If you’re a teacher, what changes would help you do your job?

[Cattenberg]

I know some teachers are striking for a decent, fully-funded pay rise, but what other changes would you like to see?

Smaller class sizes? If so, what size would be ideal?

Less bureaucracy? Which part would you most like to get rid of?

More money for schools? If so, what would you spend it on?

I feel I have a vague idea of the issues, but nothing specific. The day after DD’s teacher is next on strike, I’ll be manning a stall at the school fete, wondering if the school will be fully-staffed in September as two teachers have recently resigned.

More PPA time, especially. I get one free a fortnight to lead a subject.

Smaller class sizes.

Perks and rewards for loyal teachers!

Improved behaviour.

And let's stop formally assessing the poor buggers every three minutes .

Stop sidelining and talking down creative subjects. Stop obsessing over 'knowledge'.

A computer that wasn't built with Windows 7 installed and sounds like a jet turbine on the 25 minute long startup to having the registers open might be nice.

It would be even better if the one that's used to try and run all the reports, manage the MIS, communicate with the servers and operate all the assorted add on packages could run a report of 25 names and addresses plus class name without crashing three times because it's actually a cut and shut of three other Windows 7 machines trying to run 11. And it's only got 11 because nobody can find the original Windows 7 disks to try yet another reinstall when the motherboard went pfffffffftttt halfway through setting up the new academic year.

The decades long devaluing of female and non teaching work to be reversed so that support staff are paid an appropriate rate for the level of skills, knowledge, adaptability and technical skills they bring whilst ensuring that the school actually functions in the first place. Glue sticks are useful; however, people paid enough to be able to stay in the role and with sufficient time and training (with recognised qualifications for their skillsets) in which to be able to ensure that all FSM entitlements are processed, on the system and submitted in the Census so that the correct level of funding is received for the year is significantly more important. Without funding, there is no school. Without admissions/FSM/census completion/a hundred separate returns and data submissions, there is no funding.

At primary schools:

20-24 children to a class
A full time TA per class
Specialist teachers for PE/Music/MFL/Computing
Respect for the profession from
Children willing and ready to learn with supportive family
Serious consequences for repeated poor behaviour ie more PRUs/repeat a year
No Ofsted
No micromanaging by SLT ie teachers trusted to do their jobs properly without constantly watching them
Mental health and Ed Psych teams on hand for every school
Automatic pay progression like we used to have
More focus on rewarding the "always" children.
More self and peer assessment

At secondary schools:

20-24 children to a class
Qualified specialists for every subject
Ability to remove a disruptive child from a lesson swiftly and without repercussions ie management support
Respect for the profession from all adults
Children willing and ready to learn with the right equipment
Serious consequences for repeated poor behaviour ie more PRUs/repeat a year
No Ofsted
No micromanaging by SLT ie teachers trusted to do their jobs properly without constantly watching them
Mental health and Ed Psych teams on hand for every school
School buses on more popular routes provided free
Automatic pay progression like we used to have
More focus on rewarding the "always" children.

Could keep going on at this rate!

What comes across to me, is how poor Slt are in many schools. They can make changes but they don’t. They were teachers once so how come they leave their understanding of the job in the past when they get promoted? It almost makes me wonder whether others would have better skills to be slt in some schools.

I agree that SLT seem to be poor in many schools (particularly secondaries) but I think that it's a bit of a red herring. The education system is insanely underfunded and dealing with the repercussions of the underfunding of social care and the NHS. That is at the crux of the matter.

Smaller class sizes -24 is fine
Proper training and support for SEND. Specialist places for those family who choose this.
Funding to pay for an extra class for the constant wave of children who don’t speak any English. We are between 3 universities and this makes up 1/3 of our cohort. Our core children (who live in poverty on the whole) do abysmally as we are constantly using all support of these children.
A budget for the basics e.g. actually being able to cook in food tech.
The ability to exclude violent pupils. In the last few years our learning mentor has had his arm broken and glasses snapped. We are Primary!

Pay that makes staff feel appreciated.

A full time admin so I don’t have to chase up admissions, absence etc

Bring back QCA unit’s so all children are learning the same and planning is minimal

Being paid from 8-5 including a few hours each holiday to actually reflect all the extra we do.
specialist music and PE teachers would free up time in school for teachers to work with individuals or small groups to address issues or god forbid, catch their breath and prep/mark.
better staffing in nursery, 1:13 is a joke especially when a third of the class aren’t toilet trained or have SEN (or both)

Attitudes to workload are not just about money. It’s about culture @JunipeJuniper Not all schools have put upon staff.

Investment in the physical buildings, ours aren't fit for purpose and are actually dangerous in parts.

Access to better equipment and enough resources. Nothing fancy, but lessons absolutely suffer when we can't afford basic materials, but I resent paying for them myself and don't think the children should either.

More support staff. We used to have an art tech for the department and the work they did was invaluable, we now have to magic time out of thin air to do this and it affects the children as well as morale. This is even more of an issue with the cuts to TAs etc.

Smaller class sizes would always be ideal, but for my subject this isn't the end of the world.

