Read on Twitter
I& #39;ve read several tweets from teachers who have made the sad decision to leave the profession. Everyone& #39;s decision is personal and made for the the best reasons but, it is still sad. We must make teaching a sustainable career.
So why isn& #39;t it sometimes? I lost count of the number of times I said I& #39;d walk but the only time I did was to look after my children full time when they were babies. And then I went back.
Why did I stay? I made friends for life. We were a team and everyone was an arm of the organisational octopus. Some of the children were memorable in a good way: inspiring in their own way, their successes were my successes and that& #39;s really motivating.
When I started, we completed 3 progress reports per year per pupil (which was an attainment and effort ticksheet) plus one written report. All of the latter were in the summer and you knew the date they were due all year so paced yourself to complete them.
We had year group and NQT meetings in lunchbreaks, departmental meetings happened every day when we had a coffee break together every morning. Targets did not exist - it was a given that we would do our best to get pupils the best grade - who wouldn& #39;t?
We had a theatre group. We used to put on performances for parents that ran for a week because the hall was packed every night. We organised West End trips. The teachers chipped in for the kids who couldn& #39;t afford to go. We bought them a programme, ice cream and sweets.
We have them food if they were hungry, we washed their uniform if they were grubby. As a young teacher, it was a shock to see such deprivation. The children from residential care were always smartly dressed and ( thankfully) appeared well-cared for.
Fast forward 25 years, target setting, performance measures, high-stakes inspections, high accountability, more admin tasks and data generation, data analysis for middle leaders, increased learning walks, initiatives, meetings after school, less cohesiveness in teams.
A colleague said to me: "in break time, I have to make a decision - drink a coffee or go to the loo. There isn& #39;t time to do both." Rings true doesn& #39;t it? Teachers are depriving themselves every day because breaktimes are seen as wasted learning time.
The lack of cohesiveness really bothers me.Young teachers have a lot going on. They need support from colleagues and peers. I& #39;m really hopeful that the Early Career Framework will help. We have to build that support network and social media can play a part-but has dark forces too
Surely the job is about planning great lessons together, marking and feeding back. That& #39;s it. That& #39;s the job. We need to get back to what really matters and lose the rest.
In my NQT year, it was Friday night sport, pub and curry that kept me going. Had a bad week? That was your weekly wellbeing debrief. It kept me on the level and made us an unbreakable team. I& #39;m happy to report, we still are.
Oh, and one last thing. No emails back in 1984 either. & #39;Nuff said!
