What is it really like to teach in a primary school today?

...be annotated with notes - What went well/ what did not go well/ how could it be improved? Of course there is still the work to be marked and assessed and the plans for the next day need to be read and understood.
All files must be in order they may be inspected at short notice.
Where is there time to do this in a school day?

The government has now said that every teacher must have a morning or afternoon off each week ...
...- so can you imagine what it is like teaching in school with the management telling you this at every meeting or when a serious conversation is taking place? It is like a record which goes on and on.

For some teachers it is a stress response starter for others the attitude of crying wolf is apparent and they sail on regardless. For me I am just fed up with it and have opted for the wolf's side of the story however unconsciously it ... more

We all have memories of our primary school some people may have memories of bad experiences but generally the people I know have good memories.

I think it is because the primary school is a nurturing institution which aims to make the child feel part of one large family.
As a child I thoroughly enjoyed going to primary school and was lucky to have marvellous, caring teachers. I really do not know whether they were good at their job but they were certainly great with the children. They had enthusiasm and caring natures which in turn made me want to work hard and enjoy their lessons. I do wonder did they ever have as much stress as the school teacher has today.

Many people often say to me 'You have so many holidays how can the teachers be stressed'
On average teachers work 50 to 60 hours a week - longer than the school day for children. Most teachers also work at weekends and in the evenings (totalling up to possibly 80 hrs a week)
Other workers may work a 40 hour week and have less holidays so over the year we could argue that the actual time spent in the office or school is approximately the same.

Working through a timetable for a specific time is always difficult as I know when I worked in an office. Some days I was rushed off my feet while the next I sat on my backside reading a good book. In teaching, every day means being rushed off your feet. Excessive demands all day. Many teachers I know tend to collapse on Friday night and sleep for about eleven hours, Saturday is taken up with cleaning and household chores, Sunday afternoon work. So if the weekend is invariably like that imagine how every day with no time to relax for six to eight weeks takes its toll.

The first week of a holiday is spent recovering - if the holiday is only one week the teacher has generally recovered, done some school work or gone into school to work and feels as if the week was a long weekend.
However many teachers have had some kind of sickness during the working term and have ignored it as best as they can so that when the holiday comes they collapse with exhaustion and the sickness comes two fold.

A report in 2000 indicated that 41% of teachers were highly stressed while approx. 50% had low stress. This figure is rising. The government knows this and teachers have their own free stress counselling phone lines.

Although it is difficult to take an employer to court for stress related problems this is not unheard of and huge sums have been paid out, this is not only for teachers but for other council workers as well.

Workload

Parents bring their child into school not knowing that the teacher they are greeting probably stayed up late marking books the night before. They have probably already worked for an hour and had a meeting for half an hour meaning they are not as fresh and breezy as they actually look.
I tend to think of teaching as multi faceted, yes teachers teach but they also have to learn as well as doing a multitude of other duties.

A short time ago I was teaching in a class when a child vomited over another child there was no one to give immediate care to the children and to clean the vomit except me.
With young children they invariably feel upset when this happens to them and in front of a class it is even worse. Then the fire drill sounds and it is all out in the playground with no coats on a cold windy day. Come back to class and clear up the vomit and get on with the teaching. After of course arranging for someone to get a change of clothing for one child and the other to have someone to come and collect her from school.

I don't find that particularly stressful it is all part of the day but when you add it to the demands of the day with stressed out teachers and management snapping at you, or not having time to talk to you it all builds up to stressful situations.

Lunchtime

The queue on the photocopier disperses with groans as it breaks down for the umpteenth time this term and you have no visuals for the class you are teaching.
You rush to make a quick cup of tea and find all the cups are dirty and there are no spoons
You wash a cup; find a spoon only to find someone has stolen your teabags anyway!

Add to this, the head summoning you to her office because a child in your class was showing his bottom in the playground!
Then there is a telephone call regarding your visit to the museum for sixty children.
To cap the lot you have just been told that you are taking an assembly in the morning -can you plan it?

Continuing on your rounds to finish off your original journey you go to the resource room and find the resources have not been put back but as usual hoarded by the last teacher who used them (Who could that be ? They have not signed the book) or just dumped elsewhere. Or maybe you have five minutes left of your lunch break to eat your lunch- some teachers do not even eat lunch!
Then the bell - you rush off with half a banana in your mouth.

Let's look at an average day.

Arrive in work 7.30. Try to photocopy is there any paper or are we still rationed and the sheets counted out? Blow it, meant to buy my own in Tesco! (Teachers spend a fortune on their own resources - would you buy paper and pencils for the company you work for?
.
At present I am covering classes to allow teachers to have time off for planning.
I have to sort out resources for three different subjects in the morning and two in the afternoon
I can set out the first lesson but for the rest of the day the resources will be set out at the end of the previous lesson. (Sometimes with a one minute turn around to fit the timetable- depends if I am being watched!))
Go to a meeting.
Do an early morning playground duty to ensure the parents are not smoking and children are not spitting and that they are generally treating the playground equipment with respect.
Take the register then take an assembly.
Teach the first lesson.
Go out on duty for play time.
Run to the loo!
Ask children to help put the resources out for next lesson
Teach next lesson.
Finish lesson/ tidy up
Teach next lesson.
Lunch time
Go to next class and set out resources
Meeting to arrange school related business.
Take phone calls /make phone calls.
Grab lunch
Go to loo

Afternoon
The same except there is no break.
Home time maybe a child is not collected until late and then someone turns up to collect them in their dressing gown and bare feet. (Hold on here - is this person fit to collect this child? - more problems- mental note remember details to write up report later)
Ot maybe take an after school club which I have organised and prepared.
Or go to an inset to learn or refresh knowledge in any one of a multitude of subjects which are not necessary about teaching subjects but may be administration work like writing a school policy. Hopefully the inset will be in the school otherwise a journey, a different venue, invariably late! Then prepare to learn. The journey home is longer hence a longer day.
This is an easy day. Without the problems we have with various children fighting or breaking rules.

