I am part of the Teaching Crisis. In that sentence I wrote “the Teaching Crisis” with capital letters and a definite article as though it were a well-known, named thing like the Banking Crisis in 2008 or the Abdication Crisis in 1936. It isn’t but it should be.
Since September 2013, I’ve been the deputy head of a large primary school in inner London. The head teacher I work with is fantastic. We have a committed, talented team of staff and governors and the young people I teach are always entertaining. The pay is pretty good. I’m currently undertaking my NPQH (National Professional Qualification in Headship) so I’ll soon be ready to apply for the top job at a school of my own. But I’m not going to. In July I’m walking away from the profession that has been my life for more than twelve years and I genuinely don’t know if I’m ever coming back. I’m not alone.
This is the story of the Teaching Crisis.
I’m wandering off into the sunset after twelve years.
In 2003, during my third year at university in Sheffield, I started volunteering in a local primary school. After three years studying philosophy, as theoretical and abstract a discipline as you can imagine, there was a real thrill to feeling like I was doing something “real”- helping little people to read, write and do maths. Realising that I could inspire and motivate the pupils I was working with was really exciting and I decided that I wanted to be a teacher.
Even then, the primary education system imagined by Blair’s government was full of frustrations- primary schools were just stumbling out of the tyranny of the “literacy hour” in which all English lessons were taught (and inspected) according to a centrally-dictated timescale presented as a patronising diagram of a clock. The effectiveness of schools was judged largely on the contents of huge ring-binders full of arbitrary targets and tokenistic policy statements referred to, somewhat dubiously, as “evidence.” Worst of all, for me, lesson plans were tortuously shoe-horned into detailed, prescriptive Microsoft Word tables which required almost every box to be filled with some sort of jargon, just so it looked impressive in one of the aforementioned ring-binders.
Within this bureaucratic landscape, however, there was still (just about) time for the part of the job that mattered: getting to know the young people in your care, understanding what made them tick, and finding ways to reach them on an individual level. You could placate the various rampaging paperwork trolls with a couple of hours a week of judicious “copy & paste”-by producing just enough A4 sheets of edu-waffle to make them go away and let you carry on with your actual job. The KS2 assessments (what we have been incorrectly referring to as “SATs tests” since the 1990s) were constructed according to a rigorous and clearly-prescribed set of criteria and schools were held accountable for their performance in them- but this was only one part of what made a school “effective.” Back then, very few head teachers would have had to choose between their conscience and their job. For all their faults, it’s worth remembering that the cornerstone of the Blair government’s education policy was a document called “Every Child Matters.”
During the last three years of the Labour government, there was a real sense of light at the end of the tunnel. It felt as though, after more than a decade in control of primary education, they had finally come to understand it. Under the (actually quite impressive) leadership of Ed Balls, the rebranded Department for Children, School and Families started issuing edicts that actually kind of made sense. They ditched what remained of the primary national strategies which dictated how maths and English should be taught and they commissioned Sir Jim Rose to produce a comprehensive review of the primary curriculum, which suggested that traditional subject divides be replaced with broader areas of learning and stressed the importance of play, particularly for younger pupils. It promoted the development of good speaking and listening skills and the value of nurturing beneficial character traits in young people such as resilience and independence, as well as the clear focus on maths and English that already existed. The Rose Review was far from perfect but, having been authored by a former HMI director of inspections on the basis of broad consultations it set out a direction of travel which almost everyone that knew about education agreed with. Everyone, that is, apart from the new shadow secretary of state for Children, Schools and Families. And there was an election coming up. Balls out- balls up. Enter stage hard right, Mr. Michael Gove.
What’s strange is that the first two years of the Dark Lord’s attack on primary education were happy ones for me. Yes the government websites had been rebranded (the “Department for Education” now replacing the all-too cuddly-sounding DCSF) but the school I was working at during that era was led by a brave, inspiring head teacher with his own sense of what he wanted to do, regardless of the noises coming out of Whitehall. We rode out what one colleague of mine from the time once referred to as the “phoney war” in relative peace and quiet. We scaled back the bureaucratic burden (goodbye to detailed lesson plans and officious-sounding acronyms like IEPs and APP grids) and replaced it with a few simple, manageable systems for ensuring children enjoyed learning and developed confident, resilient personalities. Like anything else in education, what we were doing wasn’t perfect but I was a Year 6 teacher at the time and I have no doubt that most of the children I taught then had been much better prepared real life than those leaving primary school now.
2012 was the turning point. Ofsted’s obsessive focus on results and the threat of no-notice inspections for schools whose test scores dipped started to engender a culture of fear at every level of management. Terrified by the threat of losing their jobs in an academy takeover, head teachers began to make more and more absurd demands of their teachers’ spare time, particularly through unrealistic and unmanageable marking policies. The government stepped up their anti-teacher rhetoric in the media as they fought a series of battles with our unions over cuts to our pensions and the introduction, against all the evidence, of performance-related pay for teachers. The failure of the free school and academies agenda to provide sufficient school places for four-year-olds was causing rows between communities and local authorities over school expansions and “bulge classes” (one-off additional classes in particular year groups at particular schools.) Perhaps most seriously, the constant changes to primary assessment started to squeeze out everything from the curriculum that wasn’t directly concerned with producing short-term, measurable units of an increasingly abstract notion called “progress” in reading, writing and maths.
