02 April 2023 , 23:01
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Teachers have spoken out about their battles with spiralling workloads as a new survey found nearly half of staff feel the amount they have to do is unmanageable.
A poll of more than 17,800 National Education Union (NEU) members in England and Wales found that 35% of teachers saw their workload as unmanageable most of the time and 13% felt this all of the time.
English teacher Nik Jones said sheer volume of work has become "demoralising" and often left him feeling like he has let everyone down.
Class sizes have swelled from around 20 pupils in 2017 to 30 at his school, UTC South Durham, leaving staff drowning in marking, planning and pastoral responsibilities.
The 40-year-old said resources are stretched "pretty thin" due to budget squeezes, so each year he has to come up with new lesson plans using dwindling resources.
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"When I started my current job I was just an English teacher and I've now got four or five different areas of responsibility," he said.
"Whilst I value everything that we do, it means every extra little thing that I'm having to do - because we haven't got other members of staff to be able to do it or even other members of staff to be able to provide support for me so I can do it - means that we all become stretched thinner and thinner.
Nik Jones, a teacher from Co Durham (Nik Jones)
Emma Brady, a teacher in Bedfordshire"I often come home feeling that I've let everyone down, that I've let the kids down, that I've left my school down, that I've let myself down.
"It's not because I've not been doing the work but it's because I know what I wanted it to look like, what I want it to be. But I've been pulled in 20 or 30 different directions today and the free time that I had was swallowed up."
He said staff want to be able to make learning special for their pupils but "we just haven't got the capacity to be able to provide that and it becomes really demoralising and heart-breaking."
Mr Jones, who has been a teacher for more than 16 years, said younger teachers were finding things difficult, with talented colleagues throwing in the towel after less than two years in the job.
Emma Brady, 51, has been a teacher for 29 years and says things have never been so bad.
"It's unsustainable", she said. "In the last five years there has been a significant increase in class sizes and it's all budgetary."
Teachers are struggling with growing class sizes (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Ms Brady, who teaches science in a secondary school in Bedfordshire, added: "It's a regular occurrence. Staff are finding their workload significantly increased and the stress that's caused - they quoted in that survey the average teacher is working 52.9 hours.
"That is driven by the fact that there's a lack of funding."
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Heads are struggling to recruit graduates in STEM subjects to teach - despite Government bursaries, she said.
"We are struggling to get trainees to come in and train because the workload means it's not an inviting profession."
Teachers are also being forced to step in to help students struggling with mental health needs due to cuts in support, she said.