teacher crisis

[supplysam]

New name, I have been reading threads in education for a long time, and really want to put across to some parents what is really going on in our schools.

I've been in schools for 30 years. Not all teachers will have witnessed what I've witnessed, or experienced what I've experienced, but many will have.

I taught for decades. I resigned because the "profession" is now nothing more than slave labour. The normal day is 15+ hours, and many days are longer. fulfilling all the requirements of being a full time teacher simply do not leave time to sleep and eat. Not only that, but you are held over a barrel by ofsted (and school managers) who blame you for the behavior and attitude of students and parents, when you have no control over either. I am not blaming school managers, buy the way, they are often under insane and ridiculous pressure themselves.

As a supply teacher, I walk in at the stat of the day, and walk out at the end, with my job done, and no pressure or expectations at all. The pay is good, and there is no shortage of work.

I am often asked back, I am often BEGGED to take long term positions. This is what happens. I take it, on a day to day basis. When the work load starts piling up, when I find I am spending my family time on irrelevant and rubbishy non educational paperwork, when the attitude of any student becomes something I don't want to listen to, I leave.

The next day, I am in another job, being begged to stay!

[stilllovingmysleep]

Unfortunately everything nowadays has to do with outcomes, exams, results. As if we and our children are racing horses. Centuries of thinking and writing about education and its philosophy are going down the bin. All our current government seems to care about is competing with Korea. It makes me feel despairing, to be honest.

[HuckleberryGin]

In my experience SLT only care about ofsted. They live and die by ofsted.

[PhilPhilConnors]

According to the person I spoke to (non teaching head of pastoral care), senior management didn't care, in order to get OFSTED outstanding (which they now have), they had to cut out these subjects and aim for more academic ones. They have got some excellent results, there's no doubting that they have turned the school around, but there is a group of children who it doesn't suit at all.
I suppose it's different when you come from the perspective as a parent whose child failed in the system, and no chance to move to a different school, but the opinion of the pastoral care lady and the attendance manager and another teacher I spoke to was that cutting out all the practical subjects was wrong and unfair, but their opinions didn't count for anything.
The school is part of a very good chain of academies. However, they have a high turnover of staff, so I can't imagine staff morale is high (although I don't suppose in teaching there are many places with decent staff morale!).

[Gfplux]

Philphil, what do the Head/Managers/decision makers and or Governers say about the changes over the last few years.

[PhilPhilConnors]

Dd's secondary is historically one with a high number of low achieving pupils, they have turned themselves around though in recent years with a zero tolerance approach to appearance, behaviour and effort.
However, they have completely taken away the more practical aspects that the school was previously very good at providing. They used to run vehicle mechanics courses, hairdressing (the school has a fully kitted out salon that is now locked up and disused), woodwork, metalwork, they had various building/construction courses, so yes, academically, pupils weren't coming out with many GCSEs, which marked the school down as poor, but they were turning out pupils with employable skills.
We recently took ds1 out of school. He is not academic at all, yet was not allowed to choose any practical GCSEs, instead school insisted on ebac subjects, business studies, things like that.
Ds has SEN, which school resolutely ignored and refused to support, instead seeing him as able and choosing to be lazy, and telling him this regularly.
Amongst his peers, there are a large number of DC, boys and girls, who are repeatedly in detention for the same disruptive behaviour. Repeat punishment and zero tolerance doesn't make much of a difference. I suspect that these DC are disengaged and can't see the point of doing academic GCSEs whilst walking past locked up classrooms every day fully kitted out with stuff they would be interested in.
At the same time, dd is fairly academic and is doing well.
The system can't suit everyone, but in the last ten years or so, I've seen a school change to a better school (in OFSTED's opinion), but for many of the DC there, it has taken away their opportunity to shine and actually be good at something.
If you constantly feel shit about yourself, you're going to lose the motivation to behave or do well.

The teachers who have talked to me about this are disgusted that this has happened, but they have to follow their targets/guidelines because otherwise it will reflect badly on them (at least, this is what I've been told by them).

[Want2bSupermum]

Totally agree that teacherwith2kids sounds wonderful. 32 to a class would simply overwhelm my DC, especially DS who has ASD. Inclusion is an important aspect and from what I have seen the only way to do it successfully is to have smaller class sizes.

Also the time taken to mark 32 pieces of homework and get to know 32 DC properly must be exhausting. It's been incredibly frustrating that PFI was used to build schools and hospitals. These contracts are killing us now. Rather than cut services I would like the leadership to cut the amount owed on these contracts.

[finallydelurking]

kids*

[finallydelurking]

teacherwith2kuds education would be a much better place if all teachers were like you. I know/have met a huge amount that are. Sadly a few are not and they damage the parent/teacher relationship resulting in time consuming complaints that put extra pressure on the rest of teachers, the majority of whom are very good. It's a nasty vicious circle. I'm not sure what the answer is. I'm positive it's not increased funding cuts and workloads though .