It was in January of that year that Sir Michael Willshaw, the chief inspector of Ofsted, had made his now infamous comment that “if anyone says to you that ‘staff morale is at an all-time low’ then you know you’re doing something right.” Four years on, as he prepares to stand down as chief inspector, I suppose we can only congratulate Sir Michael on having met his own success criteria during his tenure so completely.
And now, at the tender mercy of Nicky Morgan, this tragic tale reaches its conclusion. The primary assessment system has been overhauled completely and, unless you want Ofsted to sack your head teacher and give your school (and the land it’s built on) to one of Michael Gove’s friends (or if your school is already controlled by one of Michael Gove’s friends) you have no choice but to teach to a dull, uninspiring series of tests that have precious little relevance to the twenty-first century lives our pupils are going to have to navigate.
Me dressed as a SATs paper when we still had a sense of humour about it all.
We used to be inspiring young people, opening their minds to new possibilities and giving them a lifelong love of learning. Heaven knows what this strange game we’re playing now is supposed to accomplish. Teaching was once a creative, optimistic, energising job. Not in the Gove-Morgan world of coordinating conjunctions and “formal written methods.” Got a passion for music? Primary teaching is not for you. Want to inspire children with drama? Go hug a tree, you Corbyn-loving hippie. Think children should learn about their local area? Officially that’s fine (it’s on the meaningless, untested part of the curriculum) but just make sure you link it to your grammar objectives because any child that doesn’t understand the precise grammatical role of the subjunctive mood at the age of 11 will henceforth be branded a failure. I mean, do most Tory MPs even understand the precise grammatical role of the subjunctive mood?
Trying to inspire children with drama like a tree-hugging, Corbyn-loving hippie.
At my own school, we’re still (just about) able to strike a balance between what we believe and what is imposed from above but doing this is getting harder every year. Meanwhile, it seems teachers in most other schools are monitored, examined, scrutinised and graded as though working a 55-hour-week for 32 hours’ pay is a special privilege of which they should be continually proving themselves worthy. Being a teacher should be a privilege and it was a privilege not so very long ago. But it isn’t at the moment. Not like this. Teachers want trust, respect and the right to exercise their own professional judgement. They want the system they work in to be designed by people who understand education. They want a school system run for the benefit of pupils, not politicians. Most of all they want to be listened to. Without these simple courtesies (for that is all they are- all we’re asking for) it’s just not worth it.
And no, before you ask, the holidays don’t make up for it.
Tim Paramour 
Wow! (Or should I say, ‘What a well-written, thought provoking piece!’ in order to meet the new exclamation mark guidelines, though I’m not even sure if that’s right 😉). I spent 5 years teaching before mentally imploding – people really don’t understand unless they’re part of it or a witness to it, via a loved one. So I completely understand and sympathise, although I can’t imagine the added pressures of SLT responsibilities. I hope you find some peace, come summer.
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Very much agree with all of your points. I am lucky to be able to retire which I did at Christmas, unable to take any more! I have left a job I loved after 40 years in the classroom. Awful to see the life sucked out of young colleagues especially, who are leaving in large numbers whatever the government says! I bet there are great writers all around the world who don’t know what a frontal adverbial is! All the best!
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Thank you Tim, a well written polemic on the disaster that is the Teaching Crisis, capitals essential! As someone who has been involved in educating young people for over 40 years, I am deeply depressed about the present situation. No, I am actually angry about it! Young minds deserve to be inspired and have their curiosity celebrated in a curriculum rich and relevant to their present and future lives. Instead many are getting a diet of educational “gruel”! It is no accident that the only children lucky enough to get something ressembling a rounded education are those whose parents are wealthy enough to either buy the extra drama, music and sport etc. outside the system or those who are even more wealthy and buy it in the private sector. It is no surprise that our more successful actors, writers and politicians were privately educated. This is not because private education is any better than the state could be given adequate funding and less interference but because the parents can afford to “educate” their lucky offspring in addition to the traditionally delivered outdated stuff which constitutes most private school curricula.
So good luck on your “walk into the sunset”. Let us hope that before too many years pass and we fail another few generations, someone will realise what we have done. Then you can walk back in and do the job you once loved? ……?
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Spot on. Especially the points about pay. You can pay 4x as much and you would still get the same people teaching . High salaries do not retain good quality, committed teachers . However, paying an appropriate amount, as we are now, is the right thing to do for those that have the vocation to teach. Would you employ someone to head up an organisation who has a permanently puzzled look on their face! Nicky Morgan always looks like she’s trying to remember her name, how to spell “necessary” or what 6×7=!
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Well written,
Tim. The teaching profession are going to loose yet another wonderful teacher. Is your future in politics?
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As a former primary teacher with a 4 year old granddaughter I would call this the Primary Education Crisis. Parents (and grandparents ought) to be joining forces to save our children from this tyranny before their thirst for learning is quenched forever. Anyone else up for a concerted campaign
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Yes
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As a secondary school teacher doing 60 hours a week I implore you to not make it only about primary schools. Secondary school teachers are at breaking point too. 8 years in, not sure I will make it to 10.
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Very true – but not just Primary!! Secondary reforms and expectations are equally hideous!
