Anything else out there?

[stoparguinganddoit]

Hi, I did my primary PGCE a few years ago to have a job that fits around our family. I've been lucky enough to be a job-share. However, I'm so tired of being the one who gets the least favourable hours, the worst of the planning etc. It seems the more you stomp your feet, the more you get your own way.

I also have a nasty TA. Give her work, she bitches, don't give her work, she bitches. It's all behind backs, too (not just mine- but you have to wonder who is listening). Like one of those cyanide-soaked sugar-cube smiles. I'm constantly waiting to turn round and find a knife between my shoulder blades.

I can't go full-time. The hours are just too long. I have worked hard to qualify, be a great teacher and build a professional reputation. I absolutely love the children I teach. But the last 2 years have taken their toll and I dread work. I feel sick at the thought of it, but I feel so trapped.

I feel so sad.

Trapped by needing the holidays and the money. Trapped by guilt (about not being the best for my own family and not having my heart in my job) and trapped by worry about the damage this woman is going to my reputation (the one I've worked so hard to establish--I didn't give up so much of my family time for someone to steal it away iykwim).

Is there anything else out there for me, where I can give the best of myself, teach and support lovely little humans but avoid the over-work (10 hours in school plus work at home per day), politics, toxic colleagues and general intense pressure, whilst replacing my £20k wage and being around more for my own children?

Am I asking for the moon on a stick??

Thanks for listening.

Sorry, this was meant to be in 'The Staffroom'. How do I get it moved?

Childminding?

We're moving it for you now, OP.

Thank you.

Change schools. You can't throw away a career you've worked hard for because of one woman in one school. If you still hate it, then you look at other options.

Have you documented and reported her? No flowery language, just facts about what she has said and done and her impact on you. TAs are important but schools need good teachers more.

Change schools.
Or coach from home.

MrsJosh - do you have any experience of tutoring? Is it easy enough to get into?

It's difficult to do tutoring with young children of your own at home.

I don't, no. But my DD went to the tutor's house, so no worries about having small children at home.

SEN support? Class TA?
School library? Pastoral care?

Move schools, definitely!

Are discussions coming up for next year's deployment? Can you request a different year group or to work with a different TA?

Also - it might not feel like it to you, but as a teacher and former TA, I really zone out of TA gossip in the staff room. It's often very petty and irrelevant to my job and life. Please don't let this person hold so much power over you, they may well have their own reputation of being difficult!

I work as a SEN advisory teacher for my local council - I visit schools and do 1:1 teaching sessions with pupils, training for staff etc. Hours abs paperwork are much more reasonable than classroom teaching and I get paid exactly the same!

It's something I'd definitely look into, OP. Try your local council job page or teaching jobs page. I'd have had a breakdown if I'd stayed in the classroom, after having a bad school. It just wore me down. But I love the 1:1 sessions I do!

Childminding, if you like EYFS, or change schools?

Speak to head about next yr, surely you need to have a good working relationship with a TA?

My point about tutoring being difficult if you have young children was to the OP, who said she likes teaching as it fits
around her family.
Most tutoring (apart from 1:1 in school) takes place outside school hours and she herself will have her own children to consider during those hours.

Thisisit! My dream job- was yours just advertised? Do you have SEN qualifications?

Colleague does this, she had worked in a unit bit not a great deal of specialist training. She was trained on the job and is now on the lea team of salt teachers who do outreach and training.

I moved to sen without any prior training, just the right attitude. Was trained on the job. (Though money is what it used to be.) sen can be tough but the team work is better; you'll have a team to manage. The odd person can be hard work but it's easier I think as you have to have strong relationships. I now work part time.

Callme I assumed that the children would have a father at home.
My bad.

@stoparguinganddoit No, no SEN qualifications, just your bog-standard classroom teacher! Mine was advertised on the council teaching jobs page. I really love it, the team is great and even if I was full-time I'd still have a good work-life balance, I reckon! You can message me if you want to know any details.

I assumed that the children would have a father at home.
And they may well have. But whether he's there at the optimum times that primary-aged children would be wanting tuition (generally from 4-7pm) is another matter.

Supply / maternity cover? Be full time for a fixed term then have a bit of time off to recover?!

In my area there are a lot of homeschoolers who want some
extra tuition input, often children with Sen and / or autism who've just not coped at school and the parents have felt homeschooling is better.

A teacher I know left primary teaching and is now very busy giving tuition during the day to various children in their homes, probably supporting parents too on various aspects of teaching and learning. She's so busy she has to turn people down. She's got 3 school age children so it's all during the school day.

I briefly considered offering art classes to the home school network but I'd need a studio really for it to be possible.