Teachers : what's the worst thing about the job now?

[Floursacktabletop]

I've name changed , but been here many years and teaching for 22 years.
Dreading going back on Monday. For me , the worst bit is the increasingly poor behaviour of students and the continual parental complaints and allegations.
Anyone else dreading it and fancy a solidarity thread?

Disingenuous
SEND resources and support , not the child

Stupid wastes of time like the sip visit I've got the week after next and the pressure things like this bring for no bloody reason.

Yep every child matters except your own.

One of the parents I had was obsessed with getting DLA for her child because she wanted the extra money and believed it was grossly unfair that other children had it and hers didn't. She offered to pay me to say he had autism.

What causes so many SEN? Some teachers say 20%-50% of the class?
Is it pupils who in the past would have gone into special schools or something else?

If there's no one in the hierarchy she feels she can approach, suggest she speaks to her union rep. They'll have heard it all before.

The majority of posts yes, not all.

I have. What's your point, other than being repetitive?

You read the bloody thread.
in fact I’ll explain simply, in words you might understand.
One reason teaching is hard is because there are more SEN needs and not enough support.
And teachers, who contrary to popular belief went into teaching to help kids (and not to get long holidays / finish at 3 / because they’ve never left school / whatever other shite is said) actually feel bad because they can’t support those kids, while successfully teaching the other kids; therefore the SEN needs make the job hard.
Do you get it now?

Do we know why there are no textbooks used any more? Why is it all worksheets instead?

They cost a fortune, we don't have the budget for them and if we did, they'd be destroyed within hours.

What is this motivation from thr past government to convert everything into academies? Why were they doing it?

The closure of SEND schools has had an impact on the level of pupils with a SEND.
Part of the issue is "inclusive education" it was never meant to be for all children, its was supposed to be for those with disabilities that should never excluded them in the first place. But the government saw it as a chance to reduce spending on education and now schools cannot cope with the numbers that are coming through.
And remember that the requirements/thresholds to get extra funding for pupils with SEND was raised, dropping that amount of funding that schools had available.

Sounds awful. A woman I knew who loved children thought TA would be a nice job for her due to the hours...She was physically assaulted so badly she had to quit. Her husband said it just wasn't worth it.
People aren't paid enough to be physically assaulted by children.

Standing by everyday while children who need help are not getting it and feeling helpless as I cannot meet their needs. I see them floundering, beginning to hate school at 7 and 8 when it should be so exciting and feeling like failures when it’s the govt and system that are failing them.

Quite eye opening.
I couldn't be a teacher so I respect anyone who is.
Is the behaviour actually any worse? I remember some horrific stuff when I was at secondary. Is the punishment just not as harsh now so behaviour trickier to deal with??
The real bad kids just used to disappear (excluded). I guess that's not as easy now?
Also interesting how most mention parents? I'm so wary as a parent not to annoy the teachers asking them for help or making them aware of stuff. I rarely do. But whenever you raise stuff with other mums (or on here) everyone always says "speak to the teacher" "ask school for help" "school should be able to provide X y and z" so it's tricky to know what to do as a parent

EYFS and KS1 leader as well as SENDCo

The majority of our parents across the school are wonderful. Some of their complaints I have dealt with I can’t say I disagree with. At the end of the day they want what’s best for their children.

I mostly love my job. My three worst parts of the job…

-Bitterness and bitchiness among other staff (especially with such a small staff body).
-How scripted the job is.
-How we have to beg, borrow and steal funding, resources, training to deal with the significant issues and number of SEND cases in a mainstream setting. Yet a child we recently secured a specialist setting for were receiving £100,000 + to take them. But we were not even given the funding to cover his 1:1. Let alone the training of staff and specialist equipment and resources needed!

Rant over 🙃

@Floursacktabletop who can I complain to please?
I was sat here happily reading then you mentioned that story about the ghost, how the hell am I supposed to sleep tonight after that very scary post.

Haha I couldn't be a teacher because I would lose my rag if some cocky teenager tried being a complete twat with me.
I was a nightmare at school and I bet a few of the teachers thought about punching me on a daily basis

A textbook costs between £25 - £30, a class set multiple by 35 (just to be safe, and I have seen classes at 36 - 38 pupils) for a year group multiply by 5 (on average)

a work sheet = cost of printing.

Throw in 2 that couldn't read or write (in year 6), another smashing the place up and several who would cry anytime they had to work independently and that sounds like my last class at the time I quit. 1 TA shared across 3 classes in the year. Its nothing to do with lacking empathy for SEN. It's that pretending a classroom can function that way is failing everyone.

It reduces government costs and removes the governments responsibility, whilst allowing them to bitch about teachers and education.

I'm so sorry to hear you experienced this. What is it they have to do for Ofsted that isnt necesaarily good for the children?

I was a secondary teacher for over 20 years. I had mostly GCSE and A level groups but some year 8 and 9. I found DC's concentration was often poor. Many more DC with neuro diversity in mainstream classes without TA's. The marking workload was heavy for me, reports, prep of lessons each time the curriculum changed and the general worry about some of the DC. I had more than one 17 year old boy who was homeless and sofa surfed with various friends, many 16 and 17 year olds who had part time jobs that insisted they work additional hours to their contract hours, an anorexic student and often depressed students. Numerous DC with ADHD some who were medicated and some who were not. I retired early at 56. I felt drained not so much from the teaching but by worrying about the students and the way some of them lived.

Please encourage her to get help, or this will take an even worse toll on her MH. Has she escalated it at the school?

I cant tell you how much I admire teachers and their patients? Do we know the reason for so much SEN these days?