AIBU to want to leave teaching?

[Timetochangeisnow]

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!

I didn't mean it was the end of the world. I just meant the out of people that have gone off sick at my school, it was pretty awful and stressful for them as a consequence. Others who were at breaking point either left and went straight on supply or applied for other jobs and them left, are happier and less 'broken.' I know that's just my experience though and apologies if it seemed flippant-I didn't mean to sound irresponsible. Sorry to the OP.

I can quote the opposite, rollon. One of my friends at work has had a few episodes of stress-related ill health, and has received lovely support and amended roles upon return, to aid her recovery.

Although, I acknowledge that if one's stress is due to an unsupportive management team above, then they're less likely to be lovely in order to help you recover. In my friend's case, it was more complex; as many teachers are, she's a perfectionist and finds it very difficult to do anything less than the maximum at all times, feeling perpetually guilty and as if she's no good (although she is without doubt one of the best teachers I know). I believe there has to be an element of "what I'm doing is good enough. If you disagree, then bring it on" to your approach. And learn to cut unnecessary corners and multi-task. Otherwise you drive yourself mad.

Clam-I suspect my management may be one in a million. People probably were just better leaving. I'm very glad to hear it isn't like that everywhere :)

I mean in a million in a negative way, just in case that wasn't clear!

No. My HT (and deputies) have many faults, but their saving grace, many times over, is being supportive to the staff, facilitating time off for family issues (e.g.medical app'ts for one's own kids, as well as sports days and performances) and not expecting unnecessary paperwork. Makes a massive difference

You would hope that Nicky Morgan would read this thread. It is so sad that so many are so stressed.

This situation has got so bad that I'm in bed with horrific gastroenteritis, exploding both ends, and my first thought is surely I can get into school because the consequences of not going in are a thousand times worse.

You would hope that Nicky Morgan would read this thread. It is so sad that so many are so stressed.

I agree-the job that I love has been totally obliterated by policitians trying to make their mark :(

Crimbo I do understand that one. I felt ill last week, but dragged myself in, as my plans were not the best and I didn't want anyone else to have to decipher them. I understood them and taught from them perfectly fine, but wouldn't have wanted anyone else to see them.

However, I've spent this weekend in bed with a chest infection, although I did stagger in to two school events (scruffy hair, no makeup and wheezing over everyone) to show willing, but I'm highly likely to call in sick this coming week. Too bad. But you sound much more ill than me. What would your consequences be? What would happen if you were rushed into hospital by ambulance tonight (which also happened to me last year)? You absolutely couldn't go in then. Would the world stop turning, or would you have to say "tough luck. Someone else can deal with it."

I'm covered under the DDA due to my long term health issues but any time off results in endless meetings, threats of OH all in the name of
"support"

Better to go in and throw up into a bin than face all that again.

I always feel so tired at this point on a Sunday, knowing I can't go to bed for a few more hours, trying to get as much prep done now my own kids are in bed.

Surely I should be relaxing so I feel energised for the week ahead?

That's not limited to teaching tho

That is true, Stealth, it's the lot of the working parent. Rest? Day off? Hah!

No, it's not limited to teaching, but the thing about teaching is that all day, from the minute the kids arrive to the minute they leave, you are 'performing' at 100mph, spinning dozens and dozens of plates. And having to be bloody cheerful while you do it. There's no such thing as taking it easy, lurking quietly at your desk and nipping off to the loo at odd moments to rest your burning head against the cool tiles. And then when the kids leave, your other job, full-time in itself, begins.
I couldn't tell you the last time I even got a lunchbreak, actually. My choice, I suppose, but the afternoon would be a car crash if I lounged around in the staffroom for an hour. I eat at my desk.

How are you doing whatami?

clam , that's a perfect description of how my days used to be.

i'm so glad to be out of it.

my last spell back in a school motivated me to become self employed and work from home - it also made me remove my son from school because i knew i didn't want to put him through years of his life in that environment.

wish i hadn't gone back as i could have still been sending him to school and pretending it was good for him.

I think that what you describe is the problem, clam - I don't think that anyone can be in the same class all day and teach outstanding lessons all the time- they would burn out. It must also exhaust the children being in the receiving end of it! Sometimes you just want to close the door and relax something mundane to recharge everyone's batteries.
It was so bad in the mornings that I would try and arrive at 7.30am with a huge list of tasks and then dread a parent wanting a quick word- it generally was a quick word, but in those 5 minutes I would be fretting about the 3 things it was stopping me doing!

I think tis thread needs sending to the government and the unions, who are doing nothing about the stress levels.

I wonder if Nicky Morgan will read any of the replies to the workload survey? Or was it just a pre-election 'trying to appease the teachers' move?!

Honey - what is it you're doing self employed from home? I'm still trying to work out what it is I can do post-teaching.

I do flit with homeschooling on and off but my daughter is loving school!

I love this thread. Despite everyone's stories of stress, anxiety and despair, it is clear that everyone of us loves our jobs but it is the politics and the unreasonable demands of government, OFSTED and SLT that are forcing us into an early grave.
I am finding a lot of support on here just by reading your comments and confirming that I am not alone. Currently on week 8 of a 14 week sick leave due to stress. I have ups and downs along the way, felt ignored and snubbed by colleagues who are actually giving me space to recover and dealing with their own stress demons as they battle through work!
I am due to see OH soon (this month with a bit of luck) and that in itself is giving me hope that a good support plan will be put in place to aid my transition back to work. The problems I encountered at work will not be resolved but I have Union supporting me throughout so have their 'safety net' as they have had a 100% success rate in my area, making SLT see sense, so to speak.
I find that teaching full time is not sustainable in the long term without burning out. I made it to 14 years before my batteries ran out. I am due to go on maternity leave in 12 weeks and on my return I will be requesting part time, just so that I can have my life back.

the only trouble is riding that whilst part time is better in terms of less days of full on performance at school unfortunately the outside of school work doesn't reduce itms. you get paid proportionally but have just as much planning, data analysis etc etc etc to do not helped by the fact that you end up teaching small amounts to lots of different year groups and ability groups and whatever they can fit on your time table and if you're like me you end up with a lot of shared group where you're at the mercy of colleagues bothering to communicate with you despite your best efforts to find out what they have covered etc.

i was part time in my last role and was teaching every year group including both as and a2 and two off curriculum groups (year 10's and 11's). the planning load was ridiculous and the shared groups an absolute nightmare - i would prepare lessons havng gone with what i thought had been agreed with the other staff members teaching them to find that had been covered already and i was left with no planning or to find that what was meant to have been covered hadn't been etc.

also i was still expected to go to the same amount of after school meetings as full time staff and do the same amount of paperwork, training sessions, cpd etc.

i'm guessing it may be different for primary teachers but for secondary where timetabling is like a giant mensa level game of tetris you can end up with an extraordinary load on your plate.

you know what amused me going back to teaching that last time was that the happiest people in the building were supply staff!

years ago i used to feel so sorry for supply because they were going in cold to groups who didn't respect them and they didn't have a relationship with them or reputation, and maybe the students were demotivated after a period of supply, poor planning in place etc. that was the nightmare end of teaching NOW they're the happiest ones there!

i started teaching for the first time in 2002 - it wasn't a walk in the park then and i was at what was considered a difficult school but the difference between now and then is unbelievable. the 2002 phase seems blissful in comparison.