[zoe_emma]

I apologise for the rant but I just feel so demoralised.

As some of you know I am a secondary school teacher. I went back to school when my children were toddlers and studied to get into uni and then teacher training as I really wanted to teach.

We had ofsted in last week and were given 'needs improvement'

I was not observed by them, and all my observations have been graded good or better.

Since they left, the projected grades for end of year have gone up by 2, 3 or even 4 sublevels. This is including my sen class. Then last night I received an email telling me they are changing the topic, and I will be getting lesson plans which take me through to summer. They tell me everything from how to arrange my seating plan to what day to mark the books.

What was the point in training if all they want is someone who can follow instructions? All scope for independent thought has been removed, leaving me feeling a bit sad that I am not being allowed to teach and frankly insulted because I am being treated like an idiot.

I don't want to go to work today. My first job is to meet with my teaching assistants and ask how the interview process is going as they have to 're apply for their own jobs 

[tizaala]

NUT rep for this one , sounds like they are starting to downgrade the school so they can justify closure.

[Ina]

I feel for you. I admire everybody who goes into teaching these days - and then to be treated like this, as you say, like an idiot - it's a wonder anybody would want to be a teacher...

[colliewobbles]

   This is my story too - I started my open university degree when my daughter started school and I was working 30 hours a week.  Was a single Mum but still finally qualified to teach.  Teaching was gonna be my career for life.

I turned round the department I am in now from 13% pass rate to 80%+ in my first two years and have maintained that for the subsequent 6 years.  Our school has gone from low 30's to 56% pass rate in the past two years.  But still that isn't enough.  I am in Norfolk and 'they' are out to get us at the moment - we are one of the counties that they did a swoop on after Derby.  They have annihilated the county in a report, seeing 28 schools in one week and, apart from two, all schools got special measures or needs improvement.  They clearly came with an agenda and went out to 'find' the evidence.

Our heads opening shot after Easter hols was, right, we will see Ofsted very soon (his guess) so everyone has to do all this 'over and above' stuff every day - basically cracking the whip constantly and not allowing us to just teach.  I have got to do 3 reports involving a load of number crunching which I figure is not my job just so that they can have a file of stuff to show Ofsted should they walk through the door.  Today I have 3 members of staff off, two with stress - which will add to my workload as I have to set their work and will probably get cover too. 

Think I may stay home!!  Sadly I think the situation is the same for very many of us and explains why so many want out.  It is no longer a vocation.   

Donna

[zoe_emma]

Tizala the nut rep has had all of her management responsibilities removed and downgraded to classroom teacher. She's lost thousands of pounds a year. Needless to say she has found a job elsewhere and is moving away x

[colliewobbles]

NUT rep for this one , sounds like they are starting to downgrade the school so they can justify closure.

This is the same all over - they want the 'evidence' to turn them into academies - run by academy chains owned by their cronies and privatising education by the back door.

[bloomer]

not a secondary school but i was governor brought in to a c of e school (where governors still have real power) as part of an improvement plan for a needs improving primary school about 10 years ago, it took 5 years of hard work from all the staff and others in the community but at the end the school was getting good with outstanding tendencies, (outstanding was impossible with the catchment as at the time you had to have attendance of over 96% for outstanding and we had families who believed school was an if I feel like it thing...


the hardest thing in an under achieving school is if you have a couple of bad teachers and lots of good ones the bad ones  drag the rest of the school down, but have you ever tried firing a teacher for under performing, its almost impossible!!!


I know lots of the staff where I was involved found the process very stressful, but once they got on board the plan great changes were made for the school and these even started to support the wider community, the school now acts as a model to others of how it should be done!!!


So get to school and hang in there it will get better!!!

[Backinwellies]

As many of you will already have worked out by now I worked in FE colleges for 27 years .... and for the first 20 loved it... despite 2 mergers and much OFSTED panic on occasions
.FE was always the lowest in the education hierachy and took all the first budget cuts . Courses cut from a 30 hour full time courses to the current 16 if you are lucky (only half the teaching staff needed) ..... all the 'vocational' bits were removed from vocational courses leaving 16 hours of maths english, ict  health and safety and if you were lucky a couple of hours practical teaching.     Agriculture also being the lowest of the low (see another tread)  we were first on the chopping board every time.   ( the uni where I did my agric degree was eaten up and spat out by Imperial college... )  .