Better staffing, not only are we short of teachers in my subject but I've also had to cover subjects I don't have much of a clue on; stressful for me (and not really part of the job if we are being honest) but also not good for children. Be fine if it was occassion but this is often classes who have a mishmash of supply teachers, other subject teachers etc and no constant.

I actually don't think the pay is too bad personally compared to my peers who studied the same degree and went off in different directions, but the facts and figures speak for themselves- people are leaving in huge numbers, people aren't wanting to train in big enough numbers and especially for some subjects the disparity is huge; pay wouldn't solve all of this but I'm sure it would help.

More support from parents. There has been a very marked change I'd say in the last decade or so, there are certainly some parents who are very much of the view that the school is wrong whatever it does and their child is right. This means discipline can be very challenging as obviously we are limited as a school and if parents are saying fuck the school its doesn't help. I don't mean for minor infringements either like uniform but for very disruptive and negative behaviour. This sort of extends into complaints about ridiculous things.

Less pressure from government to meet ridiculous arbitrary targets.

There's more I'm sure.

I've worked with some good SLT but there's a lack of people wanting to do those roles (I don't!) so young, inexperienced people can get promoted very quickly.

There is also little training provided to SLT especially in HR. The experience they have is of managing kids, not other adults!

More support from parents. There has been a very marked change I'd say in the last decade or so, there are certainly some parents who are very much of the view that the school is wrong whatever it does and their child is right. This means discipline can be very challenging as obviously we are limited as a school and if parents are saying fuck the school its doesn't help. I don't mean for minor infringements either like uniform but for very disruptive and negative behaviour. This sort of extends into complaints about ridiculous things.

Yes to this, I would also like to see it being easier and more socially acceptable to ban/decline direct communication with parents who are abusive.

Too many parents feel entitled to shout, scream, threaten and get physical with teachers (often in front of the kids we're trying to teach) without there being any consequences. It makes the job stressful, always worrying about certain parent's reactions.

Smaller classes
More equipment especially digital technology equipment
Support from parents re. behavioural issues

I'm not put upon. I work in a gorgeous little school with an amazing head. The issues for me (see first page) and for many posters on this thread are way beyond what my head can influence.

I was talking about many aspects on this thread that are SLT demanding this, that and t’other and not, it would seem, have the basic awareness that teachers should not be working 14 hour days. Or spending their own money. These issues should be looked at by SLT. Assessing all the time is not money driven. Or wasting time on numerous behaviour issues when SLT don't follow their own policies. Or not reviewing who does what admin tasks. Plenty could be looked at.

I think if lesson planning and marking demands were to stay the same (which arguably they should as it provides individualised learning for each pupil to plan lessons around your specific class) then teachers should work 3 days a week in the classroom and 2 days from home/in staff room doing prep. This would allow us to stop working weekends and late into the night.

Pupil behaviour needs addressing, which I fear may only come from govt changes to address poverty etc, but school leadership can also help by supporting and believing teachers when they say they don’t feel safe in their classrooms and by cutting class sizes.

SLT treating teachers with respect, not trying to ‘catch them out’ all the time. Less scrutiny. Ofsted overhaul.

Also as a PP has said we need more support for kids who struggle speaking English or don’t speak any. Instead we can asked why they are behind for their age group and it’s framed as our fault. I was an ENGLISH teacher. I felt it was obvious why someone who can’t read English might not be excelling in their essays about Dickens, but SLT hearing none of it. We live in a beautifully diverse country. We need an education system that reflects and suppers this.

For secondary, remove the need for marking day to day work/books. Let students do peer or self marking. Teachers should only mark end of topic assessments, mocks etc. This is plenty of marking and allows for good feedback so students know what they need to work on. Pointless book marking doesn't make a difference.

Have a better facility to deal with problem students that disrupt lessons constantly. Most often even if you send them out they get put back in your lesson after 5 mins. Students with a blatant disregard for teachers and education should have a better form of punishment that they actually are scared of and will stop them misbehaving! Not sure what that is, but the current punishment options don't work for repeat offenders that can do what they want and still remaining in the school. It's near impossible to permanently exclude a child from school. This means behaviour is getting worse and worse.

Smaller classes definitely. It's far harder to get to know 32 kids and provide support than it is 24. 24 is a good number.

Funding I don't really feel it as much in my secondary but primary schools it's more obvious as you notice things with your kids. For example, my daughter keeps coming home with paint all over her uniform because they don't have any aprons in their classroom. My son has compulsory group music lessons at his school and he couldn't take part in the lesson because something on his instrument was broken so he couldn't take part in the lessons. I only found out when I asked him if he enjoyed these music lessons and he said no because they didn't have any of this piece. So I bought the piece he needed so he could take part in the lesson again!

I have heard of schools performance managing out highest paid teachers and replacing them with cheaper new teachers. This is done in schools often as the budget doesn't allow for very expensive teachers. So budget to pay for these super super experienced teachers that schools do desperately need!!

The pay isn't really great either. I was teaching when I met my husband who was a supermarket worker. He retrained in IT and has now ecplised my pay massively. Considering I was much higher paid when we met, he has steadily over taken me makes me realise we really aren't paid well as teachers.

