Damn! Really good questions!
First Question
I’m a secondary school teacher (which is ages 11-18 here in the UK), but I have also taught primary school (5-11) for 2 weeks as part of my teaching qualification and helped out at a nursery. All have their challenges, but I chose secondary because I preferred being able to talk to students in a more down-to-earth way and banter with them! Then, I chose to do 6th form only (16-18) because I hated teaching some of the younger years!
I find it’s always the transition years that are the hardest. In secondary school, that’s particularly the year 8s (12-13) and 9s (13-14). They do their GCSEs in year 10-11 here (14-16) and their A-levels in year 12-13 (16-18), so they’re really focused on that. We expect a lot out of them.
The year 7s are just starting the school and they don’t want to inconvenience the big kids. They’ve gone from being the biggest kid in their previous school to being small fry now, which humbles them. Year 9s are old enough to have “respect” from the younger years, but not old enough that anything they do at school in the year counts. They’ve got no exams and nothing to hold them accountable. so they get really cocky and complacent. It makes it very hard to be nice to them!
Last year’s year 8s sucked, tbh. They didn’t get the humbling effect in the previous year because of COVID. They were in their own little bubbles at school and they weren’t walking around the school to their various classes. So, they still felt like they were the big fish and acted like it. Entitled brats, tbh.
In primary school, the year 4s are quite similar. The year 5s are starting to do tests to get into secondary schools and the year 6s have their SATs so they’re focused. The younger years are busy being little. The year 4s are very needy and they don’t take anything seriously – even their own safety!
Right now, I love teaching both the years I teach. However, I find the year 13s the more challenging of the two. Uni applications and final exams and realising that we can’t kick them out if their attendance is low is not a good mix. Their attendance sucks from September to about Feb and then they realise they didn’t attend enough classes to know what they need to do to pass and the breakdowns start!
Second Question
Every teacher needs to have a lunch break separate from recess duty here! In my previous school, the school would pay for your lunch if you had recess duty. Now, I work at a 6th form so duties are limited. I do 2 hours of duty a week in the library to ensure that everyone is using it with respect!
We’re entitled to 2.5 hours a week of protected time where the school isn’t allowed to make us do cover (and they have to give us back those hours in some other way if they do ask us to do cover. So in my school, if I take cover, they’ll usually let one of my less important classes off that week with remote work). We’re also entitled to at least 30 mins lunch break per day!
Duties have to be voluntary, unless the school is using them to make up your full-time hours. In some schools, you get paid extra hourly for lunch and after school duties!
they just disrupted me or occasionally bullied/made me fear for my safety.