Overworked teachers

Marydoll I am so sorry you are suffering for having been a proactive and caring teacher.

Small classes, supportive fee-paying parents, great resources, shorter terms and longer holidays........oh! how the other half lives

Well I have been lucky in my career as Teacher, Headteacher ..... lovely schools, colleagues, parents and children. I am a bit of a dictator, but a kind one, and adopt the attitude that we just need to get on and do what's required, no moaning. I think the whole team has a duty to make it work for everyone, but there are ways of allowing everyone to feel valued and fulfilled.
BUT, and this is the reason, I work in the independent sector.

My niece is an NQT. She started late in taking on teachng and is 38 years old, so is mature and confident.

Her mum was a career special needs teacher in an inner city school which helps my niece a lot. She is with the 5-6 year olds. (Year 1?)

This school is almost into special measures. Most of the children are from deprived backgrounds. There are autistic children who are being mainstreamed that really should be assessed, but the backlog for that is beyond belief, so she just has to cope.

She has one in her class, the others are spread out in the other years. There are no one-on-one assistants available. NO MONEY. She also has one child is not toilet trained. You don't want to hear what the rest of the kids are like. And she is commended for having the most well-behaved class. The noise level is horrendous, she says, so she is on her feet constantly trying to keep them engaged so they can learn. I have spent hundreds of pounds on her at Christmas and Birthdays buying teaching aids/props/art supplies because there is NO MONEY.

She wants to finish this year...and actually likes working with these kinds of children, if only there was some help or funds for the normal things. She has to share a classroom assistant who is useless. She was a classroom assistant herself before finishing her training and the teachers all were so upset when she got to have a class of her own as they lost the only person who could get the kids to behave or learn anything.

I don't know why the education system is so broken... maybe it's OK in most schools, but not in the inner city ones.

Blimey! I almost forgot the actual dealing with those kinds of children Mary and the stress of trying to teach 4C on. Friday afternoon (.or on any afternoon!!)

I recently had retire from teaching on ill health grounds. I was physically burnt out due to my excessive workload and a number of medical conditions, which I had previously successfully managed, flared up. On top of my already very heavy workload, I was covering the remits of two other teachers, who had been seconded to other schools, due to staffing problems. Working till after midnight most nights, trying to cover paperwork, as I spent most of my day dealing with behaviour and children who had social and emotional difficulties was the norm. I was promised that it would only be for 3 weeks, till the situation was resolved. Six months later I was still doing it, as "No one else was experienced enough to manage these children." said the HT. The school I worked in was in an area of great deprivation. On going for a routine hospital appointment, my consultant would not allow me to return to school, indefinitely.
As for long teachers' holidays, I spent most of mine in school, installing new ICT equipment, whilst the school was empty and preparing lesson programmes, ready to to be given to staff on in-services days. I loved teaching, just couldn't find time to teach! It is not the job I signed up for and it nearly finished me off.

I don't think anyone who hasn't taught can understand the demands of the job. i taught in primary schools for many, many years and then went into the LEA Advisory Service. There I had to give up my school holidays and make do with the same annual paid leave as most outside of teaching have.

Despite this, the stresses and workload was nothing compared to the classroom. NOT A JOT!

Firstly as a teacher I was working most evenings for at least two hours marking, assessing, planning and preparing. No time was allocated within the school day to do the paperwork required to do the job properly. Teachers don't just walk into a classroom without having spent hours preparing lessons and writing up lesson notes, each lesson being planned so work is differentiated so all children can access some parts of the concept being taught, from the basic to the advanced depending on the ability of the child, and work being marked from previous lessons ready to be returned and built upon. Ditto most of Sunday. Secondly, holidays; granted were longer but even so I'd be going into school most of the 'last week' to get everything ready. If I'd added up my annual working hours.......

And IMO things have got much worse since I left almost 20 years ago, especially in the secondary sector. Teachers are leaving the profession in droves, going off with stress-related illnesses or just marking time until retirement. I'm speaking here from the point of view of a mother with 'children', nieces, nephews and others in the teaching profession and others outside of education. The only thing that comes close is colleagues in the NHS struggling to carry on in appalling conditions.

