People who have left teaching - what job did you go on to do?

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My DH wants to leave teaching after 15 years teaching English at Secondary Schools. I am currently a SAHM but also qualified as a teacher but not sure I want to go back to it either.

The job is now more about inspections, targets, paperwork and not so much about the children. Discipline in many schools is sadly lacking and the so called 'good' schools have turned into sausage factories for exam success.

My question is - if you have left, what job did you go on to do and are you happier in your work now?

Indians DH does a bit of tutoring and likes it and that is how I get money as works around having young children.

People who got non class facing jobs such as TA/1 to 1s/teaching young offenders/teaching in hospitals etc how did you apply for these roles? Was it through an agency?

I'm a secondary English teacher desperate to get out! About to go on maternity leave and will have to return in order to keep the maternity pay but definitely don't want to be staying long term. Am looking at private tutoring, school admin jobs, would love to train as an NCT antenatal teacher but couldn't afford the course at the moment and would be interested in being a TA but it is such a significant pay cut we couldn't manage right now. I really value working part time whilst my children are small but that's the only thing I can honestly say I like about my job now! Most of my colleagues are looking for a way out as well.

jelly Congrats on baby - is it your 1st? I was so happy when I quit to have my 1st baby!! I did tutoring and still do it as we have 2 DDs who are nearly three and 13 months. I remember other Mums moaning about sleepless nights and feeling bored at home, going on about breastfeeding etc and seeming stressed about caring for their newborn. I was SO HAPPY and stress free and felt caring for a newborn (or 10 newborns) so much easier than the stress of teaching a class!!

All of you have made me feel that I am not crazy for feeling class teaching too stressful to continue and DH has really cheered up when I showed him this thread. He does not go on MN or any internet forums and for ages thought he was alone in wanting a way out of class teaching. It is a pity as he is such a good teacher, loves working with young people but the job has changed so much in the last ten years it is so much more pressured like a business not a vocation as it used to be.

DH says he knew he was not alone in wanting to get into another area of education but didn't realise the dissatisfaction amongst teachers was so widespread.

In fact he worked with a lady who was pregnant and she was so pressured during her pregnancy and teaching the classes that she made herself ill - though she is fine now and baby fine too. I don't think she will be back to teaching.

Thank you! It's my second - I can't express how much I am looking forward to looking after a toddler and newborn instead of going to work! The stress of the job poisons my days off with my son at the moment and managing pregnancy along with it has been so difficult! I know managing two little ones will be challenging but I can't wait!

I've only been teaching six years but feel like the job is unrecognisable now - the pressure is unbelievable!

I'm an ex early years teacher who gave up the job after a complete breakdown 13 years ago; i was looking at nursery headships at the time, or advisory posts, but the stress of the job put paid to that. Since then i have worked for a small local charity offering community based family support; the first big drop in pay. Made redundant nearly 2 years ago, and now back in school as a family and community worker; a job which i enjoy. however, am paid on TA scale, so now earning half what i did as a teacher, and paid term time only, although that is spread over the year. we have 4 qualified teachers doing non-teaching roles and 2 others with non teaching degrees. I wouldn't want to go back to teaching in the current climate, but am of an age when i am now worrying about my pittance of a pension, which would have been a comfortable one if still teaching. I see our young teachers already very demoralised. Any non teaching role in school is likely to be poorly paid; I know a Learning mentor on a salary of @16,000 who is an ex head!Would love to give up work completely and get my life back!!

Don't blame you at all for wanting out. There are quite a few schools round by us, including an 'outstanding' school, a free school etc without hod. The English hod reckons that when she goes to county meetings everyone looks ill. The Maths hod has resigned to go back to classroom teaching, we know a school that has failed to appoint a new head twice... It goes on and on...

Private school? I know two heads of science that have left to do it and are finding it much less stressful.

My worry about a ta job would be that they will all soon be redundant. My sister was telling me the primary near her had 80 applicants for a ta job, and half were from qualified teachers.

I've been thinking bar work might work quite nicely round the school run... Split shifts, DH can do the childcare...
(getting desperate here!)

