I don't want to go back :(

[KareninsGirl]

That's it in a nutshell. We have experienced huge change in our workplace and I'm doing three times the workload I should due to others either bring absent or not doing their jobs properly.

I used to love my job but all I feel now is disillusioned and exhausted.

Please remind me of why education is such a great sector to work in?!

[SummerPlum]

Jelly, most professional services jobs in Unis will be year-round. Things don't stop when the students are on holiday! It can be hard work, but it's office work (so at least you can go for a piss when you like, unlike teaching!), and the pay and conditions tend to be quite good, depending on where you live. Term-time only work is indeed popular, and I know some admin workers who have managed to wangle it, but you'll obviously stand a better chance if you're flexible and prepared to work full time.

[ninah]

thanks! I have written my resignation letter out several times, sometimes with fantastic frankness but am yet to hand it in.

[OrangeMochaFrappucino]

Thanks - would working in HE admin roles be term time or do they run year-round? I am prepared to work full time in a less stressful role than part-time in teaching so I would work five days for a similar salary (or less) as I am currently getting for three days but I have brilliant term time only childcare so ideally I am looking for term time work but I realise this is the holy grail for a lot of people!

[SummerPlum]

jelly, HE Admin = working in a university, but on the support side (not as an academic, which is every bit as stressful as being a teacher).

Jobs.ac.uk

Good luck.

[Misssss]

Thank you Ninah! You will be fine! Are you definitely going at Easter? Just having and end date makes everything so much better. Roll on next week...

[ninah]

Good luck missss! I feel quite envious. Even the thought of lasting til Easter seems grim in my school

[Misssss]

I've just left my job. Don't have another to go to at the moment but the dole queue is better than five more minutes in my hellhole school. I had an interview last week (I didn't get the job) When I asked my head for the morning off, she turned round and said, "Oh, they probably had a cancellation." School has recently got inadequate in Ofsted and it is just awful.

Was scared about leaving but I feel ten stones lighter - so happy, cannot wait for the 20th! I have two interviews next week at nicer schools so fingers crossed I get one of those, if not something will come up.

[OrangeMochaFrappucino]

What is HE Admin? A couple of posters have mentioned they have gone into this from teaching? I am going on my second maternity leave in April and don't want to return to teaching. I just don't know what else to do and we can't afford for me to have a gap. I have thought of exam marking and transcription work though I worry that working at home may be isolating. I can't keep up teaching though - as evidenced by the fact I am awake at 4am searching for alternative job ideas!!

[Endofmyfeather]

This thread actually just made me cry on a BUS!

I'm a teacher, on a few years hiatus while living abroad and working in HE Admin. I miss teaching, my ex colleagues and the kids so, so much. But then I read these things and remember all the shit that had crept into the job I truly loved and it actually makes me weep (...on a bus!) because even the thought of going back into it makes me anxious.

Michael Gove: the biggest exception to "don't hate the player, hate the game". What a bloody tragic mess.

[ReluctantBeing]

God, you poor thing. I'm frequently forcing myself to ignore the powers that be hammering down the stress, and focus on the kids. They are important.

[ninah]

We are RI, inspection or obs every week, my skin has broken out in huge sores, team with no training, everyone fed up, people leaving like flies ....am being told it's getting better and this is a normal stage in the process towards good
Is this normal?

[ReluctantBeing]

I'm determined to see Gove out too.
Tawdry, same for me.

[ravenAK]

Nope celestialsquirrels - I'm sitting Gove out.

If I leave education before he does, it'll be feet bloody first. I'm too stubborn to let that little shit drive me out.

I don't hold with private education anyway, but even if I did, it's not a big enough lifeboat for all of us!

[TawdryTatou]

RI in an LEA inspection today. I put hours into that lesson. They said they didn't see any evidence of progress I the 20 minutes they were in.

That was a set 3 group, who worked out the meaning of a poem they'd never seen before, with minimal input from me. But that happened once the inspectors had gone, so I get an RI. Again.

I give up. I don't know how to play this game any more.

[celestialsquirrels]

Would those of you who love teaching but are considering leaving the profession nor consider working in the private sector? Treating it as a break from constant ofsted inspections etc etc for a few years until Gove has gone and normality once again returns to the state sector? Wouldn't that be better than chucking in what you love and becoming de skilled? Or am I just naive?

It just seems like so many of you are committed, wonderful teachers and what a waste to lose you from teaching completely...

[holmessweetholmes]

God - just found this thread. I feel exactly the same. I'm back at a new (state) school, having taught in a private one for a number of years. I am appalled at the hoop-jumping and unmanageable amount of admin. Thank goodness it is only a maternity cover. Back to the independent sector for me, asap. It wasn't anything like this bad last time I was in a state school.

[ReluctantBeing]

I don't think they can expect every obs to be outstanding. They can ask you to do more stuff though.

[storynanny]

Sofia, I think there are great changes afoot re UPS. Im waiting to see what will happen to supply teachers pay under the new pay and conditions. Im on UPS 3 as that is where I was when I took early retirement last year. As supply teachers are "new" every time they go to a school, there wont be any requirement for the school to pay the rate which the supply teacher has been on previously. If my county decide to go for a flat rate on point 1 main scale that will mean a 45% pay cut for me.
Not sure how performance management is going to work for supply teachers. Although I feel I work very hard and put all my usual effort and enthusiasm into a days supply, of course I am no longer doing all the extra that went with my full time UPS3 role. And I go home before I used to when working full time.

[sofia31]

This thread also makes me sad. I have loved teaching for the first 7 years. Now trying to juggle parenting and full time teaching is nearly impossible. I am facing new performance management observations, where I am told as on UPS I must be outstanding. Does anyone else have any experience of such expectations?

[bordellosboheme]

Wow this thread brings tears to my eyes.
Dp is a teacher and has been doing it for 15 years. He says it's hard. After reading this I believe him. He's such a good dad though and never brings stress home. I'll appreciate him more after reading this.

[Mummyoftheyear]

I'd, not 'if'. Oh I give up. Fat fingers!

[Mummyoftheyear]

toll, not 'tool'. Bloody autocorrect!

[Mummyoftheyear]

Reluctant. I have to say though, that although I really suffered from the stress of it all (tool on my health as working ridiculous hours, weekends and school holidays), if not be where I am now if I'd not been through it. I don't think I'd have been able to do it with young children and a family life though. I'd recommend doing teacher training with a view to using it as a stepping stone. This isn't why I went into it. On the contrary. However, I've ended up, with further training, as an assessor and tutor. Pays better, reasonable (mostly) working times and hours. Still make sacrifices and debate whether it's good for my children to have an absent. ( working) mother from X -Y pm, but it's soooo satisfying to be able to teach individuals. I can actually help them to reach their individual potential vs 'teach to the middle', support those whose SATS levels will make a difference to OFSTED. (vs to the children this elves), etc.

[ReluctantBeing]

It is. It makes my school sound reasonable.