Their frustrations have been heightened over the past fortnight after finding out about major - and often controversial - policy changes from the Department of Education in the media first.

The school-holiday news dump included stories about a plan to appoint a chief behaviour adviser, a shake-up to teachers' lesson evaluations and a new support team for parents to be able to escalate complaints about teachers and schools.

Read more: Illawarra teachers lay bare the crippling reality of profession in 2022

A strict code of conduct prevents teachers from saying anything about these issues - either publicly or on internal communication channels - that could be deemed critical of the department or government.

Local teachers say this is causing simmering resentment towards their employer and only contributing to the "mass exodus" of staff.

There has been a 30 per cent slide in the number of people studying to become teachers, with 60 per cent of teachers saying they plan to leave within five years, according to the NSW Teachers Federation.

Emma, a teacher for more than 15 years, told the Mercury that poor communication from her employer has been an issue for her since the start of the pandemic, when she would find out about remote learning, COVID rules and return-to-school dates in the news along with everyone else.

"I'd immediately go and check my emails, because what you're hearing in the media is not the full story, so you think there must be an official communication," she said.

"Then when it's not there, you think, 'they just don't care about how we implement it, they only care about how it looks'.

"So I feel totally disrespected and overlooked and it's pretty indicative about the way the whole industry is that I feel like in my job they care more about me being able to prove I'm doing something then actually whether I'm doing it and doing a good job for the kids."

"I definitely think if you take it personally you would have stopped doing the job and heaps of my colleagues are leaving.

"It's harder and harder to feel like it's worth it.

"People care about what you're doing, but the government doesn't care."

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said that a streamlined communication strategy was introduced in response to staff concerns about email overload.

"Teachers have told us they're often overwhelmed with communications from the Department, as they feel it distracts them from their important role of teaching students," they said.

"That's why we limit what we send to the workforce to a weekly email and other online channels.

"We make every effort to share government announcements and policy updates with teachers, either directly or through school leaders.

"The media also can play an important role in sharing this story information with the more than 90,000 teachers working in NSW public schools."

Emma said the timing felt deliberate because it effectively worked to reduce any pushback from teachers.

"It's disempowering because when we hear it during term time, we'll talk it through and we'll be able to think about how it works in our particular context," she said.

"But if they make three different announcements over the space of two weeks in the holidays, by the time we get back to work it slips away."

Emma said even when they do receive an internal email from the department or education minister Sarah Mitchell, it is often thin on detail and unrealistic.

"We will get an email saying we are actively recruiting new teachers and I'm like, 'yeah but what does that mean and what is the impact of that going to be on my workload?'

"So they speak in very general terms and to any teacher reading it, it's so disconnected from the reality of what we do day-to-day, so they say no class will remain unsupervised and I want to say 'well how?'

"I'm like, 'well only because my colleagues are going above and beyond doing additional work, essentially unpaid overtime, to ensure that it happens.

"It's just like you haven't ensured that, we've ensured that, you've just got to make it sound good, but that's not policy.

"They know we are gagged and can't speak on (media reports) except through the union and the union are just trying so hard to keep the message focused on our current campaign and I'm very supportive of that.

"But rarely do we get to hear from people who are actually in the classroom, and I think they know that they've very effectively shut down the voice of the whole profession."

Local teacher Michael, who is spending his school break writing reports, said he has grown accustomed to the "lack of respect" shown to teachers.

"We find out through the media because it's overly politicised," he said.

"You get to work and someone will say, 'did you hear that?' and the details are never quite clear because it's all about a press release, and the negative impact that it has on staff is not good.

"I'm not surprised anymore with the political game that gets played with our lives and the lives of the kids we're trying to teach.

"I don't get angry anymore but I really do get disappointed that the government isn't investing in tomorrow's future.

"During the pandemic, politicians were like 'teachers are amazing', but as soon as it comes down to addressing issues then they hang us out to dry.

"We don't have enough staff, there's only a couple of ways to attract more teachers to the profession but they never want to tackle it head on and then they put out these emails saying they're disappointed that teachers are letting down family and kids.

"And it's like teachers are (going on strike) and losing pay, not for ourselves, but for families and kids, because we don't have the staff to teach them."

Fellow teacher Rebecca said her exhausted colleagues expect real change or they will continue to "leave the classroom in droves".

"A lot of teachers are tired - tired of fighting, tired of having to explain ourselves, and what I think is 'why on earth are you doing this to public servants who contribute so much to society?'" she said.

"You know, I've always wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a child but now I'm not sure I would encourage my child to become a teacher.

"It's so sad, I love this job."

*Not their real names.

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