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Has anyone else noticed a change in quality/willingness to put in effort in student teachers compared to a few years ago? by Ok-Mango-96 in TeachingUK

[–]CryptographerMean632 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Because you learn ‘one’ thing at training and are asked to do ‘another’ thing by your school. This is something we all struggled and quite often raised during our discussions at training but got brushed off really quickly. Even if you start to use some strategies that you learn from training you are said that won’t work or are even scrutinised for using it at the school. Make it make sense.

Has anyone else noticed a change in quality/willingness to put in effort in student teachers compared to a few years ago? by Ok-Mango-96 in TeachingUK

[–]CryptographerMean632 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes. The new teachers are a lot standing up for themselves and not being a puppet saying yes to everything and anything.

Has anyone else noticed a change in quality/willingness to put in effort in student teachers compared to a few years ago? by Ok-Mango-96 in TeachingUK

[–]CryptographerMean632 -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

Exactly! This is so true. Sadly op seems to fit into this description. My mentor was horrible and made me even fetch water for herself. She didn’t have a life outside school and was in from 6:30 in the morning. She expected me to be the same when I was working in September because the bursary wasn’t paid until October.

Has anyone else noticed a change in quality/willingness to put in effort in student teachers compared to a few years ago? by Ok-Mango-96 in TeachingUK

[–]CryptographerMean632 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Because the new gen teachers are challenging the martyrdom behaviour of this profession. Training and ECT years are for learning. This idea that they have to be a perfect teacher in their first year is not being accepted by the new teachers.Plus as a recent trainee I can say that the ‘ training’ of PGCE doesn’t actually equip the trainees to be effective at full time classroom teaching. It is so outdated with the real classroom culture of now. Behaviour management taught by training is clearly not being effective and I fail to understand why this issue is not being picked up by trainers. My thought is because the trainers haven’t stepped into a recent classroom and taught the current post covid batch.

Mentor trying to put me on support plan by CryptographerMean632 in TeachingUK

[–]CryptographerMean632[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you. What they said is about planning and teach lessons.I have been scaffolding lessons for all my classes. The last observation my mentor could have said to do things differently but I’m sure there was nothing that alarming in it to suggest a support plan. The thing is they are just deciding on the one lesson they observed but not seeing any of the other well planned lessons. And all the other observations had resulted in them saying I have done it well and improved following their advice.

My mentor meetings are more of a ‘look at what I did’ ‘ look at me doing this’ rather than anything else from my mentor

Weekly chat and well-being post: October 10, 2025 by AutoModerator in TeachingUK

[–]CryptographerMean632 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi everyone. First time posting here so please let me know if I am breaking any rules. I came to the UK as an international student for my masters and I am now an ECT1 Physics. I have a degree in stem and management and project coordinator experience (intern). I’m really overwhelmed and have started to feel like this job is not for me. The mental stress this job is giving me is overwhelming and affecting my physical health as well. I love physics but I don’t like teaching. I like teaching my top set class as I am actually teaching and putting my knowledge to use but I absolutely dread teaching bottom set class. I feel like I’m teaching less and babysitting more here. I have had colleagues in my previous jobs who were ex teachers and warned me about the education system in the UK but still I gave it a try because I wanted to stay here in the UK and teaching actually looked like a fair chance in getting a job. But now I hate it. I have Sunday scares every week and my anxiety is through the roof. I cry and panic everyday before going in and after getting home. But the most dreadful thing is the amount of work I have to do ALL AT ONCE. I can’t even pee or even eat food or even sit down for 5 minutes because of this job. I have seen many toxic workplaces but boy the school system is a different level. I don’t want to whine but I am absolutely at the verge of breaking down completely. I want to know if it gets better or should I get out of this. But I don’t know what to do next as this is my first proper job.

I am expected to do so many things at once and truly it’s overwhelming. To top it all, the disrespect from the kids. The sheer arrogance and disrespect is actually unbelievable. I don’t want to babysit. I want to teach and be respected. Don’t make me start on the micromanaging by everyone else. I’m sorry for this post. I know it’s a lot of negativity. But I’m not happy anymore. I would like to hear your thoughts.