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?

The complete lack of resources to support children with severe levels of SEND. Staff are regularly being bitten, kicked, punched, and having furniture thrown at them. It's a rare day when someone isn't called a bitch and/or told to f*ck off.

These are 5yr-old in a mainstream primary school. I think parents would be shocked if they could see what goes on.

I'm teaching in special school now after a long time struggling with lack of support with SEN teaching in mainstream. Desperately wanted to make a difference for children with additional needs.

It's no better.
School is run like a corporation. No support, despite there being several thousand SLT. They sit in their offices doing fuck all while we get our throats grabbed, bitten, kicked and punched on a daily basis.

It's ok though, cos they give us sympathetic smiles occasionally as they walk around the school with the latest group of governors/local councillors, crowing about how wonderful we are and how we are a beacon of SEN provision for the local area.

I'm waiting for all the non teachers to comment on this thread and tell us that we have an easy job, to stop moaning because other jobs are hard too (we know that) and to leave if it's not for you. And we are leaving, on our hundreds.... Who is going to be doing the job in ten years? Not I, I'll be retiring before then.

Behaviour for sure. It's so different to pre-pandemic. I look back on children / classes I considered "difficult" back then and they seem so tame compared to what we face now.

Partly I think it's the trend towards Therapeutic Thinking type behaviour policies, where "all behaviour is communication" and consequences are almost taboo. It all sounds great and progressive, but also makes it seem like bad behaviour is the fault of the teacher and causes a lot of confusion for teachers / support staff / children around what behaviour is and is not acceptable, and what the consequences for poor behaviour should be.

Behaviours and parents.
I had a parent blame a teacher in my teach for the fact that their child had used Ai on their work. It's exhausting.

*team

So true, I’m terrified to let any altercations go unresolved in case the kids go home to their parents and tell them about it and say ‘well I told Ms LoveDogs but she didn’t do anything.’ Then, you’re fucked and being spoken to by SLT.

The pupils have no resilience and can’t sort out minor disputes without adult involvement and everything has to be written and recorded incase the parents ring and complain after school hours and SLT don’t want to look clueless about it.
It takes up time which should be spent with the children in the classroom.

Behaviour is shocking and it’s constant crowd control. Also, trying to keep them interested in what you’re saying but not so excited by something that they’re whipped into a frenzy.

Watching what you say ALL THE TIME, it’s exhausting. Second guessing yourself, ‘was I kind enough?’, was I compassionate enough?’ ‘have I given that child the best support I could?” ‘If I did, what about the other 29 of them?’ ‘Did I ignore them while I was helping the child who needs the most support?’ etc etc etc .

MATs making you log everything on spreadsheets that they could find out themselves if they were inclined. And will never look at or follow up.

MAT having no clue about the local context of school and trying one size fits all.

MAT being money leeches

MAT setting up unworkable systems that add to workload and achieve nothing.

Being held accountable for results from kids who can’t be bothered at all and don’t try. I’m a pretty decent teacher but I’m not a miracle worker.

Basically running to stand still and not even managing that.

Ex-teacher here (spent almost a decade teaching Reception/leading the EYFS team).

Genuinely everything you stated.

Some of the worst I experienced:

• After I forwarded very serious concerns about a child being neglected and physically abused at home (so serious a social worker came out to discuss within a few hours), that Mum (who was a known drunk/drug addict) in retaliation confronted me after school and then lied that I had let her son go and make his way out to the KS2 playground when nobody was there to pick him up. It was categorically a lie. My TA, EYFS boss & Head all massively backed me up, but it was horrendous, I genuinely feared I could lose my job over a complete lie.
• One Dad who had been a victim of DV from child’s Mum used to come in every morning in front of my class, terrified mouthing to me ‘m, u, m is here in the playground’, then sail out again. Mum would then turn up, try and beckon their daughter out on days she shouldn’t be there, hugely unsettling their daughter, me and my class. My Head thankfully put a stop to that.
• I regularly had a parent tell me ‘if Dad turns up call the police then me’. I challenged one Dad, made him wait, got the office to call Mum- ‘oh yeah, he can actually pick him up now’- thanks a lot for keeping us informed!!!
• Many, many parents are in complete denial about how badly behaved their children are. I was always very clear about unacceptable behaviour I had seen with my own eyes, eg a child completely unprovoked whacking another child with my interactive whiteboard wand until I intervened and took it off him. Mum was so upset and stunned, but at least believed me. Many don’t.
• Many question consequences such as making a child miss their break or sit out of PE. I always insisted well of course they need to sit out of PE if they are tearing around knocking over others, they are unsafe and spoiling it for others. What else can I do except take away playtime?
• Parents offloading, shouting and going mental at us about their own disputes with other parents that happened off school site.
• One Year 1 teacher was so badly threatened by a Dad in front of her class that our Head banned him for a year from the school site.

