AIBU to want to leave teaching?

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AIBU to want to leave teaching?

I'm a Primary School teacher. I love working with children, it's incredibly rewarding and no two days are the same. What I don't love however, is the mounting pressure and constant paperwork and pressure. There is barely time for anything outside of teaching and evenings and weekends are taken over with marking, planning, analysing pupil progress etc. the job in the classroom is increasingly difficult too and I think I need to leave before I have a breakdown.
I am finding I am enjoying the things I used to love less and less. I'm even having dreams about school so can't even escape at night.
I think it's particularly pronounced this year and I have some very difficult children that make every single day a battle.
I think I want out of the classroom now but would still like to remain either in a school or in education.

if the pay was better I'd be a TA no question

I'd consider retraining or studying again but I'm the main breadwinner and we have to renew our mortgage next summer!

Has anyone done similar? I don't know what's out there etc and haven't found anything online the last few months.

If anyone can point me I the right direction or has felt similar and stayed in teaching after feeling like this would be good to know!

Blimey. I never imagined Parliament to be stressful at all.

One of the problems with filling in all the paperwork etc and trying to get support for my 10 (well 9 as one already has 1:1) is that with one exception each child, as an individual on paper, looks as though there needs could be met. The issue is the combination of them all together.....and the fact that 1/3 of a class with behavioural SEN is a lot of issues. (And that is without the children who have non-behavioural SEN there are a further 5 of them...) SLT make lots of noises...but do very little..and there is certainly no money in the current school budget for more support.

It's not going to be my problem after Christmas though, as myself and my job share handed in our notice for this post at half term.

Hi - I have just discovered this thread. I am looking for people on school direct to share experiences. My dh is having a really rough ride on the scheme. He's about to spin out really and he's so depressed and down, feels he's going to be unemployable.

He's in such a bad way I dare not leave him alone. I note from previous posts that some schools offer help and will make enquiries on Monday.

Looking forward to hearing from people on the scheme or mentors. Do lots of people fail? If you've "failed", how did you bounce back?

Thank you.

'each child, as an individual on paper, looks as though there needs could be met.'

Not if the paperwork makes it clear that meeting those needs requires specified TA support or quantified additional teaching time or details the require profile of their class peers (I.e must not be placed in a class with more than one other chikd with challenging behaviour).

'SLT make lots of noises...but do very little..'

Follow up promises in writing 'for clarification' and keep meetings outcomes focused.

'and there is certainly no money in the current school budget for more support.'

How do you know that? Can you imagine how unacceptable it woukd be to claim there is no money in the phonics budget to teach phonics to nt kids this year? Why are children with SEN a separate entity less deserving of an education?

Schools control their own budgets and set the priorities. Perhaps it is the visiting panto workshop or the glossy brochure or new paint for the library they can't actually afford.

'must not be placed in a class with more than one other chikd with challenging behaviour'

How would that work in a one form entry school?

'Not if the paperwork makes it clear that meeting those needs requires specified TA support or quantified additional teaching time '

It would be argued that if the tasks were differentiated appropriately, and support used well, then the child's needs are being met. It depends on where the acceptable line for 'are being met' is drawn.
If a TA is there to support the whole class rather than being a designated 1:1, then she's there for all 30 children, not just 1, and it's the teacher's job to ensure that all of the children's needs are met to the best of her stretched, guilt-ridden and overloaded ability.
It's also why many in the SN community look at the idea of inclusion being pedalled with a cynical eye, and the idea that all needs vcan be met without decent funding or specialised support. Which was available in many special schools.

Of course it's vital that children with SN are supported and that the budget is spent appropriately but that doesn't address the real issues for teachers and the impact on their well being and health at work which is a direct result of government policy.

Which links directly to the main point of this thread.
AIBU to leave teaching?
No, you aren't.
If you try and do the impossible every day, for years, you will burn out.

starlight I have a vague idea I've seen other threads you've been on, detailing the fight you've had to get adequate provision for your dc. May I ask you, though, what your experience is with schools meeting the recommendation/requirement that a certain child "must not be placed in a class with more than one other child with challenging behaviour)." Even though my experience has always been in 2-form entry schools, certainly in the last significant number of years there have always been way more than one or two other children with behavioural needs in every class.

What is the solution to this? How are schools managing?

"must not be placed in a class with more than one other child with challenging behaviour)."

Ha very ha. School with only 5 classes so mixed age. Children joining throughout the year. Do we say to new child with ADHD coming along...sorry we already have 3 children with ADHD in that class you can not join? Can you imagine the uproar??? Some people seem to live in cloud cuckoo land with regards to funding/staffing issues in schools these days.

