Thinking of leaving teaching

[starwishing]

Hi,

I'm currently feeling very negative about school. I'm relatively new back into teaching after having my son (now 3) and this last year in school has been heartbreaking.

I teach secondary school and the guilt I have working from home is making it stressful. Also as I do school pick ups I can't spend hours at school after the students go home because I have to pick up my own child.

My school is very high performing and along with that comes the expected level of pressure and stress. I probably do 15hrs a week marking on evenings and weekends and still not keeping up as much as necessary, my lessons seem to be going ok but I want to be better and this means more time invested. With a toddler who doesn't sleep at night it's all getting a bit much emotionally too.

I would love to stay in school as some role but I think I want to give up teaching. Should I talk to my HOD this week and just say I'm going to start looking for another job? I don't know what else I could do in school though which is a problem.

Any advice? I can't quit as we need the money from two incomes and it's nice being with the kids.

It's the long hours, marking, planning, half term exams alongside weekly KIPs, behaviour alongside massive classes, HUGE expectations and very little help

Sounds just like primary tbh. Sorry-not much help really.

@Appuskidu oh heck! My son has only just started reading basic words. He's soooo not ready to start school and write KIPs just yet. That's the killer. I have 3 classes of 33-37kids all writing a minimum of 4 pages for their KIP. To be marked by the next lesson and it means some nights going to bed at 2/3am just to complete them! Plus primary will have worse handwriting too!

It's TEACHING I don't want to do but there's nothing else I'm qualified for. I guess I just suck it up and I'll see my son when he's 12 and starts secondary school with me!

What on earth is a KIP??

And why are your class sizes so huge?

Tbh, I'd try a different school first before you pack it in. Some of your workload sounds familiar to me but most doesn't and I am a secondary English teacher!

And who says 6 page essays need close marking ? That's plainly ridiculous and no preparation for examinations.

They're the performance indicators for yr10 and 11 to prepare them for gcse. They ks3 do half termly exams that need the same attention.

Our school is full to bursting 😆 the average class size is 34 in mainstream. My SEN groups are smaller though and only 22 so they're much easier a workload.

Oh. KPIs?

This is not a term I have heard used in marking.

Can you time these / are they timed? 4 pages seems excessive: in fact, the whole thing seems excessive. Can you set a limit of 3 pages per child?

You keep stating things as solid expectations. I would not be working in a school that says 4 page essays need to be handed back the next lesson, and these schools are rarer than MN suggests. Are these expectations you are setting yourself , or is it policy. If it's policy, your union rep would be interested!

Seriously, we all need to rage against the machine much more! These things happen because everyone just trudges on- or leaves , rather than trying to fight !

You won't find many schools with class sizes of 35 (it would appear setting is causing the problem there : it was ever thus , and it doesn't seem worth it since 22 is hardly tiny)

Sorry, feeling quite cross and am with the poster upthread R10t( I believe was the name?) that this stuff is unreasonable and insane.

have you heard of yellow box marking btw? I love it. Works a dream.

have you heard of yellow box marking btw? I love it. Works a dream.

I don't think you should jump ship just yet. It sounds like you are an incredibly committed teacher, and that at some level you do enjoy your profession and take pride in your work. First, tackle the core problem: the marking expectations are way too high and you simply cannot meet them despite your best efforts. Nobody should be marking every night until 2am. Is your SLT even aware that their staff is doing this? What are your colleagues' hours like? If there is a pattern, then people need to take a stand togther. School marking policies can change. In Finland they don't even set homework... But that's by the by. If you leave teaching you might regret it. I left for a while to try something else for the same reasons you mention, but found myself coming back to it. I was lonely working for myself and missed the buzz in the classroom. I am trying to make my job matter less in the grand scheme of my life. It is, after all, just a job and your students' grades will not suffer if you mark their work less often. You may look back and wish you had spent more time with your child, however. So please don't leave just yet! Try all the other avenues; even another school could make all the difference. My school doesn't sound as stressful as yours, for example.

