Any teachers who have left teaching?

[TooMuchSaidAndDone]

I've been a primary teacher for around 25 years. After a really stressful few months that I believed would resolve positively, but didn't, I've finally come to the decision that I need to be out of this.

I love my job but I can't face going in on Monday - I'm dreading it - and it's the first time I've felt like that about teaching for about 10 years. I just don't want to go in.

Of course, I will go in on Monday. And I will do everything I can to do my best for the children, as usual, but my trust in and respect for the HT and DHT has gone.

The last time I felt like this was 10 years ago.and I left that job and did supply teaching for a few years before taking this job. So I'm not really looking to go back into that.

I've also considered tutoring and, whilst I'm still open to it, my confidence has been shattered and I'm just not sure I'm ready for it yet.

So I wondered what other people who have left teaching have done and, more importantly, where do you look for jobs?

Thank you.

Yes I was a secondary school teacher for ten years then left to start a business with my husband, ten years ago. I taught part time for a year when we were starting. It was/ is a completely unrelated field that I had no training for but the skills of organisation/ people management etc were all very relevant to running a business. I did some short training courses (1 to 3 days) to help acquire the basic skills needed and after a few years in the job started a distance learning masters.

I love being my own boss and - though I loved teaching - could never go back now.

In first few years after leaving, I did some tutoring when I was asked by people to, and I also did a couple of part-time maternity leaves, and some examining actually. That was all quite good for a bit of extra cash while we built up the new business.

I think the best question to ask yourself is, what do you want to do? Rather than what is a good job for an ex-teacher to do. I know lots of people that left teaching and they’re doing a whole range of things. Do some short courses and use your network to get experience or opportunities to talk to someone working in areas you think you would like to work in, you’ll soon get an idea of where people find work in those fields.

Oh also, for what it’s worth, I think if you’ve been a teacher you’ve got some seriously good skills to take to pretty much any other job.

Maybe try to reframe the move away from teaching more positively though? Like ‘I’m ready for the next phase of my life’ rather ‘I’ve got to get out; I’ve had it up to here’.

Try Adventures After Teaching or Team Did Teach.

I was a secondary school teacher for 21 years and I left last July.

I now work in politics. Leaving teaching has been revolutionary for me. I’m less anxious, I don’t get Sunday night dread anymore. I get a lunch break, I can nip to the shops or go to the GP or dentist when needed.

i could never go back now when I know that the job was making me ill.

I’d recommend (if you haven’t already) joining a group on Facebook called ‘Life After Teaching - Exit the classroom and thrive’. Lots of good advice and support from people who have been there.

For what it’s worth, I left teaching and now work in admin. I earn less money but the improvement in my stress levels and work-life balance is so worth it.

Good luck x

Yes taught English at GCSE and A level for decades. Huge High School, loved the students, SLT finished me, was also DSL, which was a full time position in itself. After spending all weekends and evenings up to 10pm working, I was burnt out. Bit the bullet and left end of summer term last year. Best thing ever. Set up a local dog walking business, and work far less hours, and I am myself again.

I gave up primary school teaching when I had my first child. I was a sahm for 6 years and now work in a term time only nursery. Much less money but if gives me the chance to teach again without all the stress of actually teaching. I no longer have to work in the evenings or at weekends

I was a secondary English teacher and now I work for an educational publisher. Money worse than a NQT, but it's fully remote with amazing flexitime. I really enjoying having a life now.

Thanks.

Yes, I know I need to frame it positively, and I will, but at the moment I just feel completely undervalued so it's hard to feel positive about it!

I'll be honest, I don't know what I want to do. I looked at retraining as a MH SW a few years ago but I'm not sure I want to go into something where so much of my energy is focused on other people's well being. I feel like I need to be my priority for a while.

I've always worked in education or volunteered in supporting others and, whilst I've loved it and its been hugely rewarding, it's also been draining and at the expense of my own health at times.

So, yes, definitely time for a new chapter.

How have people framed it to a new employer?

And thanks, I have heard of that fb group but had forgotten about it!

I’m not a teacher, no qualifications to answer in your post at all really, BUT you could turn your skills to so many things! I bet there are many skills you have that you could make a living from. You may benefit from a conversation with a careers coach who specialises in ‘squiggly careers’ and could give you a totally new perspective!

may I ask what you teach, whether there are particular subjects you love, what you studied yourself, any hobbies?

