Successful stories of going back to teach

[PorridgeOatsSuck]

I'd love to hear your stories of successfully going back to the classroom after a long break.

I'm planning the same, hoping for a different result this time. I'm using a supply agency to gain experience and see what local schools/jobs fit. I'm secondary trained in science but testing the terrain more broadly.

You won't get many people telling you to do it. I teach in a lovely primary school but even I've had enough.

What year groups do you teach?

Hopefully lots of happy teachers will come along and tell you to go for it.

There are more teachers trained to teach than teach in the UK. I read the figure that 40,000 left last year (not to retire). I'm not naive to the difficulties. I suppose at some point I would guess some of those trained to teach will try their hand at it again. There must be some success stories. My English teacher, many years ago, struggled in the classroom. He left my school for a different one. His colleague told me years later that he realised he didn't hate teaching, it was the school he hated. He'd moved on to something different that worked well for him.

I taught 11-18. I have a friend who was eased out of her primary, very unpleasant time. She went onto the supply roll for a number of years. She is now in a lovely rural school where she expects to stay till retirement

I’m back in teaching after a long break. 10 years on Supply! I think with Science you won’t have a problem getting a job

How is that going for you? Do you think the school you're in now makes a big difference to your experience?

Additionally, I wonder about adjusting from classroom management to delivering a curriculum. I'm a bit wary about the jump

I think Supply is a good way to see what’s happening in schools and to rebuild your confidence. I think I wasn’t focused enough on getting a permanent post.

If I was doing it again I’d set a time limit iIf 2 years on Supply and think about a Plan B…I’m getting nearish to retirement age now, so I probably won’t start a new career path.

Good luck with the return, hope all goes well. Don’t forget Plan B.

I hadn't exactly left, but I'd only been doing part-time bits of supply for years. I went back to ft secondary teaching a few years ago. On the upside I work at a lovely girls' grammar school with very few behaviour issues, great kids and fab colleagues. But the workload is brutal.

Oh I'm pleased you made the return work for you. FT sounds a shocker. Hopefully things even out in the near future and at least behaviour is great. I do wonder if I would do better in the long run at a private school. Meanwhile, I need current experience so I'll soon be in the local classrooms doing supply.