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It’s sadly not just primary school the whole of KS3/4/5 have also been affected. The policies lack coherence and an understanding of pedagogy, no comprehension of the social development of young children or people, no understanding of the context of learning for the young people we teach and their individual needs. We need to also accept that further education is also not fit for purpose with extortionate fees and students picking degree courses based on economic possibility. I wonder if parents understand the changes and the effect it will have on their children There should be a national outrage,
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And, of course, it’s not just a crisis in primary education. It pervades the secondary sector too. I am a lifer – ie someone who has been in the profession over 20 years. It breaks my heart to see talented youngsters walk away from the job because rightly they choose a life over the alternative of 61/2 day weeks. I cannot now, in all conscience, recommend teaching to anyone. Indeed, I am looking at walking away within the next 2-5 years. I went into teaching to give children a life long love of learning. I currently feel like a brick in the wall.
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I laughed my arse off at ‘perpetually-startled-looking homophobic owl lady called Nicky Morgan’-pure genius, sir.
Secondary English teacher here, also thinking of jacking in; what fools this government are. I wish you all the best.
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I retired from secondary teaching due to ill health – I found myself sitting in my car thinking it would be easier to drive it into a wall than try to assess every child I taught after every lesson in order to show how every one of the 32+ of them had shown improvement each lesson. I just couldn’t see how to do it. After 27 years I felt I didn’t know how to do my job. I think what you have written is incredibly accurate for both primary and secondary sectors. I know that a friend of mine who leads a science dept has had to re-write at least one of her schemes of work- usually more- every year for over 10 years now because of the constant changes imposed by polititions most of whom have never been inside a comprehensive school. Our children are being abused by the very people claiming to care for them because they are ignorant of what children need to be children in our world and what they need to develop into adults in this world.
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‘what children need to be children in our world and what they need to develop into adults in this world.’
What they need to be children is freed. What they need to be adults is compliant.
Teachers are now instructors in compliance who therefore have to demonstrate their own compliance. Gove, let us not forget, used the metaphor of ;the Great Leap Forward’, Maoist totalitarianism which saw students denounce their teachers. He’s completely off his rocker as anyone trying to faithfully follow his metaphysical model will attest.
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This fantastic piece sums up why I entered teaching in the first place, to make a difference. Being a year 2 teacher means I too, have to deal with the pointless task of testing my children to death. I would rather be spending time getting to know them and helping them be the best they can be. After only 3 years teaching, I too am stepping away from a job i love as the passion i have is being sucked out of me.
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I’m leaving at Easter after 10 yrs of teaching the constant changes to the curriculum, continual pressures to tick boxes, upload data (which reduces pupils to a number and teachers into robots where all creativity is banned) and continually change the way I Teach in order to meet the new Ofsted expectations has become so demoralising and life sucking. The need to find time to plan, mark, research and ensure that I’m meeting the needs of everyone of the 200 plus students I teach each week is still there… If only this was our priority.
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This is a wonderful piece ! My thoughts exactly. Really interesting to see it all mapped out . I have also written to Nicky Morgan …still waiting for a reply
https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/one-primary-teachers-open-letter-government-standards-expected-are
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Thank you for this. A sentiment I have echoed for a long time… It started as a niggle when I qualified, over 17 years ago, when the National Curriculum was taking hold. As a child I had wanted to teach, and the passion I had was sucked out of me then and there.
Fact forward all these years. I came back to education 5 years ago, as a TA, then I realised that yes, I really wanted to do this crazy job.
I’m in my first full academic year as a teacher, and forget primary or secondary, I am in a school nursery… The demands on children at this stage… Ridiculous. And as a parent, I’ve watched my year 6 son break over the whole SATs issue his year…
I wrote an open letter to Nicky Morgan with regards to this too…
https://butismileanyway.wordpress.com/2016/02/13/an-open-letter-to-nicky-morgan-uk-education-secretary/
You’re right brilliant teachers are leaving in droves. I see students here so full of vigour, coming in as NQT’s and leaving within a year, burnt out, demoralised… They have so much potential, some really amazing teachers, but apparently, they can’t perform. Yes they damn well can! It’s just the pressures that every one is piling on them.
Sorry you are leaving the profession. We need more like you, not less!
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Absolutely this. I left a permanent primary SLT post in September to be a supply teacher for this very reason. I felt like I was being forced to suck any love of learning out of my pupils. Hopefully one day things will improve and I will feel that I can return to a profession I once loved.
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I am not a teacher, but I am a parent and I know a good few people who are or were teachers. I am increasingly worried about the future of our country as all my friends an family who are attached to the teaching profession tell me the exact same stories as described above and it seems that teachers are leaving in droves. The worrying thing for me is that the teachers that I have come across who weren’t good at their job seem to stay on, and the brilliant and special ones go… probably their skills are what makes them so readily employable elsewhere. We are in danger of having a pointless curriculum being administered by not great teachers. Thank God my child clears year 11 this year.
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Zzzzzzz teachers moaning yet again. Get over it. If you don’t like your job, leave. Do something more rewarding, less stressful and better paid in the private sector.
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Yes, that’s what I’m doing.
Commented before you read the article, eh?
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No I read the article. That comment was for all the other moaning teachers out there. You all have a degree and there’s a big wide world out there. Well done for taking action and changing your job. Please don’t expect sympathy from the man in the street if you earn £30k+, have a secure job, gold-plated pension, and 12 weeks off a year… As for the work you do outside of class, I’m sure your not alone in working out of hours. Ask any of the self-employed if they just clock off at home time….