[teacherwith2kids]

I have 32 in my KS2 class, which is the norm for my school. The school is represented every week at appeals for even more children to join the school - we have managed at 33 per class in the past, so that is always against us at appeal.

The marking thing is interesting. If I don't look at my pupils' work, I cannot adjust the next day's lesson to precisely meet the child's next steps, so none are left behind and none are bored by something that they already do - which is after all what everyone on MN and in RL wants. It is not always lengthy written work - and if I look at e.g. a 2 week 10 lesson English plan there may well be 2 or 3 lessons where the work is mainly oral or what is in the books will be group work . Maths I always mark day to day. For me, marking is integral to the 'feedback loop' at the heart of teaching - I plan and deliver, the children respond in their work, I respond to what they have done and adjust the next lesson plan and resources accordingly, and so on. Yes, I can get a certain amount of feedback from oral responses, from small whiteboard work, from questioning individual pupils, but not always enough and not always enough from exactly the right pupils.

Displays are about children's attitude to and pride in their work, and can be a true source of inspiration and intrigue at the start of a topic as well as being about a pleasant and cared-for environment. The design of my classroom puts most displays at child level - which is wonderful for their response to them, and perfect for 'working' displays of work in progress, but isn't great for their longevity as the classroom is quite crowded and children have to walk past them on their way to their seats et al. I think they are more critical at primary - where children respond much more to 'look, that's my one', and also need much more in the way of constant prompts as to key words and concepts. As a primary classroom is used for all subjects, and the curriculum might roll quite quickly on from one area to another, displays do have to change to continue to be relevant - no point in displaying key words for the Highwayman when you are now studying explanation texts, for example.

[HuckleberryGin]

Teachers need the support of parents. So when they've strike over their employment rights, patents should support them. Not moan about them in the press.

[stilllovingmysleep]

Wanttobesupermum of course classes are too big but there's not much teachers can do about that can they...

[Haggisfish]

Dfoad mrs guy. If only it were that easy to get things changed. If I had no personal responsibilities I may be able to risk becoming jobless for campaigning for my beliefs about what is strangling education. I do have responsibilities, though, and who would teach my students after I was sacked for troublemaking?

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

So nothing will change - therefore pointless moaning about it.

[HuckleberryGin]

Hahaha. Because they are fearful for their jobs. Bullying is rife in many schools, threats of no reference from a Head. And when teachers do take action in the past they have been scorned in the press and by parents for being work shy, lazy public sector workers. They can't win.

Their pay is dependent on their 'performance'. So is any future job. Schools are very good at getting rid of 'trouble makers', usually union reps. There is currently an NUT school rep suspended from a school for trade union activities.

And they care about the kids, they stay because they don't actually want to leave them with a string if supply tea hers if they can help it.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

Where is the evidence that displays progress the learning?
Why does there have to be written work that requires marking every day?
Why do teachers just accept unquestioningly and martyr-like that all this is necessary?

[Want2bSupermum]

If it's taking you 70 hours a week during term time I think your class size is too big then. If you had no more than 20 in a class would you see your hours drop to 50 per week? Also, if you are already working during your holidays, after school etc then you should be paid during that time.

A good education costs money and what I see happening here and in the UK are a bunch of politicians trying to save a dime which will cost us billions in the future in terms of productivity and harmony within our society. It's the same approach that our politicians are taking with the NHS.

[PiqueABoo]

Has anyone called mountain rescue yet?

The first parent-school problem is that schools lie big-time e.g. in their prospectuses, in their open evenings, in pretty much every letter that is sent home, and sadly in too many of those 5 min sessions at parent evenings.

For instance if schools tell parents to take those levels/grades seriously then please don't whine about parents who take them seriously. If schools, like DDs, stick bright labels on the front of exercise books telling us how often they will be marked etc., then please don't whine about parents who take them seriously. I know individual teachers aren't responsible for all the fibs, but you can not blame parents for believing them and then feeling disgruntled.

The para. about 'gifted' and 'bored' is a crock, so wide of the mark I don't know where to begin. The edutainment stuff is not very relevant to that issue, but since we're here that is largely down to progressive ideology.

I agree about some of the rest, obviously the workload but also the behaviour and data bollox. Not sure how you fix that because you'd need to decapitate most schools to get rid of the too-many bureacrats the system has been selecting for over the last decade or two. Just look at how slow some school SLT have been to pick up on what Ofsted don't care about any more.

[stilllovingmysleep]

The least of teachers' problem (and our problem) is what they wear. If only that were the issue!

