Anyone else had enough?

[DaveCoachesgavemetheclap]

I'm 52 and have been teaching Primary since 1989. I'm lucky in that the school where I work has good behaviour and paperwork/marking etc isn't as excessive as in some schools although it's pretty bad. All I can think about is getting through the next 3 years to reach 55 so I can retire, although realistically, I couldn't really afford to go until I'm 57. I was just wondering if there's anyone out there who has zero interest and enthusiasm like me.

Yup. Late 40s. Don't know how to stick it out to 52 let alone later... been teaching since 1994.

I have only been teaching since 2000. I am 53. I don't know how I can go on past 57.

Have just started a new job trying to save my love of teaching. I think it's gone. It's been so different since I had my daughter last year - I feel like I am wading through treacle, resent working in the evenings, don't feel any highs anymore of a great lesson well taught, even though I am really really trying. I am mid 20s, this is my 4th year teaching. I will be leaving this school at the end of the year, even though I only started last week. I don't have any idea what else to do. I teach secondary humanities subject.

An NQT started last year and I remembered fondly how enthusiastic I was in the beginning, but now it's an alien concept. I even envied a colleague who's having a knee replacement next week

I’m 36 and utterly, totally done with it! I am finally teaching A Level this year as I have always wanted but I cannot dredge up any enthusiasm for the rest of it. I just don’t want to be there. I am so drained by the constant interaction, the pace, the firefighting, the targets, the pressure, all of it. I am part time and it’s only week 2 tomorrow but already the thoughts are creeping in about if I maybe had a minor car accident, just enough to get signed off for a few weeks...I hate these thoughts and I know I don’t mean it really but it’s a clear indication that I need to change career. I do have something else in the pipeline and I’m very impatient to move on with it. Without that as a prospect, I would be seriously concerned about my mental health this year.

I had 5 years out after teaching for 18 years but have been back for 5 terms now, I am actually really enjoying it, but that's down to how well the school I'm now in is run. I'm 50 next year so think I can get to 55, beyond that though, who knows!

I was off for nearly 3 months last year as I broke my leg. I felt that I had lost the year to be honest as I didn't feel like I caught up with my classes at all. Perhaps this year will be better for me but with 7 extra hours in my TT I doubt it very much. Same job but more teaching! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I’m 25 and I feel like I’m done.

In the last week, I am already feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do.

I'm finding it really stressful at the moment. I'm full-time for starters, which I'd rather not be because I know I can't physically fit the job in due to all the activities by own DCs do after school/weekends and I'm not stopping them from doing what they enjoy. Management wouldn't let me go part-time though, due to shortage of teachers in my subject.

Also, the management have decided to increase our teaching hours up to the absolute limit they're allowed. I spend most of the week feeling like I don't really get any PPA and on the day I do, I have loads of duties.

I've also been told off at least 5 times for various things, all of which, I either couldn't possibly have known about beforehand, or didn't have anything to do with me. I don't know why management in schools are like this.

It's actually making me feel really anxious all the time, to the point I have a permanent knot in my stomach. The constant anxious feeling is really draining me. I'm terrified I won't be able to keep on top of workloads, I'm terrified of being told off, I'm fed up of kids arguing back. I feel like it's all overwhelming and too much.

I'm late forties though, already changed career into teaching in my early thirties and having thoroughly researched it, I can't get another job that pays the same, without having to retrain and start back at the bottom (again) and I don't want that, I just want to work and earn money. Also, the school holidays are really useful (no need for childcare), and if I got a 9-5 job, I wouldn't be able to get home in time to take DCs to after school activities. We'd basically have to change our whole lifestyle if I left teaching, so I can't.

I've been frantically googling how to cope with high workloads and therapies for anxiety - I've got to learn to just deal with it and not give a shit.

astuz that sounds really tough, I feel quite worried about you reading that. It doesn’t sound as though you have any support anywhere in your day. Do you have supportive colleagues? Take care of yourself, and don’t be afraid to push back a bit if you’re ‘told off’ for things, you’re not a child. Recognise that you must have boundaries in place.

46 and been teaching for 23 years. Up and down about it but know for sure that I will not be able to do this until I'm 67.

