Aibu to move on from teaching?

[Quarterofanonion1]

Hi, thanks in advance for reading. I've been a teacher for 17 years but feel I have reached my limit with it and it's making me feel unwell and takes up so much of my headspace! My DH is fully supportive of me leaving and we have worked out I need to make about £1000 a month for us to manage. I just have this horrible niggling feeling that I'm going to really struggle to find a job but the notice periods for teaching are so long that I'd have to leave before securing something. I'm a very insecure and self-doubting person so my inner voice is saying 'you'll find nothing, no one will employ you in a different field as you're so inexperienced, supply teaching won't pay enough, you will leave the family short of money etc.' What do you think the job market would be like for someone like me looking for a 1k per month job and is there much work about? I seem to do well as a teacher so my references should be good and I'm open to a range of job types e.g. supply, admin, education services and, at a push, hospitality. I live on the East Coast but can access Norwich easily enough. Thanks so much.

Could ld you step down to an LSA or teaching assistant. Same field less responsibilities and hours.

It's worth taking time over your CV. That actually gave me confidence as I realised how many transferable skills I have.
Thing is, you could sign up to a supply agency and at least do that until you find something.

Do you have any savings as back up?

DH left secondary school teaching after similar time and has gone into FE and loves it.

Supply teaching, while you decide what to do next? That way, you won’t have an employment gap, but will be in a position to take an entirely different job without worrying about notice periods.

I worked in a museum with several ex teachers.

A combination of supply teaching and private tuition until you find something which would suit you.

Each week on twitter on a Sunday morning there is a lovely person who posts lots of education jobs under #edujobs (I can't remember the name of the account they post from), there is also a Facebook group called life after teaching in which people share what they have done and jobs etc. Both might be worth a look.

I completely understand why you would be looking elsewhere, I'm 14 years in now and looking at an escape plan too, just trying to hold out until my children are a little older and don't need childcare in the holidays.

Could you do supply until you find something else suitable? I agree the notice periods in teaching make it hard to leave for a non teaching job.

Consider supply teaching

I am leaving teaching shortly and am taking up an education role in the charity sector. Pay drop but it's manageable and I'll get my life and hopefully some sanity back.

You can do it!

Just do it.

I'm trapped in teaching after 30 years because I am UPS3 plus a TLR and NOTHING else will pay me that in a rural, Northern area. I am on the verge of breakdown but we still have a mortgage and a teen and I am the sole breadwinner.

Realistically I'm in an area of high social deprivation, and minimum wage, seasonal work. Sadly, no one will be interested in my qualifications/experience to come close to matching the salary I need to earn to keep us all afloat. I am also late 50s and looking at having to do another dozen years in teaching.

I taught for 25 years but had to get out 3 years ago. I had no idea of what I wanted to do but I knew it couldn't be anything to do with teaching or any form of education what so ever.

I work in hospitality firstly in the restaurant and now as a supervisor. I'm so much happier. I'm on a zero hours contract but work what I need to as there are always shifts available. Best decision I ever made. I'd never go back.

Would you consider learning technology or learning design roles? Are you near to a university? (If not, you'd be looking for corporate jobs). How are you with IT?

Tutoring - even if it's short term to tide you over.

I'm in the SE and local tutors charge £30-40 ph. And more if you're in an 11+ area.

If you charged £25 you'd only have to do 40 hours a month to earn £1,000.

Most pupils come weekly so 10 pupils.

Very simplified numbers but you get the gist

Hi! You sound as if you live near me. I gave up teaching and went into care work. I support young people in residential care homes. So many teaching skills are transferable to this role and you would easily earn £1k a month. The charity I work for is based in Norwich & is hiring at the moment.

Could you try a different breed of teaching (private school, special school, online school, hospital tutoring, regular tutoring, LSA etc) before leaving altogether?

Have you tried looking at the local
Council role? Perhaps children's services?

