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?

Behaviour and parents.
I've been teaching for thirty years and can remember a PP slide with three red dots amongst twenty seven white dots.
'You focus on the pupils who display behaviour that can disrupt lessons,praise the pupils who engage'.
Twenty eight years later I can't do that any more because there are growing 'red dots' in every class I teach.
Swearing, throwing items, pulling up shirts and rubbing their chests,fumbling under the desk, following girls out of the class room.
Girls sitting on the laps of boys and stroking their faces and hair.
I've logged every incident but it just 'teenagers' .
Parents make excuses for extreme behaviour including throwing scissors at vulnerable pupils.
' He's got weird hair: he's a short arse: she's not got acrylic nails'

Absolutely this in a nutshell. Unless people have spent any time at all in a classroom, they really have no idea.

Good grief that's horrific about the police and the need for them. For someone who was at school in throughout the 70s and a bit of the 80s it's like hearing stories from some dystopian fiction writer. I just can't fathom where we've gone so far wrong with young people in such a short space of time that there is barely a week goes by when one of them doesn't stab another kid to death. It's beyond comprehension.

Not forced, by choice.
That would make a difference.

What? Kids already spend too much time on screens by choice and less time doing real life activities and engaging with other people face to face. Also, it takes quite a lot of policing to make sure they are actually using their devices to do their school work (rather than just mucking about online) when they are in a classroom. How well do you think that's going to go if they are at home unsupervised being 'taught' by AI while mum and dad are at work?!

My kids are at university now, but I am shocked and depressed reading this.

I also feel a bit pessimistic. You can throw all the money you want at schools, but if there is an underlying problem with poor parental attitude, what hope have teachers got?

A question. Are any teachers commenting here teaching in a private school? Because I imagine that there are parents there too with entitled attitudes? But obviously those schools don’t take that many kids with SEN or disability or from difficult home situations. Does that make a significant difference?

another question. My niece teachers at an inner city secondary school in Leeds. She’s only five years qualified and now Head of her department. But she loves it and said she would not want to work anywhere else. This is her second school and she enjoyed both. My friend’s kids are at a state secondary in a London borough. They are also doing well and have gone to Oxbridge. So there is clearly a difference between different state schools as some teachers speak positively, even in deprived areas. So is it the senior leadership too that can make a real difference?

Yeah I'm not too worried about my job. Until we have the funding to fully upgrade infrastructure (high-speed, reliable wifi which works inside the Faraday cages that schools are, servers, money for cloud storage, tech support, actual up-to-date physical devices, software, subscriptions), it won't happen. That's assuming that technology can do what we do in the classroom in terms of motivation, encouragement, entertainment and actual human connection. It's also assuming that kids know how to use tech - as a 90s child who grew up with computers, but having to figure it all out by myself, I am still frequently surprised by how few kids know how to work progams, solve login issues, use research tools or otherwise manioulate tech to their advantage.

Yes, who you work for makes a huge difference, much more so than your intake. A headteacher and their chosen team can make or break a school; I've seen both positive and negative transformations in the space of just a few months when a new head started.

Very bright kids with supportive, switched-on parents will still excel in pretty much any school, especially if their school has setting and they are in the top sets (away from the worst of the behaviour). A few may get into top universities and may get contextual offers if they are in a school in a deprived area. There are some excellent state schools, but there is usually some context for why they are like that. My current one is a grammar school.

Private schools vary. I've worked in a couple. One not very academic one full of boisterous and not very cooperative rugby players. One girls' day school which was wonderful in every way. Lovely, super-bright kids, lovely parents with only the very occasional exception. But private schools a) select their intake b) can kick kids out if they want c) tend to have small classes.

I think there’s a real dearth of proper funding for those schools in the ‘shires’ the inequality of how much is spent on students in different counties is absolutely shocking. It so grinds my gears when on results days the London schools are lauded. No shit Sherlock - have you seen the funding they have! By the way - I’m not criticising the London schools just wish that proper funding was available nationwide. Rural deprivation is real and also needs addressing.

Primary here.

Yep. Have to agree with the majority.

Behaviour. Pupils and parents.

You're wrong.

While there's not a lot AI won't be able to do, there will always be jobs where people prefer a person. Teaching is one of them.

