Authors join campaign to reduce teachers' workload

[rollonthesummer]

I've just seen this on the TES

Nice to read really. A fairly objective view from non-teachers of what it's like in teaching now and what impact the workload is having.

What was the outcome of the workload survey...!?

It is nice to read, would be surprised if anything comes of it though.

Teachers seem to be expecting some external influence to come along and reduce their workload - but not prepared to stand up themselves to SLTs and tell 'em - 'enough, already'.

What would happen if they did stand up to SLT though? They'd be on capability before their feet hit the ground.

Funnily enough we did stand up to SLT in our school. The school have just told the union rep who co ordinated the effort that her subject is being discontinued. Funny that.

MrsUltra

Teachers have been campaigning for years about workload.

But no-one else is going to do it for them. So 'campaigning' is a waste of time. They can stand up and be counted, or just roll over. While they are still prepared to do the job, nothing will change.
It's like they think the cavalry will come riding over the hill to rescue them.
OK, parents might tut-tut and show sympathy, but actually people have their own preoccupations, and will just move their own DC elsewhere, if they can.
So if teachers aren't prepared to make a stand and put heir jobs on the line - no-one else will/can/want to do it for them.

The more people that they understand and support the teachers position on this and lobby/campaign against the myths that are out there about teachers and teaching the more chance there is of any campaign succeeding.

They can't stand up for themselves because they are reliant on a reference from their headteacher.

So if teachers aren't prepared to make a stand and put heir jobs on the line - no-one else will/can/want to do it for them.

So, I tell my HT and put my job on the line-not only do I not have a job, but I also don't have a reference. I will then lose my home as the mortgage can't be paid. That's not something most people can risk, is it?

Which is why no-one does it now (luckily for us the Tolpuddle Martyrs did), which is why things will not improve.

MrsUltra you're quite open about the fact you've only ever done supply and you've never had a permanent class teacher job so its all well and good saying teachers have to stand up to slt but in reality it is much harder. There are lots of things I know I shouldn't be doing but it is so hard being the one to fight it.

MrsUltra

What are you doing to stand against this?

I suspect that as supply you just don't go back to the schools that you don't like, but you make a lot of noise about what teachers should be doing to battle for what are effectively your rights.

Mrs Ultra it sounds like you are in an excellent position to fight our cause!

I think that the general public is still fairly blind to the reality of the current teaching situation. Everyone in secondary schools knows that there's a severe shortage of maths/physics teachers, but how many parents know that their kid is being taught by an unqualified teacher/teacher hired from abroad who will be gone in a year/a mishmash of supply/a PE teacher who had space on their timetable? Schools are losing teachers by the bucketload. But schools aren't communicating teacher shortage/staff turnover to parents because they need parents to have confidence in their ability to deliver the curriculum. Bums on seats = money. So parents think everything is fine when it isn't.

At the same time we've got the government peddling lies to the public. Nick Gibb banging on about how there isn't a teacher recruitment crisis. The new job ad for teachers suggests that there's a slight worry about getting people into teaching (who recognised the job being depicted?), but also an advert telling the public that teachers can make up to £65k(!) is just going to make the public wonder what on earth teachers are complaining about.

The recent thread on AIBU about why teachers were quitting seemed to be a bit of an eye-opener for some posters. On another thread about residentials, parents were still unaware that teachers weren't paid extra for running them. I expect parents also don't realise how many after-school revision sessions, and the latest trend for holiday revision sessions are totally unpaid.

If we want more people onside, we need more honesty about how things are. But then there is a tendency to label this as whinging, and the publicity campaign to paint teachers as workshy whingers has been exceptionally successful. I don't see the same sort of rhetoric around nurses.

I agree re nurses. You don't tend to read things in the papers or hear on the news about lazy nurses but there is an assumption that teachers are workshy.

That's because of the holidays. Sure teachers might work hard in term time, but so do lots of people and they don't have tonnes of holiday. Stop whinging, teachers, try living in the real world.

The holidays are awesome, and a big reason for me to stay in teaching is because I don't have to worry about holiday childcare and can spend time with my kids. But teachers are still quitting in ever-increasing numbers despite the holidays.

The holidays aren't enough for a lot of people any more. Things must be pretty bad for that to be the case.

Hold on, Nick Gibb says there's no problem though...???

Nick Gibb also said that teachers have never had it so good.

What a tool.

Michael Rosen has got things summed up...

link