Ten years ago an eager young Pikey left zoo keeping (really, that is true) and joined the teaching profession. I really enjoyed it until about three years ago, but now what was once a respected profession helping youngsters to help themselves get the best start in their lives has become an endless treadmill of testing, assessment, marking, RAG rating pupils and changing the way we all teach, seemingly weekly to suit the latest think tank / quango fuelled crap... and repeat.
Although I earlier recommended making the leap into the unknown, reel things in a bit. There are a lot of schools like yours and mine - one's that were previously described by OFSTED as 'satisfactory' and now, since the redefinition of satisfactory to meaning 'needing improvement', they are all under the cosh. A golden opportunity to dismantle Michael Gove was missed when he declared that he wanted all schools to be above average. Equally there are schools with inspirational headteachers and management teams that have steered their schools through the minefields of OFSTED and ever changing legislation where the staff and pupils are working towards a common goal of peace, calm, harmony and achievement. They do exist - I spent a day per week for five months working in one - it should have been just a couple of Fridays - my normal day off but I liked it so much that when I was offered a further ten weeks worth I accepted the offer.
Do have a look around - there are some schools that are great environments and whose management team let their teachers teach.
Nothing to do with helping young'uns progress and learn, just a drive to get the best results for senior management.
I share the view that the teachers' mission now appears to be to obtain the grades that keep senior staff in their jobs and that pupils are just a means to an end. In mitigation, the managers are being hit with a big stick in the drive to make educational policies appear to be working. Some of the managers are not so good at shouldering some of the responsibilities and pass them all down to the 'engine room'.
I've seen a massive increasing in the number of the pupils at the school with depression, school related anxiety and random sicknesses due to exams, testing and their workload. I'm really not sure I want to be a part of that any more.
I'd only go as far as saying that there is an undeniable increase in the number of pupils feeling the strain and for some of them, disenchantment set in and the setting of personal achievement targets and aspirational (though rarely achievable) targets have been counter productive.
I'm 98.32% of the way to sacking it, becoming a driving instructor (already interviewed) and financially me and Mrs P can house the career change, along with a bit of supply and private tutoring.
Looking at the comments from those in the know, becoming a driving instructor does not appear to be that attractive as an income generator and I'd suggest that you look at other alternatives. If it means 'hanging on in there' for another year to give yourself further time to explore alternatives that in itself would be no bad thing as you would have the end of the tunnel in sight and a defined end date - far less stressful than regarding yourself stuck in a job for life.
Gavroche mentioned supply teaching - It can be a useful stop gap measure though continuity of employment is uncertain, it does remove a lot of the bureaucracy. It could also regenerate your enthusiasm for teaching and give you an insight into a wider range of schools. I had a major crisis of confidence in my first year of teaching and resigned. I did some supply teaching to tide me over and saw that not all schools were exploitative of their staff and after two years of supply teaching on medium and long term contracts I took the plunge and stayed for another twenty nine years. In the current climate there are lots of work available for supply teachers - so much so that the agencies are having to resort to sending out cover supervisors rather than teachers because they don't have enough teachers to meet demand.
Although this posting does appear to contradict some of the advice that I gave earlier it does attempt to see things from your perspective and circumstances which are radically different from my own. I will not have to work from March 24th. You, on the other hand, have a lot of working years ahead of you and it's important that you do not make any expensive mistakes, both financially, and career wise.
Take care and good luck!
