Primary School Teacher - Totally Disillusioned!

Ray Donovan

This post has been a long time coming but I need to vent. And please bare with me as it may meander but hopefully the points will be clear and obvious.

I am a primary school teacher in an urban town in the midlands. We are an all boys school with an enrollment of roughly 200 students from 2nd to 6th and I live around 45 minutes away from school.

When I started teaching ten years ago, needless to say I was full of beans and enthusiasm for the job, although having been slightly brainwashed by Mary I as to what teaching actually entailed.

I was dipped during my first year and that was a tough year with all the notes that were expected for a dip student etc but I plugged away safe in the knowledge that the paperwork would lessen in my 2nd year. And here within lies the issue that I have seen grow over the last number of years. The amount of paperwork now expected has become an absolute travesty. Termly plans for the 11 subject areas each term and 27 page fortnighlty plans every second week. Without any exaggeration I am doing 50% MORE paperwork now than I was doing for my Dip year.

Paperwork takes me around 2.5 to 3.5 hours every week after school. Now to some this may be called planning but I associate planning with getting lessons ready for the next day and not typing ream after ream of notes to put in a folder that is of absolutely no benefit to my teaching and is only done to save me a bollicking from the inspector if she comes in the door. This paperwork in no way improves the delivery of education to my classes and actually I feel it lessens the quality of my teaching as after all the paperwork I get so pissed off I find it hard to get the motivation to actually get the lessons prepared to a high standard. I find myself constantly behind a laptop.

Along with this I am the GAA coach in the school - football in the Autumn and hurling in the Spring / Summer) I have noticed that this is the only extracurricular activity that is done after school. Green Schools, Choir, Quiz Teams etc all takes place during the school day but the expectation is that I will train these teams after school.

Which brings me onto Croke Park hours - The biggest kick in the teeth to teachers that ever was created. I give up hours and hours every year training teams and bringing teams to matches and to be told, "tough luck buddy you have to do another 36 hours a year on top of that, but by the way you can't do your paperwork during those hours" is some kick in the you know where.

And as an example during our last Croke Park hours we went looking at the school SESE plan and attempted to review it - that's fair enough but should that not be the job of the teacher who's post of responsibility is SESE. We have a teacher in that role and he is getting paid for it.

But it's really the paperwork that is the straw that has broken the camel's back for me. It's never ending and totally non-beneficial. Yesterday I drove to school and spent the day there doing paperwork. I would regard myself as quite diligent in my work and this was the only way I could see a chance to get this done with all the training and matches I have coming up when we get back. And God only knows what else we will be asked to do in the next Croke Park meetings.

Before the holidays my LS teacher came in and went through the paperwork that is now expected for IEP's etc. I actually said to her "I cant take any more paperwork, I really can't".

And it looks like this is only going to get worse. The INTO are doing absolutely nothing about it. And there's no way I can see myself going trough this for the next 30 years. I wake up in the morning and teaching is about 7th on my list of to do's due to what is expected now after school. As I've said to my principal the enjoyable part is 9.20 to 3.00. After that it's a killer with the volume of paperwork I've to face into. It's sad that I pray to God I have the same class next year so that would at least lessen the paperwork workload.

I'd love to know what other people's experiences are. Do I need to grow a pair and get on with it or have I justifiable complaints here? Where will this paper trail end? The last job I would recommend any Leaving Cert student to look for is primary school teaching.

fin12

I was speaking to a primary teacher about two weeks ago and they also mentioned about the paperwork being so much now because I my brother is train8ng at the moment and I just mentioned to them about all the paperwork he had to do and assumed that once he qualified it would lessen but was told that’s not the case, so you are definitely not the only one th8nking about this.

Slightly of topic but I read an article a few weeks back about a newly qualified guard leaving the Gaurds because he was doing nothing but paperwork so it’s obviously happening in other jobs too.

evolving_doors

I've heard this mentioned in the media vox pops at the conferences this week, But really all you'll get in reply is "ya it's terrible isn't it, ya ya ya shur that's the way it's going isn't it!".

Forget about strikes and industrial action. The only way people would sit up and take notice was if the GAA/extra curricular were effected.

Would your job be in jeopardy if you took a break from the extra curricular?

Samsarah

I agree with everything that you have said. Paperwork has become a priority now as far as the powers to be are concerned, it’s very difficult for the class teachers who work with a group of children day in day out because more often than not that hard work is not affirmed. I have been teaching for almost two decades and it’s definitely getting worse with teachers under pressure with incidentals going on. I don’t know how the inspectorate were able to get away with doing this. It’s an insult to people working in the frontline in the profession. It’s a distraction that results in children losing out in the long run as teachers spend so much energy ticking boxes for the inspector rather than focusing on the needs of the children they work with. Not to mention the lack of transparency in how the inspectorate operate, and their lack of accountability.

