To want a job, any job, but just not in teaching!

[LorlieS]

I need out!

20 years in education but enough is enough.

Any suggestions re my next job? 😀

School counsellor?

Would changing schools make a difference?

@SeasonFinale If I use my degree and training I'd be looking at a lot more money (I would hope) than £12 ph on HLTA. So could pay for more childcare. My daughter also starts school this year.
I want out of education as it is now.
It's only going to get worse.

Im going to sign up for the dyslexia specialist teacher MA and move into doing private dyslexia assessments. This is a bit longer term though.

My degree is in psychology but doubt I'd get anywhere with this alone? Can't afford not to be working...

I left teaching after 5 years and now work in professional services (admin basically!) at a university. Pension and holidays very good. I didn’t have much of a drop in pay, although after 20 years of teaching your pay will be much higher than what I was on back then! I think you’ll need to accept a drop no matter what you go into tbh

@LorlieS what about a role as an assistant educational psychologist? Requires a psychology degree and pays about £35k

Maybe look into Child Psychology / Psychotherapy? Given the waiting lists for things like CAMHS I suspect you could be raking it in at a private practice. Could you do a Masters part time alongside either teaching or a non-teaching job?
I think you need to accept that pretty much anything you do is going to require an element of retraining or a step down the ladder which might result in a pay cut.
Job search results - NHS Jobs

Look into cyber security/ GRC. Teachers have a great skill set for this. You don't need to be a computer hacker. The industry is high paying and crying out for more people.

Assistant Ed psych and then train as ed psych, I think there's funding if you get a place, there is for clinical psychologist eg dclinpsy. Competitive though.

What is this please? I’m currently doing a TA role and the head has asked me to train to be a teacher but I really don’t think it’s for me, I have two primary age children. Your post sounded really interesting.

Intrigued as to why you think this when self employed are taxed at the same rates but also don't get holiday or sick pay.

I "think this" because it is a fact. Self-employed people pay lower rates of NI. There are also numerous tax allowances that they can offset against taxable income to vastly reduce their tax bills. They can also set up their business as a Limited Company then pay themselves and/ or family members who do some work for the business salaries just below the annual allowance to avoid paying any income tax. The company would then pay corporation tax on remaining profits but only after numerous deductions from taxable income including these staff costs, capital allowances etc. Plus corporation tax rates are much lower than income tax rates. If profits are extracted from the company as dividends again the tax rates are vastly lower than those applied for income tax at the same income thresholds. The discrepancy in tax rates results in a far higher net income (if a business is decently profitable) compared to the net earnings someone with the same gross income would receive through PAYE employment; well beyond compensating for a lack if holiday pay. The Government deliberately taxes self employment and small businesses far less than employees to encourage people to set up businesses. It's intriguing that you think otherwise!

I spent time shadowing an Ed Psych and it wasn't for me, same for SENDCO. Sounds strange but they actually don't have much direct contact with kids. A lot of it is paperwork. Counselling Psychology I'd love, but couldn't afford uni course or anything like that?

Have a look through that NHS jobs link for an idea of what's out there. That's just filtered on anything with "psychology" in it so there's a whole range of things. There's Assistant Practioner roles that only require a psychology degree and whilst the pay isn't great, it might be a foot in the door that would open up training opportunities on the job.

@InfraredMarbles The people who just paid themselves dividends from limited companies didn’t receive anything from the government during COVID. Be very very careful about suggesting this. My DHs accountant said always pay income tax. You have an income and so many self employed lost out with the COVID arrangements. They dodged income tax so the government dodged them!

Many self employed working from home cannot claim much in expenses. If they coach/tutor they do not need a car, separate offices, etc. They don’t get maternity pay, holiday pay or pensions or sick pay. It’s a huge step to be responsible for yourself after years of getting very generous conditions from the state. You also need to be sure you are up for it. Many really worry. You are fully responsible for everything.

I'm not "suggesting" anything, to be clear! I was simply giving a factual answer to the PP who was surprised that self-employed people/ small businesses pay far less tax than employees on the same gross earnings. This is factual. The reason the tax system is structured that way to hugely benefit self-employed people is to compensate for the risk of setting up a business/ working for yourself. The PP didn't seem to think the discrepany in tax rates would even cover not having holiday pay, which is madness.

