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?

Anyone read Jan Moir in The Daily Mail?(Sorry yes I bought and read this paper!). The woman should be forced to plan and teach for 6 months, so much commentary across the media that comes from people with no clue what they are talking about. When will teachers genuinely be heard?

What does Jan Moir have to say?

I can't see a Jan Moir article

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?

That was my first thought, as I know a good few people who openly admit to applying for a PGCE as they "weren't sure what to do after uni."

Although of course that doesn't mean they won't necessarily enjoy it or be brilliant at it.

The job does seem to have changed massively though and I agree with the OP that it's irreversible.

Apparently teachers have no desire to work hard anymore, especially if it involves a hint of personal sacrifice. She says " Some jobs need application.Life can be tedious and hard work.And it's not all about you." Breathtaking really...
It's on page 37 of today's Maildown the bottom under sub-heading
Bored? Get over it
Apologies for typos....

Jan Moir

You would think so *Thetroublewithangels" but within the past 6 years or so I have seen a growing number of PGCE students who are just not suited to teaching or tbh don't even intend to teach. A local college allow students units towards an MA through doing a funded PGCE so number do the PGCE with no intention of ever teaching. Quite a few of these drop out as they figure it would be easier to work to pay for their MA.

Yes, in the past few years the workload has increased so much.

I have been a teacher for 25 years. I only work part time and I feel burnt out - I want to leave.

I meant more that they hadn't planned on it for very long, maybe in the last year of uni "what next" type thing rather than the other people I know who really wanted to teach and chose A levels and core subject degree with their PGCE in mind. IYSWIM.

Mitzi, what I mean is that loving your profession is a really helpful starting point. Perhaps it is not absolutely necessary, I'm sure it's still possible to do the job, but I do think teachers whose teaching is animated by their innate love and enjoyment of what they do usually stand out. And of course we can't be all jazz hands about everything all the time but a useful starting point, yes.

My husband teaches so believe me I do have sympathy, but on the other hand, I remember being taught in the 80s by a variety of people who had no business being near education but remained drifting in it for years no doubt because it was cushy for them. From memory...the English/drama teacher who used to come back from the pub every lunchtime and be incoherent all afternoon, the physics teacher who was blatantly killing time until his pension and had no interest - i never knew until leaving school that physics was actually fascinating, the maths teacher who was inaudible and insipid, the PE teacher who openly sneered at the unsporty kids, the geography teacher who used to start every single lesson with "open your text books at page..." and tell us what bits to read and what questions to answer. Yes admittedly I went to an inner city comp in the 80s but part of me is very thankful that teachers like I suffered must be very rare these days? If good teachers are feeling pressure then surely the likes of the ones I had must be obsolete by now?

Maybe things have swung too far? But i certainly don't think there was a halcyon age of teaching where the sector was full of brilliant teachers who were just allowed to teach. I genuinely think I'd struggle trying to split my teachers 50/50 in terms of good and disgrace to the profession. I was in a year group of 180. Less then 10 of us got 5+ GCSES a-c. Less than 10 people got maths grade c+ - it quite simply can't have been that 170 kids weren't capable. A large proportion of them were let down. A school with results like that wouldn't be in operation now.

This isn't intended to be offensive to anyone on this thread but I do think there is a danger in thinking things used to be better.

Youlllikeit you are missing the point. Standards weren't better but at what cost should they be improved. It has swung so far that 75% of my time (not in the classroom) is spent doing things I know will NOT benefit pupils at all. The school I work in has seen all 8 members of the English department resign last term. Is that what you want for your children?

No and I don't know what the answer is. But I am relieved that the kind of teaching/teachers I was subjected to must be rare these days. But as you say, at what cost?

I don't know what the answer is - my husband teaches so I know the hours that are put in to satisfy the latest tick box exercise.

Exactly Penelope - a local primary school has had 4 teachers leave or forced out mid year. They have been unable to replace them so the children have apparently been taught by a succession of supply teachers or TAs. Great for supply teachers, but not so great for the children and for standards in general. Much of the supply work around here is covering classes where teachers have left suddenly or are off sick with stress.

Peaceful many of the teachers I know who have left full time teaching love teaching, love being with the children and love making a difference. However, a 60 hour week (which is what teachers in some primary schools need to do to cover all the additional expectations re: planning, preparation, marking and assessment, displays), is not compatible with having a work/life balance. In local schools jobs that used to be carried out by TAs have been returned to teachers so photocopying, filing, displays have to be done by the teacher after school on top of everything else.

The other major problem is the quality of many heads and deputy heads who often have extremely, poor management skills and in some cases very poor understanding of the pedagogy. They jump on the latest bandwagon without finding out if it is based on solid and reliable research - everyone is made to jump through the latest hoop and then it slowly fizzles out when it is clear that it is not working only to be replaced by something equally fatuous. After a while (maybe its the 4 year mark when most of the young teachers leave) even the most idealistic teacher will realise that a lot of what we are being asked to implement is time consuming and pointless bullshit.

Mitzi, our careers look remarkably similar. I too have taken a big step back since having kids, and I am now back doing part time class teaching. Like you, I used put in ridiculous hours, and feel indignation, frustration and dread in equal measure at a system (exacerbated by a LA under immense pressure) which demanded that I spend my time doing exactly the pointless crap you refer to. Had I not come from a place of fundamentally adoring my job I couldn't have sustained it (actually, I escaped by having babies; I put off having a family for years, always looking for a time when the workload might ease off... until our SIO told me to just get on with it ). But that's my point, to refer back to the OP, I'm suggesting that it is easier to walk out of a profession that is making unreasonable demands of you if you are not heavily emotionally invested in it.

link

Depressing reading :(

Rollon - it does sound over the top, and the unedited Obama thing 'President' instead of POUS is mindless, however, I disagree with some of the points. The equipment thing would be great - after a few weeks there would be no more timewasting with kids who haven't got a pen, borrowing a rubber etc which takes up a lot of precious learning time in the classrooms I see. And at one of the schools I work in Saturday detentions are a real disincentive to DC to argue with teachers ( about rules and sanctions, I mean) which improves the learning experience for all DC who do not have their time wasted.

Here's a thought, Arcangela - if a child hasn't got a pen, for whatever reason, why not lend them one. No reason why that should interrupt the learning at all.

It's why I travel with the baggage necessary to do that, Evil.
As a supply, not having a pencil can sometimes be a way of gameplaying used by anyone over the age of 5 to delay having to write. So I lend pencils.

I would give out pens in return for their planners. When they got their planners back there would be a note informing their tutors, parents etc that they did not have a pen. If I lent them equipment twice in a half term I would set a detention.

Teachers often kno which pupils don't have equipment for genuine reasons. As a form tutor I would buy equipment and students would keep it in school, they would face the same sanctions as everyone else if they did not take that equipment to class. Other students had a TA who would remind them at the start and end of a session to take their equipment with them