Teachers how many hours do you work - is there light at the end of another tunnel?

[desperatelyseekingsnoozes]

I have been teaching for about six years, am now a head of faculty.

I am in my late thirties with three children. I worked as a solicitor before giving it up to be a teacher, thinking it would be a more family friendly career.

I enjoy teaching, I am very good at it and teach in a successful school. However I think I have made a huge mistake. I start work at 7 in the morning and leave at around 6pm. I then take hours of work home. I usually work between 8pm and midnight almost every week night.

I have been asking other teachers in my school and it seems a common experience especially amongst middle managers and teachers who teach subjects that require a lot of essay marking. I am a little relieved that it is not just me and that I am not just terribly ineffective.

I am wondering if it is just the school in which I work. It is a very high pressured school and we are about to become an academy so I suspect it may get worse not better.

I have been lurking on the TES forums and there seems to be some teachers who work very long hours and those who work nothing like me.

I have decided I am going to make a change and hand in my notice. I have not decided if I need to try a different school or go back to law.

My husband thinks I need to give up on teaching because either the demands are excessive or I am just not very efficient and therefore should choose a career that suits me and my family.

I am sure I am going to get lots of people telling me that teachers have it easy and that I should put up or shut up. Well this teacher is finding it hard, I am trying to find out about the rest.

Sorry this is very long, but what hours do you work and do you think I should just give up or move school.

Desperately,

I teach in a primary school and have been signed off with stress for the last few weeks exactly because of this kind of workload.

I am a single parent of a disabled DS and was working exactly the sort of hours you are talking about. It was way too much and I have ended up severely depressed and anxious.

I love teaching, but the demands of the job are way too great, so I am considering other option. It is very sad because I came to teaching relatively late and worked hard to get through the training, only to find the job virtually unmanageable.

I do think maybe it's me, because other people seem to cope, but somehow I am obviously not cut out for it.

So I understand where you are coming from, but have no solutions as I am facing the same dilemma.

Sorry to be no help whatsoever!

I am not sure if that makes me feel better or worse! We have a member of staff off with stress and anxiety.

Yes other people do cope, although I have noticed they tend to be teachers who teach subjects with less marking - maths for example.

Today a member of my faculty came to see me as I was discussing this with another member of staff and she was in tears because of the workload and was also handing in her notice. I felt useless in trying to help her as I feel the same.

I have just crawled into bed with my laptop knowing that I will have to try and get up at 5 to get some prep done before school. I overhear other staff saying they are doing similar.

Thankyou lifeissweet I hope you get something sorted.

Could have written your post OP, except I have no alternative career to return to, and I teach in a school with a Notice to Improve, in an area of poor socio-economic circumstances.
I am still marking and planning now and will be for another hour. Will be in school before 8 o clock to do same - will not even see my 1 year old DD awake in the morning.
Feel utterly demoralised and worthless.
Don't know how to make it better - have taught for 7 years and the job has got harder, not easier. Family friendly, it ain't.

Thank you. I may have to do supply for a bit, I think, until I can work something else out. It's so sad, because I love my job, but it's impossible isn't it?

Obviously, with 10 year olds, the marking isn't excessive, but it is still 30 books and 4 lessons worth a day, so it adds up. I am also in charge of a core subject area, so have responsibility for monitoring and planning that area across the school - and I am in charge of the ICT equipment and the music provision - and I have a student teacher to mentor. It is a killer

Obviously the other teachers are too busy doing their prep/marking to be on mn at this time of night. I doubt any are in bed yet!

Good luck. Sorry for being gloomy. I am sure a superteacher will be along soon to tell you it's all fine and give you some ideas to make it easier. I am certainly not one of those!

I am hanging on for that superteacher then!

I enjoy teaching much more than I did my previous career. I did speak to other teachers before making the switch but they mostly mentioed the stress of discipline, I chose a school that had excellent standards of behaviour to try and minimise the stress. It seems I simply swapped one stress for another.

it's widespread. I gave up a deputy headship to take a PPA cover part time post (and there aren't many about) - these days I see my three children. The money is crap but atm I care less about that than I do about missing my children growing up. I can return to the slave trade management posts in a few years when the children are older.
It's possibly the most un-family-friendly (?I'm not doing 'grammar' at this time of night) career there is, imho.