Many were of course wonderful, reasonable, supportive, keep a respectful distance- like you sound. It will be hugely appreciated by your children’s teachers, trust me!!!

The level of need with no funding to support it. In my KS1 class I have children with the types of needs that you never saw in mainstream schools 20 years ago, but fewer adults than ever. No specialist support or training that we used to get from the local authority. You are just sent to your classroom, left to get on with it and chastised when children don't make accelerated progress.

It changes year on year. I teach primary. Last year it was behaviour, and this year it’s probably just the SATs grind and “quick” meetings which turn into hour long ones dissecting data, plus the fact our HoY stresses a lot about it and that can be hard when you’re having to hold your own stuff and as a result don’t feel hugely shielded from the demands of other SLT.

Our data is, at this point, already well above the national average so there is literally no need to stress which makes it more annoying, but we are usually top 5 in the city so there is some pressure.

I teach a core subject and am on SLT. I try my best to support colleagues but the lack of direction and support from the layer above me is depressing. Also behaviour of students, not in lessons in my case, but in corridors/toilets when accosted vaping. Then the lack of support when trying to deal with this. Lack of respect and feeling utterly helpless in supporting people with it all when I really should be able to.

Behaviour
Parent contact which is more often than not delivered with threat of complaint.
I am a Head of Year. I rang a parent day before the holiday to say their child told me to fuck off. Parent said 'do you have any proof'

👍🏼

Parents, Ofsted, allegations against staff, poor behaviour.
Primary teacher here.
It's so sad because I love the children, but I ended up giving up my full-time managerial role and I now work part-time, in a post with less responsibility.
I didn't want to leave, but had to for my own health and wellbeing.

oh yes, expecting levels of proof inline for a criminal conviction for a detention!

I'm a union rep and I would advise everyone in schools, teaching or support, to join a union.

And the absolutely paper thin talent of SLT. The recruitment of new teachers gets all the headlines but senior leadership is terrible.

Too many promoted too fast with not enough classroom experience.

Yes. 'Can I see the statements / the cctv'

Or could you trust me that when I say your child did something wrong, that they did, in fact, do something wrong.

Completely agree.

Behaviour is shocking. And the fact that we as staff are being blamed as we're not meeting needs or the children aren't being heard. Our needs do not matter so if we're physically hurt by a child then we probably missed a trigger.

Not having enough resources to teach those with send to give them exactly what they need, whilst at the same time teaching the others in the class and being expected to show progress for every child.

Parents who don't parent, or allow their children to choose which aspects of school they want to participate in.

Not been teaching that long but I've had enough. Not looking forward to Monday and if I had something lined up my notice would be going in on Friday.

I’ve also taught for 22 years -secondary core subject with management role in an independent school.

For me, the worst part of the job is the emails which come directly from parents and the fact that they feel they now have almost 24/7 access to us. I had an email from a parent last Weds (middle of half-term) about arrangements for a trip in a few weeks’ time which is all in hand. She headed it URGENT RESPONSE NEEDED and told me that ‘all’ of the other parents are also complaining in their WhatsApp group.

Even 10 years ago, parents did not demand this level of direct interaction from us.

That said, I still think generally love the job.

For me it's not behaviour in lessons because I know the kids, I know the behaviour system and it's very rare that I'm faced with a situation I can't handle.

It's the bloody corridors. Kids just blatantly ignoring you when you tell them to stop pissing about or to get to their lesson or whatever. Some don't even acknowledge you, others look at you like you're dirt. Because you don't know their names and it just happens all the time, nothing is ever done about it.

Behaviour - specifically defiance - if a kid doesn’t want do go to a lesson or pick up a pen they just refuse because what are you gonna do? If it escalates they’ll just be suspended and can stay at home which is what they want because they won’t have to listen to you telling them what to do anymore!

Parents just not taking responsibility for anything - from their kids’ behaviour to paying for things on time or turning up to parents evening (and I’m not talking about the can’ts here - I mean the won’ts).

Schools can’t out-teach bad parenting. I really do wonder why some people had kids in the first place, they are so disinterested in them.

Feeling stretched to thin. The class sizes are enormous and there are more and more children with special needs or behavioural issues every year. Also, our resources are either non existent or just tatty.

What she said

Oh god, that all sounds awful!

I’ve only ever been grateful to all my kids’ teachers.