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!

My daughter is a teacher, she's 25 and she's just started her Masters in Special Ed - Communication Impairment. She loves teaching but wont go back to it in the traditional school setting sense when she finishes her course, she's setting up an NGO where we live instead. it will be for children who have special needs.

YANBU at all! I left teaching last year, after 11 years and feel like I have my life back! I am still working (although 0.5 as a Uni lecturer) AND have a 1.5 year old AND am 8 months pregnant and still feel a lot more rested at the end of the day! No more nightmares and stress, no more worry about x and y kid. I feel bad to say it, but I do not miss it at all!
My DH is still a full time teacher and we both feel he needs to move on for the sake of his health and our life. We are looking at alternatives and have a three year plan as he (like you) is the main bread winner. He will most likely need to retrain, which will be tough given the family situation and his work pressure, but if he needs to we will manage!
Good luck OP and remember: No job is worth taking over your life in such a negative way! Take care of yourself!

I left teaching at Christmas last year - best decision ever! I'm lucky to be at home with my toddler (and soon to be newborn!) for a while but am struggling to decide what I want to do next. I would like to go back to uni to study midwifery but not sure how much of a financial strain it'd be.

Leaving teaching was like having a huge ten ton weight lifted off me.

YANBU. I am 0.6 but worked all morning today and always work on days off. I couldn't do it full-time. The holidays keep me going as I can then spend time with my DD. It is so tough.

I'd quite like to be a speech therapist and work with primary aged children, but presume I'd need to retrain....!?

I do honestly feel trapped. I'll have to do another degree which we can't afford.

I also feel scared for the future of teaching-all the good teachers I know-every single one-is either on prozac because of the working conditions, or looking at any opportunity to leave. The ones who will be left will be really crap teachers. Is that what we want?!

I've been a teacher for a number of years. After DC I returned to do cover, effectively supply. I hated it. There is little sense of ownership or progression with your pupils. I couldn't wait to get back to teaching proper so I wouldn't just say, do supply it'll solve all of your stresses.

I'm now back with my own classes, part time and I love it. On my "non working days" I have time to mark, plan and generally catch up when the DC are in bed. I don't resent doing this work on my days off because it allows me more of a balance on the days I am in school (I'm still there til 5.30 on these days).

I'm lucky that I can do this as I know I would feel exactly the same as you if I were full time. I'm just really saddened that our profession is now like an industry, where data is king and education, in the real sense, isn't valued.

I hope those in government rraf threads like these and realise we are heading for a recruitment crisis.

Every day for years I've been thinking I'd love to be a teacher. I've got a degree an science and maths and would probably see suited to it.

But all I can think is no bloody way. Never.

Sorry for the hijack OP. I hope you find your dream job!

Oh god, I'm reading this and crying. I wanted to teach for ages and after a previous career in the City I retrained and although I only teach 0.6 I feel that I'm just not coping. Like the OP I love the actual teaching, but I hate, hate, hate the constant observations when nothing's ever good enough, the testing every effing week, the unrealistic levels that I have to push the kids to because the previous teacher faced the same..... and then I need to bring more "creativity" ....but then they need to do more writing. Nothing to suggest, but I'm feeling your pain!

The danger that you are 'only ever as good as your last observation' is always there as well. I've seen previously always Outstanding teachers get a RI causing them to be persecuted by SMT and they've just crumbled.

Despite good relationships with children and parents, great results and consistently good work in books, the subjective opinion of one (often verging on the dictatorial, sometimes, just totally insane) person means that they are now 'the RI teacher', for whom something must be done. Be that a 'support plan' (for that, read: weekly observations and a daily dissection of your planning, marking, assessment and evaluations which causes even the best teacher to fall apart), going off on stress, capability or just quitting with no job to go.

The power given to SMT are just as much of the problem as the incessant workload.

I'm currently wondering if I can make it to the end of term, let alone another 25 years at least to retirement. My children are bearing the brunt of a mother who is hardly around in term time and when she is at home is telling them to go away because she has work to do. But hey at least I'm around in the holidays.

OP- do you live in an area (or near an area) with the 11+ or a lot of private selective secondary schools? Parents pay well for tutoring, around here, people pay £20-30 per hour for tutoring, could you look at being a TA along with tutoring 2-3 nights a week to top up your income?

I was a good secondary school English teacher but left for all the reasons mentioned before. I home educate my own kids now and do marking/tutoring however I am lucky enough to have a spouse willing to be the main earner. If I were you, I'd get the TES delivered and look in all the odd sections for the 'not quite teaching' jobs. There are plenty to be found. Good luck - many of us have been there too xx

Thank you.... I've had a lovely day with my family and done no school work. Have just started to worry about all the crap I have to do tomorrow and that sick feeling is back and the knot in my stomach.

