Disillusioned teacher... what else can I do?

[Grockle]

For the mostpart, I love my job. I love the children. I love teaching. I actually quite enjoy assessment & data stuff and I love writing reports, annual reviews, meeting with parents etc. The children make me laugh and I feel so proud when they make even the tiniest bit of progress.

BUT I'm not well - physically & it's taking it's toll mentally. I have had 2 meetings this week about new (more involved) paperwork, OFSTED this, performance management that, SEFs, SDIP, everyone must be a co-ordinator, we must all do monitoring & audits... I'm tired of all this, I just want to teach. To help the children reach their potential, to celebrate successes with them and not have to worry about jumping through hoops for anyone else. I think it might be time to leave. But what would I do?

Good luck with the observation TeamEdwards. Not the best feeling in the world to wake up a feel that negativity awaiting you in the workplace.

After nearly 28 years in that other well known government organisation the NHS and tired of not being to do what I want to do; care for people and tired of drowning under paper work and working 12 hour shifts in very stressful situations without even getting a loo break I finally gave up and left and have moved to the private sector both hospital and school. In both we are constantly being reminded that the patients/parents/children are customers paying usually a considerable sum and therefore their wishes must be listened too and where possible accomodated. I too like one of the posters above only know about boarding schools I work at a very famous one and my DS is at a well known one but at the beginning of every term we are given the emails of every teacher admin staff head master matron nurses and are also able to contact many directly by phone as well. This also applies to the school I working in. In 12 months as a parent I have only sent three emails but I know from personal experience that I am in a minority.
I have personally not found the wages to be any better and i know from friends that many don't pay 52 weeks of the year or offer sick pay comparable with state ed.

I was feeling like that. We emigrated, now I'm in an international school and it is brilliant. All the good bits and none of the bad bits of the job. :)

O

I think you'd make a good SENCO.

Would that help?

would you be interested in therapeutic work - child pyschologist or speech therapy perhaps? It involves retraining of course which may not be an option.

On a positive note I am much happier I work with lovely people who like me are no longer filling in endless completely pointless forms, we can actually talk ro children now, gone are the poor working conditions and we even get time to go to the loo and the food and parking is free!
I like the poster above am unconvinced it's necessarily a cushier number just demands come from a different place.

Avoid Speech Therapy! My dsis has been a speech therapist for about 20 years and she's very disillusioned now. It seems very paperwork led and staff undervalued.

I left teaching due to ill health. I've done a bit of tutoring but found I was spending everything I made on resources, but it was lovely having one to one time with children. I'll watch this thread with interest, as I'd like to do something...

What about an ABA tutor? You're self employed and some round here charge up to £25 per hour.

If the museum educator role attracts you, be aware that it is very competitive to get those posts much more so than teaching they pay badly and the hours are long. You're also constantly at risk of redundancy as many posts are on one-year contracts because they're underwritten by project funding, and museums aren't a statutory requirement unlike schools. Potentially lots of fun and very worthwhile, but it's important to take those things into account and realise there's a reason they're mostly filled by 20-somethings!

Look at the women who earn £1k a day thread for ideas.

Starlight any idea on where to start with becoming an ABA tutor?

I love my job and am not disillusioned (yet- only done 10 years..) but I do occasionally move around with my DH's job so it might be something to consider in the future.

Wow, I had to check the user name when reading this post to make sure I hadn't written it in my sleep! I can relate to everything you have said and hope we both manage to find a way forward!

I am heartbroken that the job I once loved so much is actually making me sick. I am terrified of leaving the job that has become so much a part of me, but I cannot continue anymore.

I have started looking at Governess/Nanny PA jobs, but really have no idea what else I can see myself doing.

It is also sad to see so many others echoing the same thoughts in this thread. Maybe all of us disillusioned teachers could start our own business?

Maybe all of you disillusioned teachers should campaign via mumsnet, which is taken notice of, to have the heart and purpose put back into your jobs. It's always the best teachers who end up hating the job and leaving because they are so overloaded with paperwork that they're prevented from doing what they do best - the teaching.

I quite a few teachers who have taken an early retirement option. Hardly any have regretted it. Teaching is just far far too stressful. Demands demands demands and it never ever stops. Morning noon and night. Somebody was telling me the other day about a student teacher three days into the course who is already finding it hard going!! What more can be said.

I don't know the answer, but I feel the same way :(

That should have been I know. And also I knew someone who taught on a one to one basis children who couldn't attend school for one reason or another. And she said that was very rewarding. I think it was on an hourly rate.

Another one here. In fact, I was thinking about starting a similar post, but had to do a powerpoint instead.

I've been back at work 2 weeks, after my 2nd mat leave.

Everything I'm teaching is new.

I'm teaching a different A level; two different GCSE syllabuses and we've re-worked the entire KS3 for when OFSTED come in again.

On top of this, management are panicking about OFSTED and we have different initiatives on pretty much a weekly basis. THey're also doing 'drop ins' regulalry and have invited county in to observe us. Again.

I don't think I'd mind so much if our unions were doing something about it. ACtually, I think it's more about the people in the unions these days. OUr union meetings are full (out of those that bother to attend) of people umming and ahhing about taking action - and younger staff are the worst.

I'm going to stick it out, because I don't know what else to do. But the next 35 years are going to be a slog.

And the criteria for a what makes a good OSFTED lesson is a. changing all the time and b. not what I would actually consider to be teaching, so I have no idea whether I can teach or not anymore.

EBD It's fairly easy ATM, especially for someone like you I imagine. If you register with ABA uk yahoo group tutors are advertised there but so are consultants and organisations etc. You'll get a feel for the market etc.

There is a competencies framework being developed for tutors by Ambitious about Autism I believe (Treehouse), but that might be more necessary for inexperienced tutors.

I left teaching when I went on maternity leave (pt working refused) and have not regretted it once.
I lie, only once, when I saw a group on a school trip walking up the road on a blowy spring day I had a moment of 'awww' :) - but then I went into my office, said good morning to my lovely colleagues and quickly forgot that!

I was primary SLT and now do an office based role for a children's organisation.

Advantages

• It fits in better with having young children
• If I am a bit late, no worries - I just stay a bit later.
• I have weekends!
• I have evenings!
• I have loo breaks!
• I enjoy going to work
• lower stress levels, hundredfold
• I have more contact with adults
• the hours are so civilised!

Disadvantages

• pay is lower, especially if you are a senior teacher - the full time equivalent for my post is about 3/5 of my last teaching salary
• uncertainty - funding not very secure and posts tend to be fixed term
• all workplaces have some politics/issues etc.

Put it this way, are schools full of teachers who left but missed it so much that they came back?

This is such a helpful and comforting thread. Can anyone please tell me how to add it to my library? Am on an iPad?

Feel exactly the same, have posted on a similar thread before. Agree totally with aAstr0naut, have no idea whether I can actually teach or not anymore. Things have changed so much in the last 3 + years, since I went on mat leave. Am dreading my own sons school career, thinking that his teachers may feel as disillusioned as myself. No further advice but plenty of sympathy here OP

Oh, this thread has moved on a lot. I feel so saddened that there are so many of us. I love my children and would miss working with them so much. There are HUGE advantages to teaching (pay, school Hols, pension, sick pay etc) but the job is just too much for me atm.

What's a 'tuition centre' ?