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The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

Teacher shortages: no shit, Sherlock

55 replies

echt · 11/10/2015 08:50

www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/10/teacher-shortfall-schools-overseas-recruits

Are we surprised?

OP posts:
pieceofpurplesky · 21/10/2015 23:31

Bicycle I love teaching and like most others make sure the pupils get the best out of it. I have been teaching nearly 20 years and it is currently the most ridiculously stressful it has ever been. Teachers are professional and bust their guts to ensure pupils succeed so I wouldn't worry.

bicyclebell · 21/10/2015 23:45

Ok. Thank you. I just know that my daughter's teacher is not enjoying it this year. She is new to teaching and seems like she's really struggling to me.

That is why I was reading these threads to see what its like for the teacher - because my daughter is not doing so well at school at the moment. I need to stop myself from being overly critical of the teacher though.

I do often wonder whether it would be better to take my daughter out altogether and just home school - especially when I read all the stress you're all under ...

NotQuiteThere · 22/10/2015 09:51

Just wanted to share this article which popped up on TES earlier this week.

I am enjoying my NQT year, although it is stressful and I am not getting enough sleep. The difference for me, compared with one of the placements I did on my PGCE, is that senior management support is rock solid at the school where I am teaching. When I was left to flounder (my department were great but the head didn't even acknowledge my question as to what would be done when I was continuously hounded and harrassed by some of the students). Knowing that your boss, and his boss, has your back makes a massive difference. I cried a lot on my teaching placement, out of frustration, upset at some of the treatment I received, lack of sleep, workload.

In my current school, parents have, on the whole, been largely supportive as well. It makes such a difference.

NotQuiteThere · 22/10/2015 09:52

I have forgotten to write half of my paragraph Grin.

Just comparing my previous placement with my current placement, and the things that make the biggest difference.

nearmiss · 01/11/2015 11:20

OK. If you are with an agency and you don't like what they are doing, such as paying you as a cover supervisor when you are in fact planning and marking - you should contact their head office. They probably have company policies which are compliant with such legislation as exists concerning the conduct of recruitment and employment agencies and agency workers' rights. If a school has told the agency that they want a cover supervisor for a day, they will be charged a much lower rate. However they must then expect you only to deliver a prepared lesson, no marking, no other duties and coat on, straight out of the door at 3.30. The same criteria apply then if the booking continues. A cover supervisor is only required to cover the same absent teacher for four consecutive days. If the agency fails to spot that the same booking has been renewed beyond that on the same basis, they need to act, as clearly the school is misrepresenting themselves and are causing the agency to collude in a false job description. A practice which the REC frowns upon. Increasingly, in view of the number of teachers walking off, bookings are for medium and long-term cover, this means doing the full job. It stands to reason that if you are planning, marking, preparing GCSE or SATs materials, going to meetings, dealing with discipline, contacting parents et al. you should be allowed PPA and you should request a daily pay rate that reflects the increase in responsibilities. This is not cover supervision.

Agency pay rates are entirely negotiable, so negotiate.
You're doing the work, not the consultant.
Agencies often don't know what is going on at branch level. You need to let the CEO know that there is non-compliant practice in their company. Name names. Blow the whistle.

Unfortunately most of the consultants are paid OTE, so they are desperate to make deals, which is why the less scrupulous ones resort to anything to place teachers in schools. All you have to do is say no if the pay is so low that it's not worth your while trekking around for a day or half a day's work in a dodgy school, miles from where you live, paid for less pro rata than you'd get cleaning the loos. (No disrespect to cleaners)

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