I posted a while ago about some depression and anxiety issues my wife, a teacher, was suffered from and after much thought and discussion, it’s become pretty damn clear that the only way to get rid of these long term is a change of career.

Leaving aside any comments of why the education system would force a teacher who has been graded “outstanding” for 75% of all her assessments and who deeply loves teaching would be forced to leave… A simple question, what next? She’s only ever know teaching, bar 1 year of admin work straight after uni, that’s really all she’s ever done and she has no idea what to do next. STW has been such a source of help in the past I thought it worth seeing if anyone had any ideas on direction.

Pay is almost irrelevant, we have no kids, a small mortgage that I could cover if needed and few outgoings.

Would it be practical for you both to live abroad for a while, there seem to be a lot of teaching jobs available outside of the UK?
The teachers I know in HK all seem to enjoy the environment and the money appears OK, once she gets a work visa you can be a spouse and work off that.

Pay is almost irrelevant, we have no kids, a small mortgage that I could cover if needed and few outgoings.

Why don’t you do this, and she could do something satisfying in the voluntary sector for a bit to get her confidence up? It can be very pressured moving into a completely different field when you’ve left a career in those circumstances.

The potentially obvious one is work place training / coaching. Most large organisations have a training department to teach new processes / systems / health & safety etc. There are also a large number of subcontractor companies who do this too.

Staying within education, could a shift to the private sector be doable? My g/f moved to private education and apparently is quite different than local authority (leaving aside potential ethics of procae education).

Best of luck though,

My friend left teaching last year after a few years of teaching- signed up to a graduate training scheme. Yes you have to start all over again, but she is loving it.

She had the edge over many graduates fresh out of uni, as they had no experience, where as she could offer loads. May be worth a look?

Mrs M was stressed out of full time teaching so did supply for a year and is now doing an admin job for the council sorting out teachier training courses for inset days etc. Pay is rubbish but I have my wife back.

I would also say workplace training, on a contract basis. Can she drive ?

We bring people in to do IT training, through a company, on an “as and when” basis. The contract nature would mean she could turn it down (although that does take strength of character)

Good luck to her.

Do bear in mind not all schools are the same and not all take the mega box-ticking route. The difficulty is finding out the culture of a school before it’s too late. The John Harris article in the Guardian two days ago reflected how schools are having recruitment issues because of so many experiences like this.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/feb/01/schools-teachers-classroom-crisis-stress-grind

I know a lot of people who have very satisfying careers teaching in international schools. It does mean that you’d have to live somewhere horrible like Phuket, Thailand

My wife is a teacher, so I know where you are coming from.
We’ve had a few friends who’ve done the teaching in an English speaking school abroad and always had good experiences.

Workplace training is a good shout – smaller classes, reasonably receptive audience, lots of variation.
Stuff like health and safety is basically future proof, and ultimately not that difficult.
Everyone in my place once they reach a certain level has to do a 3-day IOSH course, then a requalification every 2-3 years.

My other half is in her probationary year and is at her wits end. At the moment she is just trying to get to the end of the year. But she is pretty certain she doesn’t want to continue beyond that. Our local school was asking in the newsletter if anybody knew any teachers looking for work.

What about teaching in the private sector?

All sounds horribly familiar, my wife went through this last year, change of head made everyone’s life miserable. Convinced her to leave so I got my best friend back. She did a.short stint of supply then has landed a job at our kids pre school undertaking maternity cover. Less stress nicer environment. Teaching is going through a crisis at the moment, I think too many daft targets, fear of Ofsted and changes to curriculums all the time has made some school managers focus too much on micro managing the staff rather then let the teach.

As a country our attitudes to teachers needs to change, they need wider respect and less government meddling to thrive.

My wife also left teaching due to pressure of the job – she had retrained later in life so was able to use previous experience but I know a few other career teachers who are in the same boat as your wife – hope she’s doing OK.

The first thing I would say (and this is from direct personal experience) is that your wife shouldn’t necessarily jump into anything until she feels completely well. If she can, get her to take some time out to get herself completely better before she decides on a career change. If she feels pressure to change career then that can make things worse.

Once she is better – jobs in training would be a good call, but a couple of other suggestions:

Adult Education – she’s already qualified and from people I know who’ve done it, it’s very rewarding with far less of the classroom management issues you get with kids. I guess a lot of that is to do with the setting, although we also know someone who teaches in prisons who loves it! There may be voluntary roles locally which would allow her to gain experience and lead to something more permanent.