As regards the INTO, I for one have cancelled my membership, that union is no longer fit for purpose.

The only advice I can give you is to try if you can to detach yourself from the paperwork, and the unwelcome visits that have been forced on us, and make the most of your work with the children because it sounds to me like you enjoy that. If you look at the bigger picture the children matter most. That is what makes the work rewarding. Try to see it from that perspective.

I’ve been so stressed with paperwork, but I try to keep it to a minimum, and yes I dread that stranger walking in the door, and I have had a very upsetting experience in this regard, But I still try to make the most of my work with the children because that’s what makes the job worthwhile for me.

Maybe you could give the after school work a break for a while, see if someone else can do it for a change.

TheDriver

Samsarah wrote: »

As regards the INTO, I for one have cancelled my membership, that union is no longer fit for purpose.

Remember you and your colleagues are the union. The only way to make change is if people in their local branch speak out.

I think your extra Curricular activities may need a break for a while unless you really love doing them?

the_syco

Ray Donovan wrote: »

I give up hours and hours every year training teams and bringing teams to matches and to be told, "tough luck buddy you have to do another 36 hours a year on top of that, but by the way you can't do your paperwork during those hours" is some kick in the you know where.

I don't teach as a profession. I thought kids how to swim for an hour every Saturday night once, but stopped as I started working in a cinema that had late hours.

If you're not loving spending your time off teaching, teaching gaaaaa, don't do it if don't have to. Take a season off, and see how it goes.

=-=

Off topic; am surprised no-one has computerised the work that you have to do every week, with the pages of crap!

Irish Wolf

TheDriver wrote:

Remember you and your colleagues are the union. The only way to make change is if people in their local branch speak out.

The Union... LOL!

The Union is a busted flush. Former SIPTU CEO, Jack O'Connor, trying to salverling up more gravy!

Wesser

I understand that paperwork is very frustrating.
It is increasing in every job.
I completely understand your frustration.
However if you compare your job to other peoples.
You said you teach 9.20 an to 3 pm.
So that leaves 20 mins every morning and 2 hours every afternoon to do your paperwork.
Most of us in other jobs are only starting the paperwork at 5pm.....

Minderbinder

Why stay in Ireland? Unless you’re really tied down and your partner/kids can’t move then there are plenty of countries that would be delighted to have you and you’d be saving a lot more money than I imagine you do in Ireland.

Take China, albeit an extreme example for some. I know teachers here getting up to 40,000rmb a month at international schools with free accommodation and free meals at school. They’re basically saving the most of that, depending on your lifestyle you could save possibly €40,000 a year in China.

I know schools desperately looking for teachers with your skills and experience.

I’m sure there are other western countries to where you could go.

Just a thought.

2xj3hplqgsbkym

Wesser wrote: »

I understand that paperwork is very frustrating.
It is increasing in every job.
I completely understand your frustration.
However if you compare your job to other peoples.
You said you teach 9.20 an to 3 pm.
So that leaves 20 mins every morning and 2 hours every afternoon to do your paperwork.
Most of us in other jobs are only starting the paperwork at 5pm.....

I'm not a primary school teacher ( I'm secondary ) but I have kids in primary school, so I know how ridiculous this suggestion sounds!

Do you think a primary school teacher could sit in their classroom immediately before or after school without parents / pupils calling in for a chat??

Do you not think the primary school teacher has stuff to organise for the 30 kids in their classroom for the day at 9.00 and stuff to tidy up and organise for the next day at 3.00?

I do t know what all this paperwork is but I would well believe it is completely superfluous and only necessary to satisfy the inspectorate .
Have primary teachers any area online where these resources are shared ? For example , Could you upload your plans / schemes and then I could download and edit to suit my class/school?
Do the plans have to be redone every year or can some be re used?

I know when I started teaching the first few years I had so many notes to do , but now I have them all done there is little preparation needed for notes. However with the new Junior Cycle being introduced , the next few years will involve loads more planning and paperwork , so I am hoping that secondary school teachers will share these plans in a similar way as it is completely ludicrous for thousands if teachers writing up the same plans thousands of times when we could just share with other schools.

spurious

There's paperwork and paperwork.

Nobody minds the paperwork that is useful, but it's the reams of stuff that nobody will ever look at. Paperwork for the sake of it.