Money is not an issue and I acknowledge I am lucky in that respect. I could work part time, although I am not sure that would be an option where I am now and I imagine it would be difficult to find a part time head of faculty post so I would need to step down. Again financially that would be fine, but I enjoy my job, I just wish it did not take over my life.

The holidays are family friendly certainly. Maybe I could work as a TA or a cover supervisor.

I resigned when dh had a second posting abroad to move and join him. I taught 3 humanities subjects at KS3 and one of those at KS4 and 5. I also did Citizenship, PSHE, 4 after school lessons for my subject area per week and had a tutor group. I did about 60+ hours a week.

It took me 18 months after moving abroad to stop waking up at 0500 each morning in a panic that I hadn't done my planning, and it is only now after 4 years that I have stopped dreaming about teaching. My dh and ds say that I am far more chilled, and both have said they thought I would have had a heart attack from stress by the time I was 45, if not earlier, had I stayed teaching in UK. (I may still have the heart attack, but that is due to mil, not teaching!).

A student said to me when he came to say goodbye, that he thought it was the right time for me to go as I had lost my spark and I needed a break.

You are not wrong OP in wanting to change. I loved teaching, but I am so glad that I am having the time to be a Mum rather than a teacher (although I am kicking ass for GCSEs at present), and that my relationships with dh and ds have improved beyond measure.

I'm on a 80% timetable during the day but still work from whenever I get in from work till about 11pm each night and 12-8pm on weekends. That's in addition to an hour or so after school and all my non-contact time.

I would say that if the hours are a problem head to another sector. There are only a few sectors where you have to work as long or as hard as we do.

Should probably add that I'm secondary.

I was a HOD for six years but when DH was posted abroad I went back to mainscale. I am loving it, it is like a weight off my shoulders. I do 7.30am to 5.30pm but that is it, I don't usually take any work home.

Regarding the marking- is there no way you can reduce the burden using peer assessments and self marking? We are encouraged to use whatever means are helpful to make sure everything is marked promptly- but not necessarily by us. Other forms of marking are very useful to the students.

My Dh is primary and works the same hours as you, Op.

he's NQT though, so trying very hard.

I am terrified that he won't be able to hack it, as I don't think we'd survive another career change :(

My HOD stepped down and went back to being a bog standard teacher because she actually wanted to see her family. She said it made a big difference.

I'd agree re trying to see if you can reorganise some of your responsibilites.

I was lucky enough to be able to work part time after having the dds and I am a much better teacher for it - I do work hard but as I'm not completely exhausted - for example I taught 3 hours today - I feel that I still have some energy left for the dds and to prepare/ mark for tomrrow.

Do the books need marking so often? What is your school poilcy on providing written feedback? I agree group/peer/indivdual assessment is valuable - more so than teacher feedback in some instances.
Are you having to plan every lesson from scratch? Surely there are lessons that you've taught before that might just need tweaking?
Many sympathies though - especially with the Academy thing. I hope your TUPE are all protected and that you have a good head They are scary.

I have asked about going part time after I returned from maternity leave. I offered to stand down as head of faculty and my request was refused. I could try part time at another school I suppose. I have been speaking to mainscale teachers and they seem to be working similar hours as me. Infact this evening I walked into a faculty office to find three members of staff in tears over their workload.

My issue with moving school is that for the first few years the workload is greater as you settle, I could go though another few years being almost an absent parent only to discover it is no better.

Marking is a huge issue in part because I teach 60 A Level students and in this term it is school policy to set a timed essay every 2-3 weeks. That is a lot of work! I also teach about 150 GCSE students, they have a mini exam every 6 weeks. Exam scripts can be between one side of A4 and three. We are now entering mock exam season so I will have hundreds of dense exam papers to mark.

