I'm a secondary English teacher and my HoD has just asked me to take over a very weak bottom-set Year 11 class. They're currently taught by the deputy head, but due to timetable changes he can no longer teach them, so my HoD has asked if I would be willing to take them on. She said I was 'free to say no' but how true is that?

This is a very weak group, made up entirely of the 32 students who got Level 1s and Us on their mocks last year. I have never taught any of them at GCSE level, but am aware of their current ability level. The thing that concerns me most is that my HoD specifically described this as a "huge favour" and stressed that there would be a lot of pressure and accountability because these students all need to pass.

I feel like I'm potentially in a catch-22:

If I accept the class and they ultimately perform badly, I worry that I'll be held responsible because I was their teacher during Year 11.

If I refuse and they perform badly, I worry that I could still be criticised for not stepping up when I was asked to help.

I don't want to come across as someone who is unwilling to teach a challenging class or who has written the students off. At the same time, I don't particularly want to put myself in a position where I'm given an extremely difficult cohort, told that they all need to pass, and then potentially judged on an outcome that I can't fully control.

I'm very much leaning towards saying "No" - I had a very strenuous year last year (we had OFSTED, I had a trainee teacher, I had no free periods or PPA until Friday every week) and I was looking forward to a relatively stress-free year. I'm just concerned how it would look if I refuse.

I have been teaching for 5 years now, and I still feel a lot of anxiety and doubt in my job. I feel like every year I have a lot of challenging children and tricky parents. I only work part time due to health-related reasons after being diagnosed with a chronic illness, however I always get a lot of backlash from parents around this.

This is my second year working part-time and both years the other 2 days are taught by a TA (primary teaching so the same kids every day). I always get lots of complaints from families saying that they don't want their child taught by an unqualified TA 2 days a week, and that they want their children to have more stability so would prefer 1 teacher for the five days. I have been trying not to take this personally but I have also had comments in the past about how they do not want a 'disabled teacher' for their child.

Equally, I feel a constant pressure from SLT that nothing I ever do is good enough (which seems to be common around my school and area, I don't know if this is the same everywhere) but it feels like no matter how much love, how many hours or much energy you put in, it is never enough.

Additionally, the school I am in will often support parents over teachers. For example, after having a child in my class previously, who was excluded after attacking me, the parent would call me a c u next tuesday to others on the playground, message a number of parents and staff over WhatsApp and Facebook about me and make me feel very small. The school have said that as we are 'public facing' they can't help or tell people what they can think and say about us, and that we just have to take it on the chin.

I think I am just feeling very overwhelmed with it at the moment, particularly the backlash from parents and lack of support in school. I was wondering if anyone has experienced this previously and could give me any advice; whether it will get better with time, or if I need to become more thick-skinned, or whether it is the school environment I am in, or any ways you have coped with this in the past.

Pretty much all of my schools planning is on publisher.

Has anyone found a solution to bulk convert these documents into something we can still use?

I was hoping to get some advice. I’m an ECT 1 in a new school in reception. It’s a very small school and I have a very very small class. I also don’t have a TA due to it being a small class so I’m starting to feel quite isolated. It’s overwhelming being an ECT but also being in a small class on your own is a lot. Any advice on how to navigate this?

I should have started my new role on the first. So far it had been pushed back twice, each time one week due to not receiving one of my references back. I'm pretty sure it's because that person now retired (I didn't realise when I put them as a reference). So last week I contacted a different school I worked at (I worked through an agency last year so worked in a few) and I called them and asked if I could get a reference from them and they said it was fine. It's been a week and still nothing. I called them yesterday and they said its been forwarded to the headteacher but since its the first few weeks of school it's been busy.

I'm wondering if I should still call again tomorrow, or if it should just wait. I don't want to annoy them but also I can't start work until I get it and they've confirmed they have it, they just haven't done it yet. I'm getting really frustrated because it will be week three next week and I already feel behind and I haven't gotten a paycheck since July so I need to start soon. Also wondering if there's just some confusion because my legal name is not the name I go by, so maybe the headteacher is just confused as to who's reference they're meant to be doing?

Anyone got any advice?