Education and health are two of our most important and undervalued public services being driven into chaos and showing signs of imminent collapse

Luckygirl. Too right. In the earlier days we had a life as well as getting on with, and enjoying, our teaching. Around 2000 I asked a rather down young teacher whether she was doing anything nice that evening. She looked at me with something near contempt and said 'On a SCHOOL night?'
Oh dear!

or

I do not think comparisons are helpful - a stressful job is a stressful job whatever it is.

Teaching is a very very high stress occupation. I am a primary school governor and regularly receive emails from staff sent at 2 in the morning.

Unless you have actually seen the process that teaching has become, you can have no concept of the nonsensical data crunching and policy drafting that has taken over from real teaching. The job has become much more burdensome, but the difference is that the burdens in no way move forward the quality of teaching.

Anyone who seriously thinks it is a cushy number because of the holidays is living in a dreamworld! Without the long holidays the staff would all be off sick with stress; and posters above who are in the know have explained how little of those holidays are about resting of having a jolly time. But there are those who refuse to believe this - I cannot imagine why.

I would never be a pre-16 teacher now. Back in the day, when I first qualified, teaching was, I think, a genuinely satisfying career with prospects. Now? No. I don't think so. I've worked as a supply teacher and that was awful too.

As a FE/HE lecturer the hours were worse (60 plus hours, including weekends and evenings) and the pressures practically finished me off. Had I not had dd, and given up, I think I would have become ill.

Sorry about the grammar...I'm a bit doped up today and it's affecting my typing and thought processes.

Did anyone read the posts regarding what teachers do in the holidays? The holidays are for the children not for the teachers. I didn't sit on my bum for 13 weeks a year. I planned, assessed, sorted out things in the school (one year I cleaned after the builders had been in, data handling, predicted and set targets, studied to maintain and update my subject knowledge, wrote reports, wrote and revised school policies for the subjects I was responsible for (and no I didn't get any extra money for subject responsibility)and a host of other things. Yes I could work from home for most of the holidays which was nice a nice change from being in school by 7.30 and leaving between 5 and 6 getting home and starting again after my evening meal.

I agree that some people in business work incredibly long hours too but they don't spend their working lives being undermined by the government, the media and sadly a lot of the general population. Neither do they spend ages jumping through hoops to keep OFSTED happy then find that when they succeed the goal posts are moved and they have to start all over again.

If I had a sales job then I would expect to sell. If I'd gone into investment banking I would expect to work in investments. I went into teaching foolishly thinking it was about education. Sadly it is far more about working through a paper tree and much less about the children. We no longer educate to help a child achieve the best results they can by giving them a solid all round education to help them be successful and productive adults. We spoon feed the information they'll need to pass the exams that we will be penalised for if they don't pass. The success of the education system is not measured by the way children are helped to develop the skills and knowledge they'll need for the adult world but by how many exam passes they can achieve.

I wish I'd left before it finished me off.

Problem with all jobs is we have no idea what they're like unless we try them. The pleasure of teaching is, I would imagine, far greater than the pleasure of being a prison officer. However, the hours are incredible and the unrealistic targets, e.g. Providing lessons tailored to each child's individual needs don't help. I taught full time from 1971 until about 3 years ago when I semi retired. Planning with differentiation for the different ability needs, creating and collecting resources including ICT resources, marking, formative assessment, recording, adjusting planning to deal with outcomes of formative assessment, dealing with children with behavioural issues, dealing with anxious and occasionally rude or violent parents, after school meetings and out of hours training sessions to learn skills for new subjects which suddenly arrive on the curriculum, being expected to run unpaid after school clubs, (there is no overtime payment in education), keeping up with initiatives which come and go all added to the fun. Oh and the expectation of some school governors that if you weren't already familiar with the computing or the modern foreign language you were expected to teach, you should "go to night school and learn!" I would not have chosen any other job despite this BUT one of the perks of only working 3 afternoons is that I can refuse to teach classes where children's behaviour is unacceptable, I can choose which subjects I teach and I only have to spend a day and a half on planning, marking, assessing etc. I see concerned parents but rude or violent ones get siphoned directly to the Head by the secretary.?

