Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Rizzo]

When I got my current secondary post a few years back there was only myself and one other person interviewed. I was leaving my previous post because it was becoming increasingly difficult managing work-life balance as the only subject specialist in the school. The post I'd applied for previously was withdrawn because it was only myself that applied for it and the school decided they couldn't do a fair selection process with only one applicant.

In the time I've been in my current post we've had one student teacher in my subject who observed various classes in the dept for a week and then left (as in left the full PGDE not just the school). Probably worth adding in that my school is pretty good at dealing with pupil behaviour compared to most of the others I've taught in as well. 

It really isn't an attractive career for most at the moment.

[Todd_is_God]

If NS knows right now that she will be giving an update on dates etc, why not just give the heads up now?

The constant need to wait till Thursday is baffling to me. It's not as if the NRS producing a figure of around 50 on Wednesday will come as a surprise now.

[super_carson]

1 minute ago, Rizzo said:

In the time I've been in my current post we've had one student teacher in my subject who observed various classes in the dept for a week and then left (as in left the full PGDE not just the school). Probably worth adding in that my school is pretty good at dealing with pupil behaviour compared to most of the others I've taught in as well. 

There are, as some have said, people who go into the job for the holidays or due to the lack of another option after they finish their degree.  We'd be naive to think that didn't happen at all.  However, as your example shows, those people get found out pretty damned quickly.   There were a few folk I had in my PGDE course who disappeared after the first placement, and you always got the feeling they were only doing it for lack of another option.

 

[NotThePars]

2 hours ago, MixuFruit said:

It's a source of constant bafflement (American police unions aside) why someone could look at a sector where the workforce has power and influence over their working conditions and thinks to themself "I don't like that they have a good wage and pension. They should lose those things and be like me instead." instead of  "I like that they have a good wage and pension. I'm going to form a union and get that for myself too."

I say this slightly sarcastically as 40 years of the press saying unions are terrible bad things has done it's job to seep into people's minds without them even sitting down and consciously deciding they thought this. I doubt a majority of opponents of unions could articulate why they hold this position.

In fairness to folk there's been like 30 years of public sewage seeping out telling people that the reason why employers have to downsize and relocate is because those selfish unions have held them hostage and demanded too much.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

25 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I've always wondered why, if teaching is so easy, and the perks are so great, why there is a massive teacher shortage. You'd think folk would be lining up to do it.

I get the feeling that. like the Prison Service, a lot of people see the salary and think, "I'll have some of that." Then the reality of the job, and the recompense, kick in and they're away. Recruitment's all very well, but retention is where the problems arise. HMPPS in E&W have recruited like mad, and have just about kept the number of Prison Officers static over the last five years. The average length of service has plummeted to, in some jails, just over four years. The amount of experience lost in this last decade is scary.

[The Moonster]

27 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

Have we not a teacher crisis currently? Along with all the other crises.

 

27 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I've always wondered why, if teaching is so easy, and the perks are so great, why there is a massive teacher shortage. You'd think folk would be lining up to do it.

 

2 minutes ago, Rizzo said:

When I got my current secondary post a few years back there was only myself and one other person interviewed. I was leaving my previous post because it was becoming increasingly difficult managing work-life balance as the only subject specialist in the school. The post I'd applied for previously was withdrawn because it was only myself that applied for it and the school decided they couldn't do a fair selection process with only one applicant.

In the time I've been in my current post we've had one student teacher in my subject who observed various classes in the dept for a week and then left (as in left the full PGDE not just the school). Probably worth adding in that my school is pretty good at dealing with pupil behaviour compared to most of the others I've taught in as well. 

It really isn't an attractive career for most at the moment.

I didn't realise there wasn't enough teachers right now, so I apologise for my ignorance. What's the solution then? What makes the career attractive? 

Again perhaps it's my ignorance, but I have trouble with the "time commitment" thing, are teachers really spending every evening and weekend writing up lesson plans/marking work? Surely things like lesson plans can be reused from previous classes etc.

Are they really working similar hours to the likes of doctors?

