Trainee quitting without notice

[Flatbred]

I've just checked my work emails as I'm mentoring our trainee and he usually emails me his first plans for the week on Sunday afternoons.

Today I've got an email saying he won't be in from tomorrow, after his formal obs on Friday! He says he didn't take any of the books home with him (I had asked him to, to mark them), so he must have had this in mind but not mentioned it to me.

Obviously we as a school are responsible for the students' learning, and there might be other issues behind this than one bad experience, but I'm struggling to know what to reply, as it seems rude to leave with immediate effect.

To stop marking books and doing planning, then announce over the weekend that all this will need to be picked up seems really unprofessional, but I guess if you quit a PGCE, you don't have to be professional anymore.

I know for a fact if I email the teacher whose lesson he should have been teaching tomorrow, she'll likely only pick it up about 20 minutes before the lesson is due to take place!

Is this something that happens regularly and I'm just expecting too much? Is a trainee just allowed to state that their last day of attendance was last week?

He clearly didn’t feel able to discuss his worries with his mentor - you. You don’t sound as though you care in the slightest about him. I had a mentor who seemed to think his main role was treat me like a 6th former, ‘catch me out’ and prove that I was useless. Nearly broke me. It was only the support of other teachers in the school & stubbornness that got me through. I think you should reflect on your role in this.

I’m in my fourth year of teaching and I could wing a lesson to meet an objective. No it probably wouldn’t be an outstanding lesson but it would be good enough for the children to learn. I’d obviously rather have planned but I could if I needed to.

I dropped out of my PGCE. Sent an email to my mentor saying I wasn’t coming back; and walked straight into my tutors office at uni to quit. Why on earth would I work any sort of “notice”? As PO said, my mental health was so poor that I really shouldn’t have been within 3 miles of a classroom.

Students aren’t there to fill a vacancy, they’re there to be supported and to develop. You have no idea what’s going on in the students life to have made this massive decision. For me it was a combination of serious personal issues going on, along with a shit tutor and a crappy mentor and school placement.

Maybe you should think about getting in contact with the University to see if you can get any feedback to help you better support the next student.

He has at least given you warning at least ahead of Monday. Whatever his reasons it is still the class teachers responsibility to provide educational material for the lessons, they should have some back up filler lessons just in case. You have to be prepared for the unexpected in teaching. I once had a room fill up with wasps mid morning into my first day with a new class in a new school, lesson planning went out of the window, you just have to wing it sometimes.

I also wouldn’t expect that a trainee would have 100% responsibility for planning any of his lessons

This is par for the course for placement 2 onwards and in placement 1 it was a case of being told what to teach, go away and plan and have a copy ready for the teacher who then told you what was wrong with it on a Sunday night. By placement 3 it's 100% on the trainee.

Poor bloke, his hopes must have been so high 5 months ago, and now it’s all in pieces. I agree that you sound more irritated by the inconvenience than concerned about the radical step he’s taken.
I’d expect any experienced teacher to be able to walk into a class with 20 minutes notice and a LO and be able to teach, and surely the teacher knows the class? Try and develop a little empathy for a fellow human being under stress.

So he's an unpaid PGCE student and you are expecting him to 'work his notice'? How exactly would that work in practice?

He has a bad observation, gets told there's cause for concern and he decides he's not up to it and can't cope, yet you expect him to come back in on Monday morning and continue teaching, meanwhile failing the pupils and having no interest in becoming a teacher. Why would he do that?

Did you do the obs OP? Have you taken the time to reflect on your own mentoring skills? I wouldn't expect someone unpaid, who's realised that teaching is not for them, to continue.

Of course he can leave immediately, he is a student who isn't being paid to be there.

Personally, I would be trying to talk to him about his reasons for dropping out instead of worrying about a lesson for Monday.

Teaching - the job where there's always something you could have done better.

I feel sorry for him. I hate observations - they actually make my teaching worse not better and I think that's the same for a lot of people.

I wish we had more of a culture of team teaching/sharing good practice and being able to ask for advice without feeling like it's an admission of failure.

The system is rotten and the children are the ones who suffer.

I would email and see if he's alright. He's probably had a lucky escape to be honest. If he's wobbling now he would probably be one of the five years teacher. Email the other teacher too. You never know they might pick it up.

I understand that this is very irritating for you and the school, but what a shame that he's given up on his career. Is there any way you could encourage him to keep going? He may regret this course of action very soon. I'd suggest he needs some support and kindness.

Don't know how old this trainee is, but hope he wasn't allowed to go home for the weekend after the "bad" observation on Friday - with his books to mark - without someone sitting down with him and talking about next steps, support available, etc. (or a short chat to make clear that there would be a longer one next week). Hope his observation also made it clear to him what he is doing well and what progress he'd made.

