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?

noblegiraffe

I heard a figure a year or two ago which said droves of teachers are leaving in the first 4 years, so it's getting worse.

It follows my experience too. I don't know if it's two or three friends I have who qualified as teachers but they both left within a year or two with extreme stress which is still affecting their lives.

Older teachers have loads of experience. One of the buzzwords at the moment in our place is flipped learning: we did that 20 years ago but it was called preparation. So many other so-called new initiatives are the same. Older teachers are more likely to say "No" to ridiculous demands. Younger staff are easier to manipulate and bully.
God, I'm cynical.

I entered 'older' and I was quite shocked at the extreme deference to some really stupid ideas

'I entered 'older' and I was quite shocked at the extreme deference to some really stupid ideas'

That's where experience and being on supply in a range of very different schools gives you a daily giggle, and thankfulness that you are no longer toeing one specific line designated by SLT with a Vision.
There's a lot of fantastic practice out there, creative ideas and wonderful innovation. There's a lot of mindless crap people are wading through because it's decreed necessary.

I reckon it is due to many teachers now being expected to do things that should be done in the home - discipline, knowing how to use a knife and fork, time-keeping etc. Teachers should do just that...teach.

I think it is a mixture of demands on teachers increasing and a growing number of young people seeking a safe career and therefore drifting into teaching.

One of my roles was working with PGCE students and post the crash I would say that in my purely anecdotal experience the number of people drifting into teaching with no real passion and often negligible talent or suitability was increasing.

There is clearly a problem however. We do need to improve pay and conditions and reduce workload.

I am not judging people for not having a "vocation" for teaching, I went into it for selfish reasons.

And TBF, a job where you can expect to be earning £35k 5 years after qualifying

I have been teaching 17 years and have only just got onto £35k. Of course, the job is so horrific that I can only bear to do it part time though.

Nobody in my school on Main pay scale got any pay rise at all last year as the SMT fiddled the PMR data to make sure they didn't. There is no automatic progression up the pay scale any more so I can't imagine many people will be earning £35k after 5 years now-if they ever managed it before!

15 years since graduating and obtaining my first teaching post, I am burnt out. I am leaving my full time post to work part time next academic year.

It is not a career that is compatible with life! I don't want to go to work at 7am every day, 15 minutes after my children have risen from their beds, arrive home at 6:30pm, 1 hour before my children go to bed and then ask their father to take them for 6 hours on a Sunday whilst I do planning etc and THEN work 3-4 hours EVERY night ensuring up to 90 books a day are marked, with colour coding to highight spelling, grammar, punctuation errors, highlighting to show aspects of work that has impressed me and then a 'WWW' and an 'EBI' on MOST pieces of work (we're not supposed to do it for everyone but suring scrutinies we get marked down for 'not enough' EBI's yet nobody can tell us what is enough and what is too little/too much!).

I can't believe the difference in teaching and workload in just TWO years!

THEN work 3-4 hours EVERY night ensuring up to 90 books a day are marked, with colour coding to highight spelling, grammar, punctuation errors, highlighting to show aspects of work that has impressed me and then a 'WWW' and an 'EBI' on MOST pieces of work (we're not supposed to do it for everyone but suring scrutinies we get marked down for 'not enough' EBI's yet nobody can tell us what is enough and what is too little/too much!)

Yes, yes, yes-that's it exactly.

Totally nonsensical marking policies, especially when you teach 5 year olds who can't read the comments you write. SMT are dangerous in their implementation of most of the stupid ideas as well. When questioned-they'll say, 'oh, you don't have to do it on every piece of work, of course you don't' but then the book scrutiny comes (which your PMR/career develepment and pay is based on) and then it isn't enough. Nobody knows what is enough and what is too little and they always want you to do double just in case Ofsted want to see it. But it's 'all for the children'. It's totally insane.

The last 2 years is really when it's all imploded-I need to get out now. I can't sustain this any more and I'm sick of being told on here/reading online and in the papers that it's an easy life and if teachers weren't so lazy, standards would rise.

