Record numbers quitting profession in first year of teaching

[BossWitch]

m.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32044475

Hardly surprising, sadly. But it feels to me like we're too far down the rabbit hole to find our way out - how can you roll back all the monitoring, tracking, marking, observations blah blah blah etc that make teaching increasingly impossible when it's all branded as for the benefit of the pupils?

I'm only surprised it's taken so long to be reported tbh

Crap, link fail. Headline figures - only 62% of nqts still in teaching a year later.

I think this sums it up

Is it because people go into it because they are out of work and struggling to find a job rather than actively choosing teaching as a career?

Not a very good basis for a career so not surprising so many leave.

I was listening to a NQT giving advice on job hunting to a student on final teaching practice. His advice for choosing a school to work in all centred around checking out school policies which would effect workload. For instance, he told her to ask about the Marking and Feedback Policy to make sure it is not too complicated otherwise he said she would spend ages marking (she was applying for a job in year 1)

I don't think so More, I'm pretty sure that the recruitment figures are down too (though I've nothing to hand to prove that one, admittedly).

But even if it was a factor, lots of people just 'end up' in jobs don't they? That's life. I don't think that you need yo have been dreaming of being a teacher since you were knee high to a grasshopper to be good at it. I once worked with an amazing teacher who got talked into interviewing for the pgce as moral support for her mate! If the working conditions of a profession are so dire only those with a burning passion can stand to stay in it, surely that's a pretty harsh indictment of the current state of affairs?

I fear that I am on the verge of becoming one of the 38%...but I don't know if - for me - it is the school (which can be solved. ..) being an NQT (which will pass) or teaching which won't change...

but I notice those figures are for 2011...I wonder if there is any more recent data???

I think it says in the article that it's the most recent available data. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't worse now than in 2011.

A friend of mine is an NQT. She is a lovely lady with a 1st class degree from a top university, so used to working hard. As an NQT she works every night to midnight (preparing resources, marking, doing data and God knows what else), then leaves to house at 7am the next morning to get to work. She is exhausted and thinking of quitting. I don't know much about the profession, but as an outsider looking in, the workload on young teachers for a relatively modest salary looks inhumane.

Mitzi that's depressing. But not a bad idea! Although she/he'd come across pretty poorly at interview asking those questions, I'd have thought.

florence the workload is unsustainable and as you say the salary is relatively modest. IMO most people entering the teaching now will be burnt out within 10 years but unlike someone in the City who has worked long hours and earned a fortune in that time, teachers will have little to show for it. I have actively discouraged my DD from entering the profession which is a pity.

That's so depressing. I have been thinking about my mid to long term career options and am considering going into teaching in a few years' time. It's something I think I could really love and be good at. I have spent 20 years practicing my subject in industry and am ready to do something new. I'm just reading too much stuff at the moment about how tough it is.

Bosswitch - the NQT and the student are both from one of the top two universities so perhaps they can pick and choose where they want to work.

When I trained, the most common route in to primary teaching was a 4 year course. It was quite hard to get on and you needed real commitment to teaching as a vocation. And if you've slogged through a pretty gruelling 4 years of an intense lecturing schedule, rigorous assessment and demanding teaching practices, the drop-out rate on qualifying will be much lower, I'm sure. We mostly see PGCE students for placements at my school these days, and I often wonder if a year is long enough to really know whether you're going to LOVE it or not. And if you don't love it all the admin / assessment / monitoring / tracking is going to wear thin pretty soon.

The point I was trying to make is that more people are entering the profession from a shorter stint of actually studying education and fewer opportunities to immerse themselves in the classroom environment as a learner / student prior to qualifying. I'm not in anyway disrespecting the undergraduate degree + PGCE combo as it must be a complete baptism of fire.

I see what you are saying peaceful.

As a PGCE graduate (secondary) I have to say I feel woefully underprepared.

I don't know if more practice over a longer periodof time would have helped...and/or mafe the transition eeasier. ..

peaceful whilst I understand what you're saying, I do not think loving your job or immersing yourself is relevant. I loved my job for many years, worked very hard and got good outcomes for very challenging children, but the job and expectations have changed. I was an experienced teacher and SMT but was working long hours much of which was spent completing admin, planning or assessment which made little or no difference to the children I taught but seemed to me to be about providing a paper trail to prove that I was doing what I had been doing anyway. I have left full time teaching and now work as a supply teacher which pays less but provides a work/life balance. I am on long term supply contract and consequently don't have to jump through the observation amd monitoring hoops and my class are still making very good progress.

That sounds like me, Mitzi.

:(
How would someone thinking about a future transition into secondary teaching get a feel for what the job is really like before jumping into a PGCE?

many people TA or volunteer. I did the old school based training (GTP) and did feel prepared for the realities.

Our current head has a policy of keeping class sizes small by employing lots of NQTs supported by one more senior teacher in each year group (three form entry) so I've seen about a dozen teachers go through their NQT year in the last 3 years.

Two have left teaching at the end of the NQT year and another the year after that and that was absolutely the best decision for them. They just weren't cut out for it. The ones who were "born" for it love it. It's the older teachers who struggle to deal with the monitoring and changing expectations etc because it's a change for them (which happens in all jobs and you get older, if you've been doing the same job for a long time). The newer teachers don't know any different and accept it as part of the role.

If teachers who aren't suited to teaching are taking the decision early on not to pursue it as a career, that's a good thing IMO.

And TBF, a job where you can expect to be earning £35k 5 years after qualifying and £50k fairly quickly if you have career aspirations, should be tough!

I retrained as a teacher at the age of 50 after a long career in business - love working as a supply teacher, but no intention of taking on a fulltime role, as the expectations are ridiculous. The PGCE course was completely useless - probably because it was at a chaotic university - I'm sure others are better. When I questioned the rationale for some of the stuff we did, I was patronisingly told ' Ah, yes, but you aren't 22..' In other words -okay for 22 years old who know no better - they just put up with the nonsense, so that' okay then ...
Supply means all the fun stimulations stuff - in the classroom all day with teenager, without the pointless hoops to jump through to gain evidence for Ofsted.

It's the older teachers who struggle to deal with the monitoring and changing expectations etc because it's a change for them (which happens in all jobs and you get older, if you've been doing the same job for a long time). The newer teachers don't know any different and accept it as part of the role.

I imagine that the newer teachers are also much younger and don't have as many responsibilities outside of school, like young children or ageing parents.

When I started teaching, I could spend all evening and weekend doing teaching stuff, preparing for observations etc. Now I've got a young family, I can't. Nothing to do with not being used to it.

Older teachers tend to question the pointlessness of quite a lot of the new, shiny bandwagons as well; either out loud or more often in their heads.
We've seen so many things come in with trumpets and 76 trombones that then fade out either because they were crap or because the funding runs out or because although they were a good idea, there's another new shiny thing on its way and therefore no time for familiarising and embedding.

Ah yes, once bitten by Brain Gym, twice shy.