to think DH shouldn’t quit teaching?

[mindyk]

Slightly misleading title.

My DH is an outstanding Maths (and Economics/Politics) teacher. He is specialised in Maths so can easily teach Further Maths A Level standard (basically all pre-Uni level stuff) he also runs a successful tutoring company.

DH is a bit of a martyr. We have lots of outstanding / grammar schools in the area which he refuses to go to, saying the kids at bad schools need him. As a result, the abuse, lack of care from the kids and general issues with the profession means he wants to leave.

DH says he will take a pay cut but I know him inside out, the only way he would take a pay cut is because he can supplement with tutoring, this means any job that requires you to work past 5pm or doesn’t allow a WFH finish at 5pm on the dot is not possible.

Any career ideas for him? This is his requirements:

• WFH at least half the week
• Minimum £40k salary (he’s currently on around £55k)
• Must be able to run the tutoring which he must start by 5pm-ish each evening.

his current school finishes before 3pm, he doesn’t bring work home 95% of the time, marking is easy as most kids can barely answer more than 1 page of a paper and he never works holidays. He tutors most evenings from 430pm to as late as 9pm Mon-Thurs. I personally think he should try a better school, maybe take on less responsibility and teach as a back up.

He cannot do tutoring full time due to security and we plan to move in a year or two, once we’ve bought the bigger house etc. he can go self-employed full time.

Who says he's an outstanding teacher? Doesn't sound it to me. He's not got much about him if he needs ideas from Mumsnet for new career paths. SLT member but so few non contact sessions, that doesn't happen in any school I ever worked in.

Can you say a bit more about his economics background?

I work for an exam board & those that earn over £40k definitely don’t finish at 5pm on the dot & often work evenings & weekends.

Writers are all self employed teachers/lecturers or retired and often have to do the work evenings/weekends.

Do they need him?
Sometimes teachers with a lower level of maths themselves can make it more relatable than those in the higher echelons...

In this thread there are lot of people discussing a model of teaching that is now seen as a bit outdated. A more current model is that you teach to the top with every class and provide scaffolding to get them there. For a maths teacher with a lot of experience, a lot of this scaffolding could be done with whiteboard and pen, and directly respond to the class' needs.

And then he could also be making a lot of use if mini whiteboards etc in class, to assess all students, which again is very much in vogue at the moment. As well as peer and self assessment which he then reviews.

There are an awful lot of people who are keen to say how crap he must be based on a few lines of text, when they don't seem to know much about the most current pedagogy.

And those saying the school would be happy to see the back of him really have no idea how hard it is to recruit maths teachers and slt at the moment.

All the actual evidence on this suggests otherwise and subject knowledge is a key driver of success in maths.

He could be but don't you think he would be eliciting a higher standard of written work if that was the case - or taking action about the awful work he does receive?

Subbing?
Flexibility. Gets a chance to check out other schools in the area and widens his scope a bit. It could lead to other opportunities

A teacher of maths will have subject knowledge the question is to what degree, literally

When do you think you could get your house? I understand you want to get the mortgage etc first. Mortgage companies often want to see multiple years of a self employed persons income (and taxes) before lending so I completely understand wanting him to stay put a while longer.

Disagree with this. He is outstanding. He fights and advocates for those children. He works in one of the most deprived areas in the UK in a school that almost got closed. So yes, children can barely answer more than a few pages of a paper - getting a 4 for a lot of the students is a dream, but it means he doesn’t have much marking like teachers in English or written subjects. With maths, they either attempted the answer or they didn’t.

As much as he hates teaching right now, he has and would never not put everything into the lessons.

To highlight the school, parents have punched teachers, he’s had his personal belongings stolen, children have stolen credit cards from bags of the teachers, attempted to hurt the teachers and some are openly racist. There is always a good child in there somewhere but it’s hard.

Runs a successful tutoring company? Do you mean he employs other tutors or do you mean he tutors in the evening?