[NotThePars]

1 hour ago, Marshmallo said:

Not sure anyone can make that sweeping generalisation but you go for it.

I feel confident in making the claim that any decently sized organisation has a group of people whose job essentially involves sending emails and/ or going to lunch. I'm not saying you shouldn't tolerate piss take jobs as an obsession with efficiency always sucks, is demoralising and is counter productive but I'd rather the folk whose job was superfluous didn't more often than not turn them into petty tyrants.

1 hour ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

Leaving aside your student political class slur (teachers are middle class? Really?), you've perfectly described a Trade Union. Protecting and promoting the interests of their members is literally their raison d'etre. You're really not very good at this.

Teachers are undoubtedly middle class, it's a profession. That they (and the middle classes in general) are underpaid, undervalued, overworked and generally stressed out is as a result of a crisis in capitalism not working for who it's allegedly supposed to work for.

[madwullie]

46 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I've always wondered why, if teaching is so easy, and the perks are so great, why there is a massive teacher shortage. You'd think folk would be lining up to do it.

Ha totally, always faced with erm wells and avoiding eye contact when suggesting to my mates if it's that much of a gravy train why don't they ditch their office job and retrain. 

[Billy Jean King]

Anyone else noticed what an absolute walloper the ITV Border guy comes over as at the daily briefing. Got to the stage NS is almost rolling her eyes the minute he starts talking

[bennett]

50 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I've always wondered why, if teaching is so easy, and the perks are so great, why there is a massive teacher shortage. You'd think folk would be lining up to do it.

Putting up with up to 30 weans everyday probably. 

 

[Gaz]

8 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

 

 

I didn't realise there wasn't enough teachers right now, so I apologise for my ignorance. What's the solution then? What makes the career attractive? 

Again perhaps it's my ignorance, but I have trouble with the "time commitment" thing, are teachers really spending every evening and weekend writing up lesson plans/marking work? Surely things like lesson plans can be reused from previous classes etc.

Are they really working similar hours to the likes of doctors?

The first three or four years in particular are absolutely brutal. You don't have lesson plans to fall back on so you're making lessons / creating resources from scratch.

You'll get people say "just use this lesson that someone else has developed" but that doesn't work as you're developing your style and need lessons that will suit you.

This goes on for about four or five years, because when you're new to teaching it's often the case you won't be given "examinable" classes, so you need to do this every year you're given a higher ability class.

I've been teaching 8 years now and would say only in the past 2 or 3 years I've felt I don't need to spend hours and hours of planning as I've taught it all before.

That time doesn't get freed up though, as teaching higher-ability pupils requires more marking. It's not uncommon for one piece of homework from my Advanced Higher class to take four hours to mark, because it's not as simple as putting a tick or a cross - there's follow-on marks to consider, cross-marking, written feedback and so on.

I'm in for about 8 most mornings and don't leave until 5 most evenings, longer if there's a supported study class.

I won't ever compare my hours to a doctor or a nurse, but it's not the absolute skive it's portrayed as.

[Hillonearth]

8 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

 

 

I didn't realise there wasn't enough teachers right now, so I apologise for my ignorance. What's the solution then? What makes the career attractive? 

Again perhaps it's my ignorance, but I have trouble with the "time commitment" thing, are teachers really spending every evening and weekend writing up lesson plans/marking work? Surely things like lesson plans can be reused from previous classes etc.

Are they really working similar hours to the likes of doctors?

It's not a job I'd do - I've known four or five people who were teachers and only one is still in the profession as a subject head in a school in a fairly affluent area and acknowledges he landed on his feet while others didn't. An ex of mine was a languages teacher, and I can remember her bringing work home with her more nights than she didn't although not as a rule at weekends.

She put it into perspective one time for me - at that point I was playing in bands and she described her job to me as the equivalent of going on stage for six 40-minute sets a day, knowing I'd be playing to people who were mostly indifferent and in some cases actively hostile to what I was churning out. Add in the fact that probably once a day I'd also be asked to play another set of songs I didn't really know because some other band had called in sick...when it was put like that I thought "Nah, you're alright..."

