Weird when gove came to power he said he wanted teachers to be have better than c grade at maths /english and science.
I considered teaching but only got d in maths and science passed english and did degree business and finance so dont think 1year pgce would have been optiion.
I do know a few teachers.
teacher 1 head science secondry- moans that primary school teachers get paid same when he thinks secondrys harder.
teacher 2-senior independant all girls-think he loves it.
teacher 3 was in state primary moved to independant loves small class sizes.
teacher 4 inner city rough primary-hates it says she gets ta to do all teh cleaning, wiping bottoms and cleaning up sick.
I then come to my daughters school.
Noticed since having kids
teachings good profession as holidays off, you get paid.
loads do part time job shares
sometimes their kids go same school.
Our last deputy head was sick a lot.
school got downgraded in ofsted due to temp head and 4temp teachers.
just an observation-but theres a lot of sickness.
teacher 4 has had lot time off sick. she says most teachers go off stress /back as cant be proved and 1 teacher in her school was sick all time. not sure how true this was as sounded nuts to me but if had year off sick paid then came back for fullweek they acn then go back on sick and start getting paid again!
So I dont think sickness\high pay helps the profession and ofsted downgrade schools on those facts.
ta-s genrally very lovley and hardworking.
but again become popular profession and now most tas have to be highly skilled with experience and do courses so they not just lay helpers chucked into classroom get impression ta taught reception when reception teacher was ill again.
I had no issue with this as she had been in that school 25years.
knew everything , would know the children, their routines and what they had been working on ect.
last year 1parent complained to head about a supply teacher.
The kids loved him as so rare to have a man and his speciality was science yet pushy mum asked if he was qualified as he was secondry school teacher not primary.
The rather keen student teacher in reception year was not qts as in training but taught the kids and the kids loved her enthuisam and dare say prefered it to normal teacher .
tas-dont get paid for holidays yet on the whole they do a fab job.
one of my bugbears about our primary is hardly any after school clubs as thats extra unpaid work on teachers part yet the well performing juniors down road always has stuff on, sometimes read on mumsnet about teachers that go the extra mile not met one yet so far whos wowed me.
I think most people go into profession because
they hopefully like kids
good profession with kids.
secure job very very few teachers have been sacked for poor performance
pay and benefits good than other jobs in private sector.-for example a retail manager may work a 50hour week for 20k.
Looking back to my own childhood.
I had few good primary teachers
quite a few males ones which thinks good.
we dident have tas then they just taught class by themselves
At secondry level despite being qualified had some really dire teachers.
ranging from
alcoholic music teacher who used to hide empty bottles in classrom, shout and smack kids-of course she retired under ill health.
elderly maths teacher with a lisp-who one day some kids threatened to throw him out of window.
one lady had mini breakdown.
the home ec teacher who taught when my mam was in school ws just horrid.
a physic teacher who had no patiance and refered to kids not in top set as thickos.
a short arrogant langauge teacher who threw his weight around as resented teaching us french but the school made him.
a actual french-french teacher who no one could understand.
then another french teacher lovley but couldent control the class and was bullied.
maybe a theme here but in my comp teachers had their favourites and everyone else was left to fail.
A disruptive class meant some subjects i never did well in.
What I would like to see in schools is
1)more accountability if teachers underperforming
2)more male teachers as think that benefits kids from single parent families, more balanced and really helps boys-anyone remebre that choir master garath malone teaching the boys in a essex primary and how dismissive the female teachers were of him and what he was trying to achieve.
3)well displined classses so especially secondry everyone has fair chance to learn-think in states army teach in rough schools sometimes people from other backgrounds can bring fresh approach as long as they intellectually clever and can do the job.
4)smaller clases-30 is just too high smaller classes will mean more kids learn.
As it happens my sisters freind qualified and cant get a job.
its now very competative market especially primary,
im firm believer in value for money if it allows kids a better more founded education and good facilities
I think the pay structure does need a shake up.
bad schools should pay more to encourage the best teachers
in expensive areas-pay should be weighted
primary maybe should get different pay to secondry.
teachers moan about admin maybe tas can take over some of that free up time for them to teach,
if means more 1 to one attention then think thats good thing for teacher.
teachers have protection of unions I can see why they may resist change but from experince of being a parent, growing up and teachers I know then i think its needed.
finally im sure this is just for academies and free schools which here are slightly selective and highly sough after schools to teach in and send kids to.
my city bristol is split into councils/las.
bristol-one of worst in entire uk near the bottom
severe shortage of school places, desperatly needs more schools build-got extra funding from gove as its a crisis some years 300kids without any of 3choices-most of those parents be glad of school with any teachers never mind qts.
south glos-my la-one of lowest funded per pupil despite having some deprived areas doesnt seem fair. im guessing teachers salaries is quite a bit of schools budget.