Star lives very much in the real world, but she has a specific focus on children with additional needs, and how those needs are being met.
Whereas the problem in schools is that you have to do your very best for all of the children, with ridiculous pressures and constraints and expectations.
So in order to effect change, what do you cut? How do you justify allocation of resources? How do you use support in class, to benefit the HA? To boost the learning of that middle group who need to move up a level? When does the TA do displays and paperwork and photocopying? Do you lose class time for her to do that, or do you do it yourself, so that the class benefits from two teaching adults in the room?
It's complicated when everyone's case is deserving, and you spread yourself as thin as you can and you still can't reach all of them equally.

yadnbu

i left for the first time 9 years ago, then went back for a bit last year and will never go back again.

working conditions, levels of responsibility, stress, pressure and the utter lack of appropriate systems, management and joined up thinking of the wider system outside your classroom door make it unbearable in terms of cost to your health and sanity.

if teachers and their energy levels were fossil fuels we'd all be about to see the lights switch off in this country.

you can only use a resource so much before it's exhausted. teachers are the key resource of education and there is no attempt at sustainable resource management just a squeeze every last drop and assume we can get some more later by offering a few years of free pgce study or cash bonus' for newcomers in core subjects.

it's reached a point where teachers are like disposable batteries, lure them in, use them up, toss them out.

the pension is a myth - i do not know one person i can imagine being able to do a lifetime of teaching till 70 years of age.

I've just worked mine out.... it was one of the reasons I was hanging on in there. Once the calculator spat out the numbers I went in and gave notice.

I simply would not be alive to claim the full amount, so I will take the teensy amount I have accrued and bog off now for a more balanced and sane, if cash poorer, life.

bitlost link to teachers support network

I have sobbed my way through much of this thread - can relate to so much of it. I felt desperate on Thursday and thought that resigning was the only option then I remembered that we can't pay the mortgage etc without my salary. I need to just keep on - although I don't know if I can. Starting to be plagued by thoughts of finding a permanent way out - at least my family could pay off the mortgage.

Talk.... tell someone... grab an OH appointment... see your GP.

Do something for yourself, now, please!

oh my gosh whatamI

what Nomama said

talk talk talk

PLEASE xxx

call in sick whatami and make a docs appointment please. you wouldn't hesitate if you had D&V you certainly shouldn't hesitate when suicide is beginning to feel like the only way out x

seriously, get signed off and treated and working to save your mental health. one of hte only perks is that there is decent sick pay - you need to use it so use it please

I echo everything the last few posters said WhatamI. I know you need to pay your mortgage but there is help out there to either make the job a little more manageable or find alternatives. In the short term get signed off - GPs are well aware of the health risks in teaching!

I would stress governors and HTs have a duty of care for staff well-being - sometimes they need some serious prompts to take this responsibility seriously! It took union involvement directly with the governing body for a local colleague's school to take action - it hasn't solved the problem but the situation has improved.

whatamI Agree with others that about the only perk left in teaching is the sickness benefits. That will buy you some time - 6 months' full pay and 6 months half. Use it.

Please, please talk to someone and keep on reading/posting WhatamI. You are not alone.

I've rejoined mumsnet after a 2 year hiatus because of this thread. I too am at breaking point. Teaching is my second career. I thought that my previous professional role in industry was stressful. I thought that, coming from a family of teachers, I knew the realities of teaching. How wrong I was.

I teach FT primary in an 'outstanding' school. The pressure from management and the parents is relentless. The dynamics of my class this year are challenging (in terms of behaviour and SEN) and I have spent this term fighting for my class's needs to be recognised by the SLT.

I absolutely adore teaching. I enjoy planning engaging lessons. I love the children in my class dearly. My colleagues are fantastic. Coming from the private sector, I also appreciate the holidays.

However, I am sick of the barrage of emails I receive from parents which I spend my PPA time replying to. I am fed-up with the relentless formal assessment of children and the resulting data input, learning walks, marking dialogue and book scrutinies.

I have no work-life balance. I don't know how much longer I can last.

I also have no idea who'll I'll vote for in the next general election!

The best thing to come out of this thread is knowing that we are not alone.
Support plans, training needs, compliance, making teachers on the UPS feel worthless, it happening everywhere.

I also have no idea who'll I'll vote for in the next general election!

Nope-me neither! I can't vote for the Tories after what they've done. My job has become intolerable in the last 2 years, directly because of them. Tristram Hunt offers us nothing better though. I want to cry when I think about it!

I would stress governors and HTs have a duty of care for staff well-being

I really honestly don't think they care. It also seems to me, that the minute you're off sick with stress-they will turn against you and you will be deemed incapable. Support plans, OH, and capability will follow. I think the best bet is to get out with a reference whilst you can.

A glass for all of us dreading going in to work tomorrow. Hang on in there; only three school weeks until Christmas holidays .

Keep posting everyone, so we can be our own support network - it helps feeling I'm not the only one struggling. So thank you to everyone who has posted so far.

that's not responsible to say rollon - especially in light of what a poster above has said.

you still get a reference even if you leave after ill health and can't be given a bad one because you've been ill. OH and your union if needs be can negotiate a phased return if you have been off sick and no they can't just stick you on capability for mental health problems as you are covered by disability discrimination etc.

someone has said they're literally feeling suicidal - to say going off sick means the end of the world is really irresponsible and untrue.