Arts education role? Lots of theatres and cinemas (esp those that are charities) do plenty of education work.

Educational publishing

You are institutionalised. I know loads of ex teachers who have trained as driving instructors and earn £40.00 to £50.00 an hour. Ex teachers make great driving instructors. I left the NHS and have never regretted it. I did come back during the pandemic because I felt like I should but I will never return to healthcare ever again. I would say go for it. It helps that you have a supportive DH. Good luck 🤞🍀

I would say go for it. I spent 14 years in education and each year I acquired a larger workload both physically and mentally. My passion is education, however since the pandemic the environment/demand/challenges became not only unmanageable but unbearable. My turning point was when my husband lost me (emotionally) every week day but then started creeping into the weekends and eventually he confessed he felt like he was 'losing' me. I took the leap just over a year ago, no job to go to but it was a case I bit the bullet or risked losing a lot! I'm now in a job 8.30am - 5pm, still fairly demanding however the pay reflects this ( over 10k more a year) and get to take holidays when I like! Now that is a bonus

Join the Facebook group 'Life After Teaching - Exit the Classroom and Thrive' - it's such an amazing resource filled with people who have already made the move out of the classroom and who give such helpful, practical advice on job-hunting, managing finances and so on.

Pinned to the top of the page is the 'pit pony' video. Watch this. In it, the women who started the group explain how fear of not being able to match a teaching salary is what keep so many people trapped in the profession, but actually, if you break down what you need to survive to a daily amount, and work on the basis of 'how do I make £80 per day' rather than 'how do I make £1000 per month', you open yourself up to loads of new possibilities. You have to shift your mindset - you don't need a job to replace the job you have, you need income streams to get you to £80 per day. So that might be a couple of shifts in Tesco, three hours of tutoring, dog walking twice a week, a shift on reception in the local hospital - whatever you need to do to cobble the money together that you need.

This mindshift towards income streams rather than a job enables you to make the leap without worrying about having to wait until you find a like for like job. Once you've made the leap and are out of the classroom and the day to day stress, you'll then have the headspace to make a longer term plan, to find better or more fulfilling work - if that's what you want - and work out what the future looks like for you.

I left teaching two years ago. I miss elements of it - the children, the creativity, the feeling I was doing something special and worthwhile every day - but I don't miss the stress, the pressure, the all consuming nature of it, and the hours and hours of additional work. I now work in education in an arts organisation and while it's not as fulfilling as teaching, and nor am I earning as much, it has a lot of the elements of teaching I enjoyed without the stress and long hours. I love being able to work from home when I like, the flexible hours, having charge of my own schedule for the day, and so on. I also love going home and not thinking about work at all until the next day.

It took me a while to find another job as I left without anything to go to, but I plugged the gap with tutoring. I'm an English teacher so I was always in demand as a tutor - I charged between £75- £100 per hour and could make a living via tutoring alone, but I don't enjoy it that much - it's a bit too solitary for me.

Good luck - you can do it!

Some form of teaching 'admin' but specialised role in a local authority? eg area planning, SEN, or as an advisory or field officer in your subject area/specialism? The media seems to attract ex-teachers too.

You could change your audience - eg teach in a prison or hospital setting? Home tutoring for children too unwell to go to school? Or move out of teaching altogether say into the charity sector? Become a carer?

you can register with supply agencies, and use that while job hunting,

or you can take a less well paid job, on zero hours, while job hunting, such as bank staff at nursery etc,

|Nothing to lose! Teaching isnt going anywhere, you can always go back if you dont find what you are looking for elsewhere

All the very best in your new career

Before you do anything else, I strongly encourage you to google 'imposter syndrome'. It absolutely is a thing.

Recognising that you have it, in fact so many of us have it, and learning to live with it, could go a long way towards resolving these feelings

I'm a very insecure and self-doubting person so my inner voice is saying

Which might otherwise hold you back from the success you undoubtedly deserve.