I am a primary teacher, who hasn't managed to find another job, since the end of last January, when my maternity cover post ended. Since then, I have applied for 7 jobs and had interviews for 4 of them. I am in the North East, where there are very few jobs indeed.
I have childcare in place for 2 days a week (Thursday and Friday), so I am available for supply work then. However, since September, I have only had 5 days work. Until December, I used my husband's accumulated childcare vouchers to pay for the childminder, but this has now run out and I am having to fund it myself. Now it doesn't sound like much, £20 a week, but when you are on a low income, every penny counts. I could have really done with that £60 for food and travel costs last month, instead of paying the childminder with it.
I don't know if I should carry on, in the hope that I will get some more supply, and at least I can say I am doing supply when it comes to filling in job applications, or just take a complete break for now and be a full-time mother, which I mostly enjoy.(I am not one of those people who go mad at home, as I always find something to do.) I only have 1 child who is 9, and over the years I have often thought about having another child, but training to be a teacher (part-time for 2 years), looking for teaching work (it took a year and a half for me to get my first post and I have been looking for work for 10 months this time around) and then teaching have always taken priority. I am almost 34 though, so I am running out of time, if I want another child.
To be totally honest, I only wanted another chance at a teaching job to see if this is the work I want to do for the rest of my life. I only ever wanted to teach part-time, even when I was training, but I ended up teaching full-time for a year, and the advantage of this was I got my probationary (NQT) year signed off more quickly than if I'd secured a part-time post. However, in my year of teaching full-time, the lows outweighed the highs, but I wanted to have another go, in a different environment, before making up my mind.
So basically, should I keep struggling on, feeling cross about spending money on childcare when I don't get any work, as I don't see the situation getting any better and my child doesn't really like his childminder, just for the sake of being able to put supply on the application forms, or shall I call it quits for now, and see what the job situation is like in time, if that's what I want?
At the moment, I just feel trapped and, as you can probably tell, increasingly bitter about the whole situation, and maybe a complete break would help.
I know the decision is ultimately mine, but any thoughts/ideas would be appreciated. Thanks for reading this far.