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.

There isn't any VAT being received. Court case proved that!
Labour lied to you all

First ever VAT payments from private schools were only submitted 31/03/25?!? How would you know?

No point if you have a Labour MP. You will just get a copy + paste statement of how they are bringing in "free breakfasts"
Labour care no more about education than the Tories did. They certainly aren't increasing funding.

From the figures submitted by Labour in the court case. They had to submit their actual calculations (not IFS ones) which show over 10% kids (50 000) expected to leave indy schools in first 2 years. 10% is point at which the policy brings in net £0 and 33000 have already left before we even get to Sept 25 which is the key indicator date.
Their figures also show an additional 100 indy schools closing in first 2 years.

They lied to you all, some of you believed them. Oh they are also now trying to supress the NAO report that they themselves accepted + used because it shows exactly how dire the state SEN provision is. As this is a key piece of evidence in the legal trial they are trying to make it inadmissible.

The curriculum looks fine to me. Dc here are engaged and learning.

It’s just money imo. Drop the ridiculous VAT policy. Maybe even do rebates as other countries do. Use the education budget for fewer dc with lower rolls too.

It means more £ per pupil.

I left teaching just before Covid hit.
When I was job hunting I was told “haha, can’t have you here, you’d cost us far too much money to employ” by one head. She basically said she refused to pay for my experience and qualifications (SENDCO & Certified Head) despite my requirements in salary being met already.
Another told me “I can’t employ you, you’d be in my chair in a heartbeat”
Another one, when I explained what I could do to overhaul the schools SEND department for free and totally revolutionise the way it was working, so it would be effective to learning (as an answer to an interview question) “Yeah, you could do that, but I really don’t see the need” I was like 😳 and walked out.
I didn’t leave due to stress or over work. I didn’t leave because of lack of funding. I didn’t leave because there were no TAs or because of exam pressure.
I left because all the head teachers/SLT I have ever met have had beyond appalling attitudes to their staff/recruitment. That needs to change first.

TPS is a basket case and teachers now cost employers a lot more. Last time I had access to a report employers contribution was 23%. This is the main reason other employment routes are so much cheaper

It’s about to get A LOT worse in state schools precisely because of what Labour are doing to independent school families. Come July when applications open for September places in yr 1-6 & 8-11 I think we’ll see the beginning of the exodus. Gvmt data predicts 54k+ pupils migrating & 100 additional school closures. Outstanding schools in the south east, Sussex, Kent & home counties, where there are hundreds of private schools, are in for a shock I fear. And Bridget Phillipson couldn’t care less.

Can you link to the evidence in this court case?

youre obviously talking about forecasts - labour doesn’t know how much VAT wolll be paid either. All be interesting to see what evidence was put forward for this court case that was so devastating

Oh god, they've found the thread. No state school thread is safe.

Who’s ‘they’?

If you’re going to attempt to insult people at least be specific.

Inclusivity policy is not always the best either.

Labour seem to be pushing on this. It’s a way to save money but won’t help.

I obviously can't link to court documents no. They won't release them publicly because they then would have no justification for the policy.

Because everything they do to damage independent schools has an impact stare schools. The fact you refuse to see that isn't my fault. They are a combined attack on education full stop.

How do you know what the evidence presented to court was then?!? You said it was evidence used in “the court case”

judgements are published all the time, I assumed that’s where you had got it from?

Most likeky me but that's because noblegiraffe refuses to see how attacking indy schools has an impact on state schools

I was there!

Well I appreciate your posts and agree the education policy from Labour means it impacts state. And we use the latter too so it impacts us.

The Sutton Trust meta reviews of the evidence also support that.

So where was the labour forecast from?

This is now descending into state (93% of students) vs independent (7%) so I’m off. Happy Easter 🐣

Not really. Education policy impacts everyone.

Time wasting because work wasn't accessible (too hard), was box ticking exercises or activities that weren't learning. We had no online provision just random tasks often aimed at a level my child couldn't do.
We did lots of Learning ourselves (when I told the school the work was too hard - I was told just plan something suitable), but because the activities were too hard it looked like child did very little. No online lessons, same worksheets / activities for every child despite it being too hard for SEN.
So yes waste of time.

DP has been teaching for nearly 15 years, says it’s the worst he’s ever seen with diabolically poor funding, understaffed, extremely high workloads, awful entitled parents raising entitled kids with zero respect or boundaries. The stories about behaviour and attitudes are unbelievable and this is in a decent area of the country not some inner city hell-scape. Teens zombiefied from gaming all-nighters, out of their minds on energy drinks and weed, non existent attention spans, screen addicted, aggressive all seem par for the course.

He has a few colleagues from various schools desperately seeking other careers because it has become so disheartening. I would be very concerned if I had children in the state education system, the rot has well and truly set in and without a radical overhaul it’s only going to get much worse.

I was a SENCO in two different schools during lockdown and made sure all students with SEN had resources at the right level for them. Mainly sending out worksheets in the 2020 lockdown, online teaching with TAs delivering interventions online during the second lockdown in early 2021. Sorry you didn’t have that experience.