Need a rant- this is what is wrong with teaching

[StaircaseAtTheUniversity]

Both I and husband are secondary school teachers. I'm 2nd in a core subject, he's head of department in another subject. I'm on maternity leave.

DH works so hard. He's honestly one of the hardest working individuals I have ever met. 5 days a week he does 14hrs in school- comes home and then marks for an hours before bed. Works so hard it's to the detriment of home life at times. He has spent the last three weeks taking kids on field trips- residential- which have been a PITA to organise and stressful and meant he's missed three weekends with DD who is 7 months old.

He's just phoned in tears because he got a few negative reviews from the student voice from his tricky and poorly behaved bottom set year 9. Head teacher thought 6pm the day after he came back from one field
Trip and the day before he goes on another was a great time to go through these in detail. Says he's at breaking point and doesn't know what he can do to work harder or do better. My heart breaks for him as I'm nothing like as dedicated a teacher or manager as him-
He really does do it for the love of the kids.

Angry most of all because bastard student voice is such a box ticking ofsted load of bollocks and it's been used in this case to make a dedicated individual feel worthless.

Just wanted to have a rant as you lot understand. Fucking wankers.

No offence meant towards single teachers btw, just my particular colleagues who happened to be single did tend to be able to work much longer hours than me when they got home and I would view this as a luxury.

*offense

I sympathise with the situation and it sounds like the HT is unsupportive - but in the nicest possible way, your DH is clearly incredibly inefficient. The field trips need to go - would I be right in thinking that a lot of his workload is trip bureaucracy? Then he needs to use his half term to read a book on time management and prioritising workload. I guarantee that he is spending time on admin and other tasks which need to be delegated. Does he have a second? What is s/he like? I remember vividly my first year as a head of faculty, and realising just how organised and on top of things you have to be to be able to delegate effectively. He needs to get to this point and he will probably need your help.
and for you both. Good luck.

It sounds like your DH has poor time management.

Those hours are not unusual in teaching these days. I do not believe it is likely to be down to poor time management of inefficiency as other posters have said. Since leaving teaching myself, I have looked back in amazement at the abuse that we accepted as normal, 14 hour working days being the minimum.

teachers should not accept inhumane working conditions. I was working through the night regularly, as do many other teachers. This is not poor time management, this is a list of admin tasks to do that just never ever ends. Of course he isn't going to have any energy in the classroom. teaching in the classroom is such a tiny percent of the teachers job these days.

I walked out a couple of months ago, now I wish I had done it 10 years ago. I look at those years and think why did I put myself through it, to the detriment of my health, my family and my pupils.

It seems normal when you are in the middle of it, but actually the CIA considers sleep deprivation a form of torture.

He should refuse to do the field trip. No one can make him, and why should he, when the HT treats him like that. It is so misguided to exhaust yourself thinking it is for the sake of the children. It isn't. They would benefit so much more from having teachers that refused to attempt to do the impossible.

Teaching full time has become intolerable. So many teachers are leaving and becoming supply teachers so they have a work life balance. So pupils only have access to a string of supply teachers in many subjects, because no one supply teacher will commit themselves long term. this is the result of making living with a teaching job impossible.

I am so angry for your DH I could quite cheerfully slap the head myself.

I teach sport. Year nine is always my which way are you going to go year. To me it's the hardest year.

Ive learnt that you can give too much of yourself. You give too much too your kids and what they have the potential to achieve. You can see where you are going but sometimes others dont/can't/won't .

I can empathise but unreality he had to suck it up.

Amazing teachers are there for the kids no one else,

*in reality - I'm pissed!

Whilst he can be inefficient in some ways, he isn't so incredibly inefficient that he could shave the much needed 5-6hours a day off. When I say that he's inefficient I mean more than he doesn't make a list of tasks that he needs to do, spends two hours doing his photocopying for the week because he says reprographics never do it right so it's just easier to do it himself....things like that. I'd say he could probably save himself 30-60mins a day if he employed what are essentially my methods of management, but no more than that. It would hardly change his life.

In terms of the field trip and those who have said not to do it, I have spoken to him about this but the issue seems to be two fold- firstly that in his subject the question changes every year and they have to go somewhere different to gain the necessary data (don't want to be explicit and out his subject although it's clear from that!) and secondly he really does think the kids will suffer without the trips, and he's probably right. It's not the children's fault their head is a bell end.

