If you are working in education...

[LorlieS]

With the current staff retention crisis, I just wondered how many of us are (or have recently) made the decision to leave our roles in education.
Is it as bad as we really think it is?

I'm retiring on ill health grounds this year. Almost 30 year of teaching under my belt. The workload has broken me. I have a chronic condition and although I love being in a classroom still, it's not enough any more. The marking and the overtime is too much.

well, I am ok at the moment, but keeping an eye on the latest "new" initiatives to "drive progress" - of course not new at all, and only drive us round in circles. Potentially a deal breaker for me if it starts to dominate the school.

This.

I’m leaving this year.

Sadly, too many awful pupils, and awful classes, have taken up far too much headspace over the years.

There’s nothing quite like standing in front of a class of teenagers when the majority of them are completely ignoring you. My mental health is in tatters. I’m a bloody good teacher. I get good results. I’m probably one of the more popular ones too. And I only work part time! But I just can’t take anymore.

username, I can't technically afford to leave either, but DP and I have just agreed to drastically revise our life goals -it's just not worth risking my health, which at the moment is falling apart in classic WRS style, despite me never thinking I'd 'end up' like this.
A 10k pay cut will put me in a 'low wage' bracket which grates as I've been grafting away in a 'profession' for +25 years, much of it working 'for free'.
But I have to just suck it up and run open-armed toward freedom.

@EveSix You're doing the right thing. I'm a primary teacher (20 years' qualified this year) but for the last five have been working as a HLTA. The pay is absolutely abysmal, but I have no regrets. I can be present for my little girl rather than constantly working.
Having said that I'm leaving my role July as 85% of the time now I'm being used as cheap class cover which is not what I ever wanted to do.
Back to uni to do an MSc 😀

I left after 10 years - got a £10K pay rise, 10% pension and 8% bonus - you’d be surprised at the number of skills that can be transferred- especially at management level.

@Scarletttulips What do you do now?

Oh yes it's bad and has been for quite a few years! As a fellow teacher (secondary, 24 years) I left years after I felt I should. There was always that last class to see through, the bonds I'd made, but there came a time I knew it was time to leave. Teaching has become (in my opinion, allegedly) unbelievable toxic, micromanaged and led by business like managers. The education system has changed so much from when I started, no time to chat, eating lunch while standing in a corridor on duty and no unable to go for a wee, excessive meetings and training on common sense but to tick boxes, the behaviour (oh my, the challenges and I can get you sacked if I complain about you attitude to the kindest of staff) I could go on.

So yes I totally agree with you. I feel sorry for the young ones getting burnt out and judged to death by observations which they have nervous breakdowns about. I feel sorry for the older ones being pushed out with support plans.

And of course I feel sorry for the students who want to learn.

Having the support of parents who know and value we care about their kids makes all the difference. X

I don’t feel burnt out, and I’m hoping to be a teacher for another 20 years. I’m 4 years in. BUT to avoid exhaustion, I am really strict about my boundaries.

@JustJessi Do you have kids? That's personally when I started to question things...

I thought I would never leave but beginning to think about it after the last few years. Have no idea what I would do instead though, have been teaching (secondary) for 20 years.

Yip, they don’t know it yet but I’m not going back after maternity leave. I can’t imagine what being a teacher would look like in 10 or 20 years. There are friends at work saying I should just come back part time but I’ve been part time before and it’s almost as bad as full time

I hope it's okay for to ask a question here, I am not an educator or working in the education sector. We are based in the middle east and considering moving back to the Uk to get DS to sit for the 11+. DS and DD are in a British School here with British teachers who are QTS trained. It is quite good and overall the teaching and the learning process is good. Teachers seem quite happy in their roles (maybe it is the amount of sun here is partly a contriburing factor). We will be moving to the Kent area and aiming to get into one of the 3 grammar schools around Tonbridge and TW. From reading the posts above, is the situation the same in grammar schools? I am thinking if I should avoid the UK and its education sector until DS starts A levels? Quite worrying to read the posts here.

I had a breakdown and walked last year.
Already out-earning my UPS salary with the CS!

I going nxt yr after 30 years. Like job but can't keep working so hard. 55, take cut in pension ànd will find part time job to top it up. Bureaucracy, poor behaviour, excessive work load and cut backs are taking its toll

What is the CS?

I am in my 2nd year of ECT and am planning on leaving this summer

I don’t want to bring you down, but I did that several times. The invigoration doesn’t last long in my experience. The same toxic behaviours of management and stupid expectations crop up soon enough.

I left the classroom a couple of years ago after almost 2 decades. Earning almost the same now working from home in an education related job. Pension not as good but I do still have one and my quality of life, and therefore my family's life is so much better. I don't cry at work any more from sheer exhaustion and frustration. I no longer need medication to get through the day.

As a first career teacher, you don't realise until it's far too late that actually it's not normal to always have work taking over all of your personal time. To never be able to enjoy a 2 day weekend without working and worrying about working in term time. It's not ok to be made to feel that you don't care or aren't good at your job or caring for your pupils when you attempt to have boundaries with your time. (I never did have those boundaries which was my own fear of failing and meant I was miserable - but knew that those who tried to were seen as lazy). it's not ok to be verbally or physically abused or live in fear of complaints because you tried to enforce any form of discipline to allow learning to take place. And (didn't happen to me but) it's not ok that's budgets are so poor that SLT are forced to find ways to drive out expensive UPS teachers by putting them on 'support plans' to replace them with much cheaper ECTs. I'm only just turned 40 and by the end felt so old - schools are full of conveyer belts of young graduates, lured in by the bursaries who only last a matter of years.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to suggest that the complete breakdown of state education as we know it has already started. There are over 150k teachers in a well known Facebook group sharing tips about how to get out.

CS is civil service to answer a pp - seems to be a common destination as teachers have a lot of the transferable skills.

I love teaching but it's not like it was 10 years ago. I don't want to leave, I can't leave as I can't afford to, but I wish it was different. The behaviour for me is a huge thing - I'd really like to know what's happened!

I left in July after 30 years. Broke my heart but it was killing me both physically and mentally.
Agree with previous posters who cited workload, behaviour, unrealistic expectations from Ofsted, subject leadership at primary level having been blown out of proportion. Also for me the 2014 curriculum killed creativity and autonomy, is over full leaving no time for fun and getting to know pupils in a relaxed way, and for most children, is unattainable and irrelevant. How many 8 year olds want to know about noun phrases ffs!
So much happier now. On paper I work more hours now but in reality I work far fewer. I feel like a human being now. I get an hour for lunch, a tea-break and when I get home, work is over. I wouldn't go back into a classroom for a million pounds.

I've been working 1:1 with a child in KS2. Today I made it very clear I'm not going to keep going to work to be hit. There are lots of things I like about my job (the location, the hours ) but I have boundaries and I won't be physically assaulted.

The whole situation is so sad 😞

I'm ten years in and love my job as a middle leader in a secondary school. However I work in Northern Ireland and we are currently under action short of strike. If a task is not on our 1265 time budget you don't do it. Only one meeting a term permitted, no lesson drop ins, book scoops etc. Parent evenings are now within school day. No engagement with our version of Ofsted. No after school clubs. The list goes on.
When/If this ends it would really depend on the agreed workload if I stay or not.