Leaving teaching behind...feel amazing!

[stupidmestupidme]

I worked really hard to get my PGCE (single parent) & I had always wanted to be a teacher.

After the classic '5 years' in the profession I decided to leave because I was fed up of the lack of management support, lack of respect and generally feeling anxious ALL the time.

Since leaving I feel so much better. I now wake every day feeling good, I'm spending more time with my children and I feel positive about the future again. It's so liberating.

The pay-off is I've taken a huge pay cut... but nothing beats the feeling of calm I have now.

To anyone considering leaving teaching: do it! You won't realise how bad it made you feel until you're not doing it anymore.

If you don't believe the handwringing, please go and sit in a staffroom for a bit and rethink.

Oh no, wait, teachers don't have time to sit in the staffroom anymore. 🙄

@IheartNiles are you a teacher?

Is it normal for so many professionals to leave their careers after 5 years or less, at huge personal cost?

Thought not.

IheartNiles ... come and work clinically in the NHS.

My GP, a 40 year-old man, is very happy with his lot, working 3 days per week for an extremely attractive salary, and is so laid back he's nearly laid out.

In recent months I have accompanied a friend to two hospital Breast Clinics, one of them a teaching hospital, where she saw a total of five doctors; not one of them appeared as stressed as teachers I know at comparable levels, facing the impossible, unreasonable demands and dangerous working conditions which teachers experience.

My twin daughters are both senior social workers in Outer London with highly challenging caseloads; neither of them consider their situations as stressful and unsupported as I was when I was working as a Head of Faculty in a comprehensive.

Unless you have experienced 'teaching' in today's UK state schools, you have no right to pass judgement on those who crack under the strain of it.

I left after 13 years and a post as a Deputy Head in a secondary school, to become a SAHM. I am a different person. Someone I used to work with who I bumped into recently said I look years younger. I am more relaxed, less stressed, feel like part of the world again- and that is with a 5 month old, an almost 3 year old and a 5 year old! I was so used to just facing the challenge every day of badly behaved children, rude parents, upset staff, government pressure, marking, exam results, 13 hour days.

I do miss aspects of it and would probably have been applying for headships now, but I am a much happier person, our children are happy and have lots of my time and our life at home is much easier.

I left just over a year ago. I’m currently a SAHM Mum and will be for a bit longer as I had a new baby, born on the 1st year anniversary of my last day.

I miss the planning and teaching and little bit of marking. I don’t miss what my school become, new SLT were not up the job and didn’t seem to know what they were doing. I don’t miss the workload either, especially the pointless tasks. It was completely incompatible with having children.

DH - who is a Head- no longer has a staffroom in his school. It was never used and the staff voted to get rid of it and give it to the VI form as a common room. Staff stay in department areas in most secondary schools and often teach extra groups at lunchtime.

I'm so jealous - I would love to leave, I just don't know how we would manage financially! I am trapped by the salary! 😣

because I am trusted to get on and do a good job

This. I worked in the private sector for 10 years before retraining to be a teacher. I went from being respected as a professional and being left to get on with my job to book trawls, observations, learning walks etc. SLT make teaching so difficult and it really knocks your confidence. Currently applying for jobs in the private sector again and I'm going to be one of those who almost made it to 5 years

@Ilovechocolate01 - hugs to you. Thats almost exactly what happened to me. Wishing you all the best in your job search. I needed 5 months to clear my head & be even remotely ready to work again

One of the things I think now I am out is how inhumanely teachers are treated. We had schedules of weekly checks across the year. Book scrutinies for each year group on a rota basis looking at marking and progress, book scrutinies for PP vs Non-PP students to check progress, lesson obs for each year group on a rota basis, student voice interviews the same, data collections, planning checks, There was literally checking every week. Then extra classes expected at lunchtime or after school for exam groups. Trips away for up to 5 days- on duty 24 hours a day. Parents' Evenings, reports, mock exams.

What staff put up with in terms of disrespect, refusal to co-operate, verbal and physical aggression and disruption from children is increasingly bad as are the numbers of entirely unreasonable, accusatory parents.

The pressure of results on classroom teachers and on Heads of Dept to answer for those results is astonishing in some schools.

Teachers are not trusted as someone up thread said.

They are expected to be grateful for chocolate biscuits on a training day or coffee provided at a staff meeting. There are no real niceties or things that make them feel valued. Never a penny of overtime.

Sometimes teachers are their own worst enemies. My friend works in a secondary school where staff have agreed to teach Y11 for an extra hour at the end of the day 4 days a week because the results are looking so poor. So the year group is divided up into small classes every night and they all have a timetable for the weeks from now until their exams start. Their repayment is CPD has been cancelled for the rest of the year! 4 hours a week for about 18 weeks is a huge amount of time - plus all the prep and any assessment required. It is madness.

@LuluJakey1 That's unbelievable. I feel so sorry for them.

I know - but they agreed to it. The whole school feels under so much pressure because their results have been falling since the new GCSE's came in. And this Year 11 are just not working and doing really badly she says. The staff are really worried about it and what will happen with numbers choosing the school and OFSTED, so agreed to this. It really is madness. The children hate it apparently and quite a few refuse to stay- supported by their parents- and that is catching on and more are joining in.

Thing is, I know I would have agreed to it when I was teaching. You end up in that frame of mind where you agree to things any normal employee would never agree to.

@LuluJakey1 - I agree! I used to agree to keep 'naughty' kids in on break/lunch times, as it was 'suggested' by SLT. I look back now & am angry with how I never stood up to them, but at the time you're so scared of getting picked on. It's a shit situation.

I've just left full-time class teaching at Christmas after 9 years. Having been a single parent for the last 3 and a half of those years, it was a completely unmanageable workload and my mental health suffered under the stress.

However I love the kids and the actual teaching side so I've gone into supply. I was lucky enough to get a role through the agency as a SATs tutor at a school until May and I absolutely love it. No work to take home and no pressure. That is in part down to the amazing school I've been placed in though. Obviously there's the pay cut and no holiday pay but if I carefully plan my budget it's not that bad and the change in mine and my kids life is massive. Wish I'd done it years ago!

@Tswiftscat That's great - good for you. My pay cut was also huge - and I don't get school holidays either, which is a miss. But again, it's worth it from a mental health/being a better mum perspective.