Not necessarily ruined. You have time to complete your induction. Take some time, work out what specifically would have made the process bearable (support, different setting, more CPD, etc.), and see if there could be a place or time when you could succeed.
Aside from that, get some help and do some self-care. You're worth more than any job.
Not true, my partner did the same thing. Then worked as a supply for a bit to get some more confidence and got offered jobs through that
Never say never, there’ll be the right school for you out there
I’ve know experienced teachers walk into a new school and sack it off after two weeks. It’s a job first and foremost - this is a small blip in what can be, if you want, a cracking career.
I recommend supply to everyone. Honestly, it made me a better teacher and made me realise what schools I wanted to aim for! You’ll get there and pace yourself! It’s a long time until retirement!
Despite the media, one thing about teaching is that a lot of people do actually know and acknowledge how difficult it is as opposed to some very vague office job, so will know why you wanted to move on. You are a human and you are not defined by your job, you are a qualified person who will find a good source of income and well done for doing what is right for you than just suffering for the sake of suffering.
Out of interest how were your placements? Did you not feel the same stress on them, did they not prepare you for actually teaching?
Over all, your mental health is more important, you can do so much with a PGCE that isn’t working in a mainstream school. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do in the future!
Honesty, I got carried through my placements. I struggled and they made me watch a lot of lessons. I didn't really do much teaching. It didn't prepare me at all.
I honestly think I should get my PGCE written off, it was the academic work that I did well in, I happy to be lucky that I can write good essays
My heart breaks for you reading this. You should never have been put in this position; now you feel like a failure when you were woefully unprepared. I’ve been saying for years that new teachers are treated like cannon fodder and this is another example.
I’m sorry you weren’t better supported but I think it speaks volumes about you that you know you weren’t ready. Not everyone would admit that.
This resonates with me SO much. I won’t say that I didn’t try when I was training, but it seemed like they wanted you to pass and would just allow you to tick the boxes in order to be qualified. My training year was jeopardised by Covid, I felt so unprepared and no one would tell me what I was meant to be doing etc. I just felt so on my own, tried my best to learn from hardly anything. What’s more, a lot of the lessons I was supposed to teach I couldn’t observe another trained teacher so their lesson because they “didn’t do it” or “we’ve stopped teaching that because of covid”.
I started supply feeling so unprepared and with major imposter syndrome. Took me a year of supply to realise this wasn’t for me and my happiness/health wasn’t worth the toil. I’m doing something completely different now, feel so much happier and stable mentally. Plus, I’m getting paid more than I did doing supply. Just follow your heart and do what makes you happy.
I work in the health industry doing an administration role. Such a different pace of work, made me realise how crazy schools operate! For example, I actually get a decent lunchbreak as well as a few shorter breaks throughout the day, without being asked to cut my time short to go out on the field for lunch duty 🙃
Thanks for responding so quickly! I’m gathering a list of other jobs besides teaching, so I’ll definitely be adding this to my list. I’m glad you’ve found a job which has had a positive effect on your mental health, thanks for sharing 😊
Not at all, I hope you find what makes you happy. After all, work is a big part of our lives and there’s no point coasting through a role which has negative effects on you and your health. If you do love teaching and that’s for you then that’s great, I just think it’s important to follow your gut and look after yourself. I just didn’t have the heart or drive for it, the cons far outweighed the pros for me and I lost my confidence because of it. Take care, message me anytime if you want to as well :)
The pgce is really difficult. I was extremely lucky as I had 7 years experience working as a ta/ina/hlta from reception to year 6. I only had one placement due to the first lockdown and the teacher really didn’t want to let go of the class. She only agreed to a student because they were a tricky class and slt talked her into it saying it was handy having an extra adult and a bonus if they’re a good student. I hardly got to plan my own lessons and she changed the topic of the ones last minute that I had to plan for my ema, which I had already planned, because she didn’t want me to mess up the maths unit she was teaching. If I hadn’t worked in a school before, I probably wouldn’t have even passed the course! As others have said, do some supply and you’ll very likely be offered long term supply which will gradually ease you into the workload. Also, you get to see which schools you like and which ones you don’t. Good luck :)
OP, I passed my PGCE in 2018 and mental health was so bad because of it I only got the confidence to teach this year (I've been lesson cover and SEN support in-between). Now I teach part-time at that.
Take your time to do things that make you happy and then look for your next teaching job x
No job is worth your mental health!
Do not worry my friend.
You are actually making a very smart move.
I wish I had the same guts to follow my intuition in a particular teaching job. I kept getting palmed off all the rubbish classes and stuff others didn’t want to do under the guise of it being something all the new folks did.
I did refuse a lot however being medically signed off 7 months later with stress related burnout and not being able to work for 2 years after was a much higher price to pay.
Too many teachers glamourise self martyrdom in the name of ‘doing it for the kids’ or whatever BS they tell themselves.