[teacherwith2kids]

"Also lesson plans are completed as well as the admin around any statistics that need to be collected. IEPs are completed as well as booking in special services (ie speech, Ot and PT)."

Yes, that's pretty much what I've spent my holidays doing - 'overview' plans (which I have to review significantly every week, and tweak slightly every night, for every subject, but are still easier to do in an an overall 'direction of that unit of science / PE / History / DT' sense in advance). Admin surrounding all the assessments that we did at the end of last term (still have to do the writing assessment & data entry). Also reviewed and edited all the provision maps for the class for the term (all children who need any kind of special provisio0, and details of all interventions planned so that those can start on the first day of term. Will also spend a full day in school revamping displays to celebrate the final pieces of work from last term and act as input for the beginning of this term (7 main display boards, expectation is that every one changes 1-2x per term at minimum)

That means I don't go much over 70 hour weeks (full time) in term time, not that I can reduce below that 70 hours. On a daily basis, I mark 60-90 books (English + Maths always marked overnight, any other subject for the next lesson, so Topic 2x per week, Science 1x etc), revise planning for 4-5 lessons, and make or edit resources for those as an absolute minimum, as well as teaching a full timetable, running interventions in any breaks, and attending meetings. There isn't anything that can realistically be done to take those 'out' of my workload to move it during the holidays, as it all HAS to be done there and then IYSWIM?

[HuckleberryGin]

Teacher training days are already in the holidays.
When I worked 3 days a week I was on average working a 40 hour week. All my part time teacher friends work one or both of their days 'off'.

[HuckleberryGin]

Teachers are only paid for 1265 hours of directed time a year. 32.5 hours a week. Everything else they do for free. All the after school clubs, the drama productions, sports events. All the trips they do in the holidays are unpaid. All the marking and prep they do in the evenings and weekends is unpaid.

It would be much better to address the ridiculous bureaucracy.

[EvilTwins]

We already do our training in the holidays.

Lesson planning cannot be done in the holidays as it needs to take into account the progress students make on a lesson by lesson basis.

It's the tired old shite like this that is rolled out time after time on threads about teaching that contributes to the problem.

We already work through the holidays for no extra pay. I've been in for 4 days so far (excluding weekends and bank holiday, my "holiday" has been 6 days so far, including today. I've spent two days with students, one sorting out my classroom and one marking coursework. I don't imagine I'm the only one.

Longer working hours is not the answer.

[Want2bSupermum]

Well the school here do the majority of teacher training during the holidays. Also lesson plans are completed as well as the admin around any statistics that need to be collected. IEPs are completed as well as booking in special services (ie speech, Ot and PT).

We tend to have longer terms here too with a week off for Christmas and around Easter (spring break). Summer is 8-10 weeks off. During the summer spring and summer breaks they have camp that is free for children who come from low income families. Breakfast and lunch are provided to these kids at no cost to the family. For us it works out to be about $500 a week for 7:30-5:30pm. Camp is run by the teaching assistants not teachers and they get paid extra to work these weeks.

Overall, this set up sees lower turnover of teaching staff. There has been a crisis in teaching here in NJ with our govenor attacking teachers and their pay. Bloomberg also did the same. I wholly disagree with their opinions. Education is extremely important and the basis for a civilized society. Without we will have anarchy (or Trump as president) at worst and at best a divided society of haves and have nots.

[EvilTwins]

What do you think should be done in the holidays instead?

[Want2bSupermum]

Yes I've read the thread and think a shorter day all year round is a potential solution to make the profession more attractive.

There are lots of things that take up time during the day during term time that can be done during the breaks. Also, I'm also a firm believer in reducing class sizes. 30 to a class is a lot when you have homework to mark. Even a reduction to 20 would really help. Ideally I think a class size of 15 should be the goal especially if you are going to have an inclusive system children wih SEN are accommodated in the class.

As for pay, there was uproar here when the average salary of a teacher in our district was $80k a year. I think that's a fair wage for a skilled teacher who has undertaken an extensive education and works 47 weeks of the year. They work 8-4 Monday through Friday and receive supplement pay to work 4-6. The first hour is homework club and the second hour is an activity which is outsourced to local private providers.

NJ is a wealthier state and has one of the highest level of taxation because we rarely qualify for federal funding. We have to be nimble and hustle. Dd had a field trip to a local restaurant yesterday. The owner is a parent of teenagers who continues to provide this for free. We have a book exchange coming up this month. Everyone brings in a book and passes it to the next child in their class. There are a couple of kids who don't have books at home (poverty reasons) and when we highlighted this to the assistant principal she arranged for the kids to go to the local library and use their books for the exchange. Of course this requires the town to have a library. In the UK we are losing our way about what is important. Education is being sacrificed and it's not right. It's going to create all sorts of issues for this current generation of children.