To tell you how schools changed within 15-10 years

[HerNeighbourTotoro]

I have been a teacher (on off, contracts and lots of supply) for almost 15 years now with some other work in between. If you have a child going through the system now and no older kids, you would not know how different things were even a few years ago.
15 years ago I did my PGCE in a fantastic school, I sadly missed out on the job they had at the end of that year and moved to a different location.

The staffroom was vibrant, lots of people always working, talking, exchanging ideas, they had a core team of teachers who were in charge of teaching and learning and each specialised in a different area, and were happy to pop in and observe or be observed. So many things were just amazing. They were also able to offer both more academic and vocational subjets.The department I worked in was wonderfuly resourced and they had a budget to buy into a few subscriptions offering students additional learning opportunities, they did trips, clubs, there were cross curricular days where departments collaborated to do projects. A dream place to work.

Over the years I worked in a few different schools and each year I have been noticing a change for worse, especially if I had a break from teaching/supply.

As it happens, last year we moved back closer to town with my PGCE school and an opportunity to do supply came up. No one I remember works there anymore, which was a shame, but what was really striking to me is how many things got lost in between. The staff rotation is however huge, and some departments have failed to recruit teachers for the vacancies and have either long term or daily supply to cover for the shortage (bear in mind when I applied, there were 50 applications for the job I ended up not getting and it was a norm to have over 30 applications in most schools in the area, and a lot more for shortage subject).

My subject lost a technician who was vital and it massively increased the workload. The department is half the size (as are many others). The classes are much bigger and some have 33-34 students. They run far fewer trips because a) the cost for the school to book suply is too big b) the workload increased so much that there is little time to organise these c) they lost office staff who used to help with the admin and now the team is smaller and can't help anymore.

The Language department used to have 3 language assistants (one for each language hey offered)- they now only offer one language and have no language assistants. The amount of subjects the school offers is much smaller and there apparently have been talks of closing down their 6th form.

All of the TAs are now mostly inexperienced agency staff that come and go and the SEN team is probably half of what it used to be as well. I have not seen a TA in any of my classes so far despite quite a few students desperately needing support.
The staffroom looks like a graveyard. Most people spend their lunches in their classrooms, eating as they prepare/mark. Forget about things like replacing damaged textbooks or other resources, so many people have to bring in their own pens and glues they buy in bulk because there is no budget.

I won't even mention the behaviour, 'teaching' a class of 30 or 30+ instead of 26 feels more like controlling chaos. There used to be a behaviour team supporting teachers, but now this is also gone because the school could not afford keeping 3-4 support staff on the team.

I genuinely feel sorry for children who are getting such different experience compared to before, with a small choice of subjects, supervised by supply teachers (I won't say taught) in the absence of teachers the school didn't manage to recruit, with few resources and few extracurricural opportunities.

For the record, the school is in a relatively well of area, I can tell you I have seen much worse elsewhere. But it is such a shame to see what was once a thriving school community in such a sorry state. All as the government is saying how supposedly schools are getting so much more money than at any given point in the past.

The figures the Treasury had done but never released:
100 additional schools would close as a "direct result" of the policy
54000 pupils would move into state sector within first 2 years

This is directly at odds with every single statement they put out especially around "we don't accept that there will be any kids leaving/impact on independent schools"

But they didn’t then… and we still now.. don’t know right? They were just forecasts and at this point they’re very outdated

edited to add this debate isn’t about what they said a year ago- it’s about what money it’s actually raising now. You might be right that it’s next to nothing, but I don’t believe anyone knows

Shit education policy impacts 100% of children.
Maybe if people hadn't dismissed this as a problem only affecting independent schools + children you may have taken more notice that Phillipson and Labour are a disaster for all sectors of education!

Yes we do know
33000 already left so that 54000 looks on the conservative side
77 schools already closed so again the forecast was on the conservative side

Both of those impact on state schools especially when funding is being cut, teachers made redundant + more SEN kids are being forced into mainstream.

We KNOW once 10% leave ie 55000, then the net result = £0. That's just simple maths

Shit education policy impacts all children!

Sorry was does 33000 already left mean? 33000 what?

33000 kids have left independent schools since Sept 24 and actually 10K fewer started in Sept 24 than Sept 23.

The Tories were superb, of course 🙄

Are you with the union that could strike? Or would you not go against Labour in any way.

I’ve been a secondary maths teacher for over 20 years and now I am ‘parachuted in’ when schools have a cohort of GCSE students who are on track to fail maths as they have never had a proper maths teacher… I am then expected to work miracles…which I often do by putting in hours and hours of unpaid work because these poor kids deserve better.

Which is why my entire wage goes on sending my 2 children to independent school and we live off my DH’s wage. I wouldn’t send my dog to most of the schools I have worked in over the past 5 years. My children have had qualified and experienced teachers for every subject since they started. They have a whole team of SEN teachers who swoop in when needed, poor behaviour is non existent, there are Saturday homework help sessions for every subject, respect between pupils and teachers. This is what school should be like for every child and I am so angry that so many children are being failed.