Private tutoring – again this would depend on subject and demand in your part of the country but there are agencies out there who can help with placements. Might be worth considering even just as a stopgap.

Educational publishing – a fair few opportunities for people with teaching experience depending on where you are in the country. One friend of ours has a job testing educational software, I know of other people who provide content for educational books and websites – some on a freelance basis working from home.

Also there are loads of transferrable skills from teaching – communication, organisation, IT etc – which are in demand in business. I work for a travel company and we have just taken on someone whose only prior experience was teaching, and she’s doing really well here.

Really hope your wife feels better soon.

My niece has moved from teaching 6th form to arranging care paths and services for vulnerable children at her local council.

Pay is a lot less but she has her evenings and weekends back.

Adult teaching or training

Supply work – its easier and pretty lucrative- compared to other options she could do

Retrain

I know a lot of people who have very satisfying careers teaching in international schools.

A friend of mine did that – on her first day she had a lesson plan that involved dividing the class into groups of four…. only to discover her class only had 3 pupils 🙂

I suppose its a question of trying to put your finger on whats wrong with teaching for you as it is and that needs to change- and whats right and is worth keeping. Unfortunately theres a bit of trial and error in that as until you change things its difficult to tell the difference between being depressed by the job you do and being depressed whilst doing a job.

I’ve known people who’v have made major changes because of unhappiness with their carreer only to find out the job wasn’t the problem, it was them, they were depressed and stressed no matter what they were doing. In a sense although that seemed disheartening at first at least it meant that they recognised what the problem was and what it wasn’t – in the end they quite happily went back to their old job, not necessarily happier in their day to day life, but knowing the job itself wasn’t the dark cloud they always thought it was.

As above there are changes that involve still being a teacher but in a different environment, (private sector, international schools, supply teaching, FE, private tutoring, prison education etc) there are also different professional fields in which there are educational roles – the arts, museums and heritage sectors have ‘education officers’ for instance, which can sometimes either be devising educational strategies or delivering them (or it can be both). The advantage with the latter is its an environment where the teaching and the subject are much more compact – the educating skills are the same but subject specialism isn’t as important so you could work in an environment that you are interesting in learning about, rather than within a subject you have expertise in.

I am in the same position. Supply teaching for 16 years as main stream was not for me. Would love to change but my only qualification is an Outdoor Ed degree from 1986. I am too old to start that again.

My wife left her job at xmas, she was hating it. So are all the teachers there. In the short term she is going to spend time with the kids while they are young

She’s thought about education jobs in museums – she likes educating and teaching, not paperwork/process/pointless crap

Essentially take the third of the job most teachers like, and try to make that all of the job

This week I quit my management role in teaching to become just a teacher again. Maybe she could try that for a while? I am feeling quite refreshed about it all. My work load is much smaller and now manageable within the hours I’m happy to dedicate to it. The results that other teachers get are now no longer mine to worry about. Worth a try maybe while looking at an exit strategy?

This week I quit my management role in teaching to become just a teacher again. …

Mrs Dubleyou says she wants to do this every October (Head of PE), then gets talked out of it.

Have you stayed in the same school or moved somewhere else?

Some good ideas there if my wife’s current job application is unsuccessful.

Have you thought of:

Education officer in large corporation or museum
Student support in a uni/college

The tragedy here is why so many teachers are leaving the profession? I’m married to a teacher and there have been times when she would have gladly walked away. Meddling by successive governments and constant cutting of resources and funds have eroded the state education system. The last education secretary before this, yes you Gove, did immeasurable damage.

Back to the OP, what age does she teach?

Traditional for burnt out teachers to go into H.R. innit ?

Usually in NHS

I retired for 18 months having got completely teed off by Gove (had been HoF) and then got approached to do a maternity cover for 6 months. I did it as a favour as my step-daughter is affected and it’s a lovely college and I’m well qualified for the job. I was talking to a guy yesterday who is doing the same (he had been HoD) and he says he makes it work now by treating it as a job rather than a career. I get into work at 7.45 and often work through breaks and lunch so I am done pretty much at the end of the day.
Not all institutions are the same. It worries me that the service is losing good people and good people going abroad will be out of the TPS. Much damage is being done in places and not much concern is being expressed by Ms Morgan, just more of the same.

Crikey, I didn’t realise it was so widespread! My partner’s been a teacher for 28 years and she now hates it, but is at a loss as to what to move into that will pay a half-decent salary. We need the money, unfortunately ……

Have you stayed in the same school or moved somewhere else?

