Teaching In 2020: A teacher’s perspective

Teaching is widely seen as a very rewarding profession, but why are teachers feeling the strain?

There are several reasons why teachers buckling under pressure, including a lack of funding in schools, with buildings and facilities crumbing in poorer areas, and large classes add to the workload. It can be an emotional draining job, with one in five teachers suffering from panic attacks, according to the Teaching Wellbeing Index).

With an increasing number of teachers simply walking away from the job, feeling burnt out after a just a few years in the classroom, something is clearly wrong.

Harlow, is a new town in Essex, 20 miles from London. It has been reported at the 20th most deprived area in the UK, with 31% of children there living poverty. A third of residents live in social housing and the unemployment rate is 10%; which is higher than the national average.

It has links to Hertfordshire and London and is on the border of London’s “commuter belt”. There is no university, with Harlow College being the hub of adult education. The town centre has seen better days, and the crime rate was also above average for county

So what is it like teaching the children in that area?

Matt Bardell is a primary school teacher at Westlands Primary School, teaching Year 4. He has been there for a year, graduating as a teacher two years ago.

“In my short time as a teacher, I can defiantly see the clear social difference between working-class and middle-class families. And even in ability, I have some students working at a Year 1 level. We do focus on the poorer children and make sure they get extra help. Sometimes, they come to school with no breakfast, which is quite sad. “

According to the school’s website, Year 4 students are required to ” know by heart all their times tables up to the 12 x 12. The children learn their times tables in a fun and motivational way through songs, games and activities”.

Matt has said this can be challenging but fun for them. They have lots of resources on the website and motivators for the children to collect points for the houses in the class but some students don’t have a computer to access this.

Matt added that the job was very demanding – with a 60 hour week – not leaving until 8pm most days. He also says the job is very competitive.

“There can be some challenging aspects such as meeting deadlines for paperwork and marking homework. Some children can be difficult, but you get that in every school. The workload can be unreasonable sometimes but there is always support and help around.

“Depending on Ofsted reports, it can get very competitive with other schools. Teachers will always talk to each other from different schools, but it’s generally a good friendly relationship.”

Matt hopes changes to the curriculum will bring in more younger people into teaching.

Photo by nz_willowherb via Flickr Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC 2.0