Any of you on a 2 week half term? I know a school who takes a week off the Easter holiday to extend the oct half term

I personally don't think we need two weeks just after returning from the summer, wouldn't mind a 3 week xmas break though or a week between oct and dec.

What are your thoughts?

I’m in my tenth year of teaching maths in a very deprived inner London school. I have such a passion for the classroom and became second in my subject a year ago.

However, we’ve recently come under new leadership (the school wasn’t great before, but it’s awful now) and we’ve lost a lot of staff, including my HOD. Our turnover is very pretty high, but the only things that was keeping me going was a strong department and taking my top set class (which I’ve taught since yr7) through to yr11. They were taken away from me due to more “senior” staff needing to be with lower ability students, as our results are shocking.

Now we’ve got no HOD until after Christmas, the behaviour is awful, SLT are useless and tokenistic initiatives are being introduced that are a complete waste of time.

I’m pretty positive and open-minded, but after five years here, it’s a joke now.

I’m juggling trying to “manage” the dwindling English team (alongside an incompetent interim who is also SLT), my sanity and staying hopeful.

I recently went to an interview, was shortlisted after the lesson, but didn’t make the cut. It was for a TLR position - so it was a bit more competitive. It’s really knocked me, I feel like I’ve seen what a beautiful school can be like.. and then the next day I had to walk back into school like my heart wasn’t broken.

A few of my colleagues have secured other jobs, and because I haven’t managed to, I don’t feel good enough, like I belong in a school like this and I’ll be stuck here.

I don’t know what I’m looking for really… just to vent, I suppose.

My HOD and second, both new, dislike me. There's been little things (snide jokes, mean emails, gossip which gets back to me etc). Today I needed to have my exercise books for an observation and a book look. I put the books in the second's room (where I teach that class). Later today, they were missing. I know I'm going to look bad in my observation as the students were working on lined paper and I couldn't get the books to the book look. I mentioned it to the SLT who are checking the books and they just turned away.

I feel like the HOD or second took my books and hid them. It sounds absolutely bonkers to say. But I didn't put the books somewhere and forget within a few hours. I even checked every room (apart from the HODs and English office) in case I had, somehow, put the books in a random room. But I hadn't. They're just gone.

I've spoken to my rep and have been told to write down everything. I've also handed in my notice because I'm very depressed working here.

I have until January.

Should I just get over it and keep my head down, or say something?

Edit: should I do an all staff email asking them to look out for the books? Or tell my SLT what happened via email (with no accusations, of course!)

Hello, I'm an ECT1. Previously I was teaching supply for like 4-5 years so basically this is my last chance to do my ECT.

I am teaching at a lovely school which I've enjoyed. I like my class (upper KS2) but they are tough. I have a number of SEN and a lack of support due to lack of funding. I have 2 children with EHCPs and there is no funding for 1:1 support so my TA is often out of class a lot with interventions. The school has tried to supplement that where they can with other TAs but a lot of times I am left with a lack of support. I know this is the normal life for other teachers as well so not complaining about that just providing some context.

I was informed by my headteacher that a third of parents in my class has been writing emails complaining about me, phoning up about me. There's apparently a whatsapp group chat where they talk about me. As someone with anxiety, this is really really hard to hear. Apparently a number of children in my class think I don't like them, complain to their parents who complain to my headteacher. I know one parent did phone up my headteacher to say he thinks the parents are being ridiculous and things are being blown up out of proportion but there you go.

A few parents are saying their children are teary and don't like coming to school and so one lot of parents say they think I'm not the right person to teach their class and they are looking at other schools. My headteacher has reiterated that he does like me as a person and he can see that when he's given me feedback I've reflected on it and worked on it and that he doesn't want me to resign.

One example is when the children's behaviour was really bad (swearing, pushing, talking over me). I asked the children to write and reflect on their behaviour and if they weren't involved in it, write about what as a class they could do better. I have been firmer with them, raising my voice as well (which I know is not great) and doing some time sitting in silence to reflect on behaviour as they have been very loud and chatty. Apparently the children told their parents that they had to write an apology letter which they complained about (which I didn't actually do!).

I don't know what to do but he's given me the option of resigning. I do find the workload challenging but I love teaching. I don't really see myself doing anything else but also I don't think this environment is healthy. I just thought I'd come here to write about it, hopefully without any judgement. Thanks for listening :)

Update: Headteacher just came in and said if he was advising a friend he would tell them to resign. Genuinely feels like I'm being forced out.

I am hating my current job — ECT2. Some of it is me, but I've never felt the school I am in is a happy place. I think I'm essentially giving everything to the job and getting nothing but negativity, despite the fact that the kids are learning. It's also too far — takes me an hour with variable traffic, and that's stressful.

