Five teachers have left DD's school including two of her GCSE teachers!

[JufusMum]

DD has told me that five of her teachers have left her school including her German and her Maths teacher, the head of English and both pastoral care teachers.

She goes in year 11 in September and I'm worried about continuity for her German and Maths GCSEs. Apparently her new Maths teacher is the teacher who has previously only taught Business. Should I be worried?

School is dying on it's arse and she doesn't intend to stay there for 6th form.

Continuity between Year 10 and 11 and Year 12 and 13 is the ideal but sadly, is happening less and less in the last 5 years or so.

When I started teaching in 2004, it was not uncommon for lots of teachers to leave at the end of the academic year so the high numbers being talked about in this thread is nothing new.

However, back then, those teachers would actually have been replaced and replaced by qualified teachers in those areas.

Too many teachers currently leaving/not having contracts renewed are not being replaced at all. We had 7 teachers leave our school this year and only 2 being replaced.

Subjects are being cut from the curriculum and therefore, those teachers are not being replaced or other teachers are doubling up subjects and part time requests (mostly from returning new mothers) in the last two years have been denied (including my request).

Lord knows getting qualified maternity covers for most subjects is nigh on impossible. I've spent the last year undoing the mess my unqualified cover supply left me in. A teaching crisis indeed.

DoctorDonnaNoble-congratulations on your pregnancy!!

There are several schools with a 100% walk out. One was in the news, but the other I know of wasn't

Fuck me. Not heard about that. Wow.

yes u should beworried your childs future is going down the pan and there's no stopping it because moving schools will just make it worser

hav fun!

12 (including me!) leaving my place out of just over 60.

Not all being replaced because bizarrely SLT keep insisting we are overstaffed, which obviously just means savings need to be made

Apparently her new Maths teacher is the teacher who has previously only taught Business. Should I be worried?

I'd be worried about this. How is your DD at independent work? How is her general maths? I'd possibly look into tutoring if you can afford it - maybe group or online tutoring to keep costs down.

One of my DCs was not taught A level physiology by a series of agency teachers even the most enthusiastic ones didn't know what to teach. There was a phychologyvteachercwhobwas meant to be overseeing the continuity of the teaching but due to sickness and crappy teaching it didn't happen. Fortunately DD found an online course and self taught along with some of her friends. They sat at the back of the class and worked on their own.

I wonder if some posters who have kids in private schools or decent grammars etc understand quite how bad things are at regular state schools. DDs school is in a nice area and has a good (or whatever it's called). Ofsted rating.

The current education crisis is a disaster for social mobility. It's a very very unfair system.

The current education crisis is a disaster for social mobility. It's a very very unfair system

not nesesserily, kids who want to learn, can learn, as your DD has shown.

Maybe fairer for social mobility even! who knows

I doubt that it's better for social mobility to have parents who can afford tutors topping up Inadequate education, while less advantaged kids have to figure things out for themselves.

I have to go back to teaching to support my family. I am scared. I have asked for mental health support and am told none is available.

Dd's school usually writes which teachers are leaving and who is replacing them in an online newsletter at the end of summer term but nothing this year. It feels a bit ominous. I know they are having to cut the range of subjects offered.

About half the staff at my (small) secondary school have moved on over the course of this year. There were 8 teachers plus several members of support staff on the last day of term. We have fewer than 40 teachers overall. Some of these were redundancies (including majority of admin staff - we used to have separate receptionist/HR/Reprographics/Librarian jobs and they were all turned into one job, which is utterly ridiculous but saves a lot of money) some were staff moving into new jobs or retiring and one or two (including me) are just leaving the job completely.

As of September, the school will have an entirely new Maths department, only two recognisable (to the students) Science teachers, no DT teachers, only one Business/IT teacher, no Drama dept (sob - that was me - but I've not been replaced) and only one member of staff who has been there more than 10 years. English will be taught by 3 properly qualified English teachers and then anyone else with space on their timetable.

