Newspaper article this morning on the BBC news site:

More than 50% of teachers in England ‘plan to quit in next two years’

I am entirely unsurprised.? Over successive governments, there have been, in my opinion, two driving questions in their thoughts about how to deal with education: What did the last government do that we can undo?? How can we make ourselves look good to the electorate?? Conspicuous by its absence is any consideration of what is good for teachers, pupils, parents, the future of the country, especially where it might involve any genuine consultation, not just lip service.

Having just retired, I feel in a favoured position.? I can say that I reached an age where I felt I had done my duty and need to take my ease for as many years as I can.? That is, truly, only part of the story.? A very large part, to be sure, but there were other factors in the background.

I was at the same school for fourteen years before I doffed the mantle.? I served under three different heads and survived three inspections.? When I left, I was the longest serving full-time member of staff – only two other part-timers had been there longer than I had.? Over the course of my forty-odd year career, I had seen National Curriculum born, the various changes in it? (sometimes directly contradicting each other) and watched levels come and go.? I had seen the inception of Academies for ‘all the right reasons’ and their growth for all the wrong ones.? In all those changes, the most frequently heard cry was that it would improve education.? Whether those who made these decisions actually believed what they were saying, I fear we will never know, but of one thing I am rock solid certain: teachers bore the brunt every time.? Changes in pay, working conditions and PPA (planning, preparation and assessment) time were only the tip of the iceberg.? It was at ground level where, on a daily basis, they were (and still are) struggling with fitting in their lunch, looking after and supporting pupils who were not keeping up, running clubs to ‘enable’ the Gifted and Talented (now called something else again) that the excess stresses begin to mount.

In my own six-seven week summer ‘holiday’, I would frequently spend the first two trying to relax (mindful of all the work I had to do), if I was lucky I went on a holiday away from home (always feeling guilty as I thought of all the work I had to do) and spent the last two week before the return to school doing all the work I had to do.? Then came the latest incarnation of the Curriculum.? In September 2014, the curriculum was revised yet again.? It would be too long and tedious – and pointless – to go through it all but the bit that concerned me was Computing.? We were no longer to teach ICT (Information and Communication Technology) but a curriculum for our time.? I had long acknowledged that kids come in to school at the tender age of four/five being more computer literate than their forebears.? I had adjusted my teaching over the years to accommodate this and I had received numerous messages from ex-pupils on how useful my teaching had been.

I do not have the expertise for the new curriculum.? I cannot teach coding to five-year-olds.? I found, in the September of 2014, that I was going in on the first day completely unrefreshed after all those weeks away from school.? I saw dark clouds on the horizon in the form of an inspection, as we had a new head and it’s normal to have an inspection after one has been in place for a year.? We were also due for one in the inspection cycle.? I am a good teacher but enough is? enough.

If I felt like that after all the years I had been in the classroom and adapted to each new initiative, directive and shock to the system that different governments threw at my beloved profession, how were the younger generations, who hadn’t had time to harden, going to cope?? Perhaps losing droves of teachers is exactly what the government wants.? It would mean that the upcoming generation would be less educated and, therefore, less questioning.? Even businesses are beginning to say that they ignore university degrees as they aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.

Good luck, my fellow professionals – do NOT suffer in silence!? Good luck, Future.? I hope it all works out for you.