I teach in Scotland, have 22 in my new class (“only” had 27 in my class this past year)
have a PSA 90% of the time
can print in colour (within reason!)
dont have to deal with SATS or Ofsted (although do obviously get inspected still!)
and I also get paid significantly more than my English counterparts..

Yes, the pay sounds high, but not when you compare it to similar level jobs. I started out as a new teacher on much higher wages than my friends, but they've overtaken me massively. And they get a fair whack of holiday entitlement too, so even if you count our holidays, they're still paid more. And they get weekends off. One of my friends has said she'd like her job to be more meaningful, because all she does is make money for other people.... but she's not willing to take a pay cut.

Smaller classes, 1 or 2 support staff in each classroom and actually in the room all day! No more written lesson plans, no formal observations.

This basically describes the private sector

Primary - more teachers in school. Not smaller class sizes necessarily, but SEN chn to be taught by a consistent teacher who plans for them in key areas, along side the teacher (I'm thinking maths and English), addressing their specific learning needs.It's a role that would suit a part timer really well as could be mornings only.
At the moment class teacher plans for them, so effectively plans most maths and English lessons twice, and they are supported by an LSA (if they're lucky) who is not qualified or trained to assess and teach. They are just dragged along by worksheets, often without developing their understanding.
And abolish OFSTED of course - re think that process entirely.

In primary:
Rationalisations that cost no money but save teachers doing needless work that does not impact children's progress.

Way less marking. Has any child ever made progress because a teacher next-stepped their geography work a week later? Flip through half a dozen books for misconceptions: address at start of next lesson. Done. Marking should be part of the lesson wherever possible, not something that happens after school. Whole class marking for most lessons, giving children immediate feedback on how they have done. That leaves time for teachers to do a really thorough English mark of writing once a week, against a child's individual targets.

No RE. That's a weekly assembly. Expand reading.

No time-consuming requirements for what is on the walls, or how it is displayed. Is there any greater waste of time than backing children's work with card? Stapling borders around corkboard? That nonsense takes up hours of time.

SLT need to run an impact assessment on teacher workload before introducing the next faddish idea that pops ill-formed into their heads. New behaviour management scheme? More homework? First decide what time will be sacrificed elsewhere to make it possible.

Lesson observations should be informal - just a stop in to see how children are learning, check in with teacher, see if any support or guidance would be useful, have a flip through the books. I fully support oversight, but would rather see someone stop by to see me teach as I do everyday and not delivering a heavily-prepped showpiece to a critic.

With money: Class size limit of 25. That is a week of guided reading groups broken down into 5 students each. Less is always better, but I would say 25 is the maximum for giving each child the individual attention they need.

TAs. They improve outcomes and behaviour and pick up on social aspects that teachers might miss. The last LSA I had could spot lice at 50m and knew the contents of every packed lunch (so we knew who was packing their own without guidance, and showing up with Skittles and Lucozade for lunch).

I trained in primary 20 years ago and now teach older kids in an SEN school. For primary:

14 in a class. I had this during lockdown and the difference was amazing. It does depend on the needs of the children, but I’ve had 19 in a normal class before and that still felt like too many. Years when I’ve had 30 just felt like an impossible task.

Full-time TA.

More PPA, although, as a pp said, I’d rather the paperwork was reduced so we didn’t need it.

Not being told off by office staff when I ask for a few more pencils or glue sticks and to actually have enough for the year and the resources I need for the lessons I teach.

For parents not to blame me when their child loses yet another unnamed jumper.

For SLT to deal with serious misbehaviour.

For children with additional needs to get timely support.

For children to respect themselves, each other and the adults trying to teach them.

For parents to understand that sometimes their kids are misbehaving and rude and it’s not acceptable.

For some fellow teachers to better-understand special needs through more training. I’m particularly thinking about some staff not understanding the issues behind school ‘refusal’, something I’m dealing with with my own teen. The lack of understanding is shocking.

Following on from the above point, small schools are needed for children with additional needs who are academically able, but can’t cope with large mainstream schools. This is obviously something that would require huge change and funding and isn’t really answering the question, sorry!

Get rid of marking, especially in lower primary where half the kids can’t read what you’re told to write and those that can, don’t bother and aren’t interested. They have forgotten the lesson by this point anyway. As for secondary teachers, I have no idea how you manage the marking.

An end to micromanagement. I have successfully completed my teacher training and worked in many schools over the years. I don’t need to be told what words to say in my lesson and which sentences I need to use. I really don’t.

In my current SEN school… more support staff, my God, desperately need more staff. And I know there will be more paperwork, but the amount is utterly ridiculous.

Overall, a new curriculum would be good. One that is interesting and relevant.

And no Ofsted. Not saying there doesn’t need to be some sort of checks, it definitely not as it is at the moment.

That’s all 😀.

I agree with the pp that 3 days in school, 2 days no contact works. I've achieved that by taking a 40% pay cut and working 3 days a week officially, 5 in reality. Marking a pile of 30-40 year 13 essays takes me about a day and the other day I plan lessons. I can take my 10 year old to school and pick her up those days.

Note to the DFES: this is NOT what the rest of the world of work means by "flexible working"!