Private schools of the future will boast of real live human teachers as a draw in their marketing.

I don't know why you're encouraging the discontented to stack shelves as if it's some whizzy counter argument - younger teachers are already leaving asap.

A situation from my last school:
A Y7 pupil with significant send. No diagnosis or ehcp. Working at Y1 level (if that).
Needed ft 1-1.
Needed a nap in the afternoon.
Cried for their mum all day.
It was highly distressing for all involved.
Parents took pupil back to home country. They are now back in the UK the LA are trying to get this school to take pupil back.
^ there are many, many pupils who simply should not be in mainstream school.
Inclusion is an illusion.

I was a governor for 20 years. I resigned after parents started hand delivering complaint letters to my home address.

No parents use the correct complaints proceedure. They do not support any sanctions for their child, despite the behaviour policy being clear and their child clearly breaching the policy (multiple times usually).

No money. Literally. There is no money. Some departments were running on £200 per year for resources.

SLT and governors spending all their time dealing with vexatious and insane parental complaints and issues over social media use outside of school.

It's not just staff leaving, it's the very experienced governors, too. I know several who have done 20 years like me, and have had enough.

I will never work or volunteer in education again.

I agree, screens are really bad for learning and behaviour overall. I wish mobile bans were fully banned in Schools also, including break times for behaviour reasons and social reasons.

Mainstream secondary schools are a joke. Usually full of useless SLT who only care about career progression over kids and staff. Behaviour is bad, parents are un supportive Teachers are criticised for everything regardless of how hard they work.
I know work at a special needs School (secondary) the smaller groups are amazing, SLT pretty supportive, my only issue (and dread for tomorrow) are the bitchy female staff!! It's a small school, full of troublemaking witches!! Constant reporting each other to SLT, shocking behaviour, the kids are awesome though.

Sorry now, not Know! (I'm not an English teacher!)

Absolutely this! And the time it actually takes and it is all past to me as HOY when I wasn't the one who was there...

Passed not past...

Yes, British parents attitudes are very different to parents of other cultures. I taught in a school with a high number of children of international parents who came over to study in this country. The contrast between these parents and British parents was startling. Respect for education, respect towards the school and teachers, taking advice on board, willingness to follow through with behaviour consequences.

I mentioned that my niece is loving her teaching job in inner city Leeds at a comp. A large number of children there are Asian. I wonder if their parents are committed to education perhaps which explains why she loves her job?

Behaviour

Lack of decent coffee

it’s unrealistic expectations and accountability for me, from pupils, parents, SLT and some of the general public (as evidenced by some comments on this thread).

Everything is due to us as teachers and we are seen as the problem if we can’t cope. It’s unrelenting and unachievable but it’s our fault in a broken system and an increasingly broken society if we don’t meet the needs of increasing complex pupils.

I've given up issuing detentions because all I get is a refusal from parents to accept that the punishment is warranted. And the kids don't turn up anyway. Now I give negative behaviour marks, email the parents (who invariably respond with a mad rant which I ignore) inform head of year, form tutor and head of dept and move on.

I am lucky in that I am generally very successful at classroom management. I am very old fashioned and refused to talk over students, won't move on with what I am saying until everyone is looking at me with empty hands and appropriate body language. My younger colleagues panic about progress and pace, but there is no pace or progress if half the class aren't paying attention. I will happily spend ages lining the class up outside and bringing them into the room until they do it properly. A few lessons of that and then we all know where we stand, we can crack on apace and have a good time. Lots of younger staff are worried they will get into trouble with SLT for this. I am long in the tooth and my SLT are decent human beings, so I keep ploughing on with insisting my standards are met. They aren't that outrageous - come in, sit down, don't talk when I'm talking, crack on without making a fuss. The vast majority manage this, but a significant number find even this beyond their capabilities, usually because their parents are a bit shit.

Parents' expectations extend well beyond the child at school. I work for the Library Service and have just survived half term. We offer FREE activities, crafts & games for toddlers upwards and many parents complain that we are reading the wrong type of story/singing the wrong songs for their two-year old. For older children, the FREE crafts are not demanding or interesting enough,

You do wonder how these children will cope when they grow up and realise that the world doesn't in fact revolve around them.

well it does seem to make a different with the many hours of gaming that pupils are capable of.