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The problem is exactly that. Teachers ARE leaving because they can’t cope with the stress, mental pressure and physical exhaustion. There are simply not enough teachers entering the profession to fill the places of those leaving and many of those who do become a teacher are leaving within the first few years. Those still there are doing a job because hey love working with young people, but the education system as it stands does not allow for passion, exploration, creativity or enjoyment of learning. Maybe you should spend a week shadowing a teacher in a school before you make a comment like this.
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Such a horrible comment…maybe you should go into politics.
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But what would happen if we (teachers) all left? Who would educate children? Sure we can leave if we don’t like our own jobs. But we can’t all leave. That’s why it’s a Crisis.
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Try and do a teachers job for a week and make your comments then. Obviously you have no idea of what is expected from our teacher’s.
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Troll. Typical fool who loves to pontificate but knows jack all. Probably has his own ‘teacher issues’ from his own time at school. Probably knows no one in education and loves the sound of his own voice.
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Walter Tull clearly identifies himself and reasonably expresses his sentiments. He is not a troll. Calling him one because you disagree with him is unfair and, like smugly correcting his garammar (further down in the comments), does little to engender support for teachers.
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Walter Tull clearly identifies himself and reasonably expresses his sentiments. He is not a troll. Calling him one because you disagree with him is unfair and, like smugly correcting his grammar (further down in the comments), does little to engender support for teachers.
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If you can read this article, (though reading isn’t the always the same as comprehending) thank a teacher who was committed enough to persevere and enable you to reach a basic level of literacy. Furthermore, thank your lucky stars you received your education before the present crisis. Your children may not be so lucky.
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I am, or was until recently, also a teacher, part-time. I also ran (and still do) my own business. I would like to assure the ignorant troll that compared to teaching, running an engineering business and working long hours is still no-where near as hard or as stressful as being a class teacher. You do not understand what you are talking about, therefore, listen.
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That sounds like really good advice Walter thanks. It’s also the reason why more teachers are leaving than are coming into it. Thanks for showing us all the one good reason to leave, and, conversely, why not to stay.
Your future legacy probably won’t be regarded as genius, nor your reading skills and lack of attention. U
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You are totally missing the point here. This is not teachers moaning. This is teachers trying to explain the crisis situation of our education system. You’d do well to remember that it’s this system which shapes the future of the country.A system in crisis creates crises in the future. In ten to fifteen years you’ll be looking back on these comments and saying, “Hmmm… I guess those teachers were right.”
By the way it’s ‘you’re not alone’ rather than ‘your not alone’.
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But it’s not a job because teaching is not like building a car or a house. A car or house is made to perform specific functions. Children in education learn facts and how to manage those facts in a complicated life including social interaction and development of society and hopefully improve systems and encourage growth of industry and the world in which we and they live. Ok so I’m not a teacher, I’m a gardener but there are similar functions in the care and management of children and nature to encourage development and growth.
The teachers are using ‘free speech’ to highlight that the changes made by government and DfE are having a detremental effect on childrens education and development.
If teachers feel demoralised because it it is proving more difficult to care for and educate their pupils then the system must be changed for the better. It is not good enough to say ‘go look for another job’ and not improve the situation that is causing more and more teachers to ‘throw in the towel’.
Yes teachers, in theory, have a lot of holidays but much of that time is spent drawing up teaching plans plus many other preparations that have already been mentioned. Just as during winter I have to refurbish tools and equipment and sort out other matters it is not just a three month holiday.
The modern pressures on children are criminal and heavy and should not be added to just so that policies can be justified. How many more child suicides have to occur before soceity campaigns for children to be allowed to develop through love and care and not be constantly under pressure to achieve unnecessary targets that threaten school management and sucess?
It is better to encourage than to threaten. The results are positive for all concerned.
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My comments are largely directed at Mr Tull and those of his ilk who appear to have no compassion for the teaching profession or indeed the students that we are talking about.
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I think we would all leave if it wasn’t for the children who need teaching. The stress they are going through, trying to reach the arbritary standards set for them, that we are trying to protect them from, is most of the problem. We want the children in our care to grow up with high self esteem so that they feel able to rise to the challenges that befall every person throughout their lives. Many of the kids I teach have had far more happen to them in their short lives than most adults will ever experience and yet they have to be seen to jump through the same hoops as someone with a stable, loving, functioning background…or else the school gets it in the neck. It is ridiculous! Many teachers remain in teaching because they love working with the children and trying to circumnavigate all the dictates, to still provide an inspiring education. But many are now going down the route you suggest and leaving the profession to get a less stressful job. I am guessing that you may not have kids yourself otherwise you couldn’t advocate teachers just leaving…who would be left to teach your hypothetical kids. And what kind of people are these children going to be as they are growing up? We are seeing high levels of stress which could easily lead to levels of mental illness that will make them less fit for work at the end of all this anyway!!! There are better ways to improve the prospects of the next generation.
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My gold plated pension. You ignorant daily express moron! We don’t do this for the money or the holidays. We chose the non corporate way for just that reason. The fact that your comment comes up so high on the page simply goes to prove that lightweight shit really does float.
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I have been a teacher for the same length of time (albeit 9 months off maternity leave 2011/2). I’m a secondary school teacher, just teacher because I realised after having my son there would be no way I could realistically take on any more responsibility without losing more of my ‘leisure’ time. As the years have gone on, I was able to reduce my hours to 4 working days (although, this actually still is 5+ since I mark books etc at home on my day off and weekends too). I remember requesting ‘part-time hours – which is what a 4 day working week is…. I was told by the Head Teacher that he didn’t like part-timers and that it would not be possible! In actual fact it was only due to falling numbers on role that I was allowed this luxury – many other mummies were forced to leave and were replaced by young ‘twenty-something’ NQT !Right now it’s 5.30am – I’ve been up marking since 5am since it is the only time I can get without impacting on my time with my son… Or though it breaks my heart at weekends to tell him “in a minute, I’ve just got to mark this” which inevitably turns into an hour or so of me in one room and my son in front of the TV shouting “Mummy I need you”.
