“Allow teachers to teach”

A survey of the teaching profession

April 2012

Methodology

The NUT commissioned the polling company YouGov to survey a representative sample of teachers in England and Wales.

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. The total sample size was 852 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 20 and 26 March 2012. The survey was carried out online and the figures have been weighted by school phase. YouGov is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

Background

In the current political and economic climate the teaching profession is coming under new and ever increasing pressures. There were several surveys of teacher morale in the run up to the 2010 General Election but there have been few, if any, since then. The survey sought to ascertain the things teachers value about their jobs most and those things that dishearten them as professionals.

The response

Teachers were asked which aspects of their jobsthey most enjoyed. The top four responses are listed below:

%
Seeing children/young people develop, progress and achieve / 92
Class teaching / 76
Team working with colleagues / 47
Opportunities to try and out and develop new approaches to teaching and learning / 42

They were then asked what the biggest obstacles were to them performing as a teacher to the best of their ability. The top fourresponses are listed below:

%
Constantly changing policy initiatives / 63
Large amounts of unnecessary paperwork/data gathering / 62
Constant external criticism and undermining of teachers / 58
Unrealistic expectations on what can be achieved within the working week / 53

The next question asked teachers what changes they would most welcome and find helpful in their role as a teacher. The top five responses are listed below:

%
Time allowed for new initiatives to embed and be evaluated / 63
Greater consultation with the profession before new policy initiatives are launched / 63
Less internal and external pressure / 62
Smaller class sizes / 46
Focus of Ofsted to be one of identifying areas for support / 41

Teachers were asked to describe their current morale.

%
Very high / 3
High / 24
Neither high nor low / 32
Low / 29
Very low / 13

They were then asked whether their morale as a teacher had improved, declined or stayed the same over the past 2 years.

%
Improved / 9
Stayed the same / 32
Declined / 59

Teachers were asked which factors would influence their decision to leave the teaching profession voluntarily within the next 10 years. The top five responses were as follows:

%
Excessive workload / 71
Pay and pension changes / 56
Lack of respect for the teaching profession / 53
Constant changes/initiatives / 50
Excessive observations/Ofsted inspections / 47

Finally, teachers were asked to put down in a sentence, what they would say to Government to help them understand the current ‘mood’ amongst teachers. The majority of teachers surveyed said they felt demoralised, deflated, devalued and overworked. A selection of these comments is listed below.

If the entire goal of Gove and Wilshaw was to eradicate the last few pleasures of teaching and enhance stress, depression and low morale - congratulations: A*

When I entered teaching it was a respected profession, but now thanks to no payrises, proposed below inflation payrises, increased pension contributions and constant slating in the media it makes me wonder if all of my qualifications, commitment and experience are valued at all.

Overworked and under appreciated, we need support not constant criticism; we are our own harshest critics, we don’t need you to add to that!

Just leave us alone for a few years, how can we embed improvements if you keep changing the goal posts?

Come and work alongside me for a week and see what the job is really like.

We can’t work until we’re 68, the job is exhausting.

Be realistic, talk to us and listen.

Teachers go an extra ten miles on a daily basis, it is not possible to work harder than we already work. The constant demonisation of the teaching profession will lead to good teachers leaving in droves.

Teachers are constantly battered by targets which stop inspirational teaching at the expense of league table performance.

Angry, sad, let down.

Stop using a metaphorical big stick to beat teachers for all the faults that you perceive in education and return to an inspection system that is for the purpose of raising standards.

There is too much pressure on us for results. Schools have become exam factories.

I have never at any time in my career heard so many of my colleagues express such discontent – none of us would want our children to follow us into the profession.

We are not valued as a profession – subjected to constant attacks, not just our abilities, but also our status, conditions and pay. I am bitterly disappointed by the government’s refusal to accept the degree of anger and betrayal felt by many teachers at the new pension arrangements, especially given the bonuses paid out to many in the City.

Allow teachers to teach (i.e. be creative and nurture young minds in an academic environment) and not insist upon pointless targets directed at so called improvement – such a culture has only created soul-less drones instead of sparky characters teachers ought to be.

Give us a chance to get on with the job and respect our professionalism.

Leave our pensions alone.

Recognise that we are professionals and have trained long and hard to do this job. Reward our professionalism. Stop interfering.

As a profession, we are increasingly demoralised by constant changes to working practices, while at the same time seeing the value of our pay and pensions decreasing.

In my opinion, morale is low. One of the main reasons for this is that at a time when every child is supposed to matter, this is clearly not the case. Teachers feel that they need to concentrate only on those children who are likely to achieve higher grade passes.

Teaching often feels like a battle to survive day by day; telling us and the people whose kids we teach that we are not good enough/should have less pay/pensions/holiday time makes us ask why we are bothering to keep up the struggle.

Teachers work extremely hard for their money and don’t deserve the constant criticism they get from the government, media and general public; this is why so many good teachers are leaving the profession.

I have never heard so many young teachers question why they have chosen the teaching profession and say how undervalued they feel. Equally, many experienced staff feel that education has become a political football and that real standards are falling.

In over 40 years of teaching I have never known such a lack of enthusiasm among the grass roots teachers and support staff.

Let us teach.

Teachers feel under assault in all areas, pay, pensions, Ofsted, new initiatives and Michael Gove in particular.

We are professionals – you need to trust us.

Teaching should focus on the children not the data, so allow teachers to make education fun, stimulating and memorable, not policy driven, stats producing or out of a book.