Teachers leaving Academy schools in droves

[Debster99]

As a FE teacher and a mother of a child currently in secondary education ( Kingsdale ) i would just like to forward a point of view from someone in the system & someone who is very worried about the future of schooling in the UK.

I read both the article in the Guardian & the subsequent comments , many removed for obvious reasons.

I worked in the fashion industry for years before making a jump into FE with a view of giving something back to our youth. Over the last few years with the funding issues , constant paper trails , bullying to achieve targets , E&D to the extreme i too find myself completely disillusioned to the degree that for the first time in 25 yrs i took a weeks sick leave.

Despite the common view we have oodles of time off & are a bunch of dossers the reality is many of us work unbelievable hours , planning , remarking , enrichment , weekend recruitment etc & this pressure has increased dramatically over the past 2 years under Gove. Many of my colleagues are also leaving education in droves to return back into Industry where an opinion is listened to & a working life negotiable.

Re Kingsdale as many other schools i suspect this is the same & there is no sinister reason for high turnover just a desire for individuals to remain sane or relocate to easier options. Many secondary school teachers are going into Primary where the pressure is less - at the moment. The fact that they have had just large movement may also coincide with the increase in popularity of this school. There is a huge expectation on the school to deliver & many teachers won't follow this dream as the reality of working hours becomes extreme.

As a mother, my son had a science teacher this year who was clearly disengaged , didn't mark homework and generally left a view that they weren't cut out to teach. They left & was replaced by a young graduate who has breathed life into the class.

Please try to view the larger picture when making such generalised comments about any school. Any of us with kids realise the importance of education and it is very disappointing as a parent to see personal attacks on one school.

Sorry for long ramble & i hope that this won't set off another attack on a school that i think is doing a great job for our kids.