I need you too son – but with a mortgage and bills to pay, I’m stuck treading water until in September when he will start school and I’ll get some prospective on my career … Who knows it may get easier… Or like you too Tim I may also leave a job I truly love(d).
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You started marking at 5am, but by 5.30am you had managed to be distracted by an article on the internet. Concentrate! (Sorry about the exclamation mark.) Work (and other activity) expands to fill the time available. Set goals. have a ‘to do’ list. Include leisure time and give it the same priority as work (and moaning about work).
Pressure exists in non teaching as well as teaching. My Wife is a Head Teacher; I work in the private sector (and have worked in the public sector). Life is tough. ‘Non pressure’ jobs are available, although even the clock watching, paid by the hour, till worker still feels under pressure to be fair.
I am not writing this as any criticism of teachers, who do indeed have one of the most important roles in our society. I am writing this to you, you and you as individuals. Seek some perspective. Don’t dwell on the bad. Focus, do your work, then concentrate on the pleasure you can get from the rewards (financial and others) that a strong career offers you.
If you believe life is awful, then it will be. Chin up, enjoy today. Come home and ask others what they ahve done today. When either of us are sinking into low morale, we ask the other “What is the best thing that happened today?”. We dwell on that.
We will both retire in the next few years. That is something to look forward to and to plan for. However, I think when we look back we will also know that we have both had incredible working lives, have touched the lives of others and we have done our best. Life (even in teaching) is good.
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How did I come to write this if I started marking at 5am … Well I usual I have a toilet break and skim ‘facebook’ – the only reading for pleasure I during term time.
Yes, focus on the positive is what I do – but sadly I am no where near retirement age (early forties, delayed motherhood). I too have worked outside of teaching, in Banking, in Retail and in the leisure industry too. They all had their pressures and pitfalls BUT nothing compares to the impossibility of trying to teach, and encourage learners to want to develop their young minds because there are too many things that we as teachers are required to do. Needless to say I manage to be a great teacher while I’m at school (and a rubbish mother/wife), and then a great mother /wife when Im at home but worry about the stuff I must do for the next day/week /term.
I have taken up running to deal with the stress and my long runs at the weekend have just about kept me sane this past year.
Teaching is tough right now – it needs to be said not dismissed as mere ‘moaning’
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Not a counsellor then?
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I am a supply teacher, which is great as it fits in with my home life commitments, I recently taught in a year 1/2 class. There was no sand tray, no water tray, no discovery through play. The year 1’s did exactly the same as the year 2’s all day. They were either sitting on the carpet listening to me or sat at their table writing. I was bemused and up set at this. At the end of the day the year group leader came and asked how my day was. I told him my concerns and he said that’s how they do things here and looked proud that a 4 year old can sit quietly for most of the day! It still haunts me now. What has happened to schools and teaching?
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Michael Gove and Nicky Morgan are what happened.
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Omg, that to my mind is child abuse! Check out our campaign in Scotland, it’s called ‘Upstart Scotland’ and is a campaign to extend the nursery play-based curriculum to aged 7. It’s what keeps my love of education alive, after having left the teaching profession after 19 years.
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I started teaching in the 60s I loved my job then, I couldn’t believe I was being paid to do such a wonderful job, I aspired to be head of an “infant ” school where the head teacher knew all her pupils, listened to them read and even directed the Christmas Nativity!40 yrs on the job I aspired to had gone and was replaced by an administrator shuffling paper, we sat young children down to be tested, parents brought in tutors for 6 year olds so their child could be level 3 and beat their neighbours child. The job I loved was gone , lost under lesson plans, aims and objectives and the threat OFSTED ….no going in the snow to touch , and play – then to paint glorious pictures ..not on the timetable, no building Viking ships in the middle of the classroom with year 6 ..oh no ..booster classes for SATS for them. I left the job at 55 yes old, with a much reduced pension because I could no longer bear what was being done to our children.
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I have shared your experiences, and empathise completely – see my comment below – Anne Thompson
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I left teaching after 30 years in October.
What is happening in schools is unsustainable and bad for your health.
Good luck to all those making the big step and leaving.
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Your piece is absolutely spot on. I am one of the terrible teachers that have ‘abandoned’ the UK to move to international teaching and quite honestly it is a completely different profession. I have (mostly) reasonable working hours, enjoy my evenings and weekends, and earn enough to live comfortably and go on holiday during the breaks. This is in stark comparison to my life in the UK where working late every night and most of the weekend was the norm, in addition to looking forward to so called ‘holidays’ which actually allowed some time to catch up on planning, paperwork and the general swathe of neverending meaningless tasks. Not to mention the fact that every month was a count down to payday and balancing the books to make sure there was enough money to cover the bills. Unless the education system in the UK changes, I would never consider moving back to it. I work with a team of committed, motivated, inspired individuals who have a work-life balance, are able to enjoy what they do, and most importantly, have the energy to convey their inspiration and passion to our students to enable them to enjoy learning in an environment that values a broad, diverse and interesting education, including an emphasis on the arts. Do our children achieve, make progress and leave school as life-long learners? Yes!
