English teacher is hardest job in school

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AIBU to think that being an English teacher is the hardest teaching job in the school?

Two GCSEs
Not optional, so larger classes with all abilities at GCSE
Marking is a slow process - particularly mocks with two GCSE subjects
All eyes are on your results
Researching texts can take an age
Literacy seems to come under your umbrella, when really it affects many subjects

I used to be a secondary school teacher and I always felt that MFL teachers had it the worst. Our school made it mandatory that all pupils took language to GCSE, we only offered French and Spanish but often got children moving to the school in Year 9/10 who had only learnt German until then. Lots of children didn’t see the point in learning a language so would be particularly silly in that class, and many children just struggle with learning a language.
I always felt at least at our school the English teachers got by okay, English had more periods allotted than other subjects, the opportunity for silent reading etc. I just didn’t envy their marking at all.

Core subject?
Yes.
Option subject - history. 3 papers, HUGE amount of content...

Are classes not streamed for ability? I’m in Scotland but my 2 were streamed for English and Maths all the way through secondary school.

Not necessarily.

Yes, but some teachers will be potentially teaching several different level classes in bigger schools, or mixed level classes in smaller schools.

I used to teach Science and live with a Senco. I cannot agree more.

Teaching is horrific whatever you teach nowadays, it’s a broken system.

Although I have to say teaching a class of 30
uninterested 16 year olds about electrolysis was not fun 🥴.

No chance of that flying in my school, lots of my students can’t properly read (kids on 1st centile for language, severe dyslexia and other SEND needs are not uncommon) plus they absolutely wouldn’t remain silent if they thought I was absorbed in marking. I can send emails/plan a bit whilst students work but absolutely can’t check out for a whole lesson and expect it to be acceptable.

I am vehemently against streaming and to be quite frank it’s simply not a possibility based on behaviour alone as we would simply create disastrous lower groups where all the weak/SEND kids would struggle surrounded by attrocious behaviour. We spread out the difficult children and mixed ability works far better for us and the kids.

I disagree. I taught languages. It's hard in the sense that most children don't want to do it or see the point of it but there's also less pressure as most of them drop it before GCSE. Also many parents don't care about languages either (sadly)

@TheGrimSmiledepends on the school - I worked in an academy where they all had to do it bar about 3 kids

Special Ed teacher here. All students have autism of varying degrees. It’s tough regulating them all all day long ! Never get any breaks as we are constantly with students (minus half an hour lunch break). All teaching is hard though

Certainly one of my English teachers was brilliant and lovely

It is hard … but it’s also the teacher who everyone remembers fondly as the one who believed in them and took time to get to know them. Maybe it’s because they’re good at getting to know characters? It’s really noticeable how many Celebs in interviews thank their English teacher!

No but it probably is a fact.

I agree with you. I’d also like to say that RS is also hard work-I once had 6 GCSE classes as its compulsory, just three hours a fortnight, long essays, disengaged pupils-it didn’t help that it wasn’t my subject!

Teaching Food Tech must be up there for toughness.

We had a supply teacher who took it upon herself to teach a practical, unfortunately the technician wasn't around to tell her not to.

As soon as the technician went back in the room, she packed up her stuff, said she couldn't do it and left crying.
She thought because she could cook she would be okay. Trying to get 20 year 9's to was equalh, dry and wipe down the surfaces was enough to tip her over the edge. The deputy was on walkabout and she came in to finish the lesson.

She never accepted another day's supply at the school 🤣

As an English teacher, I agree it’s challenging and definitely harder than some subjects. Workload aside, the issue is that English Language GCSEis based on unseen texts so is heavily reliant on fundamental literacy. Yes, you can be taught approaches to the questions, but if you’re stumped by the concepts and vocabulary in the texts then it’s very, very difficult to do well. Literature is much easier to teach because you teach the concepts, characters, plot, context etc of the texts; yes, there’s arguably too much content in the curriculum but at least it is really tangible content that can be taught more so than English Language.

Someone mentioned to Scottish system and maths being harder there; I agree with that as, in my experience of both, English Higher is much, much easier than English GCSE (and Higher is meant to be more of an A Level-adjacent qualification (although with less depth and greater breadth as students do more subjects).

Perhaps initially, but from my experience it's teaching the same text every year, in the main I haven't seen many English teachers that make massive improvement with students.

Teaching will change, especially marking papers in a couple of years, have friends working on AI marking solutions and already marking at very high level for Easy related subjects.

I would also say science - three subjects and 2/3 GCSEs! Having to plan practicals and order equipment - can't just turn up with a book and read! Letting teenagers use fire and acid in the classroom is not for the faint hearted.
The marking is definitely harder for English though. Could not imagine marking essay after essay.

But teaching MFL is exhausting. You are basically acting the whole time - miming, pointing, extreme facial expressions.

And it's demoralising when kids do not even try to learn their vocabulary.

It's the marking that's the killer. YANBU.

The workload is horrendous in other subjects, too, and science is definitely in competition with English for the top spot among the worst.

• a core subject with less curriculum time allocated than English or Maths, but counted the same in importance
• 2-3 GCSEs worth of content to cover in less time - and the content is more than in other subjects
• compulsory study for all students up to 16 with none of the pressure - students know if they fail English or Maths they have to retake it, but that isn't true for science - guess where the effort goes?
• always overlooked for intervention in favour of Maths and English
• marking load is still high - while some questions are multiple choice or short-answer, 4-6-markers still take a lot of time to mark, and papers are 70min to 1h 45min long
• constant communication needed with other subject staff as science is always shared between 2-3 teachers - fun when deciding on, say, access arrangements or parent meetings
• every practical needs a risk assessment, often in writing
• every practical has to be planed for and ordered in advance - this takes a lot more time than people realise
• 3 papers to mark per student for each mock exam
• the skills needed for all 3 sciences are completely different, so justification for why Johnny excels in Physics but hates Biology is constantly asked for from people who don't understand the subject
• there is an expectation of STEM clubs and other extracurricular things being offered