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Bad behaviour

But this isn’t Hollywood, so don’t expect the good times without the bad. Media stories of violence towards teachers have plagued the education system for years. Do modern teachers need to assume the roles of police officer and social worker? In reality how frequent are such attacks and abuses?

Bangs explains that these horror stories are isolated: “Violence is still very rare. It is low level disruption over time that gets on teacher’s nerves.”

But he doesn’t feel that ongoing misbehaviour causes the majority of teacher resignations: “Evidence from surveys and exit interviews suggests that pupil behaviour itself isn’t the trigger for teachers leaving the profession.”

Instead, disruptive pupils are normally the catalyst for a convergence of overall job stresses. For example when a lesson plan doesn’t work, or a teacher feels underpaid or overworked. Bangs says that it is then that “a misbehaving pupil might cause you to call into question your continuing commitment to teaching.”

Red Tape

Do constant assessments and appraisals put people off teaching? The modern public sector runs on performance-related targets and centralised strategies. Therefore as a teacher you might well encounter more red tape than you can shake a pair of scissors at.

There are regular inspections, school league tables and national targets to consider. With the reputation of schools dependent on these factors pressure is piled on teachers. “In the past experienced teachers have left because of the very great bureaucratic pressures on them” Bangs nods.

He also stresses that most teachers aren’t against transparency and the principles of public accountability. It is the inefficient and contradictory evaluations that they resent: “What teachers don’t want is to be constantly made accountable by a set of mechanisms for which there is no purpose.”

Money matters

The TDA offers a training bursary of up to £9,000, although this amount varies from subject to subject. For some subjects a 'golden hello’ of between £2,500 and £5,000 is awarded once the post Initial Teacher Training (ITT) induction period is completed.

Newly qualified teachers earn between £20,133 and £33,936 on the main salary scale. Once they have gained sufficient experience they can progress onto the upper pay scale which ranges from £31,878 to £41,004.

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