To ask ex teachers...

I'm now a barmaid/waitress. It might be minimum wage, but with tips (enough to cover two nice days out a week with my daughter with lunch etc) I really do alright, I get to spend days with my daughter, I will get to take her to school/pick her up etc. I don't have parents moaning on the phone to me. I eat and I'm not stressed, and in a happy marriage which was being affected by both husband and I working stressful jobs, I cried going to work, he goes in with a smile, it was a no brainier who was going to step down from their job.

I now work for a union. I had done some crap jobs before teaching so it wasn't that I didn't know what the real world was like. And now I work 9-5 in an interesting an fulfilling role, I feel valued and I go home and spend time with my own children. I don't even miss the holidays. In my office there are 4 ex-teachers!

I was a teacher for 15 years, but I couldn't do the hours and the stress. I loved being in the classroom. But all the data, the pressure, the constantly being told you are rubbish (SLT) or lazy (media) did me in. I don't regret it, apart from a bit sad that I left a career that I was good at.

Nursing. But I do teach. Have just started a job where I will be running day workshops on clinical skills. As creative as I like, no ofsted, it's like the training department.

DH went down to part time for a year (2 days per week) and did a master's to retrain - we couldn't have afforded him not to work at all. He's now a software engineer.

I've got my eye on becoming a fitness instructor if I end up coming out of teaching. I've never had a permanent job, it amazes me that I've clung on so long.

I'm finding full time work too demanding. Dh also has a demanding job but at least is significantly better reimbursed for his efforts. I have to be employed close enough to home to cover the slack in his unpredictable absences. It makes for a pretty tight criteria, especially if I'm looking for part time which is rarely advertised.

It's a shame as I still love teaching, but just find the baggage tough.

Mental health campaigning and working with the gov to spend mental health budgets. Random I know!

I left to work for the civil service. Love now having no work to do once I leave work in the evening. My stress levels have massively reduced and my family love having me around and actually being 'present' rather than always being completely distracted by work that needs doing for school.
I can even cope with the massive reduction in holidays as the evenings and weekends free of schoolwork make up for that.
I did have to take a pay cut but would think i'll exceed my teacher wage within 5-6 years of successful promotion.

I'm a school counsellor

Know several who are now paralegals and training to be solicitors.

Maybe it's because I had so many shit jobs before I became a teacher

I wonder if this is significant. My parents were teachers and did the whole school > teacher training college > school path and knew nothing else. They seemed convinced teaching was uniquely stressful and were genuinely surprised and shocked when my sister and I started work and our jobs were every bit as stressful, but without the security, career progression opportinities and decent pay that accomany a career in teaching.

I wouldn't have left teaching if I had got a permanent job but after 4 years of long term supply placements (generally covering teachers off with stress) I just couldn't seem to get a permanent role. At that time, in my area, there were at least a hundred applicants per advertised role. That was about 6 years ago now so I don't know if that's changed.

I got a job in Customer Services, answering emails, for about 3 years then became a foster carer.

When my foster children are older I might look into possibly going back into teaching, as it seems there might actually be a permanent job for me with everyone else leaving! But at the moment I am loving being basically a paid SAHM. My kids are school age so I have day times free and do all sorts of courses and interesting things that are free in my area.

IonaNE - no risk involved. I counsel in addition to working full time.

Owlina, I admit that my first ever job was teaching. But I still have the Twitter account from my teaching days and if I logged on now (Sunday, nearly 9pm), my home stream would be full of tweets from teachers saying that they still have 2-3 hours of marking/planning/other paperwork to do. And that's at the weekend. On weekdays it's still going on at midnight. For me this is no life to live. Mo-Fri, 9-5, thank you.

Why would anyone want to leave? People "worship" teachers apparently! (Yes, I read that here on Mumsnet!)

Is there such a thing as a shared tutor for home educated children? What about something like that??

Maybe it's because I had so many shit jobs before I became a teacher.

*there; compared

I'm also a counsellor with a private practice.
I've also looked into this but the risks seemed to be too high.

I feel like I'm the only person who loves this job now.
Out of my nearly 20 years of teaching I spent 10 in a country on the Continent. 50% of your time was PPA and in your free periods you did not need to be on the premises. There was no school after lunch (1-1:30-ish). Summer holidays were 10 weeks. I loved being a teacher there compared to that teaching in the UK only allows a very low standard of living.

I work with offenders and substance misusers. I'm also a counsellor with a private practice.

I'm an ex teacher and it seems most options are quite low paid.

Most teachers are graduates, often good graduates (I have 2 v good degrees) but it seems leaping into another world of work is quite tough.

I've considered retraining but locally I can only see OT/social work/nursing which costs to train and then bottom of the payscale again.

I wish Id started out as something else...

I feel like I'm the only person who loves this job now. Can't imagine doing anything else. Maybe I've just been lucky with where I work!

Supply teaching is good if it's day-to-day and you can get a steady 2-3 days a week. In 5 mins before the kids, out 5 mins after the kids.

someone mentioned the independent sector - I would also suggest thinking about alternative types of schools, such as SEN or PRU - there is still an amount of paperwork, but usually a different focus in the schools, with much more emphasis on pastoral care and seeing children as individuals rather than exam fodder.....