*I even envied a colleague who's having a knee replacement next week

Yep, I’ve felt this. A few years ago, I remember just wanting to crash my car on the way to work, then I wouldn’t have to go in. I was almost delusional, pondering how long it would take for them to notice I wasn’t coming in and what would happen next with my class.

I changed school after this and am now happier, but...I’ve already been teaching for 20 years and retirement age is (as it stands) not for another 26 years. I can’t do it. But then my pension will be non existent and what will actually happen to me?

People talk (especially recently) about politicians being too old in their 60s-are they really going to want teachers at 67? Expensive (probably cantankerous) ones who in all likelihood are having time off for knee operations and hip replacements as they are physically falling apart at the seams?!

I worry that even if I do manage to stay in teaching, once I hit 50, management will try to get me out on capability to free up some money for a couple of NQTs instead-I know hardly any in their 50/60s who aren’t heads!

I am looking outside of teaching but can’t afford to retrain as I’ll soon be putting kids through university. I don’t think I’d even care about the loss of the holidays so much if I moved as my kids are older. Just want to move into something that doesn’t make me feel this way.

You are not alone, OP.

It's really depressing reading this, but alas it is the reality.

What’s the percentage of teachers who make it past 5 years? I’m in my fourth year and not sure I can make it much further.

@Herocomplex Feeling a bit better after today. The reason I'm at my current school is because my immediate department and especially my HoD are fantastic. Also, my class from hell weren't quite so class-from-hell-ish. Loads of the staff in my department get told off lots more than I do, as happened today. The rest of the department seem to be able to just make jokes about it though, and to be fair, the management seem to be all bark and no bite, I've never heard of anyone at this school actually being disciplined. I really need to be a lot more like the rest of my department and just not give a shit - we still seem to get good results (which almost seems to annoy management even more).

astuz really glad to hear that, sounds an aggressive work environment. Hope you continue like you did today.

I'm sick of it too. I still love teaching but I can't keep up with the workload. 8 -6 every day and rarely time to eat lunch. I spent 5 hours working at the weekend as well. Despite working like that it still feels that it is not good enough. Constant checks and learning walks adding to the stress. Management have set absolutely ridiculous targets this year that are completely unachievable. Life is too short.

Sorry. My sympathies. But your username made me snort orange juice down my blouse

I love the teaching job I do in a secondary school with great management and colleagues. I’m part-time too. But at nearly 58 I cannot imagine doing it for another 10 years. It’s so exhausting.

Another thinking of getting out. I've got a toddler and one on the way- no interest in working the hours I need to in order to stay afloat. And the pay cut will be offset by a cut in childcare costs to done extent....

Just read up on the new Ofsted framework. It should come with a warning!

Tell us more, @davecoachesgavemetheclap

My SLT have been unusually quiet about the changes which worries me

Just started new job. Part time hours. But have gone from being a HoD/HoF to a standard class teacher. I am teaching a 90% timetable so out of my 30 lessons a fortnight I only have two PPA sessions in week one and one in week two. If I had that timetable full time i think it would actually kill me. I taught two 5 period days back to back - Monday I had briefing, two lessons, assembly, two lessons, lunch, lesson, staff meeting. I teach predominantly KS3 classes once per week, meaning I have 450+ names to learn 🤦‍♀️
I’m only 38 but I am bonetired, there is no way I could do this timetable full time, or for the next 30 years. It is completely knackering, and I’ve come from being a HoD in three different schools, so I’m used to juggling and managing my time, and am very resilient. However I am enjoying it far more than my last completely toxic workplace so I’m hoping that when it isn’t all so new I will find it less tiring.

I don’t see how teaching is sustainable as a career into your 60s if you’re actually teaching, not in an office telling other people how to

I'm not a teacher but a lecturer. I come from a family of teachers. My sister is three years post NQT and on the floor. I think she slept for the the whole of the summer holidays.

I wondered, reading people's concerns about finding alternative careers, if anyone had considered lecturing. PhDs are not always necessary when someone is bringing good practical experience to the role (I'm nearing the end of my PhD but I've been lecturing for 2 years because I had sector experience of my subject (not education)). HE has its own hellpits and stresses but very different to the nonstop pressures of full-time teaching. Just a thought. for all.

I have looked at FE but they all seem to come with the expectation that you will be conducting academic research alongside the lecturing role, which needs to be submitted/graded etc. I just can't go back to studying and working at the same time.