I have this constant voice in my head that I am not good enough (I was treated really badly as an NQT and the feeling of not being good enough has stuck around).
It's like a daily whirlwind of voices saying to me:
'What if the children don't listen to you, what if the parents think you can't do your job, what if your ta thinks you're rubbish, what if your ta speaks to SMT about how you handle the class, what if you can't control them, what if someone walks in and they arn't doing what they're meant to be, what if the head wants to speak to you, you're not good enough, what if they put you on capability, what if they don't listen to you' round and round ALL day everyday. I think I might actually need counselling to try and get past it all but don't think they'd understand or would just think it's stupid. Dp says 'just forget it, it was over 10 years ago' and I can't!

Ah, OP - it's the feeling that no matter how much work you do it's never finished, and despite your best efforts things outside of your control (unreasonable parents, unhelpful TA, unsupportive senior managers etc.) can have such an effect.

Give counselling a go maybe. Or try phoning teacher support line teachersupport.info/

I think I might actually need counselling to try and get past it all but don't think they'd understand or would just think it's stupid. Dp says 'just forget it, it was over 10 years ago' and I can't!

As a former teacher who's retrained in counselling I see a good few teachers in your position, and no decent counsellor would think you were stupid.

My day job is now with a charity where I work with substance misusers and offenders delivering education, training and employment advice. Nothing would persuade me to return to teaching.

Please put your health first.

I'm not a teacher Time but my rule of thumb with jobs is that Sunday blues are normal enough but when the blues move to Saturday and stay there, you look for another job. What day is it today?

Oh op. .. And others who are still in teaching I feel for you all!
After 13 years full time... And another 6 years part time.(primary) .. I left last year and it's been bliss!
I could have written so many of the posts on here.. ROLLONTHESUMMER... you are so spot on!! Everything you said... I had to check I hadn't actually written your post!!
I'm sorry no good advice here... But just to say you are not alone and I hope you find a way that works for you soon!

I left mainstream and went to work at a PRU.

I'm never going back to mainstream. At the PRU I get to spend the time with the DCs that interested me the most and, and I know this is a really cheesy thing to say, I honestly feel privileged to be able to teach them. I never had enough time for them before and now I do, without feeling guilty about all the other DCs. It's brilliant.

It's that feeling of... No matter what you do... It will never be good enough!!
And they (the powers that be) are just looking for another stick to beat you with!

I posted a while back in the Staffrooom topic about what to do rather than teach. I love Thursday nights even though I'm shattered (don't work Fridays) and I love Friday nights. However I get the dread on Saturday nights - stomach is clenching right now - and I don't even work flipping Mondays either. I recently changed schools and post to see of it was the school or the job. Turns out it was the job.

I taught for 7 years and then went part time when I had my DC. I now work mornings in a preschool and I love it. I have all the joy of teaching, I can plan my own activities and I am currently working on a transition programme for our older children. Yes, the pay isn't as good (although I worked out that the hourly rate is the same but I don't get paid for the holidays) but I do nothing at home, unless I want to. Everything I do is to benefit the children, or improve my understanding of them and I have never felt so fulfilled. As a former teacher I have become a 'go to' resource and I'm often approached by parents for advice so I now have my confidence back.

One day I plan to run my own preschool and I can honestly say that I love my job. As PP have said, I do supplement my income with some tutoring which I fit around childcare but even that keeps my brain ticking over and gives me a connection to primary education. I am still in touch with my former colleagues and they are all struggling. Please leave OP, there is so much you can do with they myriad of skills that teaching demands and cultivates. Make yourself feel a valuable commodity again, and not a 'never quite good enough' drudge.

As a parent, not a teacher, I am really shocked by the amount of staff leaving this xmas. Wonderful teachers they are too. Two of them actually have no job to go to, and one of them is under doctors' orders to leave for the sake of his physical and mental health.

What the fuck is happening in schools and to our teachers?

ROLLONTHESUMMER... you are so spot on!! Everything you said... I had to check I hadn't actually written your post!!

I'm glad it's not just me!

Honestly though-there is no other profession on here that a) people are so negative about and quick to judge (people have argued with me before that Social Workers are equally criticised on here, but I'd say the ratio was low) and b) such a high proportion of us are absolutely desperate to leave-particularly in the last 2 years.

Why is that!?

Interesting how the only people on this thread who question whether you'd be better off out of teaching are the ones who haven't been teachers.

I was a primary teacher and left because I had to choose between spending weekends and evenings with my dcs or with school work. Since then I've worked in jobs with far less security (was made redundnant and threat of funding cuts a constant), with far lower wages (charity sector) and with considerable stress (publishing deadlines). But Nothing. Nothing. is as stressful and soul destroying as teaching (actually, not the teaching itself but the Ofsteds, the assessments, the meetings, the paperwork, the late nights, the Goves, etc etc). I'm much happier out than in.

Sorry naysayers, but, the grass really IS greener out here.

What role do you have in the pre school what sound? I'd love to do something like that and love that age but am not sure Dp would let me due to salary change.
I said I was looking(just looking) on a new site for jobs online tonight and he told me to stop. I know he doesn't want me to give up and doesn't understand how I feel at all.
I guess his biggest fear is we might lose the house if they won't renew our mortgage.