One in five new teachers leaving.

I loved teaching but when I started,
I kept a reading record and a maths record, and a notebook about day to day problems children were having that needed addressing- e.g. worries about playtime, toilet issues, lack of suitable clothing, rough play that needed monitoring, all set up by me to tell me what I needed to know about each child and their progress and not formatted or monitored by someone else.

There was no TA for my 38-40 R/Y1 children, but I did value a couple of parent volunteers who came each afternoon.

It was my job to know what children needed to learn, to adapt it to the various abilities and to make it as engaging as possible.

Children mostly knew how to play and to take turns and share. They would come in bursting to share extra information about a topic we were doing (not set as homework) and poor behaviour, though not invisible, was dealt with, with parental support.

When I left recently, the paperwork was unbelievable, the learning so prescribed that it took much more effort to make it engaging for all the differently labelled children in the class, though at least there were only 30.
Although in the main, parents were still supportive, about 1/3 of the parents were regular complainers and the parents only FB page I had access to, showed exactly how disrespectful some of the parents were.

Would I teach again? No. I was exhausted.

Would I encourage others? Yes!

It’s a great profession and if you were starting now, you’d learn about the paperwork and the prescribed nature of the curriculum whilst training.
It wouldn’t be forced on you to improve performance, when what you were doing already worked.
Parental behaviour might come as a shock, but it isn’t all of them.

Yes!

Silvershadow

Rosie51

Silvershadow

If a child has a medical condition and there might be an excuse for nappies that’s one thing.

Lazy can’t be bothered parenting is another. No child should start school in nappies without a properly diagnosed medical condition. That’s the way it always was and should still be the same.

Some children are just very late in learning bladder and bowel control and signals. Some children even wet the bed up to age 7 or 8 without any 'medical diagnosis' of anything wrong. How are you going to determine which child falls into these categories and which are the result of 'lazy parenting'? Given that financial penalties are used against parents for taking their children out of school for holidays because of the importance of education you'd still be prepared to deny children an education because they had lazy parents? No child should be held accountable for their parents.

Are they being educated while they’re having nappy changes? What about the majority of pupils in that class being denied an education because of disruption for nappy changing. Don’t they count?

Just because your grandchild has a medical condition doesn’t mean that’s the same for every child in nappies. We all see the results of feckless parents in shopping malls, in the high street, in day to day life. Nothing to do with medical conditions.

I don't deny there are feckless parents, and if you read my posts carefully you will see I have not said every child in nappies has a medical condition, and indeed my own grandchild with severe co-morbidities was toilet trained day and night by 3 so nappies at school never applied. I asked how you are going to distinguish those children who do not have a medical condition/diagnosis but are just physically late developers from those whose parents are lazy. And are you happy to deny education to late developers and the children of lazy parents? It's a yes or no question. I'm not disputing that it is an intolerable position for schools to be in and of course the other children count too.

There have always been "uncivilised" children. Lord of the Flies was published in 1954. They are not that different in 2026.

Rosie51

Silvershadow

If a child has a medical condition and there might be an excuse for nappies that’s one thing.

Lazy can’t be bothered parenting is another. No child should start school in nappies without a properly diagnosed medical condition. That’s the way it always was and should still be the same.

Some children are just very late in learning bladder and bowel control and signals. Some children even wet the bed up to age 7 or 8 without any 'medical diagnosis' of anything wrong. How are you going to determine which child falls into these categories and which are the result of 'lazy parenting'? Given that financial penalties are used against parents for taking their children out of school for holidays because of the importance of education you'd still be prepared to deny children an education because they had lazy parents? No child should be held accountable for their parents.

Are they being educated while they’re having nappy changes? What about the majority of pupils in that class being denied an education because of disruption for nappy changing. Don’t they count?

Just because your grandchild has a medical condition doesn’t mean that’s the same for every child in nappies. We all see the results of feckless parents in shopping malls, in the high street, in day to day life. Nothing to do with medical conditions.

One of my GDsis a teacher. She says it is more like crowd control these days. No respect from the children or their parents and a lot of entitlement

My M-in-Law was a primary school teacher and tried to persuade me to I follow in her footsteps but I saw her....in the 1960's....... marking piles of homework in the evenings by the fire. I trained as a Social Worker instead. Loved it!.... even though I was required to work Out of Hours as part of my contract for 16 of my 25 years, as well as the occasional overtime when dealing with a complex situation or, unpaid!, catching up with paperwork.. Wouldn't do it now, though, sadly........too much accountability, prescriptive paper work and very, very scarce resources... thanks to the last Conservative government. Saw on TV recently a "Social Care Assessor" - a small part of my previous jobs -, presumably because, I've read elsewhere, that Social Workers are quietly leaving in droves but my former profession has been vilified by certain Sectors of the press for decades....so very little publicity about that. Job
Done!