As for the 2nd in dept, this is a massive issue at the moment. He did/does have one but she's not brilliant- a bit lazy and blunt so is always getting in trouble with their line manager and stuff.... She's a liability. And then she went on maternity in January but is only planning on being off til September so they're using long term cover (ridiculous) as they couldn't find a suitable candidate to hire for the short maternity cover. So not only has he currently got no second but he's having to deal with a series of quite shit cover teachers, and even if they're not shit, they don't knkw the school and the kids are a challenge so it's causing a headache.

they're using long term cover (ridiculous) as they couldn't find a suitable candidate to hire for the short maternity cover. So not only has he currently got no second but he's having to deal with a series of quite shit cover teachers, and even if they're not shit, they don't knkw the school and the kids are a challenge so it's causing a headache.

It has taken me a long time to realise this, but it is because of teachers like your husband that there are no suitable candidates prepared to commit to many jobs,

Your husband is propping up a crumbling system which is grinding teachers into the ground. While there are still teachers prepared to sacrifice themselves propping it up until they burn out, they are actually colluding with ofsted to make working conditions intolerable. While working conditions are intolerable, teachers are leaving the profession by the thousand, and taking up other jobs, and/or doing occasional SHORT TERM supply to fund themselves. Short term supply teachers avoid of lot of the shit, so obviously this is a better option for teachers, and many are choosing this option, and making themselves unavailable for long term positions, to the detriment of pupils and schools.

Lets face it, who would choose an 18 hour working day with repeated slaps in the face from the management when you can work a 7 hour day for the same pay, and everyone panders to you and is desperate for you to agree to come back tomorrow.

Staircase - he should also be aware that not all schools are like this. Our Hum department does not run trips at weekends, and we have a Faculty Admin person to organize them (and do some photocopying!).

My dd is in Year 9. She loves her teachers, is really inspired by them in most subjects. I really appreciate their enthusiasm and passion.

I hope your dh realises that for every idiot year 9 there will be 5x kids who think he's doing a good job.

'Lets face it, who would choose an 18 hour working day with repeated slaps in the face from the management when you can work a 7 hour day for the same pay, and everyone panders to you and is desperate for you to agree to come back tomorrow'

I agree. I was on a thread a couple of days ago where a supply teacher was described as a diamond...because they marked work.
I have days and weeks where I can choose between three or four schools all wanting me to work. I feel more appreciated, less stressed on a long-term basis and I don't have cumulative guilt about things I have no control over.
Your DH is between a rock and a hard place with the sky falling in on him, and that is indeed what's wrong with teaching now.
Whatever you do is never enough, and there is no chance of two stars and a wish from the SLT, just a skipful of negativity and all comments are what you need to do next. Never recognition of what you have done well without a 'but' attached.
Unlike supply.

Oh, I'm not on the same pay, more like 2/3. The trade is acceptable to me.

I've just re-read your last post because I thought that you said he did two house of photocopying a day! Obviously not, but two hours a week is still two hours when he's not at home. Is he a bit of a control freak, or a perfectionist? I honestly believe that managing a teaching workload is all about knowing which corners you can cut this week,, knowing that you can return to spin those plates next week. Some people are more comfortable with this than others and it sounds like it's your approach too

I agree with other posters that not all schools are like this. He needs to start looking for a new job, and one of two things will happen: either the school will be desperate to keep him and will make changes to do so, or they won't and he can make a fresh start in a better-run school.

Mara he absolutely is a perfectionist. This is his problem at the moment and in this job. You have assessed quite rightly that I'm not- I think my sanity is more important than having the ts crossed and the is dotted.

hijk whilst I completely appreciate your comment and know that you have a very valid point, he's just one man. If the expectation is there, with the personality he has, he thinks it's just "what he has to do". I don't know how you cure that.

viva thank you for that. I do know that most kids are nice. I used to be a kid like your daughter. It's just hard as the empty vessels make the most noise!

Just on the school trip side. They are a pita, but how many is his faculty running per term? Big trips at our school are in the calendar, can be dropped, but not added to. One residential per department per year and not at weekends.The teacher in charge does the booking and collecting money, but all the other admin, risk assessments, evolve etc is done elsewhere (by me)
All the rest he has my sympathy for. I see more and more of my colleagues struggling under growing unsustainable pressure.

It's three trips- a GCSE, AS and A level. One is Mon-Fri but the KS5 ones have to be Thurs-Sun to avoid the kids missing too much class time on other subjects. He's tritd go change it but school won't budge.

Could they not give him time off in lieu of the weekend work at least.

I do agree with hijk.

Have you ever noticed, though, that if you do get to the end of th list of jobs, you obviously 'don't have enough to do'. How on earth do you tackle that attitude?