I agree with this recommendation. I left after 26 years and now work as a specialist tutor.

I think most employers know exactly why people are leaving teaching, but frame it positively so you convey yourself as a pilgrim, not a refugee - I can’t remember where I got that quote from. There are so many transferable skills.

I work in Admissions and a lot of our linked teams are ex teachers. Virtual School is all ex teachers as are the leads for Safeguarding which oversees elective home education and children in employment as well as community education like Supplementary Schools. Other LAs have them working in Fair Access prepping profiles for children who are vulnerable or hard to place.

I know a few ex-teachers who went into Admin and Pastoral roles.

I was surprised to come across a LOT of ex-teachers that had gone into smallholding/farming... because they were so sick of dealing with other people and their problems that animals were deemed to be preferable!

Yes; i was a SENDCO for 10 years, then became a SEND TA in a secondary school for 2 years.
I left, retrained and I’m now a Podiatrist, with
my own business and I am very very happy. I spend all day with either private patients in their homes or people in care homes/assisted living facilities, fixing the pain in their feet and I honestly have never been happier. It’s amazing.

This is great advice. I’m now an employer (via the business I left teaching to start) and I totally understand that not everyone is looking for a job with us because they have a complete passion for what we do. An honest account of what aspects of this work appeal to them and what they were ready to leave behind in the last job is fine, together with them being able to convince me they will be a reliable, nice person to work with.

However I would definitely be put off by someone being very bitter or negative about a previous employer so avoid that!! We’ve had several employees who wanted work that was less emotionally draining and/ or work they didn’t need to take home with them, and both of these were absolutely fine to me as reasons.

Go and work in a university. Not teaching, but in the professional services arm. Universities are fantastic and inspiring places to work and your experience and insight will be highly valued. 💐

I left after one year. It affected my mental health in the most awful of ways.

OP, you say you feel undervalued, and it’s hard to be positive. Of course you do, we understand. Us on the other side felt then what you feel now. We get it. You’re trying to push the tide back: impossible, yet you feel if you only did this or that, you’d achieve it. It’s not you lovely, it’s the flawed education system . Don’t let them break you. As other posters said, you have transferable skills. Stop flogging a dead horse x

I left a 20 year career as a secondary teacher and joined my husband in his gardening business. I’d always been a gardener and had completed my RHS qualifications out of interest. I started helping with the business during school holidays then left teaching and I’m now a gardener full time.

Our household income is around half what it was and we take a week off a year but I don’t miss teaching one bit.

what are your interests? You’ve lots of skills via teaching so I wouldn’t worry about that. Could you work towards an alternative qualification whilst still teaching? Or start to apply for other jobs which interest you?

Good luck. I’m yet to meet anyone who regrets leaving teaching.

Many of the teachers that I know have left to work in private schools or the charity sector.

I left teaching last year after over 10 years. I felt very similar to you - totally undervalued and looking back now, I was completely burnt out, although I didn't realise that at the time. The trigger for me leaving was a management decision to refuse to change the time of a planned observation on compassionate grounds (one of my parents was having major surgery) - it was the last in a long line of incidents/decisions and it was time to go - I couldn't do it anymore.

I was lucky that I had could return to a previous job that pays much the same. I still work in schools but in a different role and have been surprised at how little I miss teaching.

I would second/(third!) the recommendations to join the Exit from Teaching Facebook page and Adventures After Teaching - she has questionnaires on her website to help you work out what kind of job you would be most suited to and could best use your (many!) transferable skills in.

I was a primary school teacher for 31 years. I couldn't imagine doing anything else. But my mental health deteriorated due to the stress and I ended up in hospital. I never went back. Now I'm an antique dealer. I earn a fraction of what I once earned, but it's enough and my work life balance is amazing. My only regret is that I didn't leave sooner.

I left teaching in December after 10 years. I got a job as an assistant accountant at a international company - I was a MFL teacher so speak 2 languages fluently which really helped gain me the role - and am now completing accounting exams and will hopefully be a qualified accountant within a few years.

I do some tuition in the evenings to make up the gap in pay (and even tutor some of my former Year 11 students, as they haven't actually managed to replace me with a subject specialist...).

I thought I'd miss some parts of teaching, but I'm almost ashamed to admit I absolutely don't. If anything, I'm angry at myself for working in that job for so long, when I could have been aiming higher, both in terms of salary and work-life balance.