Hey there, Tappsters!
The start of April brings a new prize draw: his month, one lucky Teacher Tapper will win a £500 spa voucher, courtesy of the Leadership Skills Foundation.
Taking part is easy: For every 5 days in a row you answer questions, you will receive an entry code.
At the end of the month, we share the winning codes on our socials and email the winners, too .
Read more about the details of the comp and see the full terms and conditions here.
Now, let’s find out what you said last week…
Easter Break 🐣
Have you reached the Easter Break yet?
If so, you are among approximately 80% of your colleagues who are also off this week! We hope you find it relaxing before the run-up to the Summer Term.
Unfortunately, if you’re in the Midlands, there’s a chance you’re still in school. Only 40% have started Easter there, while most of the rest of the country is already off! But don’t worry – by the end of April, you’ll be the ones celebrating!
The Return of Attendance Awards
Are attendance awards making a comeback? In 2019, 76% of teachers said their schools offered these awards. However, by 2022, only 64% of secondary teachers indicated the same, showing a significant drop after Covid.
Now, attendance awards seem to be returning. Today, 70% of secondary teachers report that their schools are once again providing these awards. In primary schools, the return is less noticeable, but around half still use them.
Stressors at Work
Not our favourite topics to write about below – but they are important. Each year we are asked by journalists about the extent of physical and verbal abuse in school, often on the back of particular incidences. If we don’t have the figures to hand then it opens the door to wide conjecture. So that’s why we have started asking. The figures are unlikely to shock people who work a lot in schools, but they are important for wider discussions about teacher safety. Here we go:
Abuse From Pupils
Almost one-in-five of you (18%) say you have had a feeling of concern for your personal safety at some point this academic year. And more than half (52%) have been on the receiving end of verbal abuse.
Perhaps the only positive is that this is currently less than the same time last year. In 2024, 59% of teachers said they’d experienced verbal abuse, which has fallen to 52%.
More of you also haven’t experienced any kinds of abuse this year (42% up from 34%). Let’s hope this trajectory continues.
A statistic that often surprises the media is that primary teachers bear much of the physical abuse, with 35% saying they have been hit or pushed by a pupil this year. The image among commentators is often of teenagers thumping teachers, while the reality is often 6-year-olds trying to bite!
On the other hand, secondary teachers are more likely to encounter verbal abuse than their primary counterparts. In fact, 57% of secondary teachers have reported experiencing swearing and/or threats at least once during this academic year.
Stressful Tasks
You may have noticed that we’ve been asking whether certain tasks are causing you stress fairly regularly over the past academic year. That’s because we’re trying to identify specific tasks that are particularly stressful during certain times of the year.
Not all of the responses in the question are included below, but some trends are emerging.
Firstly, progressively fewer teachers are saying they’ve not felt stressed at work. In September, as many as 10% of you had a stress-free fortnight. Over each term, this falls. By the end of Spring Term it was down to 6%.
Marking has also ramped up across terms, and is now routinely stressing almost one-in-three of you. Similarly, student behaviour has seen a gradual increase in stressfulness since September.
What will the summer term bring? Summer exams are notoriously hard on marking and student behaviour can be heavily affected by weather. Water bombs and heat waves? Oh dear! We shall let you know once all the data is in.
Other things we learnt this week
- Less than a third of you would actively encourage your own child to become a teacher. This is the second-lowest score recorded since we first asked in 2019, with it only being lower during the height of the 2023 strike action.
- Sensory circuits are not common in primary playgrounds: 10% have them set up all the time, 14% have them some of the time.
Daily Reads
This week our most-read piece was a piece on cognitive load and problem-solving!
Have you seen a great blog you think would make a great daily read? Let us know by emailing england@teachertapp.co.uk and we will check it out!
