absurd amounts of admin, meetings and additional projects I was tasked with. I saw entire departments resigning, leading to staff shortages and non subject specialists being drafted in to make up the shortfall. At one point, I found myself teaching a subject I had no qualifications in! These issues are seen up and down the country. Not in every school, of course, but enough for them to be entrenched, systemic problems.

What IS different about teaching, though, is that teachers are often having to defend themselves against claims that their job is a doddle because of the ‘short working days and long holidays’ in a way that people working in other professions do not. People in many other roles quite rightly criticise their pay and working conditions, especially when vulnerable people are impacted, for example HCPs and social workers. While there is a lot of, often unfair, criticism levelled at some of these professions, I do think the difficulty of these roles is generally acknowledged.

As I say, I’ve moved on from teaching now. However, I remain very concerned and want people to understand the issues, for the benefit of teachers themselves and for our children. I know I don’t want my child to learn in an unsafe environment with a burnt-out teacher who isn’t even qualified in their subject! Or even worse, no teacher at all.

Many are just leaving without speaking out. There is a very real shortage of teachers in some areas, and we need to know why - the key to solving the problem is not necessarily training more teachers or just raising pay or training bursaries - it's working out how to keep the teachers once trained.

Why do we hear more from teachers than others? Largely, because there are a lot of them. I also notice that OP's rundown of their day is common to many teachers; they don't appear to be saying their school is a particularly bad one to work in, and they're not going to solve the problem by moving school, as they might if it was a particular company's working ethos. And it might also be assume that "mums" are interested in knowing the challenges faced by their children's teachers, especially if they're wondering why their child's school hasn't yet been able to tell them who will be teaching the classes next year.

and yet so many teachers are leaving for other jobs and not coming back. Perhaps the pay and conditions aren’t quite as good as you make out…

Once again you want to rely on the goodwill of teachers?
And then wonder why so many are leaving.

@FrippEnos you can love you job AND find it really hard. They're not mutually exclusive. That's what teaching is like. It's the best job in the world, really enjoyable but at the same time incredibly challenging.

Your job not you job

I think that you may have @'d me by mistake as that was my point.

ttcat37

Some areas there is no capacity to train as a teacher as courses are full.

Have you looked into how many of those that go on the course don't actually make it through the training?

There are also many areas were the training courses have had to shutdown due to lack of interest.

Are they going to pay me for it?

Because it wouldn't fit into my directed hours and I already work many hours outside of my directed hours for no pay.

IE - a couple of weeks ago, we took the children on a trip. By the time we got home and the last child had been collected, I'd worked more hours of unpaid overtime that day than I'd been paid for.