Hey there, Tappers!
May has almost arrived! The month with two bank holidays, a half term…and lots of assessments.
Tomorrow is the last day of our prize draw – so watch out for the announcement of the winning ticket name (be sure to check your app to see your tickets on the homepage).
The winner will be the proud owner of a £500 restaurant voucher so you can take your teacher BFFs out for a delicious meal.
And May’s prize draw? Keep your eyes peeled for an email in your inbox with an announcement!
Behaviour cycle
Every teacher knows there are points in the year where classes are more tricky than others. That is why we have regularly asked you about teaching and learning stopping due to poor behaviour at regular intervals throughout the year since 2018.
The result is this graph ⬇️
Starting with that ‘September honeymoon’ we can see similarities in the number of you reporting disrupted lessons. In 2019 we see 38% of lessons disrupted, and 35% in 2023 – so very similar.
But our most recent ask found 43% of lessons disrupted – the highest percentage since we started asking this question back in 2018.
It’s also important that we split this into phase – and here we start to see more detail of the problem.
Primary are reporting more disruption compared to secondary (47% vs 38%), and it has risen more sharply since the pandemic.
Does this match your expectations? What has behaviour been like in your setting? Let us know what you think on socials or via the app 💬.
Line manager effectiveness
This week you said how effectively your line manager helps you do a better job.
Generally, you were all pretty positive about your line managers – with 64% agreeing in secondary and 58% agreeing in primary.
Those of you in primary schools responded slightly less positively – perhaps because there is a smaller chain of command in primary schools and the ‘line manager’ structure is wider (fewer senior staff, fewer middle leaders – therefore one person line managing many people).
What do you think? Are you a primary teacher with a brilliant line manager? 🤩 Do you have an idea about how line management could be improved? 🧐
On X there has also been a lot of chat about meeting cancellations as a source of consternation – let us know what you think…
Job hunting
As the May resignation deadline looms there is always a flurry of job applications as teachers seek to move schools.
So, is job-hunting on your current to-do list? Quite a few of you are eyeing up a shiny new role in September – but more intriguing are the changes between when we first asked in April 2018 and this year….
Around half of you are wanting to stay in your school, which is far higher than when we asked in 2018. (Back then it was 39% in primary, 35% in secondary).
However, the number saying they want to leave the classroom altogether ⛔️ is 6% both in primary and secondary – similar to 2023, but double what we saw in secondary in 2018, and triple what we saw in primary.
Other bits of interest:
Just over one in ten of you are are looking to leave due to wanting promotion, or to broaden their experience (essentially, it isn’t the school – it’s the situation).
And just under one in ten want to leave – but it’s because of feeling unhappy at their current school. 😔
AI teacher innovators
If the future of the workforce is going to be influenced by AI, we thought we should ask you all about how you’re using it for work.
While a solid 41% of you are not using any AI tools for work, one in five used it in the last week.
Judging by the numbers – those of you who do use it, use it regularly…whereas those who don’t aren’t finding a use for it. Interestingly, primary school teachers use AI tools slightly more than secondary teachers (21% of primary school teachers use it weekly vs 18% of secondary).
We also asked you what you used it for, and we found that English teachers spoke about adapting difficulty levels of texts, and to write model answers and examples.
A year ago we asked you what you thought would change in the next ten years and you predicted:
- 49% thought there would be an increased use of AI in education.
- 34% thought there would be better automated data and insights on student performance and personalising learning.
- 17% thought we would use immersive technologies (e.g. VR) in education.
🔮It will be interesting to see how quickly our ideas about the future are changing when we next ask you that question…let us know what you think over socials or on the app!
Top events
This week’s top event is…
Carousel Learning and their Whole Class Feedback: What, How, Why? 🤩
This is an on-demand event. There are more face-to-face AND virtual AND on-demand events all for you to peruse on the events tab in the app – check it out!
Ups and Downs
On the rise 📈
ELSA assistants. Emotional Literacy Support Assistants are on the rise. Last time we asked in 2022, they were only in a quarter of schools; this week we can see they are in a third.
Heading down 📉
The number of pupils receiving private tuition. 58% of you know at least one pupil being tutored outside of class – a drop of 4 percentage points compared to 2019.
Daily Reads
Our most read daily read this week was the blog: Working with trainees
If you would like to read the rest you can find them here 👇
