r/TeachingUK

I feel like recently I'm getting a lot of questions that students should be able to figure out themselves. For context I teach high school ages 11-18.

For instance a 12 year old yesterday asked me what to do with his dirty paint brush, he didn't know he was meant to wash it? Another asked me genuinely what day of the week it was, at first I thought he said date. There was probably a dozen more like this.

I feel like I've gotten to the point where I want to refuse to answer questions because they are becoming too reliant on me.

I'm glad they feel comfortable to ask but in a practical subject it's now getting in the way of me supporting students that actually need it.

What's your school doing for Pride this year? Even if you're not doing anything, it'd be good to get an idea of what's happening across the board.

Have a y8 class that groaned and griped about starting a poetry unit. They hate the idea of poetry completely because it’s boring and difficult and generally annoying apparently. I read Manhunt to them by Simon Armitage this week and I got that rumble across the class which I thought was disruption. Typically naughty girls on front row started chatting so I went to admonish and they replied “no miss I was just saying that it actually gave me shivers”. I struggled to control them because they all wanted to talk about it at once.

I've been working in a large, mixed secondary school for about a year now, having been head hunted from another school in the same trust.

I am finding that my teaching philosophy is increasingly out of step with my colleagues. I am quite old school and old fashioned, and I use direct instruction and a warm strict approach. I get good results, my lessons are calm and purposeful and I have good relationships with kids.

However I've always put a strong emphasis on encouraging them to be organised, responsible and self reliant. I insist all students take their exercise books home, as they're their books, not mine, and they should learn to look after them and be equipped. I am in a very small minority of teachers who do this. One of our school values is apparently "resilience", yet colleagues have told me they let their students keep their books in school because "they'd only forget them otherwise". (For the record, very few of my students forget their books).

Today I've had a disagreement with a member of SLT because a Year 10 student was refusing to come to the lesson because he wanted to sit at the back, and I wouldn't allow it. He is a PP, FSM student and his last mock grade was a 1, which is significantly below his peers (he refuses to try). The member of SLT told me that it would "cause too much conflict" if I tried to insist on him sitting at the front and that I should "check his pupil passport" (which just says he should be sat away from distractions). I spoke to the head and she backed me up, but I'm still appalled at his take on the situation.

The question I'm asking really is - does it matter that I don't feel the school lives up to its values? Does it matter that I feel I don't align with the ethos? Am I being dramatic, or should I raise it? The head is usually keen to listen, but she is obviously busy and Ofsted is imminent. The other school within the trust where I worked was the polar opposite, and I feel as if I'm getting into conflict with my colleagues needlessly.

Out of interest, why am I seeing so many posts on FB this time of year advertising Head of Department roles in their schools.

Are these all SLT posting to get an insight/referral on the candidate?

Is there any other reason that someone more junior in the department wouldn’t want to go up?

I would be grateful to hear your experience

Edit: I’m talking specifically about posts from people more junior in the department, looking to replace their HoD. I’m looking for people willing to share their personal experience with why they would decline the opportunity to progress in their department. I’m thinking specifically option subjects where we are often undertimetabled anyway.

So with the results of last night. I'm curious if in a few years time, that if Reform do get into office if you'll all consider still teaching or will leave due to the policies they plan to introduce like a more patriotic(rewritten) curriculum and general bigotry towards the disabled and SEN?

How will you just continue doing what you were doing and teaching what you'll want to teach whether it's in line with their views or not.

With exam season upon us, we thought it useful to have a place to post about them!

A-Levels, BTECs, GCSEs, SATs, any other exams that we’re currently delivering - all discussion is welcome.

This thread is open for speculation over forthcoming exam content, general grumbles about year 11 apathy and outrage over exam board fuck ups. You’re also welcome to share positive news and celebrate the wins; we all work really hard to bring our students to this point and we should feel proud of what we do.

NOTE: This is a subreddit for teachers and school staff. Comments from students, parents and others will be removed.

Partially inspired by the thread about whether or not the current generation of students are able to think for themselves...

Short version of the question: What are your thoughts on incorporating deductive vs inductive reasoning into your lessons? Do you find one more beneficial / effective than the other? Is it important to have both within a sequence? How capable or successful are your students when they attempt each of these?

Deductive reasoning = students are taught key rules or principles, and then apply these to a set of examples or problems.

