Do fee paying parents think there are no limits..

[darknessontheedgeoftown]

..to how much stress they can put teachers under? Have just spoken to yet another example colleague from a private school in an area of London full of high earning parents with massive equity and frankly spoiled and unpleasant children. I do wonder whether the parents know the pernicious effect they are having on teachers constantly expecting the earth and constantly fault finding. I myself left this destructive life behind as I couldn't face another 20 years of the stress and unpleasantness of the job. Admittedly SMT are gravely at fault for not protecting staff either but parents also need reining in.

I'm sorry but there is a record of teachers especially those who go beyond 60 which will now be the norm, having reduced life expectancy. The teachers pension scheme has now been reformed and is based on career average not on final salary so what you have said is not correct. Even with the portion of it on the old scheme for existing teachers, while it guarantees a stated income it is only worth in cash terms what you get out of it which is the years you livery multiplied by the annual income. The 29 times valuation multiple sometimes quoted which leads to some teachers having pension pots quoted as being worth a million is utterly misleading as it is based on what are historically very low bond and therefore annuity yields. If the working conditions really are so outstanding how come there is a recruitment crisis, the government has to offer inducements such as cash payments for PGCEs and such a large percentage of teachers quit within a short time of qualifying? Not to mention the physical and mental health problems rife in those still in it?

A friend who is an entertainer really gets around. Doing his stuff at top class homes and hotels and in hired rooms in dodgy areas. His accounts of gigs are illuminating. People who appear entitled according to the media can be welcoming and appreciative, people who get him to scruffy pubs can be the same and, of course, vice versa.
I taught for many years in state schools, grandchild was sent to a good, expensive prep school. What I was unprepared for was the tremendously caring ethos of the school. Of course having the pupils in forms numbering nearer 20 than 30 facilitates this as does having smaller numbers in the school itself.

Darkness - my teacher's pension is not good but my life expectancy seems ok. I taught, out of choice, well after 60.
Physical and mental problems seem to increase in many professions and, saddest of all, in younger and younger people these days.

OP, The recruitment crisis is due to teachers quitting early in their careers. It has nothing to do with pensions.

I myself quit teaching within 2 years, but as a qualified teacher was able to reenter the profession eight years later.

I really did not like teaching in my initial experience but love it now that I am in the independent sector.

This thread is very muddled.

Op, when you say uou left teaching, did you jump or were you pushed?

I'm not sure it did save your sanity, the sheer amount of bile and bitterness you are spewing about people you perceive as wealthy leads me to think possibly you were working at a private school and not performing? And perceive the wealthy parents as being responsible for the demise of your career?

Something is not right, arseholes exist in all walks of society and it's not specific to one group, young, old, rich, poor, black white, male, female, gay or straight etc etc so something is causing your all consuming bile and bitterness to wealthy people.

OP - being a teacher atm is shit. No doubt about it. But being a private school teacher makes it considerably better in my experience, not worse.

larrygrylls

Why would you compare teachers only to bankers and underground drivers? Why aren't you comparing against the myriad of other "professional" occupations all over the country that pay comparably to teachers?

I saw some figures the other week showing the "bog standard" accountant or solicitor outside London earns in the region of £40k full time. Why didn't you quote that kind of comparison?

There will be thousands of "professionals" who are also paid less than city bankers and underground drivers!

Yeah well the myriad parents who complain about teachers should bloody well go and try being one then. As should the private sector workers who claim that teachers' lives are so easy. You're welcome to it. Roll up.

There's a massive shortage. They'd welcome you with open arms. Go for it.

£40K isn't that much.

Nor is it what the majority of teachers earn... many never earn over £29K (the average top of the average teachers band out here in NotLondon)

Very very many teachers die within a relatively short time of collecting their pension so the fact it is defined benefit is irrelevant, if they say get 36 months of pension of 1500 per month they get back £54k which is probably less than they contributed

Do you suggest that teaching is so arduous that it leads to premature death?

Hmm teachers' lives. DBIL whinged for 20 years and resigned and set up a small business. Spent four years working harder, longer hours, no holidays because he couldn't shut the business because fallow periods meant less for business rent/rates etc. He shut shop last year. Guess what he's back doing??? Said if all but gosh the moaning we all had to listen to.

MuseumOfCurry

the last figures I saw, pointed towards the death of teachers at two to three years after leaving leaving the profession.

It was the touted as the main reason for the teachers' pension scheme being in the black.

All I ever found was actuaries discussing that as a fallacy!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18952037

www.quora.com/Which-professions-have-the-longest-life-expectancy-Which-ones-have-the-shortest

that is two articles about the same report.

Although I don't argue the figures,.

Sorry Boney, I seem to have read the first, gone to find one with more of the source material and posted both, instead of one and the source!

Sloppy of me, sorry

This isn't true. My DCs go to private with UHNW folks and frankly they really aren't that bothered about the technicalities of their children's education. They take them out of school all the time to travel and aren't too bothered about hot housing or whatever - why should they, their children will never have to work a day in their lives.

Another characterisation I don't recognise. UHNW people almost universally would like to see their children land at Westminster/Eton or similar. The fact that their children don't need to worry about money doesn't mean they aspire for them to never work a day in their life, but rather that they can pursue art history (for example).

Most remain rather swayed by the cachet of a superior education.

I agree with curry - my DS is at school with UHNW kids. One family insists that their children are tutored every day during the holidays with only Christmas Day as a holiday. I've heard the father in the phone to his employees. Scary.

Another family: DS was a friend of the son who then went off to a prep school to conveyor belt him into Eton. I met the mum for coffee recently who said that at the new school, the parents & kids were very competitive. She's married into a foreign royal family and they have squillions. Yet even she finds it competitive. Poor teachers, say I.

the last figures I saw, pointed towards the death of teachers at two to three years after leaving leaving the profession.

It was the touted as the main reason for the teachers' pension scheme being in the black.

I think teaching is an important and demanding job, but my eyes roll just a little bit at this one.

curry

that was why I used the word "touted"