Working From Home

[ProfessorPeppy]

I’m a secondary school teacher: non-core subject, 20 years’ experience. I’m very experienced in the classroom and enjoy it a lot. I was a Head of Dept but stepped down to study alongside my job. Pay: UPS3, slightly under full time. I’m currently interested in becoming a SENDCo. Before teaching, I did one or two general office jobs (and hated them).

I have a degree from Oxford and an MSc in an unrelated subject.

The thing is, I am perma-knackered. I fall asleep before 9pm most evenings and get up at 5.45am in order to be at my desk for 7.30am. Otherwise, I think I have a fairly good work-life balance. DS1 is AuDHD (which leads me to believe I might be, too).

What kind of job might I do flexibly or from home? Despite being Oxford-educated and doing really well in my MSc, I have major imposter syndrome and lack of belief in myself. I’m a great writer, am fairly pedantic, can think critically, am very creative. I don’t want to join that FB group people always talk about because my colleagues will see that I’ve joined. LinkedIn is virtually unusable.

Help!!

If you enjoy your job, is going part time an option? Should help with energy levels?

Thanks so much for replying @pumpkinfarm

I wonder if I could teach a few days a week and do something from home the other couple of days? I’m a musician and have one private student, so I guess I could do that? Problem is, it’s mainly after school rather than school hours, but it’s definitely food for thought.

What was the MSc?

Have you considered policy roles, eg in local authority?

@user628468523532453 It’s psychology. I was hoping to do the DEdPsy but there’s no course I can commute to.

I hadn’t considered policy roles, and now I’m wondering what that might look like…?

Have you considered instructional design roles in corporate or HE?

You might be able to do something user research related with a psychology degree and teaching experience.

Policy type jobs can cover lots of different things. I knew someone who left teaching and developed the extended schools programme for their LA. It used their expertise and let them make a difference in an area that was particularly important to them.

A couple of DfE adverts from a quick search, but you could also look at local government and charity jobs:

https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=dXNlcnNlYXJjaGNvbnRleHQ9NTgzOTMwNjQmb3duZXI9NTA3MDAwMCZqb2JsaXN0X3ZpZXdfdmFjPTE4ODYxODUmc2VhcmNocGFnZT0yJm93bmVydHlwZT1mYWlyJnBhZ2VhY3Rpb249dmlld3ZhY2J5am9ibGlzdCZzZWFyY2hzb3J0PWNsb3NpbmcmcGFnZWNsYXNzPUpvYnMmcmVxc2lnPTE3MDAyNDgyNjgtNzk5YTc3ZDk2OGQwMzFmZmY1ZDVmZGRhOTJkN2RkMjRmNDFiMzYyMg==

https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=c2VhcmNocGFnZT0xJm93bmVydHlwZT1mYWlyJnNlYXJjaHNvcnQ9Y2xvc2luZyZvd25lcj01MDcwMDAwJnBhZ2VjbGFzcz1Kb2JzJnBhZ2VhY3Rpb249dmlld3ZhY2J5am9ibGlzdCZ1c2Vyc2VhcmNoY29udGV4dD01ODM5MzA2NCZqb2JsaXN0X3ZpZXdfdmFjPTE4ODYzNjUmcmVxc2lnPTE3MDAyNDgyMTktNDFlODlmMGQ3N2ZhYThhZTk4Nzg2NzNiZDU2ZDdjNzExYTk2NGRkYw==

Not suggesting either of those jobs is necessarily the right answer for you, was more trying to give you a couple of tangible examples of possible avenues so you could get a gut sense check for yourself.

Sometimes even if your gut response is "oh no I'd hate that" it's still valuable information about what's a good fit for you! Or it might spark an interest to explore.

@user628468523532453

This is so helpful, thank you! I definitely need to know what I don’t want to do (alongside knowing what I do want to do!).