Respect for all teachers in the UK – you do a fantastic job under exhausting and endlessly draining circumstances, remain committed to the goal of inspiring young people, and somehow manage to find a way through every day because you care.
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I made the decision to teach abroad 10 years ago and after reading article and the comments, it seems the best decision I could have made. Speaking only from my personal experience, everything you crave for your teaching career is all possible outside of the UK. I teach in an international school and we follow the latest curriculum changes but with none of the pressure you describe. We still have plenty of time for Book Weeks, International Week, Science Week, celebrations of local festivals and much more. The curriculum is child centred with the children leading their own investigations. We still work hard but our efforts are focused on activities that enhance our children’s education rather than paperwork for the government’s benefit.
Before you give up entirely on teaching spend some time teacjong abroad and open yourselves up to the many adventures life has to offer.
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I loved my job. I taught children between the ages of 4 and 7 from 1966 to 1999. I developed a progressive reading system which moved children on at their own pace, and included daily one to one reading with every child, with excellent home links to get parents involved too. The children enjoyed a step by step maths programme, which moved each individual child on when, and only when, they understood the step they were working on. My classroom was colourful and relevant, and my topics were lively and interesting, and made sense to the children I was teaching. Parents felt involved at every level, and my planning was thorough, but flexible. Then it all changed. I laboured under the weight of, if I remember rightly, eight weighty National Curriculum files, and delivered it to the best of my ability, with external examiners breathing down my neck from time to time, with well meaning advice. With three year groups in my classroom, delivering the three levels of the curriculum was difficult to say the least, and SAT testing had to be carefully dovetailed to make the experience as good as possible for the oldest children. I tolerated the Literacy Hour, after numerous evenings spent at courses, which only made me more sure that the educationalists had gone crazy. I saw my own reading system crash miserably, losing the personal involvement of both children and parents, and watching the standard of reading ability wane among those who had benefited from what I had done before, and giving little or no grounding at all to the poor little things coming in to the new regime from the start. Somewhere along the way, Baseline Assessment was brought in for the under fives, which was actually a good idea, unless you had two more age groups in the classroom at the same time. OFSTEDs were to be dreaded, and were rarely encouraging. Then came the Numeracy Hour – well the evening courses saw me arguing the toss with the educators from the office, and me personally going into overdrive, with my own successful maths system about to be hidden in a dark cupboard. My mental and physical health took a dive, and with no prospect of a pension in sight, I gave in my notice, and left the school, and the children I had helped to nurture for nineteen years. I had hoped to have finished my chosen career on a high, resting on a sense of achievement spanning what could have been thirty nine years. Instead, after thirty three years, I was a crumbling mess, and found small solace in the prescribed sedation from my doctor. I was eventually awarded an early disability pension, thanks to the tireless support and advice from my Area NUT adviser. I still have recurring nightmares of being called back to complete unfinished recording of levels of achievement on children I hadn’t even taught, or being asked to step into another teacher’s shoes at short notice to deliver God knows what to God knows who, or suffering oppressive guilt attacks, because I hadn’t turned up to school at all. It’s now 2016, and after seventeen years out of teaching, the memories of my happy early years are still clouded by the latter years of pure hell.
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Reblogged this on Rose Tinted Ramblings and commented:
it is so tragic that the teaching professionals are no longer allowed to teach, excite, inspire and support… paperwork, objectives, evidence, dull classes, fed up teaches, disengaged pupils….
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This applies to FE too. Reading this article makes me realise that we all went into this career to make a difference. How quickly we have had that passion removed. I’ve been teaching over ten years and am currently looking for a way out. It’s only going to get worse, I am sad to say.
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FE is in dark times. Curriculum reform (again), funding changes, student loans, area reviews, maths and English along with comments from Wilshaw certainly don’t help. There is no understanding of the significance of FE in the educational system but then again, why would there be? No one making a decision in Gov’t would have experienced it. I am sorry so many people are leaving the profession, I know lots of colleagues who have gone back on the tools because they can earn more money for less hours and less stress, even self-employed, quietly debunking one person’s comments above. Dark times.
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Sounds familiar. I was dep head at primary school, 17 years teaching and just completed NPQH when I walked away. I’ve never regretted that decision. I feel like I have my life back!
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Great piece! I taught English in UK comprehensives for thirteen years – 1998-2011 – and so much of what you say strikes a chord with me. Good luck!
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I too have left the profession and your piece sounds very familiar to me I’m sorry you are going- what a loss. But I too just walked out at Christmas without any real recognition of 20 odd years of dedication and care and the sadness I felt about a job I loved not existing anymore.
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Congratulations Tim. You are perfectly sane and whilst it is sad to give up the addiction we all have to teaching your recovery will go well. My husband was an inspirational Primary HT who left to become an osteopath. i left secondary headship in a challenging area after many happy years. Still in recovery, resting and looking for somewhere else to make a difference
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Well done, Tim. You have written a highly articulate article on the madness surrounding teachers today. To Walter Tull, that should be ‘I’m sure you’re (not ‘your’) not alone’. Thank a teacher for the help with your grammar – Just doing my job 🙂
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Yes, I think that just about sums it up! I only lasted 3 years, mind. I think you describe everything very clearly and truthfully, but did you notice the only personal comment you made was about a woman? Leaving feelings about Nicky Morgan’s work aside, does she deserve to have her external appearance brought into this? It wasn’t necessary for any other politician you mentioned… Anyway, good luck with your future. Perhaps you could help found a new educational order, it’s all the rage these days.