Remember all those IEPs? Rotting away in cupboards, along with schemes of work, waiting 'in case' there's an inspection, but not opened otherwise? You have your 'scheme' and then you have your actual real world constantly evolving plan of what you want to get done. Ne'er the twain shall meet.

What an utter waste of time and resources.

Wanderer78

We seriously need to stop all this evaluating stuff, it's just completely time wasting, we need to be giving kids more time, teaching more important life skills. Best of luck, sounds like an awful industry to be in at the moment

endacl

Wesser wrote: »

I understand that paperwork is very frustrating.
It is increasing in every job.
I completely understand your frustration.
However if you compare your job to other peoples.
You said you teach 9.20 an to 3 pm.
So that leaves 20 mins every morning and 2 hours every afternoon to do your paperwork.
Most of us in other jobs are only starting the paperwork at 5pm.....

I'd say there's some point to your paperwork, though. Not just to be done for it's own sake...

gaiscioch

Ray,

At this stage I'd tick the boxes with all the right coloured pens, go online and copy and paste other people's shít, juggle it about and throw it into an old folder, and tick that box too. Just keep ticking those boxes and using those *buzz words* and you'll be a great teacher. The best in Ireland - but you'll have tough competition as we're all going there too. That is all.

Yeah, if you're permanent don't bother doing the extracurricular stuff. I know it's usually the most personally rewarding but something has got to give for each and every one of us. Protect yourself. If you're not permanent, you're fúcked. Sorry about that. Keep the head down, do as you're told and remember: you can never give enough to the glorious job. If you're blessed enough to be permanent after 10 years, you should be saying all 15 decades of the rosary every evening in gratitude.

Just keep those forms filled in and attending those meetings. Quality doesn't matter - that's silly old thinking. Talk about quality and write about quality but when it comes to teaching, sure after all those meetings and paperwork where in the name of Jesus would you have the energy for running quality classes? Fortunately, that minor detail doesn't actually matter as long as you can copy and paste something really reflective and throw it in the appropriate form/lesson plan/objective.

As that poor, poor fella shouted from the courtroom dock in 1867, having just been sentenced to death: God Save Ireland!

The Wordress

Sounds like you're killing yourself with the paperwork.

This is where the school should come together and start sharing your paperwork from year to year. One person has 6th class one year, then they share their paperwork with the next teacher who has 6th class.

At the end of the day, we all teach the same curriculum and should have the same work covered at the end of the year.

The school should have a shared network of resources too. I have seen this done successfully in a school I taught in.

For IEPs, I have seen teachers with one page IEPs. I have seen other with up to 10 page IEPs.

When I worked as a LS teacher for the first time, I spent ages doing my first set of IEPs to perfection. Now I C&P from those IEPs as best I can if it's applicable to another child.

If your class are old enough, get them to correct their own work and check back on it every fortnight say.

There is no point reinventing the wheel.

We all need to focus on our teaching and lesson content. Not dust collecting.

the_syco

Wesser wrote: »

However if you compare your job to other peoples.
You said you teach 9.20 an to 3 pm.
So that leaves 20 mins every morning and 2 hours every afternoon to do your paperwork.
Most of us in other jobs are only starting the paperwork at 5pm.....

You're forgetting about the homework they have to correct. Also, the paperwork you do will probably assist you in the job, or assist the company in some way.

The paperwork teachers have to fill out is ass-covering, and no-one may even check it. They may be doing it for years, and there's only a small chance that someone will turn up some day, and ask to see it!

byhookorbycrook

IEPs have been done away with in favour of continnuum of support- which means more work for the class teacher. The new curriculum is going to be an absolute nightmare for class teachers as it apes the fai;ed English system, but where a teacher must know on what stage every single child is and have paperwork to back it up. I love teaching, but am so glad to be on the road to retirement, the job is being destroyed by pointless box ticking that will not do anything to improve outcomes for our students. I actually told 3 past pupils this year NOT to go into teaching.

judeboy101

Tell the principal due to money constraints you can't continue the gaa after school as you have a second job to work.

nice_guy80

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

IEPs have been done away with in favour of continnuum of support- which means more work for the class teacher. The new curriculum is going to be an absolute nightmare for class teachers as it apes the fai;ed English system, but where a teacher must know on what stage every single child is and have paperwork to back it up. I love teaching, but am so glad to be on the road to retirement, the job is being destroyed by pointless box ticking that will not do anything to improve outcomes for our students. I actually told 3 past pupils this year NOT to go into teaching.