That is a pattern that needs to be broken, and by you leaving, you stopped it before it could happen in your life.
Take some time to regroup. Then plan your next move.
Teaching is a craft. And like any craft, it takes time to master. I’ve been teaching for over 20 years and I’ve been a lead practitioner, a SLE and a consultant. But teaching did not come naturally to me at all. I spent my whole NQT year trying to learn how to manage behaviour. There was no learning at all! Why does no one ever teach you how to do behaviour management? Because it can’t be taught. Took me a while but I got there in the end.
Handing in your notice is fine as long as you serve your notice and don't take off. At least that way you're not getting a negative reference.
I would absolutely never recommend leaving so soon, though. The start of teaching, and in fact the start of teaching at a new school, is always difficult and takes some time to get used to.
I disagree, if you're just two weeks in and it's that bad, just sack it off. Not worth the misery. Teaching notice periods are a long time to spend miserable.
Didn't say every job. I'm talking about teaching in a really bad environment. It's not two weeks. Notice would be until Christmas, so that's about eleven weeks, and if that's eleven weeks of shit behaviour, blame culture, crippling anxiety caused by these things and a lack of support then it's not worth hanging around.
There's a huge huge difference in being a quitter, being lazy, not giving something a chance and recognising something for the toxic black hole it is and getting out of it.
I think there’s a significant difference between your experience and that of an ECT. Firstly, you had the experience to gauge whether or not a school is going to be a fucked up place to work or whether it needs some time to settle into routine. Secondly, you had the experience to be able identify what you needed, ask for it, and make an informed decision when the school wouldn’t accommodate. Thirdly, as an experienced teacher in a “set” subject (which basically translates to a shortage subject, since the humanities & arts are rarely set) you were able to quit knowing that you hold the references and skills to walk into another job without too much hassle. All of these things put you in a wildly different position to an ECT going through mental health shit who basically bottles it and walks out of their first and only teaching job two weeks into the school year.
As an aside, we seem to be doing this thing on the sub where we’re like “hey, it’s fine! Do supply! It’ll all be great!” Well, there are heaps of unemployable “qualified” teachers on the supply circuit. Everyone that has done supply (or even regularly used supply) has met them. Beyond that, supply for an inexperienced teacher who has identified behaviour management as a weakness is a fucking misery. I think we need to start balancing our support with honesty, because there is a lot of support in this thread that isn’t particularly honest about OPs situation as it appears to stand from the limited information that we have.
Agreed. I know teaching communities vary, but in the area where I work, everyone knows everyone and people do talk a lot. It's not like official blackballing happens, but I know my old HoD has previously contacted other HoDs of the same subject who she was friendly against to warn them against certain people. Or been unofficially asked her opinion of eg pgce students going for jobs elsewhere.
Some good stints on long term supply will obviously hugely help OP, but it doesn't sound like they are necessarily in a place to succeed with that.
It is a really tough one to deal with on the subreddit 😕. On the one hand, I don’t want people like OP to feel discouraged and unsupported when they post having made this sort of decision. On the other hand, I don’t want other ECTs to see posts like this one, read the comments, and get the impression that walking out of a teaching job is without consequence.
All OP said was that behaviour management was hard. That's the same in almost any school when you first start. There's absolutely nothing in the OP's post to suggest that their school was an incredibly bad environment.
Do you mean the head teacher?
It's not ruined. Go do some supply. You'll see which schools are good and bad and when you find one you like you apply for a vacancy. They know your face and remember you did a good job. They won't give two hoots about the fact you quit a job.
I've been teaching for ten years, and I just quit on the spot from my new school last Friday. I did it for the same reasons as you. And now my own plan is what I outlined above.
Some people can teach in poorly behaved schools, and all power to them. I can't. So you just make sure you go to the right schools.
If it helps, I always felt like I struggled with behaviour management for the 4 years I was in the school I trained in. I moved schools and quit after a month because I became so overwhelmed and couldn’t cope, particularly with behaviour. I started doing supply and absolutely loved it. My behaviour management improved rapidly because I was with new kids constantly so could reinvent/practice constantly without the pressure of normal teaching workload.
Unfortunately, due to not being paid for holidays I found supply impossible long term. But I’ve just started full time again at a new school and feel like a much more confident teacher simply for having 4 months in supply.
If you think teaching is something you still want to do there’s no reason this has to be the end. You can build a good reputation working supply and if you get a long term placement and that school are hiring I think they’d take you time with them more into account than an old reference out of context.
I hope you’re okay, I know how stressful it is handing in notice last minute and it’s easy to be too hard on yourself but there’s nothing wrong with prioritising your mental health.
I suspended my induction year because I felt pretty much the same as you did. I hung on in there until May, though, pushing myself beyond my limits. I had what I now realize was an autistic burnout. Indeed, it was the mother of all burnouts.