I come home with tales of what has happened in my school that day and my children are agog as it is so far outside of their experience. The week before Easter, a girl at my children’s school was suspended for calling someone gay in a derogatory way. It was the talk of the school and everyone was horrified at her behaviour. In the same week, I had a chair thrown at my head by a boy who had bitten the headteacher the week before. He has yet to receive any sanction and can still attend lessons. There is no hope.

Who said they were? Whataboutery doesn't negate from the damage Labour are wreaking

No, it’s because the amount of airtime this policy is getting, the amount of media space, the posts on MN are not at all proportional to the impact it will have on education, but are directly proportional to the amount of money in the pockets of the people it directly impacts the most - rich people.

I’m not particularly interested in massively overamplifying the concerns of rich people and in fact I’m pissed off that when there are masses and masses of issues to talk about in state education, the impact of VAT on private schools keeps dominating. Because it affects rich people, and they have the loudest voices and sharpest elbows.

The Hong Kong visa policy has had more impact on my state school than this VAT policy will.

I left teaching three years ago for good. I was in both unions over a long teaching career. Obviously I wasn’t involved in the recent strikes but I have been on strike in the past, including under the Blair government.

The Tories were in power for 14 years and towards the end of that time, recruitment and retention fell off a cliff. Hence why it was in the Labour Party manifesto that they would recruit more teachers. The fact that the pay rise was unfunded was on the Tories. Now it’s on Labour.

I think they will find it difficult to recruit the numbers they need, because people want to have lives outside work.

The recruitment of more teachers was meant to be paid for by the VAT increase.

Which is why that poor policy is relevant on state threads. We won’t get those teachers if VAT brings in little or costs money.

If the NEU do strike or others then it’ll be very difficult for Labour, they sold in a bad policy as a way to improve things.

https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk

There’s the link for anyone who wants to step in and help. It’s the official Government website. I did my time.

You expected us to just roll over and accept it? You were one of the ones calling for our sharp elbows in the state sector yet are surprised how we are fighting?
It also doesn't hit rich people, it hits those who use independent schools which is not just the wealthy. More wealthy people use state and state sector has massive inequality!

The fact you dismissed it as such means you have consistently missed the undertone of the narrative behind it from Labour.

As a policy to "tax the rich" this fails at every level.

They need to fund the pay rises, as that is the NEU’s focus. That might mean tax rises all round.

Tax rises all around are fair. Targeting 7% to foot the bill for the other 93% is not fair. Especially when that 93% contains some of wealthiest people!

They’ve said that won’t happen. It was a pre GE pledge.

The reason the VAT policy counts on state education threads is because Labour pledged that money to recruit 6,500 teachers. If they’ve not ‘fully costed’ this as they said then it’ll cause issues for them.

Yes, if they’ve not fully costed this it will cause issues for them, as it did for the previous government.

If you look at the Get Into Teaching link, they are offering to pay bursaries to recruit teachers in most secondary subjects. That didn’t work under the last government and I don’t think it will work under Labour either.

I've found it because it is about education and I am concerned about ALL education, contrary to your prejudiced assumptions. I work in education and am passionate about it so therefore I read pretty much all threads on the topic.
Of course I am vociferously against VAT but I am also pro- state education and hate the destruction of it.

They were court submissions, and will be available once we receive the judgement. Heavily quoted in the press however, including in the FT.

At the rate of migration (54k) predicted, the policy will net £0. So all state schools will get is an extra 54k kids to educate (many of them now needing EHCPs), at tax payer expense, and no £ for “6500 extra teachers” or “free” breakfast clubs. It was literally a pack of lies, built on the hatred & misunderstanding of the private sector.

Labour had a lot of scope going into the GE. It was probably the highest support they’ll get for a while.

To squander it on the education policy they did is incredibly poor. If we do see strikes over pay then that reflects what a mistake it was.

Its so worrying how few state school parents comprehend what is coming off the back of this. If you’re in a rural / less populated area with decent schools you’ll probably be fine. But areas with multiple independents & desirable state schools are going to be hit hard come September onwards. The government don’t care if classes go from 30 to 34, or if whole classes have to be added in. But I would care. They’ve concealed the data, they’ve been silent about the impact & washed their hands of the effects on all children.

I’m not saying it doesn’t. But you’re not getting better teachers in poorly resourced schools with no budget for ups or whatever it’s called these days are you? At £6 a lesson you get what you pay for. The best teacher in the world teaching computer science without access to appropriate tech or chemistry without a lab and materials to do practicals isn’t going to do a good enough job for the dc of England imho.

To return the thread to talking about how different things are in teaching from 10/15 years ago, use of supply is something that has really changed. We used to have some really good supply teachers in school who would come in regularly to cover for illness and cover for courses but I can't think of the last time we had supply in due to budget. If teachers are ill, a TA is pulled from somewhere else to 'teach' or if there are no TAs in (we have so few left), the class is split up between other classes. Nobody goes on courses either during the day, if there are any-it's done in your own time, or is scheduled for 4-6pm.

Is this the same elsewhere?