Reduce hours, take leave or push through?

[naturesbuds]

I work for the full time and I’m also studying TEFL, which I have until April 2027 to complete. I’m planning to properly sign up before the course ends, so it’s starting to feel a bit more serious now rather than a vague “I’ll get to it” thing.
DS is finishing his GCSEs next year, so that’s another mental load on the horizon. At the moment I’m working 38 hours a week and feel like I’m constantly on the phone. I’m trying to think logically about whether I should reduce my hours now, take some form of leave, or just keep going as I am.
My job does have some flexibility, which helps, and the pension pot is good — that’s what’s stopping me making any quick decisions. I could potentially take some annual leave, unpaid leave, or even look at study leave to take the pressure off while I get properly into the TEFL work, without permanently cutting my hours.
Part of me thinks reducing hours or taking some leave sooner would make life feel more manageable and stop everything piling up at once. Another part of me thinks I should hang on, use leave strategically, and not take a long‑term hit financially or pension‑wise.
Those of you who’ve juggled work, studying, and other commitments — would you reduce hours, take leave, or just push through and reassess later?

Most TEFL courses are reasonably short and if you have another year to complete it, I don't see why you'd need to reduce hours given that many people complete it in a month or two.

Push through if you can, as your older self will be pleased you paid as much as you could into your pension. How many hours a week is TEFL over and above your 38 hour work week? I would only take a step back at work, if I had to.

Do this in stages until you feel you've reached the work/life balance you need.

Take the annual leave first.

Then OPL.

Then reduce hours if you really need to.

Thanks for replying Goodcat . At the moment I’m studying three days a week, around 10 hours in total, on top of my 38 hours at work. Taking your response into consideration, I think I’ll push through for now — I can see the sense in keeping the pension contributions up —

Thank you both will push through

With the greatest of respect, this isn't good advice. Most people will die before they see a pension. I'd recommend reducing hours. No amount of money is worth the impact to your health which may be permanent, so if you're lucky enough to see retirement, you won't be able to enjoy it because you decided to push through all those years ago despite your mind and body trying to say no.

you seem to be making hard work of this, you’ve got options of leave or study leave.what does your DS doing GCSEs next year have to do with anything? The full time course is one month, I don’t think that would impact on your pension too much.

I did the CELTA full time by taking a month off work as leave. It was intense because it really was 8am to 11pm as we always had lessons to prepare for the next day. I was doing it to have it in the bag for a future time. The rest of the group went all over the world, I went back to work!