Oh this thread could run and run!
DD1 gave up a lucrative career in Recruitment Consultancy after DGS1was born where she did 4 days a week after returning from maternity leave. She retrained as a Secondary Maths teacher as she hoped to have a "family friendly" job where at least she would share her children's school holidays and be home by bath time. She is at school before 8 each morning, having left home at 7.20 and what with meetings, standardisation sessions etc after school every day leaves around 5 to be home by bathtime. A daily nanny looks after 2year-old DGD on working days (3 a week) and takes the boys to and from school, including any after school activities. Ev nines are of course given over to planning and marking.
Why single out primary teachers? Not criticising them of course, but DD on her "free" days has detailed lesson plans to write along with a toddler to look after, marking to do including several regularly sets of mocks and/coursework reports to write, parents evening are compulsory and this year happen to all be scheduled for one of her non working days so she has to arrange childcare from 3 till after 8 do that she can be there.
A secondary teacher since the 70's I can honestly say that her workload exceeds mine at most points in my career even when I was running a department of 9.
I blame targets, league tables, lesson planning which seems to involve reinventing the wheel, constantly changing syllabuses and frequently "jobsworthy "management.
Lke workers in the NHS, teachers have to deal with some very disturbed young people, violence in the classroom, stroppy teenagers (!) and often violent parents. They have to keep calm., never resort to shouting, obviously no physical contact and sadly these days, sometimes malicious fabricated accusations which can destroy a life as well as a career.
Again like NHS workers I can remember how depressing it was to wake up to very day to be denigrated by the media, blamed for things which were often the responsibility of parents. It sapped your soul!
Despite everything I worked to 2 years beyond retirement age because the time in the classroom was fulfilling, rewarding, stimulating and I took a pride in my students' results. So briefly, it's not just primary teachers and it is not just young teachers!

That has been happening to me with every post I write for a couple of days, and to other people.

well that was odd. When I typed, got an unwanted indent, then when I posted it disappeared...most sinister.

Teachers are like many others in the public service; used, abused, over worked and under appreciated. This applies to medical professionals, prison officers, police etc etc. The government relies on and abuses the dedication and professionalism of people.

OOH INDENT ALERT!

*'we'll take' - no eating involved!!

Missedeke. I just saw your post - I taught reception for several years before schools had more than one or two classroom assistants and never had a pupil in a nappy. We always kept spare underwear and cleaned up children who had toilet accidents as a matter of course.

I'm surprised that any normal 4 year old is not toilet trained. The proprietor of a local dance school, asked whether there is a minimum age, says cheerily to parents of prospective pupils 'well ate them from 2 as long as they are out of nappies.

I did 37 years in the profession and watched as data became more important than teaching - data, largely to make politicians look good. Data that has very little to do with children. I worked long hours too but largely enjoyed it to be fair. I also worked during the holidays I probably ended up with the same holiday as most people. I would not recommend the profession now or that my son living abroad with three kids returns to our system. It won't be long now before kids are sent home due to the funding crisis. With a bit of luck, education may get on the political agenda instead of BREXIT. Then we can ask why Grammar schools are being promoted when there is zero evidence that they work other than state private schools for the well off.

Have to say I agree withKim19

I'm sure teachers work very hard but many seem to think that other professions have it easy.

I have two DDs that work in the private section and they work long hours , often leaving home at 5 a.m and not returning home until 8-9 p.m.and take work home with them. They have around 4 to 5 weeks holiday and are often take 'phone calls and deal with e-mails whilst away on holiday as did my DH. Add to this the fact that they often have to work some w/ends and travel regularly.

I started teaching a class of 40 in an inner city area in 1960 and
enjoyed my work for almost 50 years. What gradually caused me to retire was the constant contradictory government interference, box ticking, ludicrous paperwork and over reliance upon technology. There was also increasing pressure from senior staff more interested in their own careers than the education and wellbeing of their pupils.

I was speaking to a reception class teacher recently, she says the worst part of her job is how many of the children are not toilet trained, she has a supply of clean clothes, she cleans up the kids who have had accidents and changes nappies frequently. How she has time to actually teach I don't know!!

How anyone could complain about a job that gives 13+ weeks holidays per year is beyond me.