Inductive reasoning = students are given a set of examples from real life and use these to try to work out a rule or principle underlying them.

Additional context: I am a Latin teacher who will soon be moving to a Head of Department role at an inner-city comprehensive school. Within the UK at least, there's a big emphasis on trying to teach Latin grammar inductively - e.g. give students a passage that contains verbs in different tenses, help them to translate it using context or glossed vocab, then see if they can work out the rules for how to form those tenses. There is some research to support this, but it's mostly based on modern languages rather than Latin itself. I personally prefer teaching with a more deductive method and find it more effective, but before I try to shift the curriculum at my new school towards a deductive approach, I wanted to get some ideas about how deductive and inductive reasoning might work in other subjects to see if there's something that I'm missing.

I am leaving my job at the end of this academic year to work abroad. I am writing my letter of resignation and a bit stuck on what date to put as my last day.

I have spoken to HR and they have said I should put the 31st of July because my new job begins on the 1st of August and this also means I won’t receive any pay in August. I’ve read similar posts from others and they were told that this is not correct and that they should receive full pay in August.

I am a little unsure of what date to put as my last day because my schools inset day is the 21st of August and if I have 31st August as my last day then they would be expecting me to come in and work until the 31st of August.

I have spoken to my union rep who is not sure what I should do, I have emailed someone higher up in my union and am waiting for a response but I thought I’d get some thoughts here too.

Any help is appreciated.

I had a return to work meeting today and was told if I have another sickness I may receive a written warning and that they will contact my new place of employment (September start). Can they contact my new place about my absences or is this against Equality Act 2010, s 60 and UK GDPR article 9?

Hi everyone, ive just been offered a teaching job and went to get my alevel certificates. I thought i had my put grade in correctly for my A level which was an E, turns out when i was writing it i put a C and sent it off. Its only when i was looking back at it today to see what exam board i put down to try and get a replacement that I realised i had put the wrong grade. I havent verbally accepted this offer yet. I want to be honest and tell them but i am so scared they will pull the offer but i an also scared to not say anything and make it even worse. Should i mention it in my email when i accept and just take the loss if it leads to me getting the offer withdrawn.

I’m about to finish my Primary PGCE and I’m looking for a job to start in September. I’m a trans man, I ‘pass’ and I have been living as male for over 10 years as I transitioned as a teenager. I am concerned that I’m being screened out of job opportunities because I have to put my former name on the very front page of application forms. I don’t have a GRC and working with children appears to override that anyway given the wording on the application forms. It’s frustrating because that question appears before they read anything about me, including my personal statement so whoever reads it gets an opinion of me before they know what I have to offer. My current DBS for my PGCE that I use in my placement schools does not state my previous name as I went through the sensitive applications team. Obviously they can’t not give me an interview or not hire me because I’m trans, but they can get away with it by giving any other reason and I’ll never know. I don’t want to face legal issues by lying on my application form either. Has anyone else had an issue with this? Is it just a matter of waiting and hoping the right school won’t ‘care’?

I transitioned from female to male before starting teaching. I hope this can help trans people who want to become teachers, trans teachers who are considering coming out, and cis teachers who are just curious!

For context:

I am very short for a man, and I have long hair but I also have facial hair and a deeper voice. If adults see me from behind they may call me miss, but correct themselves if I speak to them or they see my face, just to give an idea of how I pass. My school has a diverse catchment area, some students go abroad every break and others are very low income or parrot bigoted stuff they've no doubt heard from their parents/online. Your experience may be different in other school environments.

Year 7s misgender me accidentally the most. Usually it's the same kids doing it. They get corrected by their classmates and are very apologetic. They give excuses such as "you just look like a girl" but they don't mean it in a rude way, they're just embarrassed.

Year 8s and 9s also apologise and correct themselves. They get more laughter out of their classmates when they do it, I always feel it's directed at the student and not me. They're more likely to not do it again than year 7s, and I've had a couple of intentional incidents but they stop pretty fast if they don't get a reaction.

KS4/5 are totally fine. Maybe an accident here or there but it rarely happens more than once per student.

I think the key to dealing with this is to treat it like an honest mistake but also do not let it slide. When a student calls me miss, I ask them to try again for me. I let them correct themselves, thank them and immediately move on. I don't ask for an apology but I usually get one.

