should I hand in my notice?

[swanny]

I am a full time teacher in a primary school in London. I'm the main breadwinner in my family, dd 3, ds 14. I love teaching but all the stuff that goes with it is getting me down. I feel like I,m suck in a rutt and most of the time I'm too exhausted to give enough attention to my partner and kids. Has anyone else been brave enough to pack in a steady, well paid (relatively)job? Is part-time work the answer? Are there any schools out there that don't work you into the ground? Any advice would be most welcome

beetroot-I live in London, so working out of London would mean a commute. My ds has just started GCSE year so I wouldn't move him now, plus he'd hate to leave friends/school etc. Thanks for replying

beetroot-he's an artist. Need I say more?

He does it's just that he can't earn as much as I can as a teacher and he does most of childcare and all the rest.

swanny have you thought of becoming a supply teacher? Income wouldn't be as steady, but you should be able to get fairly constant work in London. And without a permanant position you'd be less likely to have to do all the extra stuff and paperwork

Agree with prufrock, think supply teaching may be the way. I have 2 friends both do supply and get work as much as they want (they don't ever seem to not get work when they want it) Unless they take on a long term supply post they don't seem to do any lesson planning and only minimal marking.

what about working for a LEA in some advisory capacity - worth checking out their website to see what education vacancies they may have? I'm working for a community ed department of a city council which is fine. Some time ago, another relative went from being a teacher to being a subject advisor at the LEA - that worked out well too. started with a secondment - is that an option?
also, could you think about maybe becoming an education officer/ manager for another organisation like a tourist attraction? depends whether you've got a specialism, I suppose.... the guardian usually advertise those sort of jobs on mondays or wednesdays. you're in london so there will be more of those kind of jobs than elsewhere in the country.
also, just to say that i've walked out of two jobs with nothing to go to in the last four years. first time it worked out OK but second time I managed to get pregnant during the notice period and it's been hell finding family friendly work since dd arrived. also, education is, as far as I know with three relatives as teachers, more difficult if you do something a little unusual like leaving with nothing to go to in terms of getting refs, etc. so in your position, I'd advocate finding the job first if you can stand it.
can't tell i used to work in recruitment.....

not sure if it still exists but there used to be an organisation based in london called 'business in the community' and operates to place teachers on secondments in businesses for up to a year or more... providingg a change of scene... worked really well for the teachers i knew. alse, there are other organisations that operate through leas and lscs called education business partnerships - a national network, always looking to recruit teachers to work on special projects... from my experience hese posts far less workload and stress than teaching.

Thanks for all your good advice. It's given me options to think about