Teachers Talk Radio

We talk the countdown to half-term and how to deal with performance anxiety and any conflict at work. Not to be missed. We'll talk it out and take care of mental health along the way.

A major DfE survey "Growing up in the 2020s" has found that 31% of students affected by bullying said that staff were aware, with 33% saying they were not and 36% being unsure.

The survey, conducted by UCL and the Anna Freud Centre, will follow 8000 students in England, currently aged 12 and 13, through their secondary school experience. The results reported are the first collected.

The survey also revealed that girls and students with SEND were least likely to feel a sense of belonging. Students with SEND were more likely to experience bullying, with 11% reporting daily or weekly physical bullying, and 20% reporting regular occurrences of other forms of bullying, such as exclusion from friendship groups and name-calling.

The findings also show significant statistics on lesson disruption, absence, mental health, and perceived fairness. On Points of View tonight, the panel will discuss what the survey's findings mean. Does it raise important questions about how we understand bullying in schools? What can schools do to address the issues raised by the survey?

What additional support might be needed for those who are struggling to build friendships?

Join Michael Wright, Maud Waret, Ollie Bayliss and Liz Webb for this episode of Points of View.

Tim Smale is joined by Guy Holder, Head of PSHE for a frank conversation about the technology arriving in children's lives faster than schools can keep up. Camera-equipped smart glasses are on sale on the high street, and Guy is campaigning to have them banned. Tim and Guy ask what these glasses mean for consent, for safeguarding and for anyone who could be filmed in a classroom without knowing it. They also get into phone pouches versus brick-phone-only schools, whether 16 should be the minimum age for smartphones, social media and AI, and what teachers can do when Big Tech feels too big to challenge.

In this week's show, Claudia and Martin talk about how to approach the teaching of new courses.

It will come as little surprise to most that work in education to hear that teachers are leaving the classroom in their droves. This is a pattern being repeated around the world, but in England the statistics are above the OECD average, with 7.2% of fully qualified teachers resigning in comparison to a 4.2% average. 91% of these are resignations in England, in comparison to an average of 55% across OECD countries. Membership of Facebook groups which support and promote life beyond the classroom run into the tens of thousands… but why are teachers in England resigning at a higher rate than our international colleagues? Is it workload? Unsustainable expectations? Behaviour? Ofsted? Working conditions? What do you think is driving teachers to leave? What would solve the increasing retention crisis in education? Should the government be holding exit interviews to try and get to the heart of the problem? Join Rae Whitehouse, Carl Smith and Liz Webb live at 10am on the Points of View panel to share your views in part 2 of the debate.