But the biggest issue is the fact that there has been no Headteacher since 2014. It's an academy, part of one of the biggest (and worst) academy trusts and has spiralled downhill since it was taken out of Local Authority control. Thing is, we're in an area where there are no LA Secondary schools any more, so there literally was no choice. I've been there 13 years and it has changed beyond recognition.

@Articu - I work in an excellent grammar school. We have lost lots of staff this year and as I stated earlier no one applied for my last mat cover. The English was covered by my department going over allocation and losing games afternoons (one English teacher was doing 4 afternoons of games! He is qualified for rugby and cricket coaching but still!). The RS was covered by twisting the arm of a recently retired teacher.

I wonder if some posters who have kids in private schools or decent grammars etc understand quite how bad things are at regular state schools.
Articu - Yes, some of us who cross both state and indie do realise how bad it is. My DD's former "Outstanding" grammar was rife with problems behind the scenes, losing staff and running a high deficit. It was made to join a MAT. Many of my friends are worrying about their DC's state schools. The question is how to repair this dreadful situation and make the government listen. We do have a PM at the moment who is very reactive, so maybe it should be made very uncomfortable for her? Strikes are rightly unpopular amongst teachers but it may be the only way to get the government to listen, especially while they are on the back foot politically.

we really don't need more money, we just need to use the money we have better. I have just resigned from being a TA, I spent my time being abused and threatened by children who didn't actually need support, or who refused to use it.

We pay millions to serve up a decent education to children who REFUSE it.

With better discipline, better tailored curriculum, more support from parents, better work ethic, we could do TEN times more with the money we have.

With better discipline, better tailored curriculum, more support from parents, better work ethic, we could do TEN times more with the money we have.
What are your suggestions for how this could be achieved?

I saw an advert for teaching the other day that was like "I was head of department within 20 seconds of qualifying 😄" - like that's going to encourage me! It just screams "this profession has massive turnover and you'll be promoted way too soon with way too little experience because everyone who's been in it longer than you has quit". Mmm. Tempting.

this profession has massive turnover and you'll be promoted way too soon with way too little experience because everyone who's been in it longer than you has quit

yes! that is exactly what it means.

@user1497480444 - more money is exactly what we need. The cuts to our local schools have resulted in subjects like Music and Tech being cut (and no, this isn't from schools with loads of TAs twiddling their thumbs).

That was exactly what it screamed out to me when I saw that addley

user1497480444 - I agree with DonnaNoble. Much more money is needed to make the state education system fairer for all children. It is a mess. You have experienced bad discipline but this cannot be a major factor in every school. State schools have been underfunded for years. Volunteer governors, whilst well meaning and many hard working, are being asked to run £5m + income academies which need to be led by qualified professionals from business and education. Whilst needing more funds we also cannot expect senior teachers to run these budgets alone. Qualified teachers need to be more valued by government and the government needs to stop "giving" schools away to private businesses.

I know of an academy employing anu qualified technician as a teacher next year. No degree, no teaching qualification.

I was a teacher until 2 years ago, in a shortage (secondary) subject. I loved the actual teaching, I was quite good at it. But I wouldn't go back now if you paid me £1million a year.

*an unqualified

5 is normal to me and a fairly typical turnover.

One school 15 of us left in one year. Some of us left for promotions (I was one of about 6), others left for another school and some left teaching altogether.

As other posters have said, a sacked teacher would not have been back on site. They would probably have been fixed term contract and it's not been renewed.

It's not a massive turnover. Teachers move on. I did a year ago. I left my exam classes. I wasn't sacked, I wasn't leaving teaching. I got a new job in a new school, because I wanted to do a different job.

Because teachers can only leave at 3 points in a year, there is inevitable "bunching". And the most common exit point is the end of the summer term.

user1497480444

Its entirely possible for the teacher to be pulled out of lesson, have a meeting and then be given time to collect their things.

No, even gross misconduct they'd have to be told the meeting was happening in advance and that there was a likely chance of dismissal. They'd also have to be given time to get a union rep present if they wished.

If they were bring suspended pending investigation they wouldn't be allowed back into the classroom with pupils, even to collect things.