Paperwork for the sake of paperwork!
All these termly and fortnightly plans and other stuff sitting in folders when a plan taking 2/3 pages would suffice.
SSE- an exercise in bull****ology
New language curriculum - if this is the model being followed for the rest of the subjects them i will be changing career. Will nobody shout stop and ask what the fecking direction the education system is heading in?
School support? Don't make me laugh.

Management in schools have a lot to answer for - they seem to be scared ****less of inspectors and the department instead of it being the other way around.
The staff need time to work on paperwork. A sensible principal would give that time to staff once a month
And this idea that you could upload stuff/download stuff and edit stuff to make things easier - It is still time spent on non important stuff.
I'd rather be looking for photos, videos and other actual content that will engage the kids and get them thinking about what they are learning.

Bells21

I completely agree in terms of the amount of meaningless paper work that is being forced on teachers. I work in Infants, the kids go home at 2 and school is finished at 3. I would prefer to spend that hour having activities and items for lessons set up and ready to go for the following day. Instead, I spend that hour writing up notes on behaviours/issues/challenges that the children have. I need these in case I need to approach parents about possibly making a referral, which is more paper work. I also need these in order to put together a support plan for that child, more paper work. During the course of the day I might also need to complete checklists or ABC charts to also inform this paperwork. I am not a speech/language therapist/occupational therapist/NEPS psychologist, which senior management are at pains to drill into us(as if we aren't already aware) and yet we're supposed to complete this paperwork and fill in gaps with these children until it is their turn on the waiting list-usually years down the line. I am a teacher, I want to teach.

evolving_doors

For a few kids with additional needs they are at their peek academically (maybe more so in secondary). So be very careful setting academic targets, parents may be in a denial phase and expect miracles, especially if yeve both agreed and signed off on something in advance. If that doesn't transpire you've made a rod to beat yourself with by 'failing to provide for their educational needs'.
Keep IEPs (or support plans) general and focus on what the child can do.
Every teacher needs to be aware that they are creating legal documents which can be used against them in many ways for many years into the future.

Principal not happy with you? Let's pull out the old IEPs and see if the teacher failed to meet their targets. Maybe not grounds for dismissal but an easy way to stress someone out of the job.

nice_guy80

evolving_doors wrote: »

For a few kids with additional needs they are at their peek academically (maybe more so in secondary). So be very careful setting academic targets, parents may be in a denial phase and expect miracles, especially if yeve both agreed and signed off on something in advance. If that doesn't transpire you've made a rod to beat yourself with by 'failing to provide for their educational needs'.
Keep IEPs (or support plans) general and focus on what the child can do.
Every teacher needs to be aware that they are creating legal documents which can be used against them in many ways for many years into the future.

Principal not happy with you? Let's pull out the old IEPs and see if the teacher failed to meet their targets. Maybe not grounds for dismissal but an easy way to stress someone out of the job.

The IEPs and school support is an exercise in BS anyway.

cnn27

I agree with the poster above who suggested dropping the extra curricular GAA coaching. I know it's probably one of the aspects of the job you enjoy, but if you're being expected to do all that work, then it's a bit much for them to expect you to do extra curricular work as well. It would also serve as a wake-up call if you phrased it as "I don't want to quit coaching the GAA team, but it's the only way to keep on top of paperwork".

Joe222

The increasing amount of special needs pupils in mainstream schools is also increasing the workload of the teacher. In many cases it is like having an extra class level as you have to have a separate plan for their learning needs and somehow try to teach it when you have 25 - 30 other pupils in the class.

I feel the unions have failed us badly. They have allowed the profession to be split with numerous blocks on different pay rates and pensions. The word 'union' should mean everyone in it together.
Personally I think strike action is badly needed but I think teachers and the unions have got too used to pay deals and compromises.

I myself am trying to get out of teaching. The holidays are overrated when the workload and stress are taken into account. I also hate the paperwork and the many unaccounted hours of researching, planning, assessments and all the extras that are becoming hard to avoid.

I find it hard to switch off after a day's teaching as there is always something to be done and if you have a sick day you come back to even more work/problems. Very little allowance is made for poor pupil behaviour and how it impacts on your output as a teacher.

Then you have WSEs and random inspections and people are spending their holiday periods catching up on work. If you have a poor inspection/wse you could have to wait another 4/5 years to get the chance to rebuild your reputation.

As well as that you have the lack of promotions where entry into management is generally the only route. It is a tough job, it can be very rewarding but I am just not sure if the job has good prospects going forward. It is taking far too long for people to get permanent and the cost of study is only going 1 way, with the training requiring more and more teaching practice.

Anyway my rant is over.
Happy Easter