I wish I'd never trained to be a teacher.

I was talking about the programme 'Teachers' if anyone remembers it. It was on in 2001+ and the teachers mooches through school days, larked about, went to the pub every day after work...

DH and I have been teaching since 2003 and we were saying when we started, the programme wasn't so far off! I mean, it was exaggerated, we didn't pub it every night, but you could have a laugh at work, enjoy lessons, have fun at lunch and wing it sometimes...no more.

I'd love to see more current figures.

I would also be interested in finding out how many teachers were forced to leave schools on compromise agreements due to vindictive head teachers?!

Lots, judging by the comments on the Workplace Dilemmas Forum of TES.

Completely agree about the worsening conditions in the last two years.

community.tes.co.uk/tes_workplace_dilemmas/f/96/t/711784.aspx

That tes thread is so depressing to read. There must be something that can be done to stop management being so appalling?! These gagging clauses are wrong on so many levels.

The thing is, teachers might be more likely to put up with the endless paperwork, data, observations and targets if they believed these things actually benefited the kids (instead of simply using up teachers' time so that they have less time for the kids!).

It's the futility of the constant changes that makes it all so soul-destroying. It's all very well saying that younger teachers cope with it because it's all they've known. As if that's a good thing! It just means they are brainwashed into thinking all this crap is actually useful, because they haven't taught without it and don't realise that it is perfectly possible and preferable to do so!

Another ex - secondary teacher here. Have recently given it up in favour of private tutoring and adult education, thank god. Dh is a deputy head though.

A nearby HT commented that it's getting to the stage where teachers will soon need a day of PPA rather than half a day. IF it's that important for teachers to produce so much paperwork and be accountable in so many ways, then the Government needs to put its money where its mouth is and provide adequate funding so there are sufficient staff to carry out all the extra tasks they've created.

I agree, too much ice cream-there just isn't the time to do all these extra tasks. The things that would make an difference to the job though-extra PPA and smaller class sizes will never happen as they will cost too much money.

I still maintain that if we scrapped the need to obsessively scrutinise teachers-their lessons, their books, their planning, the displays, the bloody climate in their classroom etc etc-we could cull the SMT by masses which would relieve pressure all round.

We can then use the money saved to buy pencils.

Teaching the children gets in the way of all of the things I need to do in order to keep my job...

Teaching the children gets in the way of all of the things I need to do in order to keep my job

Absolutely agree!

We can then use the money saved to buy pencils.

Too true- I do supply and the amount of classes I work in where children are using broken, blunt, chewed pencils with no sharpener at hand! But they have their working walls, VCOPs, etc etc. lol!

That's because we would go on a support plan if we didn't mark in green and have a working wall. No one gives a shiny shuttlecock about pencils!

All the research shows that effective marking and feedback improves outcomes. However it also shows that over marking can have a negative effect and that it is pointless if children are unable to read/understand the comments made; this is particularly relevant when you look at some of the expectations for marking and feedback in EYFS and KS1. Lots of schools have symbols which is fine, but some schools have so many symbols that it is ridiculous and some of the symbols, in some schools, take a long time to draw (relevant when you're marking 30 pieces of work). Also for very young children unless the feedback is immediate, it is fairly pointless IMO. The most effective feedback for younger children is verbal feedback (but of course that cannot be measured unless observed). Also for reception children I sometimes feel sad when they proudly present you with their writing and you can't just say "well done", but have to cover it in highlighter and symbols and say what they could've done better.

Brian I'm sure a lot of my PGCE year hoped to end up locked in the stationery cupboard with Andrew Lincoln.

Ha ha to Andrew Lincoln-oh, yes!

I wish a piece of research would be commissioned into the effectiveness of verbal feedback. I think it is THE most effective piece of feedback but SMT just don't care. Unless it's written down in triplicate in two different stupid colours then it doesn't count towards anything.

We are, of course allowed to give verbal feedback, but we have to write everything that we said down. Eg, well done, Jim-Bob, your work was super but as discussed, all your letters must be smaller!