Anyone ever left teaching and returned

[manyhands]

So I'm due to start supply, I've worked on contract in a primary school for the last three years. I've seen a really interesting job running 'film clubs' in greater manchester schools which is a fixed term three year contract. I'm more than ready to move away from teaching but in three years time I'd be back on the jobs market looking to get back into teaching. Because I'm based in a smaller Northern city with high
(ish) umemployment the competition for jobs is fierce and the range of jobs available is more limited than say London. I'd have to go into supply but would supply agencies be interested in me if I'd been out of the classroom so long. Needless to say I haven't got the job yet but know that DH will try to persuade me not to go for it due to the difficulty of getting back into teaching afterwards. Not to mention that I'd spend two days a week in London for the first month and he works shifts so I do the bulk of the breakfast club/ after school club runs. So after that long ramble just wanted to know anyone successfully got back to classroom teaching after a break.

I had a break from teaching of about 2 years working in project management. At the time I left teaching (end of 2000) I had had enough of working for (by my calculation after one horrendously busy term) £2.50 an hour. Salaries are much better than they used to be! I went straight from the management job to maternity leave after about 2 years. Then had time at home with the kids. I then managed to get back into teaching part time at my old school and now teach in a lovely school still part time. However and this is probably a big factor, I teach science in the South East and therefore find it easier to find a job than, say, primary in the North. Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

I'm primary in the North , well better to know the pitfalls before I leave teaching.

I didn't regret the decision to leave, but so much easier to find a job down here - sorry!

I'm looking at returning to secondary after 5 years out... so much has changed...

If you are ready to leave teaching, then I think the best thing is to view it as a one-way street. Who knows, the contract might be renewed?

Just to warn you, I tried to get into supply after a short gap and had real issues getting taken on by agencies, even in London - because of the gap in my teaching history, even though I had previously been a member of SLT. I had to explain, time after time, that I had been a SAHM doing some freelance and voluntary work - judging by the dissmissive way in which I was treated i might as well have been in prison! And heaven help you if one of your HT references has retired or moved to a new school....