A big part of the problem is that Pupils and Parents have not respect for teachers authority, just like the Police fighting against "authority" is seen as fair game today.

When we all went to school disrespecting a teacher got you into serious trouble, now it's just an everyday irritation.

Children starting school in nappies is a no no I think. When my children started school it was made very clear that all children had to be toilet trained. Why is that no longer the case?

Mine had to be toilet trained before they were allowed to start pre-school at two and a half years old!
This was in the days of terry nappies.

Silvershadow

If a child has a medical condition and there might be an excuse for nappies that’s one thing.

Lazy can’t be bothered parenting is another. No child should start school in nappies without a properly diagnosed medical condition. That’s the way it always was and should still be the same.

Some children are just very late in learning bladder and bowel control and signals. Some children even wet the bed up to age 7 or 8 without any 'medical diagnosis' of anything wrong. How are you going to determine which child falls into these categories and which are the result of 'lazy parenting'? Given that financial penalties are used against parents for taking their children out of school for holidays because of the importance of education you'd still be prepared to deny children an education because they had lazy parents? No child should be held accountable for their parents.

I always taught y7 and upwards and take my hat off to those who coped with infants and juniors.

Teaching is a profession and deserves more respect than it often gets, esp from parents.

I don't think I would go back to teaching now. When
I started parents and the community had respect for the schools and education. I saw that diminish .I mostly enjoyed the work, especially developing new ideas at the teacher's centre. This was after school or weekend.Not sure if I would do it again .I feel cross when I read about parents failing to support their child's school .

After my technical high school ( similar to gramnar) went comprehensive my then headmaster told me he and the staff hadn't realised how lucky they were before the change. It's not surprising teachers are leaving the job given feral kids, feral parents, etc.

Forty years ago, yes, I would have been a teacher. In the current climate definitely not. I really would feel exhausted after having to prepare, facilitate, and deliver all the requirements of the current curriculum and society. A law office for me all the way!

If a child has a medical condition and there might be an excuse for nappies that’s one thing.

Lazy can’t be bothered parenting is another. No child should start school in nappies without a properly diagnosed medical condition. That’s the way it always was and should still be the same.

Children starting school in nappies is a no no I think. When my children started school it was made very clear that all children had to be toilet trained. Why is that no longer the case?
I may be wrong but I thought because some children have medical reasons why they're still in nappies at school starting age it was considered no child could be discriminated against for being in nappies. My grandson who initially went to standard schools before switching to specialist complex needs provision was toilet trained but many children with similar co-morbidities such as his will not be toilet trained at 5.

Quite apart from any personal views on this, it's a very worrying statistic for education.
Are we heading for a situation in which school staffing is mostly young, new teachers, just developing their skills, who, then, leave and are replaced with the next tranche of inexperienced people?
That would not be good.

It will depend on the school, the type of pupils and parents, discipline in the school, support given to new teachers, mentoring etc. The area will also play a big factor in the demographics, support given by parents to education. Lots of factors in play. Children starting school in nappies is a no no I think. When my children started school it was made very clear that all children had to be toilet trained. Why is that no longer the case?

I left teaching high school after a couple of years and taught disadvantaged adults. Much better and much more civilised. Then I went into social work which was better again. I continued to teach adults in the evenings, they were an absolute joy to teach and so appreciative.

I loved teaching. I came to it late-34- and embraced the job fully. I took on new responsibilities and changes to my teaching methods wholeheartedly. I did a four year secondment and thoroughly enjoyed that too. I retired at 60 because I was exhausted. I didnt have the same links to the pupils anymore, although I was still a good teacher and got very good results. It was the endless paperwork which did for me; paperwork which did nothing to improve teaching but was about making teachers more accountable. It coincided with a terrible Head of Faculty who was promoted beyond his capabilities and was, and still is apparently, the laziest person in teaching I have known. He relied on staff doing his job for him and doing things he was paid for, not us. I was glad to go

No I couldn’t be a teacher today. If one of the little blighters chucked a chair at me I’d probably clout him and end up sacked or in prison.

I think a year as an assistant is good preparation for many jobs/professions. If they could be paid an "assistant" level of pay and not minimum wage which probably is not possible in some areas of work where the company cannot afford to employ someone not productive from day 1.

I am not surprised, particularly if it is students with a degree who then do a nine months PGCE, which is very pressured, and is insufficient time to discover whether you have an aptitude for teaching or whether you actually want to do it. Working as a TA is a good preparation, but it is a shock for some when they have to assume full responsibility as a teacher; I have seen it happen several times.

I expect it depends on the school, the head, the children and the parents.