If it's intentional the student is testing the waters to see what they can get away with. If I act offended, they get social credit from their friends. If I let it slide, they will try to escalate and do it more obviously the rest of the lesson. They see I don't get offended so there's no point in continuing the behaviour and they can pretend it was a mistake to save face in front of their peers.

Hi guys - using a throwaway just to remain private

I’m a core subject secondary teacher in England (not an ECT) with a TLR

- I was originally put on a support plan at the beginning of the year after failing two observations

- Support plan lasted for 8 weeks where I worked with a mentor and I consistently received positive feedback when working on my targets

- Had an observation with HOD and SLT at the end of the 8 weeks and I have failed citing that I hadn’t worked on my targets enough, the feedback I received I felt was unfair and petty

- already have a problematic relationship with my HOD, I’ve definitely felt targeted and treated unfairly in the past and they have a reputation for this

- took this to the union rep, I hadn’t for the original support plan as I wanted to trust the process and thought it would be fair, rep says that the feedback was unfair and petty especially after having evidence of positive feedback from the support plan mentor

- really wasn’t anticipating failing the support plan because I’ve got a new job lined up for a September start but now I’m worried / not trusting that they will fail me for this next support plan and I’ll be moved onto capability before I even start my new school

- as you can imagine, super stressed, the whole process has really made me question my ability as a teacher and I’m finding myself second guessing every decision in the classroom as a result of it - I truly, truly, truly do not believe I’m an incapable teacher and I’ve found the whole process incredibly frustrating

Any advice would be greatly appreciated on how to navigate through the end of this year

Most schools I’ve spoke to or people they’ve known have said the current Y5’s are particularly challenging- is this the case everywhere?

Apologies I know this is exclusively primary but maybe it’s another cohort in secondary.

(I’m hoping it’s not just me having the best year ever!!)

I got the lovely news from safeguarding at the end of the day that a pupil has told them there is a video of me noshing somebody off going round the Snapchat groups.

I think I’m okay, it’s just really bloody shit. They’ve reported it to the police and said they’d support me however they can.

I knew something like this was going to happen just with the progression of AI but it’s shit to have it actually happen.

Hi all,

Does anyone have any support for behaviour management?

I've been told by management that I can't take minutes off their playtime for classroom behaviour, or raise my voice. I have 21 boys andd 10 girls.

The boys are incredibly rowdy, chatty, rude and don't care for adults telling them what to do. My school policy says to have a private chat with them but there's SO many disruptive in my class that if that was what I did, no teaching would get done at all. Parents don't want to be told about classroom behaviour at all.

I'm ECT and feel completely lost on what to do. Is this behaviour normal with a boy heavy class or am I just bad at my job? I got told I looked 'uptight' when teaching on Friday but I honestly feel like there is no support for this behaviour and it's constantly blamed on me having poor behaviour management when I've done observations to see what other teachers do, I follow the school policy where possible (obviously private chats when it's only a few children being disruptive), I like to think I have a good relationship with my class as they do come to me if something is wrong.

Please help 🥺

I'd really appreciate if some experienced teachers gave me their opinion on this: is delaying starting ECT a kiss of death for my career?

Bit of context, I'm finishing up my PGCE this year. I enjoy teaching as a job and love working with the kids. I'm growing as a person and getting more confident every day.

However my girlfriend and I have spoke about doing some long term travelling next year, 2-3 months SE Asia, and I obviously wouldn't be able to get the time off. So I decided not to get into teaching right away. I have some savings from a previous job and secured an office job to start in August at my old company to tide me over until early next year. I didn't really think of it as a big deal.

However when I told few teachers on my placement this they weren't very encouraging. They essentially said it was a 'brave' choice and that it's a red flag to not begin ECT right away. They seemed to think this would dissuade a school taking me on next year.

Bit worried I've messed up here. Would really value a second opinion?

Hi everyone,

I’m a secondary Maths teacher and I’ve already handed in my notice, but I haven’t secured my next role yet.

I had three interviews recently but unfortunately didn’t get an offer, and last week I didn’t receive any new interview invitations. I’m starting to feel quite anxious about whether I’ll still be able to find a suitable role for September.

I’m hoping to move to a school with a stronger culture, clearer systems and better long-term fit, rather than accepting the first available option out of panic.

For those who have changed schools around this time of year, is it normal to have quiet weeks in the job market? Do good Maths roles still come up later in the term?

Any advice or perspective would be really appreciated.