Key stage 3 the school expects teachers to mark eveey 2 weeks, I only have a few key stage three classes. I tend to rotate key stage three with something they can peer assess, something I can lightly mark and something that requires deep marking. Every key stage 3 class has homework every lesson that needs marking although I set spellings or a quick quiz that they can mark once every 4 weeks.

Our marking is sampled by school management every few weeks and as a Head of Faculty I cannot be seen to be not working to the guidelines.

By another sector do you mean teaching in the independent sector?

We have lesson plans in place, although we rewrite - again on a rotation in lower school. New specifications means a re write is happening at Key Stage four at the moment. I am also revamping the A level as I go through. I also run PSHE across the school, I have done that work now - thank God!

I work from 8am until 5.30pm in school Monday to Friday, and then about an hour a night during the week. I try to limit weekend work to about 4 hours on a Sunday.
Half term I was in school working for three days from 9am - 5pm.

I'm a teacher and I'm militant about workload. I get to school at 7.45/8am and leave between 5/5.30pm. Those are my working hours. I work bloody hard during them and because of this and the fact they are long enough I take the view that anything that cannot be done inside those hours should not be done. End of. I work enough. I allow 2 days work in the summer holidays and 1 in other holidays.

There are ways of managing workload, such as peer marking and a host of other ways and there are other things that just cannot be done. I've stuck to this as a class teacher (secondary maths, then primary) a class teacher with leadership responsibilities (lit and maths co-ordinator), a SENCO and now a deputy head. I am reasonable with demands but am clear when I say 'No', and people no longer ask the unreasonable of me. I have been through a range of schools, including special measures, so I'm not talking about a perfect school.

It's very do-able, don't be sucked into this teachers have no time to have a life nonsense. Learning when to say 'No, there is no time for that' is the biggest step. I bet you know a teacher who seems to get away with not jumping through every hoop, take tips! My favourite phrase is 'don't work harder, work smarter'. Ideas:

-peer marking
-self-marking as part of a plenary
-re-use planning, yours or others. Share and others will share too.
-find a range of good resources, schemes to select from. Don't re-invent the wheel every lesson. Every lesson has been done plenty of times before you start it, find it.
-give verbal rather than written feedback often
-create a marking rota so children know when they'll get extended marking and targets and when they'll self-mark and work towards targets. Every piece does not need marking.
-only ever mark if they is REAL VALUE in the marking. People get in the habit of ineffective marking for the sake of it, if a verbal comment or self-assessment can do the job then don't mark it.
-if you have no time, say 'No'. Be polite but firm. Do not justify yourself as they will try to talk you round. If you find this difficult read 'How to say No'
-realise it's not the end of the world if the odd lesson is off the cuff or something's undone for the sake of family time. It's a job, their education will not suffer.
-realise not doing every petty demand is not grounds for formal action against you, only moaning. Develop a thick skin. They can't sack you easily. If it's not promotion you want this isn't an issue. Keep to the policies, do a good job, be reasonable but don't do EVERYTHING for EVERYBODY.

-leave before they become an academy. They can give you hell.

I tried the verbal feedback thing, and even bought a stamp that said verbal feedback given but a complaint was made and it was made clear that it was deemed acceptable by the leadership team.

I use peer and self marking.

We have excellent reousrces but do update on a rotation. This, again, is school policy.

I have a marking rota but I could share that with the students.

I know quite a few staff have grumbled about leaving before we become an academy but I am not sure how many will. We are the best school for miles and many staff tend not to move on.

I arrived this morning at 8am as DH said I looked tired and need an extra hour in bed - he even changed the alarm clcck. My "late arrival was commented on" I left at 6:15pm and the staff car park was still almost full.

Strawberry the staff tend to be "jump through hoops" people. We only have one union rep and they are a member of senior management! There is no real union presence in the school at all.

I have already passed on my conerns in my line management meeting and have raised this in a staff meeting. I have been asked to organise a working committee looking at work/ life balance. I have to admit I thought -" I am being asked to do something else" But maybe I should take him up on the offer.