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.

I doubt it , as many other people have said the same on this thread that it’s unheard of , aside from your husband, for SLT to leave that early everyday .

When are the SLT meetings?
When are the KS leaders meetings?
When are the whole school staff meetings?
When are the subject meetings?

When I was SLT, our meetings were weekly from 3.30-6.00pm. There were regular whole school staff meetings, subject meetings, year group meetings and plenty more.

He’s earning £55,000, plus another chunk from the tutoring, plus whatever the OP’s salary is. I don’t know why that’s not enough to move house, unless it’s to a mansion.

This is not a teacher bashing thread. This is teachers on the whole, pretty surprised and annoyed that someone in such a position of responsibility is, at best, coasting and at worst, doing a disservice to the pupils. Or so it would seem from the description of the school the OP has given.

Any SLT member will have more than six non contact periods, because they will have areas of whole school responsibility that need time and effort

It must be frustrating for an able mathematician to teach in a school with no sixth form. Odd choice.

He's assessed every term? Assessed as outstanding yet doesn't do anything about half completed homework?

I don't think you've been given all the facts by your husband. No idea what he's playing at bit he isn't giving you the whole story by a long stretch.

As for the dig about efficiency, I have yet to meet a teacher giving their all who wouldn't fit that poster's description of her son.

Perhaps you should think less about how your dh can get rich quick and more about the possibility that he's not the real deal at all.

He is stressed ALL of the time because of the abuse of the kids and lack of support from parents.

I would encourage him to go to a different school.

He may really enjoy it or he may miss the old school and students - but he can always go back.
Maybe he won’t be going back as high as he is but he can work his way up again as he knows what he’s doing.

If he feels guilty because of the students (I get this as I am in a similar situation) then maybe he could do free tutoring in his current school one day a week.

If he gets a decent salary from tutoring in the evenings then working in a grammar school is going to be really beneficial to him.
Most people would rather have a tutor that works in a grammar school than in a school that RI and has crap GCSE levels.

I can see how he leaves early if he gets into work at 6:30.
That’s the equivalent of leaving school at 5:30 which many teachers are able to do.

Any roles with OFSTED or your local authority? Ours has a Virtual School which oversees the education of children and young people in care.

OP, you're not his mum-let him sort himself out, for goodness sake !!!🙄I imagine that whatever you suggest, he will blame you, so leave him to it.

I think concentrate on when you aim to get your house. Mortgage rates are up but house prices may be coming down. If he does a law conversion course he will need to get through probation on his new job and then you can more easily borrow on that salary. So with applying and starting the course etc it may be 3+ years (however that may be in your favour due to mortgage rates 😉 ). I think work to life and if I wanted the house (how does he feel though?) I would look into best way of getting it (even if it means extra time teaching to secure a mortgage then when you have it change job/career). If he's not enjoying teaching he should definetely change but if he could hang on till house purchased that may be better.

Agree with this. DH is a teacher and I am a lawyer and have worked for city firms offshore in the past.

I would not in a million years swap a teaching job for a city law job. Yes they get paid well but there is a reason for that!

Outstanding yet kids can barely manage one page of work correctly? If he wants to help the kids achieve why isn’t he? Otherwise he could just go to a grammar school? Or maybe he’d actually have to work there. I remember my maths teacher, fawned over the kids who were good at maths, he was a dick he made me feel stupid when I was dyslexic and needed help instead of eye rolling etc
anyway, I’m sure if your husband is that clever he’ll manage to find his own job rather than getting you on the case

Most schools tend to have their meetings after school not before.
So if he's getting to work at 630 presumably that's when he does marking admin whatever
But even if the kids go at 3, I can't see how he's ready to start tutoring at 430.
When are the meetings? How many days does he do tutoring?

I'm a secondary school teacher and some things in this don't add up. How is he graded outstanding? Lessons and teachers haven't been graded for years now.

I have weekly meetings both before and after school. SLT have an extra after-school one and HoDs an extra one for 15 minutes before school. So in my school, this man would be doing at least 2 evenings until 5.30pm - we finish at 3.30 - plus the longer sessions for parents evenings etc. I can't believe he doesn't have similar.

It sounds like he's moaning but not prepared to do anything about it. Leaving aside issues about marking etc as he could be very efficient before school, if being a member of SLT is causing so many issues, why is he doing it?

I work in a senior role as a Chair of examiners for an exam board. The work is ludicrously underpaid. They'd probably bite his hand off as he's that rare find, a maths teacher, but I don't think he'd come close to replacing his teacher's salary.

Teaching is one of those jobs that has a high level of burnout. In my experience, once a teacher has hit burnout then it’s time they left or took a significant break.

Considering his math skills would he consider qualifying as an accountant? I’ve known a few and they seem to have done well financially.

Don't know why this has turned into such a bashing thread. I wonder if OP praising her DH rather than complaining about him in the usual fashion has rubbed people up the wrong way.

Anyway. I don't want to say loads and loads in a public post but you are more than welcome to private message me OP. I was kind of in a similar situation to your husband except I wasn't a martyr and definitely towards the end of my time teaching in schools I had completely lost my passion. Having children didn't help because it made me see life was too short for a lot of the nonsense. I was an AHT and Maths HoD, but in the few years up until leaving I picked up more and more work on a freelance/flexible basis. This was largely around tutoring, EdTech, content design and assessment design for the major exam boards as well as smaller boards with more functional maths qualifications.

I'm now a contracted Ofsted inspector and some of what I did I can't do anymore due to risk of conflicts, but a lot of it is still OK. You can definitely make it work and, particularly in maths, I have found there is a lot out there.

So earns £55k for working 39 weeks per year, plus golden pension, leaves every day without taking any marking home, to run own business tutoring.
And they say teachers have it hard....do me a favour,! Try working in the NHS or industry.

Why have you revived an old thread?

@MintChocCornetto And they did it just to have a pop at teacher salary and workload… bizarre.