I did a PGCE six years ago which I funded from savings. I'm now in my late forties. Because my PGCE was part time I finished just as we were about to go into lockdown, which I thought had scuppered my chances of finding a job. However I was lucky enough to be offered a job straight away in my children's primary school as they knew I was looking and a vacancy came up. I worked there for four years but decided to leave after a really challenging year, lack of potential for progression and wanting to learn and develop in a different school. I returned this Sept to the school where I'd had my final successful placement. It's a school in a deprived area with a diverse demographic, and I have an interest in EAL so I thought it would be ideal. In some ways I love it - I have some amazing colleagues who have similar values, and I've really got to know and love the children. It's a challenging class and I've had to adapt and reflect a lot on how I teach which has been fulfilling but exhausting. However, I quickly started to get warning signs that staff are not happy with SLT and I found myself quietly struggling to find common ground with the DHT (my line manager). Top of the list is the kind of work ethic where putting in more hours seems to be the answer to any challenges and meeting targets seems to be the sole aim of the job. DHT is incredibly rigid about how things are done, and I quickly felt I have no autonomy and no voice. The result is it's totally knocked my confidence - I've gone from feeling I'm well-suited to the demands of teaching to feeling like I'm just not up to the job. I'm wondering if all schools these days are going to be like this and I need to rethink my career or whether I'm just unlucky to find myself in the wrong place at the wrong time.