@Piggywaspushed similar. We've changed them to Key Indicator Pieces to differentiate from the whole dept KPI board 😆 too many acronyms to deal with!

Well, in a nutshell, your school sounds bonkers.

But, as I asked : do they need to be over 4 pages? Do they need close marking?

I ask because I have a friend (an MFL teacher) who constantly posts on FB about all her marking due the next day etc and (since I work in the same school as her I know this) this is all a self imposed perfectionist regime. Are you at all making a rod for your own back with overly perfectionist self expectation?

I, too, don't stay after school. A throwback to after school club pick up of 4pm and now a habit. I see no reason why you should feel you have to. Or why that should mean it is at all reasonable to be marking til 2 am. A burnt out teacher is no use to anyone.

I never wanted to be a head of English but I wish I had become one to at least put an end to all this silliness in one school! (although as I said, mine is actually nothing compared to yours!)

@Rathkelter I think it's me that has changed. I used to be totally committed and threw myself into teaching 100%. Since becoming a parent I have prioritised my son and my commitment to teaching has suffered. I refuse to give up my one night a week I get to collect him from school, I hate that I'm exhausted all the time because of marking and planning and then up twice or more in the night with him anyway so more tired the next day. My job is demoralising and I feel physically sick going to school. I can't remember the last time I didn't cry or want to walk out.

I want to stay in schools... just not as a teacher. I would love to be a TA and go down the SEN route because it would be training and at least give me a starting point to my professional development again. I haven't had any training since qualifying in 2009!

This is not my experience of teaching at all. I am in school from 7am - 3.45pm and do no work at home.

I plan in my early hour and during my frees. I mark in class with students.

You have to pinpoint where your time is being sucked up.

crafty, whilst I agree with the sentiment of your post ,I would say that you cannot mark English in class, other than the odd spelling test or quiz, which is not what OP is describing.

How would you cope with the TA salary?

This is not my experience of teaching at all. I am in school from 7am - 3.45pm and do no work at home.

That is highly unusual.

@CraftyGin what do you teach? What you describe seems really rare

Don't transfer to primary if what you want to avoid is the marking!

As all books are marked for the next lesson in the same subject in primary, it's more a 'little and often' demand, but averages at 90 books+ per night, and I would say that 15 hours a week, if you take into account marking through lunchtimes etc, is probably about right.

OP if you can afford to take the pay cut then I would 100% recommend becoming a TA or HLTA. I am a qualified teacher working as a TA and its great. I get to work with children and do what I love and trained for, and walk away at the end of the day. As I say, the pay is rubbish, but I am around for my kids after school and get the holidays and weekends with them. You can always do TA work on a supply basis to get some experience in the age group you'd prefer,.

Your marking load sounds crazy. That much marking can't be of benefit to the students and it sounds like it is severely detrimental to your work-life balance. I think you'd be happier at a different school or in a part-time role.

I changed to private and found it made a world of difference. Worth considering?

What about doing a job share. I know it's not ideal and doesn't always work. But you could ask. Even if this other woman was told no I still think it would be worth asking to drop one or two days.

Well, to be fair purple, I do 7.50 - 3.4-ish and no marking at home, as a general rule but I do have a fair amount of frees and am a speed marker. Years of having to pick my DCs up by 4 from after school club 25 mins from work made me very focused and disciplined about work. But I can't mark in class . Crafty is a science teacher in a leadership role in a private school, iirc.

However, she is right that OP's workload is extreme and must be trimmable.

I teach English in a state school and do at least two hours marking a night and five over the weekend

I do too and I don't : I possibly do five hours in total in a heavy week (and would do all of it at school as far as possible). But I am really quick it has to be said. Can do 30 assessments in two hours.

I wouldn't say I even have marking to do in every week, although I tend to mark more pieces than our policy says. I was the same at uni : did all the essays in the first three weeks so I could have the rest of the term free