Many employees received no Covid support either. And as you noted, the self-employed people whose profits dropped due to Covid but got no "support" were primarily those who had been committing tax evasion (rather than using the legal deductions to minimise tax) by underdeclaring their earnings for years, so showing low/ no profits in their tax returns when they in fact had been earning profits. E.g. people operating in cash and not declaring it all for tax i.e. defrauding everyone who does pay what they owe on their actual earnings and increasing the bills those honest people have to pay. I have zero sympathy for them: that was a dose of karma! I did, however, feel sorry for those who had set up businesses not very long before Covid hit so didn't have sufficient records yet to prove they should receive support for lost profits, and others who fell through the cracks of the hastily and badly designed schemes who were not responsible for that being the case.

None of that changes the fact that self-employed people/ small businesses who are above board and legally declare all income are treated far more favourably for tax purposes than employees (entirely deliberately, to encourage entrepreneurship and new business formation) which is what the PP was disputing.

I went from teaching to an internal audit grad scheme.

I've doubled my salary in 3 years and the work is really interesting. The questioning skills I learned in teaching are central to my role now.

OP would it be okay to ask what it is in teaching that is such a problem now? My son is out of school with EBSA and I can see that things are incredibly hard in the school, but I can't get a sense of what is causing it. Looking from the outside, the obvious things are lack of money, lack of staff, massive pressure to get high grades on both the kids and the teachers. I wondered if there is something else that we don't see?

Sorry if this is derailing. Please do ignore me if it is.

I'm not sure about other jobs but I wonder if the new hybrid schools might be of interest to you? There seem to be a huge number of kids coming out of school with EBSA and the new hybrid school model sounds to me as though it could be great for both kids and teachers.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/26/first-uk-wide-hybrid-school-offering-home-and-class-learning-to-open-in-2024

And @TizerorFizz obviously as you noted someone with no salary wouldn't have been entitled to Covid payments to compensate for lost salary. But huge financial support was paid to businesses also so those operating through a limited company and who chose to take profits only in dividends at far lower tax rates could hardly complain, as the whole reason the tax rate is so much lower is to compensate for the risk of having an income dependent on profits not at a contractual amount! Presumably all that extra money from lower tax payments could have been saved up to cover unexpected events, and a well-run company would have reserves and a robust risk-assessment in its business plan including low likelihood but high magnitude economic events that could occur...

I hated teaching so left and took on a flexible wfh job with a charity and did an MSc in children and young people's psychotherapy, I did have to pay fees but was eligible for a post graduate loan (you should be eligible too even if you've done undergrad and PGCE as I had done those too).

I absolutely love it and now I divide my time between face to face therapy with kids and online therapy with adults.

No regrets, earn about 40k pa for 20 hour week (although that is self employed)

I felt like you did and wouldn’t be teaching now if I didn’t switch to private. It’s a totally different career. Happy to chat privately but it really is a different life.

@InfraredMarbles I agree they should have saved! However the complaints were very loud! DH was always advised to pay income tax but he was never a sole trader. Much bigger partnership. Being self employed really is not perks all the way to the bank. However if you are in demand, earnings can be very good. Many of the jobs suggested don’t pay that well though and won’t replicate what a teacher gets when total earnings are taken into account and any illness can really curtail all earnings for weeks or even months. Teachers have very generous sick pay.

It was you who suggested a limited company for the self employed and I am just explaining the limitations. As DH was self employed for 40 years and DD is self employed I do know the pitfalls. For many, it’s not getting enough work. Teachers never have to think about this. Or all the paid holidays, leave etc. It’s a shock to some people when they do.

I'm also just starting out as a private tutor after years of teaching, but finding it hard to find anyone to teach during the day (and also having to turn students away in the evenings as everyone wants the same slots!)

Do you have any tips about how to break into the international market (eg are there agencies I can join, etc?)

@Phewthatwasclose it’s not something I’ve personally explored as I chose to do only face to face but there are a few fb groups that I’m a member of where you might get some ideas. Here’s one…

Is it definitely teaching that’s the problem not the school itself? I moved to a tiny private school and it is literally like a different job entirely. Maybe try a new school before you quit for good?