{"id":31607,"date":"2015-07-26T20:44:57","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T17:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acakuwait.wpengine.com\/?p=31607"},"modified":"2015-07-26T20:44:58","modified_gmt":"2015-07-26T17:44:58","slug":"secret-teacher-the-working-culture-in-teaching-is-impossible-for-mums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acakuw.com\/?p=31607","title":{"rendered":"Secret Teacher: the working culture in teaching is impossible for mums"},"content":{"rendered":"

 \"\"<\/a> 
\nImagine the scene. I\u2019m racing down the motorway, pedal to the metal, desperately trying to get to my daughter\u2019s school. I\u2019m running half an hour late for one of the most important events in the school calendar: parents\u2019 evening. When I finally arrive, I pat myself down to try and look presentable, before scrambling into a seat next to my husband. I mouth \u201csorry\u201d as I join the meeting, which is already in full flow.
\nIn recent months I have been absent from countless events \u2013 from my children\u2019s football matches to their school plays. The reason is ironic: it\u2019s because I am a teacher. I struggle to find time to spend with my family because of the 12-hour days I am expected to work. My students get every bit of me and I would never want to give any less \u2013 but it seems unfair that my own children have to suffer.
\nIt\u2019s all the usual things that are tying me down: data and tracking progress, endless marking, pressure to prepare for Ofsted and proving that my pupils are working at the right level. But it\u2019s not just the workload that makes it impossible for me to be there for my children. My main gripe is that there\u2019s no flexibility about when my work gets done. There is a culture of staying until all hours, which means I can\u2019t pick my children up from school or make them dinner. I am happy to do the work, but it doesn\u2019t seem like a massive ask to leave on time every now and then, and finish bits off at home.
\nWhen I do occasionally leave early, the judgmental eyes of the senior leadership team look down on me. I left at 5.30pm one day to pick up my son from school because my husband was away and my mum was poorly. I had already spent hours planning lessons that I knew were good, but the fact that I wasn\u2019t floating around the corridors until midnight just wasn\u2019t acceptable. Comments were made. \u201cOh, you\u2019re leaving early,\u201d one colleague said. In the staff meeting the next morning, praise was showered on those who had worked late the night before.
\nThen there are the events that teachers are expected to attend, which also rob me of valuable family time. I am forced to go to staff meetings and curriculum evenings even when they aren\u2019t related to my subject; sometimes I feel like a showpiece, there to be displayed to parents regardless of whether I\u2019m needed or not.
\nAll this means I am forced to compromise on the time I spend with my children. They don\u2019t complain any more when I miss their school events, they just get a disappointed look on their faces. I feel I am shortchanging them. I am tired of giving excuses and I\u2019m sure they are tired of hearing them.
\nI believe it is possible to be a good teacher and a mother. All we need is the support of schools and managers, and for them to allow us the flexibility we need. It\u2019s about how we are allowed to manage our work. There shouldn\u2019t be this pressure to be tied to our desks; staying later doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that we\u2019re working any harder. Managers need to understand that parents have their own children to care for \u2013 so what if we don\u2019t stay late? We can work at other times.
\nIt\u2019s because of this lack of support that I\u2019ve had to make the tough decision to leave teaching this year. I have little choice but to go for the sake of my family. I don\u2019t know what I am going to do next \u2013 I need to spend the summer thinking about how I can use my skills in a role that will be more flexible. It\u2019s a big step and one that I hadn\u2019t anticipated making, but it\u2019s got to the point where something has to change. My children are nine and 12, and I want to capture these last moments of them growing up.
\nEvery day is a balancing act for mums in any profession and I guess we\u2019ve all got to get used to that. But I worry about the future of education \u2013 I fear that this ridiculous working culture is making teaching unworkable for mums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   Imagine the scene. I\u2019m racing down the motorway, pedal to the metal, desperately trying to get to my daughter\u2019s school. I\u2019m running half an hour late for one of the most important events in the school calendar: parents\u2019 evening. When I finally arrive, I pat myself down to try and look presentable, before scrambling …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":31606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-178"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acakuw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acakuw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acakuw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acakuw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acakuw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acakuw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acakuw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acakuw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acakuw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acakuw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}