 

[madwullie]

17 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

 

 

I didn't realise there wasn't enough teachers right now, so I apologise for my ignorance. What's the solution then? What makes the career attractive? 

Again perhaps it's my ignorance, but I have trouble with the "time commitment" thing, are teachers really spending every evening and weekend writing up lesson plans/marking work? Surely things like lesson plans can be reused from previous classes etc.

Are they really working similar hours to the likes of doctors?

I did it for 10 years. The first 5 years were pretty tough, and a lot of work done outside working hours etc, but as long as you're happy remaining as a class teacher it does get a lot easier after that. Not least because you stop being so desperate for kids to like you and realise where you've went wrong in previous years. Discipline becomes a lot easier, and you can modify a lot of the stuff you've done before to bring it up to date. 

Problem is the grinding admin / politics etc you obvs get in other places has no shortcuts. And if you for eg want to be guidance / promoted, you really really need to put the hours in there. Also, marking doesn't get much easier once you know how it's done without looking shit up etc. 

Great job btw, would recommend, miles better than any of the office / it based jobs I did before, if a but lower paid. 

[Marshmallo]

18 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I'm in for about 8 most mornings and don't leave until 5 most evenings, longer if there's a supported study class.

With an hour lunch that's a 40 hour week.

[Gaz]

2 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

With an hour lunch that's a 40 hour week.

I don't get an hour lunch. Even if I did, most of my lunches are spent doing stuff like lunchtime supervision, or helping pupils who have been off catch up on missing work.

[AyrshireTon]

26 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

 

 

I didn't realise there wasn't enough teachers right now, so I apologise for my ignorance. What's the solution then? What makes the career attractive? 

Again perhaps it's my ignorance, but I have trouble with the "time commitment" thing, are teachers really spending every evening and weekend writing up lesson plans/marking work? Surely things like lesson plans can be reused from previous classes etc.

Are they really working similar hours to the likes of doctors?

As you get older you realise that using the same lessons over and over doesn't really happen - each class has its own needs and you need to pitch it correctly each time. Paper work and marking do take up time but there has to be a balance.  The shift to the digital side of things is both useful and a hindrance. It helps if you're in a good department. I generally make up all our assessments for S1-4 and my PT does S5-6. Others are far more tech-minded than us and deal with that side of things. 

I will NOT miss the recent home learning aspect. Since most pupils have my subject every day, I've had to make lessons up for each year group daily. You can't really start until you've seen how they've coped with the current day's work - then you have to mark and get next day's lesson typed up (I say "typed" - much of it is written, scanned and added to a word document). My mornings have been spent getting my own children working, whilst replying to questions from my own pupils. The afternoon is spent marking what's been coming in (and it's often late - understandable since many households are sharing one PC) then typing up 4-5 lessons for next day. A midnight finish was not unusual. I will say, however, that Google Classroom is infinitely superior to anything GLOW-related that my own kids are using.

[Thereisalight..]

I stopped watching the briefings weeks ago. I really think there is no need for them to be as often anymore. They should just release the figures daily and have one televised briefing a week where journalists can ask questions. 

[Steven W]

From BBC;

In response to a follow up question from Mr Fraser, Benny Higgins outlines that almost 700,000 jobs may be under threat in Scotland.

I was lampooned for a particularly gloomy forcecast I made several weeks ago. I was spot on.

700,000!! Thats basically everyone outside of public sector surely?

 

[Scotty Tunbridge]

Member when this thread was about the virus and not teachers white knighting each other? [emoji42]

[Gordon EF]

9 minutes ago, Steven W said:

From BBC;

In response to a follow up question from Mr Fraser, Benny Higgins outlines that almost 700,000 jobs may be under threat in Scotland.

I was lampooned for a particularly gloomy forcecast I made several weeks ago. I was spot on.

700,000!! Thats basically everyone outside of public sector surely?

 

Really depends what 'under threat' means though, doesn't it.

It's a phrase that can mean whatever anyone wants it it mean.