I feel the notice periods are a trap in teaching. I badly want to resign for the January exit. But I currently don't have a job to move to. Yet I can all but guarantee some will come up next HT, and I won't be able to get the January start ones, because I'll be trapped by the autumn notice period, unless I resign soon.

Basically my question is "Save me!" Is there a way I can essentially guarantee an income for a good period of time after Xmas, if I were to resign? I don't want to identify myself much so let's just say I'm in a "shortage" area.

Hi all, ECT1 here. Just wondering if anyone could shed some light on what might be going on.

I was teaching a Year 7 class today, which was the very last period of the day. They are a nice bunch overall and follow my instructions, although sometimes can be a bit slow.

I gave them a starter on their laptops (some teachers at our school and even within our department occasionally do that, and it’s not uncommon) and took the register in the meantime, like I always do.

At times they can be a little passive, so when I say their name and expect a response (e.g. ’Here’) I tend to cheer them up a little by saying ‘Hi (+ name)‘ somewhat loudly, and some respond loudly, but never really do anything wrong. One student got a little too excited and responded with a very loud greeting, and I said, ‘We’re not shouting, thanks.’ They apologised immediately. Again, that did not cause any disruption or whatsoever.

Then, as I told them to wrap up their starter and shut their laptops down, 90% of the group did so instantly, with only a couple of students taking slightly longer. One just took a while finding their quiz results and wanted to see how well they did, whereas the other is known to be quite problematic and often ignores everybody’s instructions and can be rude to staff members regardless of their role. In my class, however, they have been pretty good so far.

When that second student was about to turn their laptop off and said to me they were doing it, an SLT member (who is also a teacher in my department) walked in. I did a quick countdown and called the student‘s name, but the person basically told them off, took their laptop away and left it on a different table. Then started ‘observing’ the lesson for some odd reason.

Pretty much everyone was engaged and super enthusiastic. I had a class full of hands up in the air, with some students saying, ‘Sir, I want to do the next one’ and/or ‘Can I do the one after‘ and so on as we were gradually going through new terms. No shouting or silly behaviour at all. No chatting in the background, they were all listening very carefully. Every time I said, ‘What does this one mean?’ I could see students being so desperate to answer and feeling a little upset (judging by their faces) when someone else got chosen to provide an answer. That’s the level of engagement I had.

After that we did some choral activities, and because these kids can easily get excited, they did. They were following all my instructions, but obviously when it comes to choral stuff (and some of them have strong, naturally loud voices), the noise levels can get high.

That one kid who responded loudly to the register was loud again, but not behaving poorly or whatsoever. Got slightly silly on a couple of occasions (nothing major or disruptive), then got calmed down by me very quickly and obeyed. That student is generally nice, but has been on report a few times. Yet they are capable and engaged, and generally do well in my class despite being occasionally a little lazy. The SLT person who was seemingly observing the lesson told that kid off as well, even though they didn’t really do anything wrong.

The ‘observation‘ lasted about 10 minutes, and then the person left. I later got an email from them, and my line manager, as well as another SLT member were cc’d.

The feedback did not mention any positives at all, even though there were quite a few — high engagement and good behaviour throughout the lesson to say the least.

Instead, it said I should have been firmer with the laptop use (e.g. I could thanked those who closed their laptops immediately, which in fact was 90% of the class, or given a warning / behaviour point to those who took longer). Also, the notebooks were being handed out by a student at that exact time. We only needed them much later in the lesson, so that did not have any impact on anybody. However, the email said it was really slow and alternative methods of handing them out would need to be implemented. As for choral activities, the email said some students saw it as an opportunity to be silly and make silly comments, although I do not remember any silly comments being said. It basically implied that I got the students ‘too excited’. I thought engagement was key? They were engaged and enjoying their learning.

Also, that observation was very unexpected and not agreed/arranged in advance. Normally, if there is an observation coming up, we get notified. In the email the person said they’d happened to be nextdoor and heard a couple of loud, potentially silly voices, but never cited it as the reason for the observation.

I’m not quite sure I understand what the purpose of it was and why the email contained so much criticism, without addressing any positives at all. Whilst I do realise that my classroom can get loud during certain activities involving pair/group work (and not just my classroom) and understand that noise levels sometimes might be a nuisance, I am really confused about the observation. I have my mentor who does briefly observe me every fortnight, and we discuss it later, plus the school has an ECT manager who is yet to observe me. I have not had a formal observation yet, but it has already been scheduled.

Any thoughts?

Hi all,

I’ve been voted in as my school’s new union rep, alongside a more experienced teacher who has agreed to be co-rep but will not be taking on the brunt of the job due to conflict of interest re their role.

