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?

Yes the behaviour in public is an issue. Trying to find work experience placements for year 10 was always interesting. Some places refusing to take them having had bad experiences from students in previous years (my school had some students sent home during work experience as their behaviour was inappropriate).

My NPA is 68 as born after April ‘78. Us “oldies” Will be managed out way before then, or maybe not if we’re the only ones left 😂

My daily life would be more pleasant if I could actually have a conversation with pupils. They’re so fucking miserable and rude. We are told by SLT that we must model polite behaviour so I stand at my door and smile and greet each pupil by name like a twat whilst they barely glance at me.

We had a work experience kid leave after one morning at a local cafe as he didn't want to wipe the tables. Arrived back at school, followed by dad half an hour later who had taken the time to go and shout at the cafe owner on the way

100% this. My son wants to learn and works hard but can hardly get any work done due to the constant disrespect and disruption form about 1/3 of the class. They don’t care about the consequences so no incentive to stop. It’s awful for the kids who want to be there.
I am a teacher, but in a small SEN provision and feel so much for the teachers at his secondary. The school was outstanding when we bought our house here 6 years ago. It’s now in special measures.

What I find interesting is when every single other child bar one in your class has passed whatever it is, that the parent of that child still blames your teaching rather than even considering it might be their child.

We had a student returned from work experience for telling someone to fuck off.

Funnily enough that place won't take anymore work experience students now.

Parents phoned us to complain about the placement!

And yet we have parents and SLT who expect exactly that, when at least 1/3 of the class has a 'special' need of some kind. And we're now over 30 in the class...

😮

I left at Christmas. In no particular order:-

1. Behaviour
2. Being undermined by SLT
3. BS initiatives
4. Toxic management
5. Workload
6. Daily emails after 9pm

Yes we also have the same issues with work experience. So many local businesses now refusing to take on the Y10 students from the schools in our town due to bad experiences with students not turning up, behaving badly, not doing the work, talking to staff, superiors and customers inappropriately etc.

Not just work experience, for vocational placements too. So many mechanics, plumbers, construction firms sending back/failing or complaining about the apprenticeship or placement students we send them due to all the above.

It’s not even the case anymore that bright (but not academic) sparky and earnest kids who wanted to work with their hands and enter a vocation and do some hard graft are out there in large numbers for employers. The kids who don’t want to do academics don’t want to do any vocational or trade work either or any type of job at all apart from filming on their phones. There’s no pride or work ethic out there. My friend owns a painting and plastering company and hires school leavers. He said it’s utterly impossible to leave recent ones unsupervised to do even the most basic tasks as they do no work, on phones constantly, show up late or not at all and cannot interact with the public professionally. He said it is a world apart from the stock of school-leavers he hired for the same role two decades ago.

It's not just behaviour. It's the refusal of many parents to contribute to school trips so we can actually afford to take their children places. Usually the same parents as our worst behaved students as well.

Ive had a catch up on this thread and I am saddened to read about all of your experiences.

What would you suggest for parents? I think I'm reasonable, I am trying to parent well and create boundaries, I am willing to work with teachers etc. But it sounds like this a lost battle. I don't want my child to miss out on an education due to lack of funding and resources, or to end up getting hurt due to violence. Do we look at private schools, home schooling, tutors...?

So are there any solutions?

To be fair, we are in a cost of living crisis.

Lots, but they require more money than any government is willing to spend, a cultural shift which is hard and nigh on impossible, and they also acknowledge that inclusion into mainstream at all costs is not working, which is seen as a moral failing rather than reality.

I'm not a teacher but I do have two kids in primary school (Yr7 &10). We were never able to message teachers in primary school directly but we can in secondary school.

Why are parents able to email teachers directly? This surely opens up teachers to abuse. Doesn't seem right to me.

True. But DH has family in east Asia and the attitude towards education is completely different. Parents make huge sacrifices to contribute towards their children's education. That doesn't seem to be the case in this country.

OMG, if only more parents were like you...

Yes but it’s all at the mercy of government funding. We need a far, far better SEN provision, first of all. One which will allow the children with SEN to access specialised curriculums to suit their needs. The inclusion that’s being pushed simply isn’t fit for purpose. There are genuine concerns around this about a two tier education system, however the approach we currently have is impossible.

We need children to have far, far less screen time, but I am very aware that one of the main reasons children are having so much screen time is that parents are simply overworked, stressed and exhausted themselves, and opt for the easiest option, which of course is detrimental to the children. So we need a better general work-life balance for everyone. But capitalism the “cost of living” does not allow for that.

We need SLT who have actual management training. A former PE teacher who has specialised in BTEC Sport for the last 10 years does not necessarily know how to manage a department of English teachers in their 30s and 40s, as much as they may think they do. Better funding CPD will fix that.

Lack of funding for SEND, so we have children who ten years ago would have never been expected to go anywhere near mainstream, now are dumped there, despite it not being what the parents/any professionals want, without 1:1 funding.

Dealing with KS1 pupils who are non verbal, in nappies and dysregulated in a large class of 30 is hard enough, but add in all the other pupil with needs (we have 7 children in one y2 class on pathways for diagnoses-all requiring endless forms for the staff to complete and adjustments parents want put in place) and it becomes unmanageable. Plus all the rest of the class who still have to all make continuous progress!

The curriculum is too vast and inflexible, Ofsted is ever-looming, stressful and career-ending and workload is through the roof. I don't know a single primary friend/colleague who isn't planning an exit strategy. Secondary friends seem happier somehow, I'm not sure why, though some of the behaviour they talk about sounds absolutely abysmal.

Yes to all of above, if you can afford it. That said, the behaviour and entitlement won't be much better at a private school.

Oh! Work experience! We had a pupil sent home because they refused to be separated from their phone and put it in a locker like all the other employees. We put activities on for them in school and they refused to follow staff instructions so we had to send them home from that. Parent said it was our fault because work experience changes the kid’s routine and they didn’t like that. Had the parent sat their kid down and talked through how work experience/college/just leaving school etc would change their routine? Had they prepared them in any way? Had they bollocks.

Also had another one kick off because kid applied to go to a local swimming pool for work experience that they had previously been kicked out of for anti social behaviour. Swimming pool said no. That was also school’s fault as well, apparently. 🙄

They are probably the members of the family who can spell 'moaning' though. They are probably aware that schools are part of the real world too. Are you under the impression that there's an unreal world?

I left 15 years ago for the reasons number 2-5 on your list.
It's interesting to see how things that were an issue 15 years ago have just got worse and worse.
I didn't leave teaching because of behaviour because the behaviour was good in my last school, an independent girls' school but colleagues who have recently left there said even in that school the behaviour was starting to become an issue.
Number 6 on your list would have become an issue if I'd stayed and they were just starting to introduce parents being able to email you at any time of the day or night.

Ban phones/iPads etc to U16s