Parliamo I don't think the TA role will become redundant - SEN is a bigger category than ever in schools and there is more and more classroom support and roles that did not exist when I trained and certainly didn't exist when I was at school. However I do wonder what the future of teaching will be if things carry on the way they are? No HODs or Heads left at all or nervous breakdowns en masse?

I'm 23 years in primary , part time since dc's. I've never known morale at such a low level and I would love to leave. Unfortunately there are not many opportunities in this area. I am seriously considering trying to get a TA position.
Dh is a career changer from manufacturing to teaching. He loves it but spends hours every evening and weekend doing marking etc etc.If I wasn't part time our kids would get no attention at all. I would not encourage anyone to go into teaching now.

Ex teachers I know do a variety of roles inc:

TA/HLTA
Educational consultant
Private tutor
LA advisor (not sure this is less pressured though!)
1-1 support in school
Exam marking
Adult ed (this seems like a bit of a nightmare though!)

I also know a few who now work for centres providing educational days for schools - so a class turns up for a day out and they plan/run/deliver it. They all seem to love it.

Im doimg adult ed at the moment bit really want to change to another professional career or at least one that pays similarly.

It seems teaching has alienated me from the business world or even realising what career changes are possible at a different stage in life than new-graduate.

A ta/hlta would be fantastic if we weren't looking ti my wage to pay the mortgage etc.

I feel like I was once a "top graduate" and now looking at mum-jobs or minimim wage type roles and no idea how to get a career back at this stage.

Minimum. And other typos
Phone typing isn't kind to me.

Was ready to give up on teaching, then moved abroad to an international school. Now I'm definitely going to keep doing this for years. DH is going to train too. :) It's a completely different job, and I love it.

I work in Virtual Learning Environments in a University. While I do have an IT background, it's not necessary to be anything more techy than enthusiastic amateur. What is really needed is the ability to look at teaching and learning from a technological standpoint. I find ex-teachers are better at this than true geeks (the profession is made up of a mixture of both) as you need to be able to put yourself in the teacher's shoes as well.

There are jobs in London. Some ideas below
UCL
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AIE094/learning-technology-officer/
City University
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AIH063/educational-technologist/
City again
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AIG660/senior-educational-technologist/

I know there will be more coming up in the next month or two.

I had a breakdown seven years ago and couldn't work for two years. I only went back to work when the devil that is ATOS interviewed me and decided I was fit to work and stopped benefits (sixty something pounds a week). I applied for office jobs, shops jobs etc but nothing happened so I was forced into supply teaching which was hell on earth. I struck lucky when I did supply at a school that I have now been at for four years. Except now I cannot cope and I am on the verge of another breakdown. I should never have gone back to teaching. I feel suicidal.

I started through an agency and then moved onto direct employment in the unit I work in. I had done other supply through the same agency and was offered one to one on a session to session basis which very quickly became full time.

English teachers at secondary level seem to be among the most stressed. Any other English teachers out there who wish to leave teaching? Seems that the subject has become a tick box, uninspiring kind of thing which creative teachers find difficult to deal with.

Countess you poor poor thing. There must be a way out for you. Could you downsize to lessen financial pressure and take a lower paid job? Private tutoring? You must get out. Nothing is worth sacrificing your sanity for. There must be some other area you could move in to.

NVQ assessor

I'm looking for other jobs but I worry that my current school will give a bad reference.

BTW - your DH should be made aware that many TA jobs are still class facing. Many TAs do first day sick cover for class teachers (officially can be up to 3 days), some do PPA cover (though shouldn't uness HLTA/Level 4) or just generally short term whole class stuff.

I applied for and got both my post teaching jobs (prison ed advisor and HLTA) via normal adverts.

Hula I don't think DH minds the occasional cover.

Countess why should you get a bad ref? You have been there 4 years and I am sure they are not allowed to give you bad ref unless they can prove you are crap (legal people help me out here). My PGCE mentor (a lovely woman in her late 50s) got a bad ref from a head who disliked her. She got them to retract and write a good ref as what they had done was illegal she said. She was an excellent teacher btw.