How are teachers feeling now?

[ssd]

I've got an awful lot of sympathy for teachers in all this, I feel they've been hung out to dry. But hopefully the vaccine news and cases coming down will make them feel a bit better.
My kids have left school so I've got a general interest. .no bone to grind.

Planning AND marking AND moderating. The exam boards have taken our money and done sod all. It's scandalous.

We don’t have social distancing within year groups (crammed in classrooms, corridors, free-for-all at break and lunch), and it’s definitely only close contacts and not the whole year group that isolates.

Our Year groups are tiny, noble. I might be wrong because it hasn't happened to us yet but I think they would all be close contacts. There's only 35-45 children per year.

So year groups of max 45, only KS2 and 3 so not having to deal with any of the exam/assessments/marking/appeals manicinsomniac, hmmmm, any jobs going for Computing by any chance!? always hopeful

@manicinsomniac

Our Year groups are tiny, noble. I might be wrong because it hasn't happened to us yet but I think they would all be close contacts. There's only 35-45 children per year.

Wow-that really is small! Is that an indie?

Ours are over 200. If you get to send the whole year group home, you’re lucky. We had to watch covid spread through ours while the kids asked why on earth they weren’t all being sent home to stop it. They could see the close contacts thing was bobbins and not working.

Fingers crossed we don’t get that again.

Yes, independent prep school. We only have one computing teacher but you never know, she might have had enough! (in all seriousness though, I wouldn't recommend a small independent right now. It seems lime a cushy deal but we lost 15% of our pupils after lockdown 1 as parents couldn't afford fees any more, we've taken 10% pay cuts to avoid redindancies and I get the impression we're clinging on to viability by our fingertips).

Happy to be back with our children but do tired. Most of us haven't been vaccinated being in our 40s and nothing has changed since going back just like each time. It's a mind fuck being in a room with 4 adults and 30 kids but yet I cant see family or friends. I walk with my colleague at a distance yet we are like normal in class!
Worried about the rest of the term just because we are so tired already after three weeks back. Sending hugs to all school staff, I know its affecting every area in schools.

Hey everyone.
Hope you've had a break this weekend and enjoyed the sunshine.

I wanted to quote the very articulate @BustopherPonsonbyJones who I always agree with.

'It feels like this year has gone on for five years.

I am angry at how my safety is regarded by a lot of the public and the government. This has affected my mental health and how I view my responsibilities to the rest of society.'

Also, we do have exams but we do them in Year 8. (Common Entrance and/or Scholarship Entrance).

Behaviour in class is good so far.
Children are sanitising hands as they come in, windows are open, I’m keeping my distance.
Out of class (break/lunch) it’s a free for all. They are all over each other.

I feel fine just knackered. The job is full on.

Sorry about your pay cut manic. Facing another pay freeze it’s not pleasant is it?

Re: exams, I meant that you weren’t currently having to deal with the stress of the Year 11 and 13 debacle, which has caused a lot of the exhaustion mentioned by teachers on this thread. I’d do anything to get away from it right now if I could but it’s nothing to do with the pupils. All to do with the DforE, exam boards, Ofqual and the disdain of the public.

In fact, a lot of the issues facing school staff could have been avoided if the DforE actually did their job, I suppose.

No, we don't have GCSEs and A Levels to deal with. That sounds like such a mess and I have no idea what the solution should be. Do you (and/or secondary staff in general) think cancelling was the right decision or do you think the children could have taken the exams?

My eldest is in Year 13 and I really think she'd have been fine to take exams as normal but she had full online timetable through both lessons and lots of other advantages.

Shattered.
I only teach y10 and up and I've got extra lessons on my timetable due to staff sickness, and I can't let anything slide.
But I've got magic tape.

The exams debacle is probably the biggest headache in secondary schools atm and it is going to get a lot worse in terms of stress and workload.

I was strongly in favour of keeping exams for maths in my Ofqual consultation response. Can’t speak for other subjects, but maths exams have just been cancelled to be replaced by exams, but less secure, less well organised ones that we have to mark ourselves and then make up grades for. It’s going to be an inconsistent mess.

Do you (and/or secondary staff in general) think cancelling was the right decision or do you think the children could have taken the exams?

Cancelling exams to only be ‘replaced’ by many many more assessments defeats the object of reducing stress to pupils. It has actually added to it because of how the DforE has messed up.

The cancelling of exams should have come with an actual plan there and then when announced (the DforE had nearly a year after all) instead of what has now been months and months of uncertainty and stress for the students, staff and parents and still no nearer to any clear information.

All that seems to have changed is that exam boards will do next to nothing this season despite schools still paying their fees to them, with teachers doing all the work for them for free, including appeals. No lovely overtime for teachers after all.

Like I said in my first post, here, I marked 52 2 hour and 30 min papers this week alone and it’s only just beginning.

Yep, I can see why some teachers feel it’s much more stressful currently and why some don’t. It’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

@noblegiraffe

The exams debacle is probably the biggest headache in secondary schools atm and it is going to get a lot worse in terms of stress and workload.

I was strongly in favour of keeping exams for maths in my Ofqual consultation response. Can’t speak for other subjects, but maths exams have just been cancelled to be replaced by exams, but less secure, less well organised ones that we have to mark ourselves and then make up grades for. It’s going to be an inconsistent mess.

The shit will really hit the fan once students and parents decide to challenge their grades. They need to be able to do this before grades are submitted but we have a shockingly short window between the end of our non-exam exams and the submission date.

The shit will really hit the fan once students and parents decide to challenge their grades. They need to be able to do this before grades are submitted but we have a shockingly short window between the end of our non-exam exams and the submission date.
They will have the option to re-sit in November if they don’t agree with their grade.

Exams haven't been cancelled. They've been moved, effectively.
I normally get a month to mark 400 once year 11 and 13 have left. I now have to mark 200+ in a month whilst still teaching year 11 and 13, and I get to do it for free.

Because I mark for an international exam board, I am still examining this year (because most countries have managed to get their shit together well enough to run exams). As well as having to mark the Yr 11 and Yr 13 non-exam exams. As well as continuing to teach them.

I wonder if it's possible to function for six weeks on no sleep? 🤔

Cancelling exams this year was the most ridiculous bloody decision this government has made in a year of ridiculous bloody decisions. No-one is better off this way: not the staff and definitely not the students.

So pleased to be back in the classroom but utterly knackered. Crawling my way towards the Easter holidays.

@StaffRepFeistyClub

I have reported the thread as it will become unpleasant

The thread isn't unpleasant, there's only 1 arsehole disrupting things, and if people didn't acknowledge them we would be fine . They're here with an agenda, stop playing into it!

Absolutely exhausted. I'm seen as a "nice" teacher (secondary English), which is lovely and I appreciate kids trusting me. It has meant I have about five kids hang on at the end of every lesson just to chat and vent their worries. The poor things look like shadows of themselves. Coupled with that my own daughter is really struggling with poor mental health brought on by the pandemic. I feel wrung out.

Luckily I have had my jab (although tbh I'd rather not have had it and not have MS), which does make me feel safer from a personal pov.

Thanks for asking 🙂

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross - I would say that this opinion puts you in a serious minority.

@Whenthesunshines

The shit will really hit the fan once students and parents decide to challenge their grades. They need to be able to do this before grades are submitted but we have a shockingly short window between the end of our non-exam exams and the submission date. They will have the option to re-sit in November if they don’t agree with their grade.

Yes, but they also have the option to appeal within the school before grades are submitted.