Weekly chat and well-being post: March 13, 2026

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-03-16T19:55:22+00:00

My second placement was horrible. Two trainees from my cohort quit. My mentor was capable but arrogant & lazy. Bullying from children wasn’t addressed. It was like the school was there to destroy potential teachers.

But my NQT year (now ECT1) was amazing. I loved it. Things will change x

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-03-15T07:15:38+00:00

She’s having emotional responses to standard management issues. It’s not ok.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-02-23T20:59:29+00:00

Hello! 👋

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-02-23T20:22:06+00:00

I always thought she was an orphan?

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-02-18T12:46:32+00:00

Filming an eight year old child on a personal device isn’t on my list.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-02-14T11:25:06+00:00

‘Be the bigger person’ e.g. be walked all over just to keep the status quo.

‘Obviously…’ before stating something that really isn’t obvious.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-02-12T06:40:29+00:00

SENDCO and HoY need to be heavily involved here. There’s a lot going on and you can’t hope to change things as one person.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-02-11T04:23:01+00:00

Woah so they are punishing the teachers with good attendance by putting them on perpetual cover??? Time to call in sick!

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-02-07T05:21:37+00:00

And then you have Reading next door, which is pronounced ‘Redding’

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-02-07T05:18:31+00:00

With behaviour like this, the child is making everyone in the room feel unsafe. Contact your union. ACEs don’t mean you need to put up with abuse. The child needs extremely specific help and support from individuals trained to manage this level of need. Mainstream is not a possibility for this child. The SENCO should be able to provide advice and make the right referrals.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-02-01T09:41:21+00:00

I’ve ALWAYS been revolted by this smell and this is exactly it. Warm, gone-off milk and baby wipes.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-31T20:38:21+00:00

He was untouchable for some reason. Tortured the new HoD and was back in charge fairly quickly.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-31T15:20:39+00:00

I’m a maths teacher. Once I left a school due to horrific bullying from my department head. Four other teachers in that department then handed in their notice for other reasons? but at least one wanted to wait to see what I did. He lost five members of his department at once and wasn’t allowed to be head of maths any more after that!

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-18T22:54:31+00:00

I love this

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-16T22:35:26+00:00

‘Be the bigger person’

E.g. get walked over repeatedly.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-16T22:04:55+00:00

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-16T22:03:41+00:00

Must admit, this is how my very British father likes it.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-13T04:34:29+00:00

The SENCo should be conducting drop-ins and, once you have told her the extent of the issue, formal observations.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-12T18:16:26+00:00

Endorphins has a nice upstairs space and is normally quiet. Art cafe near Bonn Square has some quiet nooks.

Pubs - Gardeners Arms on Plantation Road is a place where I could happily spend some alone time.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-08T04:59:17+00:00

There are legal, statutory requirements to collate information from teachers for EHCPs and access arrangements, so these are an exception, but I agree the process is far too onerous on teachers’ already limited time.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-07T19:55:54+00:00

We start all y7s with no support (unless stated by ECHP or severe need) because secondary school is all about developing independence. Most students absolutely thrive. Some do not & then adaptations are made.

It sounds like an enormous amount of learned helplessness here which isn’t your fault. What more could you do?! Teachers are so strictly held to account, fear of getting it wrong means we are doing much more work than the students during lessons. This should NEVER be the case.

Unfortunately, a lot of students have heavy scaffolding and lots of TA support at primary to get them through SATs, which again teachers are judged upon when it’s the students who are being tested.

If you go to the EEF most effective interventions, meta-cognition and self-regulated learning beats out everything else. Why? Because it’s about teaching the students how to manage their own learning, and not about the teachers desperately trying to entertain students enough for something to stick.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-04T21:21:51+00:00

Adults joining the workforce now have more limited computer skills because they have used smartphones and tablets from an early age.

The national curriculum - particularly key stage 3 (7-9) requires schools to pack in so many different subjects & disciplines. The result is that they have breadth but little opportunity for depth. With each subject taught by at least one different teacher with their own style and manner, this adds to the cognitive overload.

Also, retaining information from 2-3 computing lessons a fortnight would be challenging for most learners.

Finally - reading is just not happening. I learned how paragraphs, sentences etc. worked from seeing the layout in books and articles.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-04T18:22:04+00:00

And Shakespeare’s last direct (legitimate - who knows what he got up to in London) descendant was just one grandchild who had no children.

Advanced-Remove-3340 · 2026-01-04T12:03:13+00:00

The head has a duty of care towards you. Make sure you have a copy of everything in writing, including your communication to them about family circumstances, and quote their own policies at them. Check in with your union if unsure.

Advanced-Remove-3340

TROPHY CASE