Hey there Tappers!
Somehow May has raced past and we are already approaching half term week 😳.
Of course there is another start line approaching…Sports Day!
I know, I know – half the staffroom cheers while the other half sigh BUT it can’t be denied sports day is always a memorable day (the year it bucketed down with rain until 3pm when the sun came out…) and there is always a good tale to tell at the end (the time the staff relay ended in a pile up).
There are just 10 days left in our May Prize draw to win £500 towards your sports day plans.
Whether you want new canopies for your spectators, or an ice cream van 🍦 for the kids (and staff) – Teacher Tapp will help you make it happen.
To be in with a chance to win, you must answer three days in a row. Every three day attendance is rewarded with a ticket; more tickets means more chances to win 🥳. Isn’t that easy?
All the terms and conditions can be found here.
Teachers under strain
There are points of the year when the responsibility of working in a school will feel more ‘down’ than others…not too dissimilar to a rollercoaster ride🎢. One of the ways that we track those changes is by regularly asking the same questions to check in with how you’re feeling. Consider this us popping our heads round the door before you go for the day, and seeing how you are 🙋.
This week we asked you if you had felt ‘constantly under strain’ and discovered more than one in ten feel under strain ‘all of the time’ 😥, and over a third responded ‘most of the time’ 😓.
This is obviously not ideal, however compared to just December last year we can see the strain of the classroom might be easing off. Looking at the responses since September 2017, a pattern emerges where senior leaders including headteachers are more likely to respond ‘all of the time or most of the time’ compared to other teachers.
The period during lockdown obviously changed things for leaders, but looking back to the 2019 data, levels of strain today are very similar.
And in terms of this academic year, now the end of the summer term is in sight and exams are underway, stress levels seem to be levelling out.
What do you think? Is the summer term the nicest term? Or are you as busy as ever? Do these things change depending on what sort of school you teach in? Let us know your thoughts 💭
Parents disrespect
This week we asked if parents have become “far too disrespectful of teachers”.
Unlike lots of our questions, this one relies on a feeling rather than on a specific ie ‘did you set a detention today’.
However, questions like this enable us to track changes over time – we asked the same question four years ago, and two years ago and it elicited different responses.
Today, we can see more teachers than ever before are reporting feeling that parents are disrespectful towards them. 28% of secondary teachers said they ‘strongly agreed’ that parents were disrespectful, compared to 17% in 2022. There is a similar pattern in primary, with a third of primary teachers strongly agreeing, compared to 19% in 2022.
The likelihood is that we’re talking about a minority of parents, and that sadly the unpleasant experiences stay in minds more than the kind ones.
However, what’s notable is that when we looked at these and controlled for years experience in the classroom, those teaching the longest were the most likely to strongly agree.
With many news reports flagging growing issues between parents and schools, does this change in response reflect the increasing pressures put on both families and schools as they try and return to ‘normal’ attendance levels post-lockdown? Let us know what you think 🤔.
Do your words matter?
We asked how effective written comments were…and discovered that the majority felt comments in books weren’t changing how much learning took place.
However, if we break this into subjects, we see a real division in the strength of these opinions.
Maths teachers were the ones who felt most strongly that written comments had no impact with almost two out of three tapping ‘strongly agree’.
But down the corridor in the English department, the feeling wasn’t anywhere near as strong. Only 28% strongly agreed that their written comments weren’t contributing to pupil progress 🧐.
In a primary school, the younger the pupils, the more likely the teachers are to think written comments aren’t making a difference: KS1 and EYFS think written comments have less impact than KS2.
However – ultimately these decisions about whether or not written comments need to feature in the marking policy are down to headteachers. When we break this down by job role, classroom teachers believe the most strongly that written comments have no impact – but more heads disagree and think they do.
Who wants more marking?
‘Marking books’ means much more than just written comments. We also asked generally about marking – and if you would like to spend more time doing it.
These numbers suggest that it is NOT primary teachers who are the ones sitting wishing they could have another hour with their pupils’ books.
15% of secondary teachers think they would like to have more time looking at books, compared to 5% of primary.
But which subjects in secondary schools want to mark more? Sacre bleu, it’s MFL 🇫🇷🇩🇪🇪🇸🇨🇳 teachers who would like more time with the red pen.
Top events
This week’s top event is…My Tutor and their FREE one-hour webinar: AI in schools.
We’ve had lots of new events added to our app – plus easier filtering options. Go and check out what’s new!
Ups and Downs
On the rise (ish) 📈
Parents undermining sanctions More children kept home to avoid the Sats, say primary teachers. 15% up from 11% last year.
Heading down 📉
The cheat-resistors Fewer of you think your pupils would turn down a chance to buy a test paper in advance of the test. Last year 16% said ‘none’ of your pupils would cheat – this year, it was only 10% .
Daily Reads
Our most read daily read this week was the blog: What do we know about pupils with absence rates of 10-15%? From the FFT.
If you would like to read the rest you can find them here 👇
