NSW schools: Teacher diaries reveal crisis in the classroom

From being sworn at and attacked with classroom furniture to having to lecture underage students about unprotected sex, three teachers reveal what it is really like in NSW schools.

Teachers claim staff shortages in NSW schools have created an unbearable workload. The stress and burden, they say, are damaging the basic education of our kids.

About 1500 teaching roles remain vacant across the state according to the NSW Department of Education.

About one third of the state’s full-time teachers planned to leave the profession before retirement, while another third were considering it, recently released Australian Teacher Workforce Data has revealed workload, poor pay and classroom behaviour were among the top reasons teachers wanted to quit.

The NSW Teachers Federation calls it a crisis-level teacher shortage forcing crippling workloads, while The Independent Education Union Australia said the same problems exist in Catholic schools, where teachers have threatened to strike.

Among their demands are reducing paperwork and allowing an extra two hours per week off class for administration tasks.

“Something has to be done before even more school staff burn out,” IEUA NSW/ACT acting secretary Carol Matthews said.

There is a large teacher shortage across NSW.

One teacher at a southwest Sydney public school, who opened her diary to The Sunday Telegraph on the condition of anonymity, said teaching while also dealing with aggressive and violent behaviour, was a constant stressor.

“It really takes a toll,” she said.

“But if you don’t keep on top of it, the learning can’t happen in the way it should.”

Here, three teachers reveal in their diaries what it is really like in NSW schools – from being sworn at, to attacks by students with class room furniture to being forced to lecture underage pupils about drinking and unprotected sex, all against a backdrop of a gruelling workload.

DIARY ENTRIES

Teacher 1: Five years teaching, public high school in the Hunter

7am: Arrive at school.

7am-9am: Book and collect resources, plan lessons, staff meetings, marking, prepare classroom.

9am-11am: When students arrive, classes involve teaching five lessons a day from different subject areas, adjusting the lessons for students with different abilities or needs, ensuring notes and lunch orders and taken to the office and canteen. Student behaviour includes students being defiant, not following orders and lashing out and swearing at me or other students.

Recess: Playground duty or marking, finishing work with students, reporting behavioural incidents.

11.30am-1.30pm: Lessons continue. Other student behaviour includes inattention requiring parts of the lesson to be retaught, aggression and students using furniture and equipment as weapons.

Lunch: Playground duty or more marking, reports on student behaviour.

2pm-3pm: Lessons continue.

3pm-5pm: When students leave there are parent meetings and phone calls, staff meetings, professional learning activities, liaising with students’ out of home care or psychologists, writing personal learning plans for students with additional needs, reporting behavioural and wellbeing incidents, responding to emails.

5pm-late: At home continue marking, writing permission letters, lesson plans, other administration tasks.

Teacher 2: 19 years teaching, public high school in western Sydney

5am: So another sport day arrives, early start at 5am. I get up if I want to do my exercise before school, and so that I can check in on staff and students attending before school sport. (This allows our students to leave at lunch time – they’ve done their school day by then)

7.15am: Breakfast on the run to school, to be in there for 7.15am to organise staffing – in this day and age there’s always some away in isolation or sick – all done before the day starts at 8.35am.

8.30am: Mad dash to the staffroom – have I got all of the sport notices ready for assembly? Term 1 is super busy with sport, so there’s always something to say and of course people to congratulate on their sporting excellence – today I forgot one student, she let me know, so that’s something for next week’s assembly.

9am-1pm: The teaching day begins – I’m teaching all periods today, two before recess and two after recess. There are constant “negotiations” about phones – why they shouldn’t be out in class, because let’s face it kids are addicted to them, so I have to waste plenty of lesson time reminding students that they cannot have them out in class. Then there’s the work negotiations and why do I need to learn this, why is this important? And with a phone call home to discuss said issues the parents then question us why is this important learning?

Teachers have revealed they are at crisis point.

1pm: Lunch (still two hours of the day left) sees me make sure that all staff know where they are heading for sport as the weather has changed venues for some sports.

1.30pm: Sport begins for the afternoon, most students get to the right place at the right time and off we go – some forget their money, so we lend that to them, some aren’t well or are injured, they’re looked after in a classroom at school during sport.

Others are not allowed out of school due to their behaviour and are supervised by a teacher or member of the executive staff in another classroom – detention.

I catch truants during sport – they try and run – apparently going to sport is far too much to ask of these students. I add some of these students to detention and chase around the school after the ones that have “run away” again. These students are escorted to the executives of the school for them to deal with. And then we start again – another student decides to run out of detention – truly a law to themselves.

3pm: The final bell rings for the day. The next hour is counselling staff who have had difficulties at sport and how to deal with the students in the follow up.

4pm: Finally leaving school at 4pm – home – get through my own commitments of training for my own sport.

7pm: Paperwork for the students above needs to be submitted online, lesson planning for tomorrow, oh and my reports are due tomorrow – better get through them tonight too … and complete all the paperwork for the knockout sport competition that I’m organising.

11pm: Not finished but I need sleep – to get ready for it all over again tomorrow.

Teacher 3: Seven years teaching, public primary school in southwest Sydney

7am: Arrive at school for lesson planning and to book classrooms for the day. I spend most of my morning responding to emails from parents of children who have complained to them about being asked to do basic tasks like complete their homework, participate in lessons, not be on their phones.

8.30am: Staff meeting with other Year 8 teachers. A group of students has been overheard talking about engaging in high risk sexual activities on the weekend so we decide to sit the year group down later today for a chat about consent and contraception.

9am-11am: Lessons as usual. Lots of arguing from students about course work and phones. One student with high emotional needs runs out in the middle of class – seemingly unprovoked. Class pauses while I contact the office to contact his parents.

Recess: I spend recess on the phone to that student’s mum and filing a report on what happened. Mum says he is increasingly overwhelmed by overstimulating environments and has taken to running. I suggest she come in for a meeting on how we manage him and whether additional support is an option.

11.30am-1.30pm: Classes continue. More defiant behaviour from students. I have to caution some for poking fun at the runner from earlier. He hasn’t returned to class but news of his “meltdown” has spread.

Lunch: A quick bite to eat while on supervision duty.

2pm-3pm: Meeting with Year 8 students. A small group seems to think it’s age appropriate to participate in unprotected group sex while the rest have labelled that group ‘s***s’ and w****s’. Alcohol seems to be a big factor in their behaviour despite the group being aged 14-15.

3pm-5pm: Phone calls with parents about some of the issues divulged in the Year 8 meeting. Meeting with other teachers to discuss what if any further steps need to be taken.

7pm-late: Home for dinner then marking of assessment tasks that need to be recorded and returned to students tomorrow.

Originally published as NSW schools: Teacher diaries reveal crisis in the classroom