Let me start by saying I love my job, I believe in education and the benefits of a good education to all of society. I love being responsible for pushing a student further than they ever thought possible. I love being the person who believes when no one else will, I love being the person who students know they can talk to and I love all the ‘aha’ moments and the cries of ‘I get it now.’

I understand I am in a privileged position within society and I understand there are many perks. Although I work through most holidays and do some form of work most weekends, on these days I can pick and chose when I work and I can build my work around my families needs.

I also understand that when ever a teacher writes anything negative about their workload the usual comments will appear. ‘You get 12 weeks of paid holiday per year.’ or ‘you only work 9-3:30 and have weekends off.’

So now let me get to the point of why I am writing this. We have all seen the statistic almost 50% of teachers will quit within the first 5 years. Well, I’m just over halfway through my firth year of teaching and I am desperately trying to avoid becoming another statistic. I am tiered, I am stressed and I keep seeing more and more added to the pile and I am ready to throw it all away.

Quite often you will see blogs like this laying blame at the feet of ‘The Department’, people who have not worked as a teacher for along time and are out of touch or the school leadership teams who pile more and more. Raising expectations of what you will do outside of the planning, assessing and teaching. In later blogs I will explore these more in depth and look at the merits of these arguments.

The next one who come in for a lot of stick is parents, who have high expectations for what there child will achieve whist in my class. I see nothing wrong with this although again in future blogs I will write about my experience with parents, and also being a teacher when my own child started school. For the record 90% of parents who I have interacted with have been supportive, encouraging and willing to listen to my expertise as we worked in partnership to best meet the individual needs of their child.

Now I might be unpopular here, but I am going to take aim at the biggest cause of workplace stress in education. The biggest reason I believe we are overworked as an industry and the biggest reason very few of us can get away with working under 60 hours most weeks…. my colleagues. Dear ‘Pintrest Polly’, ‘Facebook Fred’ or ‘I’ve just seen this on Instagram Ian’. Not forgetting ‘we have to do this because its always been done Debbie’ and ‘did you see what time Charlotte left again Annie’ and ‘Nothing you do is good enough Donna.’

Now all of these mean well, but I honestly ask the question, yes your classroom looks amazing and you have received over a hundred likes on Instagram, Yes it has always been done in the way you do it and yes you have been teaching for 100 years and know everything…But does what you are doing add any value? How is what you are doing helping improve student outcomes? Because really that is what we are here for.

I have come to the point now where I no longer care if I am the first one out of the door. I no longer care if I upset Debbie and I no longer use Facebook, I can smile and laugh to myself as Donna criticises my work again, because she knows best. The only question I ask myself is: Is what I am doing in any way shape or form improving student outcomes? If the answer is no, well I am no longer going to do it. So next time you log on to Instagram and see a bright pink wall, and 25 individually made buckets with the heading we are bucket fillers or the inspirational quotes on the wall, way above eye level with language way above the understanding of the 5 year olds in the room, ask yourself this: How did this improve student outcomes?

Now have a closer look and estimate the time required to do all of that. Then think of the lessons you could have been planning, the data you could have been looking deeply at, the IEP/ILP you could have been creating, the time you could have spent running a lunch time club or having some downtime. Was it worth it?

Now I have no issue with any teacher choosing to do this in their own time. What I do take issue with is when teachers make you feel bad for not doing this or will sit in a staff meeting and complain about the amount of time they have to spend analysing data they don’t understand. When they see the new grads coming in fresh faced and will talk to them about their expectations and not mention student outcomes once. I take issue with the teacher rolling out the same planner she used in 1987 and expecting everyone to listen to why his or her way is the best asking anyone who would like to look at any relevant research to stop or emailing to ask you to redo your lesson plans as it is not what they had in mind.

When this becomes the culture of your school, you have a problem. The problem is a self made problem as teachers set out to one up each other or try to do everything they see online or everything the teacher next door is doing. No wonder they are all burnt out. My challenge to all teachers, ask yourself this question before completing any task.

How will what I am doing impact student outcomes? IF it doesn’t and it is not a legal requirement. Stop doing it immediately!

Never feel guilty for leaving early, never feel guilty for not being like Debbie, never feel guilty for taking your lunch break or stopping for coffee in the morning. If everything you do is to improve student outcomes and support your colleagues we will see a reduction in workloads, we will see more meaningful work and we will most impotently see all of the students we have the responsibility to educate given the best chance of achieving everything they are capable of achieving and to the highest standards.

The 5th Year Teacher.