Although the unions have stated that there are about twenty one administrative jobs that teachers should not do - we still do them. For example arranging and putting up displays, taking responsibility of the dinner money and other monies due to the school.
Believe me this is only one example - the tip of an iceberg.

A relaxing evening at home

Every lesson plan has to be annotated with notes - What went well/ what did not go well/ how could it be improved? Of course there is still the work to be marked and assessed and the plans for the next day need to be read and understood.
All files must be in order they may be inspected at short notice.
Where is there time to do this in a school day?

The government has now said that every teacher must have a morning or afternoon off each week to do this work. Ha! Ha! In school? Yes, that is why I am covering the teachers lessons but invariably there is so much other work to be done that can only be done in school, I mean how many teachers can take a display board home with them in their school bag?

To me the main word is teach - it is hardly mentioned in my school day above and yet this is the vital role of the employment

Ofsted

We may get notification any day now; we may get notification any day now. How boring when we repeat ourselves - so can you imagine what it is like teaching in school with the management telling you this at every meeting or when a serious conversation is taking place? It is like a record which goes on and on.

For some teachers it is a stress response starter for others the attitude of crying wolf is apparent and they sail on regardless. For me I am just fed up with it and have opted for the wolf's side of the story however unconsciously it lurks and gives nightmares. Why should teachers be put under this daily pressure? We all know the answers of accountability but what annoys me is that most teachers are extremely dedicated and work far beyond their payslips and have a huge guilty conscience if they are off sick. We also know that in teaching as in some other employment there is huge observation on the actual delivery of the work they do.

The Government advisors cannot seem to make their mind up. For example in one inspection at a school I worked for, a teacher was told after an inspection that the alphabet chart was too high and yet in my class it was fine (even though it was the same height) Also I was told not to have number lines stuck to the table and the following inspector praised me for having number lines stuck to the table. Sounds very petty but rest assured the moderators and inspectors always seem to comment on something no matter how good your teaching is.

All teachers have to take constructive criticism it is part of the job and yet in all honesty who really, if they have worked their socks off can take it. All people in whatever job they do will have off days and if they are being watched and written about while they are doing their job they will feel under pressure. They are bound to make mistakes and I know that sometimes when I have finished a lesson where I have been observed I can kick myself for forgetting to do some simple routine job that I always tend to do like writing the learning objective on the board! Yet it all goes down on paper to be filed away in the heads office and held against you if the need comes to it.

Cover/supply versus full time teaching.

I have worked as a class teacher and as a cover teacher; the cover teacher is a bit like supply except a teacher works in the same school with the same classes each week.

However working as cover I find difficult as the continuity of working with the same children is obviously impaired. On a supply basis I can understand why teachers complain about supply teachers 'walking in a class teaching and walking out again for their £180 a day fee' From my experience supply is not good for the children's education.

I have found the continuity to be difficult - what I mean is that to educate a child we need to scaffold the learning, we need building blocks, staying with the same children enables teachers to do that, they recognise where an individual child is in their learning and can then progress to build upon that stage each day. Whereas without that scaffolding the teaching is taught in isolation, even though the teacher may follow the plans thoroughly, somehow it just does not work in the long term especially if the supply teachers keep changing.

If your child is continually being taught by different supply teachers have a word with the school perhaps they can hire one for a term instead of daily. Most schools now are beginning to realise this and hence they select experienced teachers to work as cover from their own school

Conclusion.

What is it really like to teach in a primary school today? I would say very difficult, tiring, stressful, hard work and the teacher will need to be able to switch their mindset to a hundred tasks or more in one day. Maybe this is why there are more female primary teachers, as I have read that women multitask better than men.

So we may ask, why teach?
Having worked outside of teaching I can assure you that there is a huge amount of personal satisfaction watching a child grow and learn. It is a satisfaction that I could never match before in my employment.

The recognition of a concept on a child's face is a wonderful experience.

The dilemma of realising that a child cannot understand the way we have been told to teach something and the processes teachers go through to find a way to teach an individual child is fascinating.

The learning process and the different ways to teach and learn are interesting for the adults as well as the children - the building blocks of education.
There is a huge amount of achievement in a class in one year and to know that you have personally helped those children, to give them confidence and interest in their learning has no price tag.

It is the teaching and the children who matter.

Management

Personally I think that schools need a business input for the management. More than often teachers go straight into schools with no business skills. A school is a business it is accountable to the government, to the parents and to the future generations of our children.

The majority of stress on the teachers I place squarely in the hands of the Government and management of the schools. Some managers lack people skills, some lack administrative skills. I would not endorse managers coming into schools from businesses without some teaching experience and I do think that teachers should have some kind of office or managerial experience too.
I also believe that managers should not be promoted unless they have worked in an outside business environment -courses are not the be all and end all of learning how to manage people or businesses, real world practical experience like work experience would benefit managers of schools enormously as well as the staff who work under them.

So why don't the managers in schools have a gap year in business and the business managers have a gap year in school perhaps this would take the stress off the teachers - after all how easy is it - to order some photocopying paper?

Teacherofhooch 

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