Teaching is a vocation right? Something we are in for the rest of our lives...... well that is what I thought way back when I was just eight years old! Teaching was something I even enjoyed tremendously when I first started. The classroom was pretty much my own and very few members of the SLT team came near me and I LOVED it! Sadly something changed about seven years in and the job was no longer as enjoyable.
Teaching really should be fulfilling and heart warming but in the year of 2024 it feels a far cry from those early days for me. There are endless book scrutinies, observations, learning walks and countless other ways to really make you feel inadequate. I think I spent most of the latter years of my career in the loo or feeling sick. Such a sad place to be!
In 2015 I finally took the plunge and left teaching completely. A day that I had never thought would come. Teaching was after all for life wasnt it? Why did I not enjoy it anymore? How did I leave and what did I do instead? I had decided that my idea to run a music and movement business was actually going to happen and use the idea from three years earlier. A business that now has twenty one franchisees and most of them are teachers who looked for an exit route just like you!
Whilst running a business isnt for everyone it is certainly a great way to go down your own path and be your own person. The hours are long and can be very lonely but they are a far cry from the teacher path that I was once on. There is also the option of working for a company doing something that really has nothing to do with teaching. Imagine actually having a lunch break, going to the loo when you want and having an evening and all weekends to yourself?
Teachers really do have countless skills that any employer would welcome so make sure you do not sell yourself short on your cv or letter. We wear so many hats when we teach that there would be too many to list here but definitely something for you to write down on a large piece of paper! It is possible to leave teaching and not live a life of continual stress and a feeling of never being good enough!
Catherine Williamd