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?

@coxesorangepippin

Why are all these parents trying to seek a diagnosis for their child??? Just why??

My colleague has a theory that this has increased since cost of living crisis. You can get DLA/PIP in some cases if your child gets a diagnosis. So it's extra money coming in. You can also ask for things like a toilet pass, a time out card, more time for exams, some at my school leave lessons 5 mins early to get to front of lunch queue!

I will probably have people who are pissed off with this theory. But there has been a huge increase in students getting an EHCP.

This phrase gives me the rage!

Quoted you because that’s an apt way to describe the behaviour.
Why? Why? Do these children think that whatever they have to say is remotely of interest? It’s main character syndrome 10x. Is it because it’s the only time they ever have to interact with people rather than screens? Either way, I no longer give a shit. Left teaching in 2019. 2 more years and my youngest will have his GSCEs. The state of this country education system may cross my mind again in 20 + years if I have grandchildren. No longer my circus for now…

Don’t know if it helps but as a parent I’m sorry it’s such a shit show at the moment.

Genuine question @Floursacktabletop are schools not looking at ways to stop parents having direct access to teachers? Why is it necessary? Can’t we go back to the old days? Reports/parents evening and no direct email?!

Former teacher - from SLT who would expect way to much, I had one who told me 1/2 term wasn't a break and that I should be in everyday prepping and expected meetings every night which would last till 5pm these meetings were a waste of time we didn't learn or gain anything from them.

Parents ranging from expecting you to do everything for their child to one's who would pick up an hour late as they forgot the time. I've been kicked, pushed, spat at in Primary. I left 1/2 way through a term as I just couldn't take anymore, I'd been a teacher for 20 years, every year given the worse behaving children, when I asked why was told it was because I was good with them.

About 2 months after I had left I was getting petrol and had a parent screaming at me about how I had ruined their child's education by leaving. I sat in my car and cried, if anyone says about teaching I always so don't!

Wrong quote. Sorry 🥴

So do you think that there are not really more SEN children than there used to be and that a significant portion of it is just children without boundaries?
I feel like my OH and I are probably less good at rule enforcement than my parents were. We have every intention of being consistent but undoubtedly sometimes fail miserably. Equally, even as someone definitely not brilliant at holding good boundaries, it still amazes me how bad some parents I know are at it. Saying over and over and over if you don’t stop x, y will happen and y never happening (sometimes also y being a stupidly crazy escalation of a response you’d never do).

Use your union for support, learn the fine points of your contract and value yourself.

All the above plus
SLT that organise training then when you put that training in place come into the room do exactly the opposite then pull you up for it.
HTs that have a hit list of teachers that have disagreed with either them the SLT or their favourite teachers.

@Lifeisnoteasy84 & the other hundreds of similar comments.

It wasn't until I started using Mumsnet that I became aware of how much parents resented us.

It’s possible to find a job challenging but still find it enjoyable overall.

This totally nails it. Oh that they were all like you… Yet more today about how their children is being bullied… mostly someone isn’t playing with them 🙄

I think the constant focus on mental health has left a lot of parents scared their child will be unhappy/depressed/suicidal if they don't appear happy at all times.
Parents reluctant to be a brick wall of boundary.

I forgot to add SLT. The only time anyone hears from my HT is when they send an all staff email complaining about some minor thing that could have easily been addressed directly to the person they’re passive aggressively complaining about. Otherwise, it’s crickets from that office.

I’ve been teaching for years - part time.
The behaviour of children is appalling. Children don’t have respect for teachers because they are exposed to too much through TV , iPads etc. less discipline at home. What I’ve noticed as well is how unhappy children are now.
in the near future there are just going to be NQT s that’ll last for a few years - and then leave - because they’ll realise they’re just banging their head against a brick wall.

Unless you work in a school you just can’t understand what’s going on. The level of violence in our school is so regular that when I was assaulted outside of school in an unrelated incident I hardly reacted at all. I am so desensitised to it that it was just like any other day, but instead of a child it’s an adult.

My child’s secondary school is the same. High levels of violent behaviour. Children who disrupt the whole class regularly and consequences have no effect. The child that’s most challenging - i randomly met the parents on an introductory evening event at the beginning of term and they were very middle class, professional people. Apparently the child tells my child they couldn’t care less, don’t read emails, won’t come into meetings at school, too busy, not interested, he just does what he likes. Brilliant. And no the area isn’t deprived, quite the opposite.

We’re no longer allowed to send all staff emails. They have to be vetted by SLT first and are often sent too late to be of any use by the time they have been checked.

This is outing for anyone who knows me as I've told this story before irl
One of my team (core subject dept) was chatting to a student at the end of a lesson. The student was recounting a story which ended with the teacher saying " oh maybe you saw a ghost " all very jolly and lovely.
Fast forward to the next day. An email to the Head of dept accusing the teacher of teaching the class about ghosts and her daughter was so terrified by overhearing the word ghost that she couldn't sleep and there was also a scary display in the teachers room (Macbeth)
The parent had not once thought that maybe it was her job to get her child some help for such a strong reaction to simply hearing a word

What are those things JulierSierra?

Can you explain MAT? Why don't local authorities run schools? I'm confused. I used to think it was state and independent sector but now realise it's more complex than that.

Multi Academy Trust, basically privatisation of education.

Bit unclear. The complaint was not from the child the teacher was talking to, it was from another member of the class

Parents are awful. I was deliberately hit in the face. The kid’s parent complained to the school that he was upset that I had told him off. Whenever I email home about anyone, the response is always, ‘Well, I understand why you are upset with X, however…’ followed by a 1000 word essay about how horrible I am and how wonderful their shitty kid is.

All you parents who do this, and who object to all school rules and regulations and have the time to spend hours shrieking at us and coming up to school to abuse our reception staff - why don’t you home educate your revolting off-spring yourselves? Our lives would be much better for it. And you could try actually parenting, them, too.

Yep. Parents excusing every behaviour under the sun because their kid has SEN. I now teach classes where nearly 50% of the kids have ‘special’ educational needs (aint gonna be ‘special’ for much longer!) and so many of their behaviours are deemed acceptable because of their ADHD/ASD etc. It makes the job fucking impossible to be honest.

And, before anyone asks, yes I am trained in SEN, yes I do know how I’m meant to ‘deal with’ certain behaviours and traits but for me personally, it’s the parents expecting their child to have 100% attention and understanding from all the teachers when there are 1500 other kids in the school. It’s an absolute joke!

Behaviour and attitude due to poor parenting from all backgrounds.
Unreasonable parents.

There are some amazing parents and well parented, respectful students but they are sadly becoming the minority.

MAT were brought in under the premise that the school would have more autonomy over their budget, curriculum etc. and improve standards.

What it actually did was remove a parents ability to complain about the school in any meaningful fashion, enable MATs to buy schools cheap sell off the grounds and make profit (form what should be a non profit organisation), Allowed MATs to find ways to get rid of problem or generally undesirable pupils. Whilst allowing the Leaders of the schools to give themselves massive pay rises whilst reducing money to departments and get rid of experienced (expensive) members of staff.

All whilst the government enabled ofsted to increase the amount of "failing" schools so they could be forced in to these trusts which when they themselves failed were allowed to offload the schools into other failing trusts.

And it allowed the government to bitch about teachers and the state of education whilst giving themselves a free pass for fucking the system up.