I want to leave my job - advice please!!!!

[tessieb]

Last year I got a permanent teaching contract - it's everything I thought I wanted, 3 days a week, school not too far away (about 20 mins drive) and with an age group I enjoy teaching. However, I'm not enjoying it as I thought I would and have never felt happy or settled.

Before this, I spent 5 years doing day to day supply teaching, working 2 or 3 days a week by choice. I loved doing supply and was frequently asked back to school. I liked being able to leave work at a reasonable time and not having to take work home with me! I liked to be able to choose when I wanted to work and being able to take time off so I never had to miss anything at my child's school. I enjoyed going to different schools, meeting different people and not having all the pressures and extras associated with a permanent position - staff meetings, reports, parents evenings and paperwork etc etc.

I am seriously thinking about going back to supply as I loved it. However, would it be a bad decision to leave the security of a permanent job as I know they are not easy to get?

Have you worked out why you are not enjoying your job and whether there is anything you could do to make things better? You say you started it last year, but don't say when. If it was the start of the academic year, that's been 4 months, which isn't very long at all to adjust and settle.

If there isn't, only you can decide whether you don't need the security of a permanent job and regular pay cheque. If you prefer supply, still have plenty of contacts to get you lots of work, and don't need that higher degree of security and guaranteed income, then leave and go back to supply.

I've been there almost a year now.