All his reports are outstanding. He has been promoted every year and he is SLT and head of KS4. Before this school, he was at an outstanding school ranked whilst he was teaching there. He’s obviously good at his job. That wasn’t my question but I love how MN can turn anything into a teacher bashing thread.

DH read what I said and does not agree with some of my points, whoops.

He doesn’t churn out the same lessons, I know this because he always has to change and plan then which is why he goes in first thing in the morning. But it isn’t from scratch and taking hours was my point.

His school starts and finishes early, they only have 30 mins of breaks total. So that’s why 3pm sounds early.

He is stressed ALL of the time because of the abuse of the kids and lack of support from parents. 14 teachers left at Christmas this year. His department halved as so many hated it. A further 10 will leave at Feb who have announced. More to come at Easter.

Not sure why it’s so hard to comprehend, but when you’re very knowledgeable, know EVERY exam question that has EVER been asked for the past 10 years, it is so easy for him to adapt his lessons through his physical presence, they use a lot of white boards as is the current guidance. He always is given the hard classes because he’s the only maths teacher that can tolerate and gain a smidge of respect from them.

This isn’t a thread about whether or not you believe DH’s day to day life, or whether you think he’s a good teacher. It’s a thread about what opportunities are out there and how stark reality can be.

DH has one day every 8 days he has to stay an hour after school for detention, he has 1 day every week he has teaching and learning for an hour and he has 1 day every term he has to stay for 3 or so extra hours. Then obviously parents evenings every year. So 3 days a week he leaves at around 3ish, 2 days he leaves at 4ish. Semantics.

DH employs other teachers in the company. There is someone who runs admin and operations. He could definitely do it full time in the future or if we changed our lifestyle.

We are also looking to have a baby soon.

Teachers dont leave in February?

One more thing, he doesn’t currently teach Politics and Economics due to the school he’s at (doesn’t have sixth form) and he has been at this school 2 years.

THAT’S what you took from that?
Schools do have different practice as long as it’s half a terms notice for his I believe. But I will ask him and see if I got the date wrong of when those leave.

@DinnerThyme Could I ask how old you were when you retrained? I'm 36 and was considering retraining from teaching to law but was worried I'd be too old.

OP: I'm not overly convinced your details are accurate. What sticks out for me is you're saying he's SLT but only has 6 free periods a fortnight. That is highly unlikely for an SLT, and even seems low for a teachers timetable. 55k also sounds on the low side for SLT.

Teachers can leave at Feb half-term if they give their notice before Christmas. It's not common, but it does happen.

Maybe my husband is just more efficient than your son?

The grammar area is irrelevant, ours is too. The school is a failing state. Not sure why you added this info about your son.

I don’t really know if my husband is outstanding, I know he is at tutoring as he has a 2 year wait list, but he is assessed many times a term and always gets “1” for every point, because the assessors also think he’s outstanding. So I’ll take their word for it.

the lack of free periods is why he hates his school. But this is the issue, he’s marked the whole profession as bad when the school is just bad. He doesn’t teach all those remaining non-free periods; he has things like walkabout duty and line meetings, but they’re timetabled, so he has only 6 genuinely free periods. It causes a lot of anger and distress.

I can’t comment on the salary but I know where it is on the pay scale.

no, what I take from that is that your information seems to be inaccurate, and you dont really seem to know what the circumstances are at your partners work

He has a degree in economics from a RG. Taught it in his past two schools at A Level. Still tutors it at A Level

My information, at least the parts people are taking issue with, are all factual.

DH didn’t know I was posting here. I thought I’d get a few replies of helpful things from ex teachers giving both sides of leaving and other opportunities, then when DH is looking for inspiration, I could show him.

Thanks to those that were helpful!

Don’t want to rain on anyones parade but it’s intensely competitive to get an entry level position in law never mind city law. Also the hours and stress are far far more than teaching. I’m a city lawyer and know quite a few former colleagues who left law to become teachers! They find it a much easier and less stressful job with much shorter hours.