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Yes, that is the only bit of the blog piece that I take issue with. Her physical appearance is neither here nor there. (Also, I am in no way defending Morgan or people who think that equal marriage is wrong, but just because she voted against equal marriage, it does not mean that she is ‘homophobic’.) Look forward to reading more from you, though, Tim!
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I agree with you both and have no wish to make the issue about personalities or appearances. I had that thought when I published it but it just seemed too entertaining a turn of phrase to remove. I have removed “constantly startled-looking” now and I admit I might have rephrased that section altogether if I’d known more than 25,000 people were going to read it!
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Thank you for such a well written and impressive article. I taught for seven years and left to have my children. Sadly I won’t be going back as the job does not allow for a work/life balance.
Good luck for the future!
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As a primary school teacher 7 years into the job, I have to say that it’s not the workload or anti-social hours that I am struggling with (although they are exhausting); it’s what we are doing to children. In the past 7 years, I have seen inspirational, passionate teachers leave the profession completely broken by the unrealistic demands placed on them and the fact that they are having to conform to an educational system which stifles children’s innate creativity and sense of awe. Children are not automatons, do not make linear progress and thrive in a creative, questioning environment. I have no doubt that most teachers now routinely teach to the tests (myself included) while hating themselves for doing it. Please don’t leave education completely; we need people like you speaking up for us!
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I have to agree with most of the writers above. I have been working on Key Stage 1 for the last few years, and in Primary schools for about 13 years. In two weeks I am leaving the classroom and going back to teaching instrumental music. I know Mrs Morgan will be tutting about how I wasted my life doing artist subjects but I just want to be able to show children there is more to school than just the new requirements of spelling and grammar.
I have seen four of my young colleges leave teaching before getting to the fifth year. In fact last year I was a talented, bright lovely young teacher change into a worried, withdrawn ill human within two terms. She had support from the school but the pressure just drove her away. So many professional people are being destroyed by this new breed of politician. They have never had a job outside of politics.
I am so so sorry for the children I am leaving behind. Bright and full of joy, we laugh together and I try to make their learning joyful, but when I am undermined at every turn it is time to move on.
Good luck to you all.
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While I appreciate the views of those who wrote here, I can only say that you are victims of a huge dumping down in educational standards. I’m 66, I left school at 15 without any qualifications. However, I could spell, understood grammar, sentence construction and punctuation, knew my times tables, could do mental arithmetic, understood algebra and trigonometry, knew all the countries of the world and their capitals, had a good understanding of history and geography. Finally, I was disciplined by my teachers and respected them. I would not dream of backchatting them or being rude to them. What a difference today, some children are barely literate or numerate upon leaving school, even some university graduates are unemployable because of their lack of basic education. Why?? I was speaking to two recently qualified teachers last summer who said that teacher training college was little more than left wing indoctrination and had not been of any benefit in preparation for their new careers. Discuss!!
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Levels or illiteracy and innumeracy were, in fact, much higher fifty years ago.
I have a quote about an engineering firm complaining how they have to retrain the engineers coming out of university. From the Times in 1890.
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Or perchance, education should be viewed as holistic and societal and not solely the responsibility of a teacher? I am qualified to teach any child to be literate but it is simply not my job to raise someone else’s children – I can try and make my English teaching inclusive and contain the development of transferable skills and social skills but I refuse point blank to be blamed for the lack of respect and discipline shown by a number of pupils. I see them for 4 hours a week – other people in their lives see them far more frequently and for longer periods of time. I challenge inappropriate behaviour consistently and empathetically according to an individual child’s circumstances and needs in order to genuinely make them more successful members of society. But since we all live in a society, maybe we should all take collective responsibility for educating children about respect, manners and acceptable behaviour? Then, when I am in my class room I can develop these skills from a decent base level and teach them how to read to understand, write effectively and communicate appropriately in any medium. I don’t dumb down my teaching. I strive to encourage pupils to work to the best of their ability, whatever that ability may be – but I am restricted by the system in which I work. Teacher’s frustrations often match those of others outside the profession. Instead of an “us” and “them” mentality of people inside and outside education, we need to unite and work together to collectively say that the current system is not suitable for society’s children and as members of that same community, we are going to do something positive to change it. The Government are not listening to teachers and they are not listening to parents or employers. But, if parents, teachers, employers (and other elements of our society) agree and make a united stand, then maybe positive change is possible. Debates like this in a positive, useful and constructive manner is what is needed to ensure that all demographics and sections of society can be heard and try to find common ground. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing: educated, successful children who can contribute to a meaningful society and educators who are as effective as possible in facilitating that. Oh, and I did a PGCE in one of the most traditionally socialist areas of England – there was no indoctrination and the only thing it did not prepare me for was the lack of understanding and empathy shown towards teachers by their pupils, their parents and sadly often their colleagues.
Thank you Tim for such a well written article. I am an eternal optimist (but I concede, not much of a realist) in terms of my career and keep on ploughing on in the hope that one day it will get better. I do realise however, that it may not and that this choice will one day be my only option too.
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So, what’re we going to do then?
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Nice article indeed, and sadly representative of every teacher I know. (I’m not one).