Stayed in the same school, they cant afford to lose another science teacher and seem happy I’m staying ( well they are pretty pissed off tbh but me staying is a positive)

Does she have any interests or passions that could be turned into money spinners?

Two teachers I know have started sportswear businesses, one the highly successful Kiwami brand.

Others have opened a B&B, gone in to writing, become a lifeguard, gone on to a very successful career in corporate retail, opened language schools, opened a specialist food shop.

The consistent theme is that that they’ve done well at whatever they’ve chosen, safe in the knowledge that if push came to shove they could easily get another teaching job.

I quit teaching after 30 years a couple of years ago. I now spend half my time working in an (NHS) admin job which suits me fine as I turn up at 7.45 am spend four hours working on quite interesting and at times challenging stuff but then get home at midday and work on my own little business that is a slow starter but using my practical skills. I am fortunate that we are in a similar position to the OP financially but in reverse and my partner is very generously supporting me whilst I am getting my life back.
I can’t thank her enough for helping me see that I needed to change my life and supporting my decision and she says she is happier as I am closer to the man she first knew (but with less hair which is now grey)

It took nearly two years to feel human again.

Get a couple of days per week supply then the rest she can do some manual labour, trail building etc 😀 something outside thats totally different to what shes been doing.
I must admit, once being married to a teacher, that I think it shouldnt be a job you do straight from school. You should be out doing a job for at least 4 years after uni before you can apply to be a teacher.
Best of luck to her, I can sympathise

I’ve a relative who worked as a teacher and for various reasons similar to your wife decided that it was not something to continue with. In a comparable position she did not need to achieve a full salary so found fulfillment in private tutoring.

I think it will be important for your wife to retain some of the gratifying aspects of teaching in whatever she does. A change of career could see her working in a job where the stress levels might be relieved but there may not be the same level of job satisfaction or sense of purpose, these things can make a big difference in any job.

Good luck to you both. I’m in the midst of a career change too and it’s both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

Awesome advise as ever, I bloody love this place sometimes.

To answer some questions:
She teaches year 5 and is a senior teacher but not strictly management. She runs all the schools maths along with a few other related things. A step down is an option but right now we both feel a clean break may work best. The school is astonishingly supportive and has a great management team, they feel very tied by Ofsted and LEA’s.
Interest wise, fitness is the big draw, it’s something she has a real passion for but how she will engineer a job there is a different matter.

I also quit teaching. Adult education, some private work now and VSO initially. That put the enthusiasm back into education for me.

My B&B example, the finance came from selling their house in London: efe. If she needs a place to chill and do some yoga after the trauma of teaching it would be perfect fro a holiday. 😉

My brother left teaching 5 yrs ago due to the amount of red tape/cr#p he was dealing with. He became a supply teacher and is much happier now.

She could start private tutoring. SATS etc. puts a great deal of pressure on schools and there are plenty of parents willing to pay a few quid for additional lessons.

Reduction in UK teachers, surplus of people having kids, are we destined for a less well educated batch of angry yoot in the coming years? Are Middle class warriors going to go to actual war over school places?

It’s Friday and we are doomed I tells ya!

I miss cressers!

Personally I’d not worry too much about what’s next and just spend some time ‘being’ and getting well – especially if you can survive without the income. I spent a couple of years just looking after the kids and doing various voluntary things (plus a lot of bike riding) which all ultimately led to me being at Singletrack. No grand plan or anything, just a reconfiguring of mental state. Plus doing a bunch of stuff you like on a voluntary basis can help a lot with confidence – something a stressful job can suck out of you. A bit of time getting well and something will come along when she’s ready. Btw, it’s great she’s got a partner that cares enough to let her drop what’s making her ill – & noticed it in first place.

I know friends who have left full time teaching to do supply work and / or private tutoring. I can imagine it would be a lot less stressful, like contracting in IT it takes away all the politics of the workplace, or at least the need to be concerned about it.

Some excellent advice here I think. I would suggest supply teaching or working in the private sector first before a total career change. Apologies if you have already considered this, or tried it.

Supply teaching gives you the opportunity to discover different schools with different and perhaps more favourable ways of working/pressure etc. I was ready to give up after 7 years in 2 different primary schools, but instead did supply for a year working in good, bad and ugly schools and then ended up working part time (job-share) in a good school with little of the stress I had previously experienced. The private sector is worth considering too as I have friends who say that the paperwork and pressure is vastly reduced (at primary age).