Bit odd that trainee has to email lesson plans on a Sunday morning - work life balance / wellbeing?

Trainees don't need to give notice.

Presumably the impact on other staff in the department and tomorrow's lessons is the same as if someone called in sick first thing tomorrow - HoD can sort out some "cover" if there is no time for the teachers implicated to plan their own lessons.

Firstly, the teacher whose lesson he should have been teaching is getting paid to teach that lesson and will just have to get on with it. Secondly, it sounds as though the formal observation on Friday may have pushed your student over the edge that he was teetering on and this was compounded by having a pile of marking and planning to complete over the weekend. I don’t blame him for quitting. This is how life is for a lot of teachers and if he has the sense to get out now respect his decision and reflect on what you and the school could have done to encourage him to stay.

I’d agree with many other posters. There’s a lack of compassion for the trainee, and a level of expectation in terms of workload, that helps to explain the crisis in teaching recruitment and retainment.

I’ve known it happen before. I’ve worked with some who have come close to it.

I’ve also known one student trainee teacher to be escorted from the premises - but that’s another story.

Getting through a PGCE is not an easy year by any means - once you’ve got a job its easier.

If one is down after a bad observation, criticism that was take the wrong way could tip someone over the edge - especially after a heavy week.

It happens - sometimes the school’s fault, sometimes the individual wasn't suited to a career in teaching and they’ve just seen the light. Sometimes 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

You do need to call their tutor and discuss this. If nothing else the school could do with feedback.

Is it professional or not? Depends on your viewpoint, depends on if the state of mind of the trainee.

I’ve also known trainees pick up the pieces and repeat the teaching practice at another school and do fine.

The normal class teacher should have been with the trainee anyway and will know where the class is upto/what they are doing etc. ( unless your school is the sort where the normal teacher get bonus free periods and sees a trainee as a labour saving device?)

Some posters above me mentioned weekend marking...... not unusual at all. Before retirement Sunday afternoon was quite often spent with a pile of books.

It sounds as though he didn't feel supported. He's obviously very unhappy and if he decided teaching wasnt for him then there is no need to give notice he wasn't a staff member or getting paid. He was at the school to learn if he has decided that the profession isn't for him then there is no point in him staying. And it could be that he just didn't feel he could go back into the classroom. It's. A shame though.

If I were his mentor I'd be very concerned that he hadn't felt able to talk to me before taking such a drastic step.

The fact that you are more concerned with whether he has done the marking speaks volumes I think.

( unless your school is the sort where the normal teacher get bonus free periods and sees a trainee as a labour saving device?)

I wondered that, the type of school where the teacher leaves the room and then asks the TA for feedback about the quality of teaching or one of the pupils.

Bit odd that trainee has to email lesson plans on a Sunday morning - work life balance / wellbeing?

I used to have to send mine at least a week in advance, preferably two. One day in advance is amazing.

I’d email back encouraging them not to do anything rash but to come in after school and talk about it, or go and speak to their university tutor

This is par for the course for placement 2 onwards and in placement 1 it was a case of being told what to teach, go away and plan and have a copy ready for the teacher who then told you what was wrong with it on a Sunday night. By placement 3 it's 100% on the trainee.

Really? This wasn’t the case on my teacher training (admittedly over a decade ago now) - by the final placement I had responsibility for planning and teaching 80% of the lessons each week but I had a medium term plan and the individual lesson plans were at least discussed with my mentor to ensure that I was on the right track. What’s the point of a mentor if they are just leaving you to it and not giving any constructive advice or helping ensure the trainee is approaching things in the right way?

If PGCE students are genuinely just left to get on with it with no help or support around lesson planning and no real expectation of input from their mentors then no wonder so many are dropping out with stress! How can you learn to be a good teacher without anybody to learn from and to advise you!?

I did this too. Decided teaching wasn’t for me took my personal books and mug from the school on Friday and went to my tutor at the uni on Monday morning and said I wasn’t going back. She said she would inform the school and I never heard from the school again.

At least he has emailed you today. It’s not ideal but maybe he had only just decided to leave the course after a weekend of weighing it up.

We have 3rd year students. Staff are saying that the quality is getting worse, that they are not as well prepared as they used to be. Does anyone else feel that?

What’s the point of a mentor if they are just leaving you to it and not giving any constructive advice or helping ensure the trainee is approaching things in the right way?

They get that after the lesson has been taught.

Actually, now I think about it, I would probably respond by suggesting he come in just to talk, no teaching, and have a proper conversation about how you can support him to finish the placement. I hope that's what the ITT coordinator does, in fact.