Many would assume that the job of a teacher is pretty simple. Long holidays, limited paperwork, easy teaching and lots of time to unwind after a day of work… wrong. Educating is far tougher than you think. In addition to leading lessons, teachers must meticulously plan and prepare their lessons, spend countless hours marking work, attend regular meetings to review progress and think about the needs of the rapidly rising numbers of students with social and mental health issues. Consequently, a teacher’s workload is staggering. To enlighten us further, a range of teachers, old and new, share their experience about working at Colchester Sixth Form College, sharing their opinions on what teaching life is like.

The Colchester Sixth Form College opened in 1987 and working there from the start was Eddie Ross, a French and German teacher who taught at the institution until 2002. Ross states he “thoroughly enjoyed his time” at the college. “It was extremely well organised and well-funded… with a superb management team.” When asked what was tough about the job Ross said “The workload was very heavy, every year it got greater and greater!” Ross is not wrong. The Government Department for Education acknowledged that on average teachers work 10 hours a day with the BBC further revealing “a quarter of teachers work more than 59 hours a week.”  The National Census said the average full-time employee, works 39 hours a week.  This shows teaching takes up far more time; the work is relentless. Although Ross found the work to be demanding, a new trainee teacher Harry Dedhar feels he’s coping with the marking. Additionally, Dedhar says students have more interest in being at college and thinks the Sixth Form is a “pretty different culture” as students are friendly whereas other educational institutions like secondary school are “not pleasant.” Dedhar is not alone, all the teachers interviewed felt that students were aimable and interested in learning. Neil Kelly, (a politics teacher who has worked at the college since it’s opening) emphasised that the college is a “far more mature environment” and he “has absolutely no regrets in spending the majority of his teaching years” at the college.

Yet despite the abundance of praise the staff gave the college, there has been a noticeable issue.  Kelly claims that there have been “12 years of real-time cuts in spending for students in post 16 education.” This is unsurprising as the Conservatives still continue to cut public spending. In September, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng confirmed there will be further cuts of up to 18 billion pounds for essential services which are already starved of funding. The more tax cuts issued, the more we will all suffer as public services are increasingly struggling to fund essential costs which help people gain access to free education, the NHS, the welfare system and so much more.  Kelly thinks this is “sad” as “6th formers have had to pay the price” for the ever-increasing cuts. Jonas Lammens a trainee teacher at the college has similarly drawn attention to the “national problem of teachers being underpaid” causing difficulties “for those who are truly ambitious” in trying to make a career as an educator.  Lammens asserts that this contributes to the retention crisis which causes a 1/3 of teachers to leave by their 3rd year.  He emphasised “the government do not respect the profession of teaching.”

It is obvious that something must change or public institutions will continue to suffer and could risk losing more and more brilliant aspiring teachers like Lammens and Dedhar. As Kelly emphasised, there should be “equal opportunity for all” rather than inequality between state and private schools. Teachers like Dedhar and Lammens should have stability in their jobs and greater support from the government as teachers are desperately needed. Despite Lammens emphasising the “comradery and support” he has received from fellow teachers and management in the college, if teachers cannot be paid or funded properly during these years of inflation and depleted funding from the government, the state education system will continue to be starved of educators.  In order for them to facilitate brighter futures and opportunities for students around the nation, teachers deserve better.