In final 6 years I had time off with stress,  was made redundant,  had a years counselling ended up teaching just maths and ict .... and got out!   Still miss the students and remember with fondness my 20 years but until education does the cycle (which it always does eventually) and goes back to being education and not a business plan,  all student focussed and passionate teachers are not required!!   rant over!   very sorry to hear you are feeling so bad zoe-emma and Donna....  always here for support if needed.
Linda

[Rosemary]

I'm so glad we're in Scotland. It's not perfect here but it seems to be much, much worse in England.

Sorry it's so rubbish. The two children of a good friend of mine are both secondary school teachers and both seem to love their jobs 

[Ina]

I'm so glad we're in Scotland. It's not perfect here but it seems to be much, much worse in England.

Maybe that's one reason why all the "happiest" places in the UK (according to today's BBC) are up north?

Mind you, they didn't ask me for that survey...

[zoe_emma]

The thing is I really do love my job, I just feel like I'm not being allowed to do it.

We are already an academy and are on the verge of becoming one of the first through schools from 5 to 18 years. We are not an underachieving school- until this time posted always gave us good with outstanding features.

Just fed up today I think. think I have a meeting on Friday to defend my sen kids and try to stop them being set targets they can never achieve. X

[in the hills]

I was a primary teacher before having my children. Sister, now in her 50's, has always taught at primary level and in the same school. It is in the Midlands but in a very poor, challenging area. OFSTED describe it as being of the same class as an inner-city London school in terms of deprivation. They have constantly been in and out of "special measures" (not sure if they still use that term as we have given up discussing it now  ). Things don't really change ..... better one inspection, down the next ..... just a cycle. Causes untold stress on teaching staff .... many don't stay long and this does nothing for stability. My sister job shares and thinks that she and her teaching partner have coped due to only being there half the working week. Parents are as much a problem as the children, but she taught a lot of their grandparents and so she at least is given some respect.


A very difficult cycle to break in that the problems are due mainly to the area served by the school and not bad teaching. Intervention is needed before the children get to school.


I did not agree with a lot of the education system in England. Don't start me about the fact that my son and his peers were given at age 8 a piece of card to carry around stating their "level" for the core subjects.  Crackers.


So glad my daughter has attended the tiny village school, here in Wales ..... OMG what a difference.   

[colliewobbles]

So get to school and hang in there it will get better!!!

Trouble is - there are many, many teachers now that don't believe it will get better.  People's dedication is being tested to the absolute limit and all around me people are off with stress.  There is no autonomy in the job anymore and we are simply not trusted to do the simplest things without being 'checked'.

 On my arrival at work this morning we were told Ofsted are in the school down the road, so they are 'back' in Norfolk and not finished yet.  So we had best make sure we are on our toes 'cos they could come knocking here next.  It is horrible to live in fear of this day-in, day-out and knowing that their agenda is to knock you down and tell you how rubbish you are at your job.

[colliewobbles]

not a secondary school but i was governor brought in to a c of e school (where governors still have real power) as part of an improvement plan for a needs improving primary school about 10 years ago, it took 5 years of hard work from all the staff and others in the community but at the end the school was getting good with outstanding tendencies, (outstanding was impossible with the catchment as at the time you had to have attendance of over 96% for outstanding and we had families who believed school was an if I feel like it thing...

That sounds like a great place Bloomer. 

Did you know that the old 'good' standard became 'satisfactory' in the new gradings a couple of years ago.  That has just been changed again in the new Ofsted regime - what was satisfactory last year is now 'requires improvement'!!!!  The goal posts constantly move.

[doganjo]

I'm glad we're in Scotland too, seems we have more freedom, and hopefully that will also improve even more next September!

My daughter is a primary teacher, (she just returned to work last August) and apart from increased paperwork from when she stopped to have their three children, she has taken back to it like the proverbial duck to water.  She is blooming!

I have only done short stints of teaching (accounts/business studies etc to teenagers) but I never was subjected to nonsense like this.