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.

@pieceofpurplesky I could handle that a night and five hours on a weekend. It's the fact i do five hours a night and by then my DS is up for his first night waking and then I fall asleep on his bed usually and then I'm up for school again at 5.30! I'm considering getting in for 6am from now on so I have longer in school to work. After school I like to see my family.

Looking at my week ahead I have a meeting one night 5-7 and parents evening one night till 10 so I'll get marking done then too. This week might be ok!

@Piggywaspushed all class books have to be marked each week as well as homework and assignments and exams and indicators. I'll never not have marking to do because as soon as I have some done I have more!

That’s a ridiculous workload. I would definitely move school if that’s what your school expects. I’m an English teacher & I do most of my marking in my frees & an hour after school a couple of times a week. I usually spend 4 hours planning/marking one day at the weekend, unless it’s report week & I need to do extra.

On some occasions (when pupils are doing extended writing pieces) I might go round & mark one paragraph/give verbal feedback. I can normally get round most of the class in a lesson as it’s quick, immediate feedback. Then pupils might peer assess the whole piece at the end. I always set limits on pieces of work & stress quality rather than quantity. It’s more difficult with GCSE though - especially if your school want you to do constant practice assessments.

Have a look at the 40 hour work week club devised by Angela Watson for teachers. I haven’t paid to join, but if you sign up, you’ll get lots of tips & strategies to cut down your working hours. I haven’t got it down to 40 (wouldn’t that be nice!) but it has made a difference. There’s also a Facebook group.

Staying till 10.00pm for parents evening??? What time do you start?

My school will cancel meetings during the week if we have a parents eve because of workload. Definitely change schools!

I can sympathise with you OP. I'm in primary and the workload is similar. EYFS is probably the highest workload alongside year 6. OK there's not the marking, but there are learning journeys for every child and 17 areas of learning to assess.
I work 3 days but mark or do planning every night plus a full day on one of my days off.
@CraftyGin I think your job sounds unusual tbh.

I teach Science - Head of Science in a senior school.

I'm going in tomorrow to say I'm looking for new roles. A TA role wouldn't be at all bad and we could survive on the money.

What about looking for a part-time teaching role in another school? If you could do say 0.5 over 3 days, you could get your marking done on the other two days and get your life back. You'd probably still earn more than a TA I'm guessing.

Your school sounds dreadful. I know teachers everywhere are suffering, but not all schools are the same. There are still some good ones out there.

Be careful about stepping down to TA. You have to look at your long term prospects - after your very dependent child years.

Also, how will you turn off Teacher mode as a TA.

@CraftyGin all out TA's at school are teachers as they double as cover supervisors when necessary.

As far as long term prospects go... my child will still be dependant for another 15yrs at least and that's my eldest. As we are going through fertility treatment it might be longer that I get to be a mum.

Maybe I should go back to my old job as a childminder 😂

@Ishouldntbesolucky my school is the best one I have ever taught in it's just they have high expectations of staff and students on a continuous basis. Part of me feels that if I can make it through the next 14 weeks I can have a good rest.

I used to be a 0.5 teacher and it's still the same mark load as the classes were shared with non specialists so I still had to mark everything and do all the planning. Plus it's stressful knowing where each other are on the planning and splitting lessons.

The rule of thumb should be one hour work (marking) per class per week: so I have six full classes = six hours marking. Seems reasonable. Some weeks will be 0 marking for one class and 2 -3 hours for a big A level week. All evens out. I have three year 10 classes so that affects workload a bit as it all comes in at once unless I'm careful.

Speaking personally I never have a problem switching off teacher mode as a TA, I am just hugely relieved that it is not my ultimate responsibility. My youngest is 9 and my eldest 14, I can tell you my eldest needs me to be around just as much as when he was younger, but in different ways. So I can see myself doing this role for at least another 9 years when my youngest is 18, by which time I'll be 52 and probably quite happy to stay in that job until I retire! There are always different challenges within the role. It seems to have evolved over the years, I am about to start doing much more special needs interventions which I really enjoy.
OP I would say go for it, you will have such a good work life balance. Good luck.

@OnTopOfSpaghetti thank you for that. I think I would love doing a TA role. There's one local to us come up that I'm going to apply for tomorrow. I want to tell my HOD first that I'm applying for jobs so she isn't surprised if I get a reference request sent to school!

I do think you've been unlucky if it's the best school you've worked in. The schools I know have smaller class sizes. Sharing a class with a non-specialist is bad too. I know 0.5 is more than half the work, but it really shouldn't be the same as full-time. That's just crazy!

@starwishing what time does you parents eve start? There is a limit to the time you can stay. 10 seems crazy. Ours runs from 4-8.

I don't do enough marking according to SLT
but cannot physically do anymore as a single mum and a carer for a disabled mum! I start at 9 and finish by 11 most nights

Good luck OP I really hope it works out for you. So sad that so many good teachers are leaving because of unrealistic targets and workload. At the end of the day though you must do what is right for you and your family.

This has been a really interesting thread to read. Thank you all for sharing your experiences. I'm doing some research into why women aged 30-39 leave teaching and would love it if any of you have left in this age bracket could complete my survey to get me to 500 respondents! docs.google.com/forms/d/1MzfTBUMmFf-PrOgnBO33kLwuUKLuc-0rmqhhcHcCkRQ/edit Thanks in advance!