BUT… what are you as a profession doing about it? Where are your unions? It frustrates me intensely that so many talented, creative, intelligent professionals continue to allow themselves to be treated this way. The junior doctors left it too long and now they are being imposed upon.
Call on your union reps; demand your representatives take up the fight properly. The eternal and selfless desire to protect those in your care is admirable but, as with so many healthcare workers, it is also the weapon used most against you.
If the profession speaks with one voice, it will be heard. If decisive action is taken, it will be noticed. If teachers actually stop spending their Sundays lesson planning and marking; their evenings performing data-entry and their holidays producing evidence then the system will fall apart very quickly. Spend your time doing the job at which you excel: educating our children. To me, it’s really that simple. It may not be easy, but it’s simple.
I, for one, will back you all the way.
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10 years of teaching. Left last academic year.
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So well put Tim. I finally left teaching in FE after 14 years, when I realised that flexibility meant being a social worker, administrator, mentor, counscellor, risk assessor and any other you might choose- oh lets not forget teacher. It saddens me to know that meeting the needs of individuals clearly means meeting the needs of those driving ridiculous policies. By the end of the session simply means by the end of the OfStead inspection the teacher will have resigned and so another job advert goes out. What education fails to tell you when applying for such jobs in the profession is the hidden curriculum in terms of the personel attributes one must bring to the job, some of which I have listed above. If I could have sustained the mental pressures of education who knows I may have become a Govey at the expense of good teachers and failed learners.
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As a parent to a 10 year old in Year 6, I worry with the amount that is expected of the children in the SATS tests this year. For the children in lower years they will have more time to prepare for the new SATS, but this has been sprung on the children this year and I understand very little of the grammatical terms despite continuing my education to Masters! They will be of little use in the ‘real world’ and is a cause of stress to children and teachers alike. I think that as parents and teachers we should be able to campaign against the changes which are causing so many talented teachers to leave the profession.
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I did leave secondary school teaching, to save my sanity and my marriage. The last twelve years of my career, in financial marketing, were intellectually rewarding and good fun – although not as well paid.
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I did 35 years in secondary education and I loved the first 25! In 1976 teaching was a profession where creativity was possible and teachers were left to get on with their craft. Yes there were a few rogue teachers who didn’t pull out all the stops but I was able to spend my time on what really mattered, preparing high quality lessons and inspiring children to love maths. The holidays were there to recharge batteries and get on with planning the extras. In September teachers were energetic and refreshed. Sadly in the noughties teachers in September often appeared drained, having spent swathes of their holiday preparing new schemes of work for syllabuses that hadn’t yet been published! My generation responded to the ever changing demands with stoicism adn just got on with it. Generation Y and Z are not like that, hence the increasing number of young teachers leaving the profession.
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Thank you for summing up the sad situation for all our young pupils. I too retired last year, I miss the joy of those eureka moments you get with young children, I do not miss the inexplicable demands of assessment after assessment. I remember teaching before the National Curriculum came into being, no it wasn’t perfect, but I am sure the children had a better basic education and understanding of life skills than those of today. I despair about the future.
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I have been a year six teaching assistant for around ten years and you are so precise, this is the reason I am choosing to move away from working in education, it saddens me to see children stressed and for what, as you so rightly put it to fill a folder with data. Teachers today are unfairly put under so much pressure and get little or no acknowledgement for the amazing job,they go above and beyond to do! often taking them away from family time too this upsets me so much but what upsets me more is the quality time with the children has been taken away the time as you said to get to know these amazing little people who are the future instead we are suppressing them and destroying their creativity and I can not be a part of that.
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Wow. Very well written. All spot on. I left state education 3 years ago as the expectations became completely unrealistic. I am now working in private education where although grades and tests are still important, we are free to teach what we believe will give children the best start in life. Music and drama play a massive role in their timetable!
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I felt the same, so I moved to Australia. It was the best decision I ever made. Teachers in Australia are respected as the professionals they are and allowed to teach.
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Well done Tim for articulating what recent Governments have done to destroy the joy in education. I agree that more teachers should have got active in their unions and simply refused to go along with such nonsense. I blame the Heads who just went along with Government diktats and bullied their staff. They were/are spineless and mostly out to feather their own nests. There is certainly an EDUCATION CRISIS and it’s about time we all did something about it.
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Gone midnight now and I can’t bring myself to mark any more. Can’t sleep either, with tomorrow’s lessons going round my head in an endless cycle. I’m a secondary English teacher trying to cope with teaching seven different exam syllabuses at the same time as a result of the rushed imposition of new GCSE and A Level course.
The new courses are poorly planned and resourced but the worst element is Gove’s scrapping of tiers. Instead of helping low ability students with basics of grammar, sentence construction and practical reading skills I have been forcing them to memorise details from Dickens to regurgitate next year in the hope that it will get them above a grade 1 and so boost the school figures for Ofsted. They have no chance of being able to read the exam texts, which are aimed at the top end, but I still maintain the charade that if they try hard, they can do it. Last year, taking a paper suited to their ability, this would have been true.
We actually have a supportive SMT, but staff absences on health grounds are up and I am looking to change careers. An English teaching job currently advertised locally has had just one applicant. I pity the children starting their Secondary career this year. Things are going to get worse before they get better.
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I have been out of teaching for 2 years now. What a relief it is. Soon all schools will be privatised (made into academy’s) and the race to pay teachers as little as possible will start. We now live in an age where the boss (government) can do what they like. It reminds me of Victorian times!
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