What changes to teaching would make the job more bearable?

[SarfEasticated]

I am studying for a degree in Education Studies, with a view to working with children once I've finished in 2 yrs time. I have been reading the threads in here about the terrible workloads teachers have and I would be interested to know what education policy changes you would like to see made after the next general election. Which party offers the most hope for teachers? and When do you think was the golden age for teaching?
Can you see any light at the end of the tunnel?

Presume.

Bit risky not being in a union, Elizabeth?

Over the last couple of years politicians seem to have been making an effort to engage with chalk face teachers, and several prominent teacher-bloggers have been invited to chats with the bigwigs. Gove often mentioned them in his speeches. Ofsted have engaged with them too, at ResearchEd 2014 Cladingbowl and Harford from Ofsted were grilled by blogger OldAndrew (a Gove favourite) and took questions from the floor. Tristram Hunt gave a speech there too (poorly received). ResearchEd (started by Tom Bennett, a teacher who also writes for the TES) is a grassroots movement and really seems to have taken off, so hopefully will have some influence on policy.

But then Nicky Morgan came on here and gave the blandest webchat ever, so perhaps it is just the appearance of listening from Whitehall.

I am in a union but only see it as a way to protect myself in case of any legal action. I don't feel like they represent me or my needs. Yes they spout about workload but how effective have they actually been? I have a list of tasks I am not supposed to do but when stood in front of SLT it is very hard to say no. Also you know that if you don't do it, a colleague will get lumbered.

The biggest let down was the GTC we all paid into it, and for what? I never saw them stand up convincingly for teachers in the media. Where we are all portrayed as whingers anyway.

As you say Giraffe. There is an appearance of listening.

Research might have shown that class size makes no difference to the children's outcomes, (which I am skeptical about, tbh, there are many critics of Hattie's research out there), but class size really would make a difference to teacher workload.

Yes, I agree. I also don't believe there's any decent independent research that has come to the conclusion that smaller class sizes don't make a differerence.

I think that a) they haven't done any proper research into it and b) any research finding they do actually help would be destroyed so quickly nobody would ever see it! Can you imagine that one ever getting out-'evidence clearly states that class sizes of 20 are optimal'--then the government would have to do something about it!!

Never in a million years would they invest that much money....

I am not in a union either. I think it's a waste of money. If I have a problem, I will contact a lawyer instead.

yes me too. I am covered in other ways anyway. Sad that legal cover is generally the only reason people are in Unions

Yes, people pay their subscriptions for years and then if they ever need to use them (bullying head as an example) they find that they have no 'bite' and they may as well have thrown their money out of the window. Employment lawyer every time!

I agree with everything Quitethewoodsman has said. There was a whole thread a while back on here-I think it might have been in the Staff room board, about teachers who had been threatened/attacked/provoked/sworn at etc and it was universally felt that SMT saw this (or complaining about it) was caused by poor teaching. No blame at all was given to the pupil doing it.

violence

This was the thread. This sort of attitude to schools/teachers/violence/exclusions/Ofsted needs to change before teachers have a chance of just getting on with the teaching.

Whilst there is the threat of Ofsted being triggered by schools excluding disruptive children, teachers will have to put up with this.

noblegiraffe Just looking at the videos from ResearchEd2014 - really good stuff in there, thank you! Particularly enjoying John Blake's video on cultural capital and the working class.

Some recent research on class sizes. If the link doesn't work, google "david zyngier and class size".

www.theage.com.au/national/education/new-study-smaller-class-sizes-a-benefit-dr-david-zyngier-concludes-20140427-zqyx4.html

Where is teaching going? There are so many teachers just walking out-I wonder where we'll be in five years? ten years?

Quite maybe if class sizes were smaller less teachers would leave as their workloads would shrink.

I actually think smaller class sizes would make a dramatic difference to most teachers and whoever made the point about private schools using them as a selling point was spot on.

Unfortunately, to set up smaller classes, you'd need more teachers and there just aren't enough teachers as it is.

It's funny, when Gove or whoever is playing at knowing about education discovers a school/country/setting with better results-they jump on one cherry-picked aspect they like and bang on about it making a huge difference. It's usually the thing that will involve teachers working more hours for no more money-eg extending the school day, school on Saturdays, shorter holidays etc etc

I've never heard any of them say that private schools get quite good results, let's try halving class sizes ;)

Happy first day back

Very true -they cherry pick the very worst bits from every other school/country! If they chose smaller classes, longer holidays and supportive parents-I wonder how our results would change?!

Longer school days would be great for parents, and I think some of the free schools are offering that. I think 8-5 is a bit harsh for primary school children, but if they spent a few hours doing games, art, reading etc that would be good.

As long as they aren't supervised by teachers though!

Of course not

Ha ha!

I do think decent affordable wraparound care would be very well-received in this country though and definitely needs looking at.

Unfortunately 7am-8.45am and 3.15-7pm are tricky times of day which would need good pay to persuade people to work.

Who would work those hours? If you already work full time-you couldn't or wouldn't want to work those additional hours. Parents at home with their children are busy looking after them so wouldn't want to. If you're looking for work-those hours would make it very hard-not to mention tiring-to find a job in between those hours and in their own, would not pay many bills. TA maybe, but nearly all of ours have children of their own so wouldn't want to work then.

You'd need some good hard cash to persuade anyone to just work those hours and then it doesn't become affordable any more! I can't see the government offering to subsidise it!

I guess if schools just started at 8.30 and finished at 5.30 that would be enough for most parents to manage a reasonable days work, presuming there were two parents and each could vary their hours slightly. if this was the same accross the board then lots of people would be able to work the hours as they wouldn't have to stop work in time for 3.15 school pick up.
I am envisioning a race of super TA's who get paid more and for longer and who are happy to lead clubs crafts, games, languages etc either over a 2 hour lunch period or in the afternoon. They don't have to be TA's, they could be youth workers? If the teachers had the smaller class sizes we decided upon further up the thread (shall we say 20 per class with one TA?) they would have more time (hopefully) to lead some clubs, or even spend time with their colleagues on CPD. You are right though, we'd need load of lovely lolly to finance it, and I doubt most people would want to pay the extra taxes to pay for it.