Leaving a teaching job - to do list?

[Nobiggerthanyourhand]

I have a friend who has taught in her school for 22 years and has just handed in her resignation. She is a bit deer in the headlights and I have suggested meeting up to write a checklist together of what she needs to do while working off her notice period …

Things like checking TPS is up to date, downloading files off the cloud … but I imagine there are some really important things that you only realise would have been useful after you have left.

Does anyone here have any ideas or advice?

I thought maybe you can agree your references - is that something you can do?

You might want to ask MN to move this to the Staff Room section and no you can not agree your reference.

Getting copies of SG, prevent certificates is useful.

Thanks @tennissquare. I have asked it to be moved.

That is useful - safeguarding and prevent certificates. Presumably they just sit in the school’s system until you request them.

Does anyone know how to get your resources off the cloud, for example?

I was really hoping for some help here! Maybe these things just seem obvious to most 😔 😊

I'm not a teacher but I'm pretty sure her teaching contract will ban her from removing any resources. Is she planning to tutor or invigilate or move away from teaching?

That’s really interesting. I don’t think schools ever stop you copying resources - sharing is part of professional practice … but, technically, you are correct - the school could (although I have never seen it on a contract).

I’m leaving teaching this year too. Not much to do really.

Clear out any resources, books, files etc of your own. Equipment she may gave. I teach in primary so I have some of my own children’s books in school.

I’m retiring so I’ve applied for my pension.

How are you feeling about it @BG2015 ? Will you stay in touch with colleagues?

Yes I’ll stay in touch. Two friends have already left and I already meet up with them for lunch coffee etc.

Im desperate to leave now. I’m counting down the days - so sick of it all! I’ve been teaching since 1996 so it’s coming up to 29 years.

Im planning on getting a part time job doing something and volunteering too.

I've never had this in a contract. Honestly, it sounds far too modern for teaching. Good thing too because a lot of stuff I backed up for my own peace of mind before maternity had disappeared when I returned. OP you just download them onto an external hard drive. Not sure there's much else she needs to do except gather any resources she bought herself.

I left proper class teaching a couple of years ago (although am still working in schools a bit). I had some resources that are 'mine' and I'd had for a very long time. I packaged up the nice things and gave them to a trainee I had in that last year (things like the teaching time clock with all labels, a nice relatively new book corner display, a magnetic set of numicon that I used for modelling etc). I then put everything else that I knew I wouldn't want, on tables in my classroom and took photos of it, sent the photos out on whole school email and said 'come and get it'. It pretty much all went.

I made sure I bought home a load of books that I'll continue using, and a few other bits. But not much. I've still filled my spare room office with teaching resources however.

I downloaded my pay slips, but that was all. Any planning I've done I already had 'kept' on a hard drive. There are some places where this is 'knowledge' that the school own, but my last school wasn't concerned about that.

I would only download files if I was going to continue teaching and I felt that they would benefit me in the future - if retiring or leaving teaching then no point.

It would all be about de-cluttering your classroom ready for your successor. When I was a class based teacher, I declutterred my classroom every July even if I was staying at the school - the same as I do now with my office as HT.

I’d also look to offer a handover period to my successor if leaving mid year on the classes they’ll be teaching.

They could also plan a ‘leaving do’ if that’s what they want - 22 years is a loooong time and there will be people who will want to say goodbye for sure.

been a teacher for almost 30 years and would have said this too until a few years ago. I’ve left every school with a hard drive full.

Since everything went more online, employers began to see monetary value in internally created resources and many contracts do now state and enforce intellectual property law. My advice would be caution.

If it’s an LA school it’s probably fine and teachers all share and still expect everyone leaving to copy the full set of department resources that they contributed to. If it’s a MAT or independent school, whilst technically not for profit some have realised the worth of monetising work product - for which your employer absolutely does legally own the IP. I have heard of a case of this being enforced in recent years. It was a very unpleasant situation. I do think most teachers are oblivious to the legal reality of this as it’s so rarely enforced.

If the IP situation is ok - see my previous post - then there are 2 main ways.

1.take a large capacity hard drive to school and copy across. some schools do not allow non-school external devices to be plugged in.

2 login at school into a personal Google drive or similar - set up in advance at home if they don’t already have one and copy across.

in both cases this will likely take a lot of time and is best not done during the teaching day as may slow everything else down. It’s better to be selective about files that may be of use although just copying everything is often easier with the folder organisation in many departments 😂

this is really useful @teach76 . I did wonder if external hard drives exist anymore. I am not even sure if our school laptops have USB ports!