I agree. It gets to the point where you are wishing away the classroom bit (the nice bit, with the children) in order to get to 3.30 so you can even begin to make a START on all the hoop jumping, because that’s the bit that SLT are baying for your blood over!
There is way way too much paperwork and pointless expectation now to be able to even manage, let alone be good at.
Another huge issue is the expectation that ‘inclusion’ is possible for all pupils, regardless of their level of need, and if you can’t cope-well, you just aren’t providing High Quality Teaching.
It starts off ok-if you have 29 keen, well-behaved pupils, you can manage one pupil say, with ASD who takes up 10% of your time. You can still probably manage if your TAs are all made redundant because of the budget-it’s much harder and the expectations that you still get every child to meet their targets obviously doesn’t change. You can probably still manage when you have 25 children with no additional needs and 5 with SEN-it’s a lot more differentiation (sorry, adaptation!) needed and you still have no TA, but it’s hard-really hard, when nothing else can ‘give’-you still have learning walks, observations to pass, deep dives and Ofsted to prepare for, book scrutinies and IEPs to write and do. But there comes a tipping point-the old boiling frog analogy-where you can’t do it all. A child starts your class in nappies-you still have no TA and have to manage that yourself. They need you to give Movicol twice a day…ok. They are non-verbal and dysregulated a lot of the time-the SENCo is gathering evidence for a needs assessment but they are taking months and you know at the end, they won’t get full time funding. You then get another consultation for a new student for your class-they are PEG fed and need a hoist to get in and out of any equipment and their EHC plan says they have 16 hours a week of support. What will happen the other 16 hours of the week when it’s just you in there?! What will you do with your 5 SEN, your pupil in nappies who runs away when unsupported, oh-and your other 25 pupils who frankly are getting fed up of never having any of your attention!?
You might just about be able to hold together what is happening in your classroom. They might not be getting the best experience in the world, but you’re keeping those plates spinning (yes, you are now on anti-depressants and your husband has left you) but the whole school expectations don’t stop…
Monday morning briefing…’Oh, remember, there’s a staff meeting you need to take after school, and are you sorted for the school trip on Wednesday-have you done the risk assessment and got enough helpers? Plus obviously Thursday’s parents meeting, can you get your books ready for a book scrutiny for SLT for Friday first things, and also take Friday’s assembly-can your class just do a song? Data is due on Friday after school, don’t forget! Next week is observations-we aren’t sure which day yet, so be prepared! That will feed into your PMR-we’ll take in your subject folder as well-you are maths, history, phonics and PSHE again this year, yes? Have a fab week!’