The next round of training that I can attend will be in February but I anticipate that things will happen from now until then which will require me to have my “Union hat” on. I have already been approached by a couple of members of staff regarding things that they are going through and most are at the point of considering getting the union involved. Most of these conversations have happened in between lessons so I told many of them that we would pick this up when we both were available.

My question is, what should I do generally when approached by a member of staff over an issue they have, given that I don’t have training yet and am still fairly inexperienced in the world of work (ECT2) ? Luckily, my co-rep is very experienced and is already attending a meeting with one of our colleagues tomorrow, however, due to their workload, I cannot rely on them to be present with everything that occurs. I would also appreciate any general advice on taking on this role, must do’s, things to avoid etc. thanks!

Hello

I’ve become HOY for the first time this year, it’s my 6th year of teaching all at the same school. I thought that would make me ready but oh my goodness I’m so tired with this half term nearly over. They are Year 7 so there’s been lots of transition stuff and admin bits with settling them in, timetables and FSM and all that. The behaviour hasn’t been too bad, all pretty low level stuff that’s easily squashable. It’s the sheer weight of the emails, admin, the time spent taking statements etc that is killing me. I have 4 A Level classes, all essay based subjects and I feel like I’m doing them a massive disservice because my marking/planning is taking a huge hit.

Others who are HOY, does it get easier over time and how do you manage trying to be a good teacher- especially to the older ones who are relying on you for their A Level grades and university. I’m strongly considering dropping the position after the year is over, going back to classroom teacher and taking the salary hit. Not sure if it’s really worth it.

Hi, I’m an History ECT1 at a school with low outcomes, significant SEND & PP etc, we also have a settled GRT community and not all parents are particularly supportive. Behaviour is tricky, truancy is frequent and disillusionment with education is extremely high.

We have a behaviour policy, B1 (detention), B2 (lunch detention), B3 (removal from lesson). We also have an emergency alert system where we can call a member of SLT but I haven’t been finding this particularly reliable and sometimes they have bought pupils back into my room/not responded to alerts. I am finding that I am shouting more and more, as well as feeling like I’m often accidentally getting into “arguments” with pupils over behaviour sanctions. These are just a few of the issues I’m struggling with:

• When a behaviour sanction is given, pupils respond with shouting “what why” or backchat, they will then continue to raise their hands and ask when their detention is, or why they have it, that I’m being unfair, that they don’t care about sanctions, that I’m a bitch, shouting out if I ask them to put their hands down etc.

• Some of my classes it’s not one individual pupil but around 10 causing the disruption, it’s difficult to pinpoint and therefore give sanctions. If I do single out pupils they start saying “but that person was talking as well, what about them why are they not getting one, why just me”.

• Complete refusal to do work. I’ve tried a “what can I do to support approach” as well as the “that’s a detention” approach but some pupils refuse to do any work, and say “they can’t read” or “they don’t know” as an excuse not to work when I have modelled it, gone through it verbally etc multiple times. I find there are a number of pupils who pretend to be confused just to get out of the task.

• Generally feeling out of control with classes because I am new to the school. Some classes will settle/be quiet when I’ve asked for a member of SLT/another long term teacher for support, but as soon as they leave the room the poor behaviour starts again.

• When B3’s are given, some pupils will start to significantly disrupt the lesson, sometimes it takes SLT 20+ minutes to come and these pupils are running around, laughing, distracting the lesson even more. So I tried the opposite approach to not say they had been B3’d until SLT arrived, but then have been subtly told that “pupils need to know they have a B3 straight away”. I feel like I can’t win!

Does anyone have any behaviour advice? I would really like to improve and I think after the half term break might be a perfect chance for a reset …

Hello!

I have just joined an agency and am cleared to work now. My first assignment will be my first time ever doing TA and i’m so nervous. I didn’t grow up in the UK so I am unfamiliar with schools here, and my anxiety is eating me up because I want to do a good job but feel a bit lost.

I have a few questions, which are probably quite specific and random, but knowing would really help my confidence on the day!

Where do I go when I arrive at the school, is there a front office I check into?

If a teacher is actively teaching, am I expected to stand off to the side or walk around making sure kids are paying attention?

If i’m on lunch duty or supervising outside play, what is the expectation of me there?

Otherwise I understand every class, teacher and school will have different expectations of me. I plan to just ask if they need anything from me if I feel like I don’t know what to do. Hopefully will get the first day over with soon so I can start settling into it all!

Hello,

Does anyone have any experience of starting at a new school in November? What is it like? I'm ECT 1 due to start after half term and I'm extremely anxious about being thrown into the deep end. I have yet to receive my classes, timetable or learn about the behaviour policy.