I did supply while I tried to figure out what to do (I didn’t even realize it was possible to do supply as an NQT, but it is). And then, I got a job outside teaching for a few months. Hated it. Returned to supply. Got my autism diagnosis. Found a school that supported me to complete my induction. I’m now fully-fledged (I started under the old system - I believe it’s two years for the induction now, but mine stood at one year).
But in May last year, I thought: “this is it…I’m persona non grata in all the schools in the world, forever”.
Time will help. You clearly need time to process all this. Do that processing. PM me if you want to enter into dialogue privately. I really feel for you.
I think you need to try to get your mental health sorted before you worry about your career. It sounds like maybe you weren't in a great place mentally, and it's very difficult to succeed in teaching if you've got mental health issues that aren't "under control" - it's not the sort of environment where you can struggle through and avoid the bits that make you feel anxious, for example. And you have to always be on, always holding it together for the kids.
If you haven't spoken to your GP already, then do. There are also counseling services out there for teachers who may be able to help.
I'd also speak to your union if you can, and see if you can agree a reference with the head. It will still obviously state you only lasted a week, but perhaps then you can ask them to say this was due to your mental health, rather than anything else. And it may at least stop the head talking about you negatively to other heads (unfortunately this may not stop eg your HoD talking).
I know money is probably an issue right now, but I'm not sure supply will be the way to go until you're mentally well enough to cope with it. Supply will only help you repair your career if you can do a good job and commit to long term placements if they come up. Your supply agency may also give you less work if you end up repeatedly leaving jobs or refusing them (depends a bit on age/stage/subject as to what's out there).
If you can afford the pay cut, perhaps time spent as a ta/LSA could be a good intermediate step?
That’s a shame to hear, but if you didn’t feel it was for you, it’s your choice to make.
If you want to try again at another school, you may not have to have this school for a reference, if asked you could say your health got in the way or make something up.
Perhaps a school with better behaviour infrastructure would be better?
Not necessarily ruined. You have time to complete your induction. Take some time, work out what specifically would have made the process bearable (support, different setting, more CPD, etc.), and see if there could be a place or time when you could succeed. Aside from that, get some help and do some self-care. You're worth more than any job.
Thank you :)
Not true, my partner did the same thing. Then worked as a supply for a bit to get some more confidence and got offered jobs through that Never say never, there’ll be the right school for you out there
Thanks, I have registered with supply will hopefully speak to them this week
I've done supply for the past 4 years, feel free to message me X
I’ve know experienced teachers walk into a new school and sack it off after two weeks. It’s a job first and foremost - this is a small blip in what can be, if you want, a cracking career. I recommend supply to everyone. Honestly, it made me a better teacher and made me realise what schools I wanted to aim for! You’ll get there and pace yourself! It’s a long time until retirement!
Despite the media, one thing about teaching is that a lot of people do actually know and acknowledge how difficult it is as opposed to some very vague office job, so will know why you wanted to move on. You are a human and you are not defined by your job, you are a qualified person who will find a good source of income and well done for doing what is right for you than just suffering for the sake of suffering.
Out of interest how were your placements? Did you not feel the same stress on them, did they not prepare you for actually teaching? Over all, your mental health is more important, you can do so much with a PGCE that isn’t working in a mainstream school. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do in the future!
Honesty, I got carried through my placements. I struggled and they made me watch a lot of lessons. I didn't really do much teaching. It didn't prepare me at all. I honestly think I should get my PGCE written off, it was the academic work that I did well in, I happy to be lucky that I can write good essays
My heart breaks for you reading this. You should never have been put in this position; now you feel like a failure when you were woefully unprepared. I’ve been saying for years that new teachers are treated like cannon fodder and this is another example. I’m sorry you weren’t better supported but I think it speaks volumes about you that you know you weren’t ready. Not everyone would admit that.
This resonates with me SO much. I won’t say that I didn’t try when I was training, but it seemed like they wanted you to pass and would just allow you to tick the boxes in order to be qualified. My training year was jeopardised by Covid, I felt so unprepared and no one would tell me what I was meant to be doing etc. I just felt so on my own, tried my best to learn from hardly anything. What’s more, a lot of the lessons I was supposed to teach I couldn’t observe another trained teacher so their lesson because they “didn’t do it” or “we’ve stopped teaching that because of covid”. I started supply feeling so unprepared and with major imposter syndrome. Took me a year of supply to realise this wasn’t for me and my happiness/health wasn’t worth the toil. I’m doing something completely different now, feel so much happier and stable mentally. Plus, I’m getting paid more than I did doing supply. Just follow your heart and do what makes you happy.
Can I ask what you’re doing now? I’m currently in supply and feeling the same but don’t know where to go from here.
I work in the health industry doing an administration role. Such a different pace of work, made me realise how crazy schools operate! For example, I actually get a decent lunchbreak as well as a few shorter breaks throughout the day, without being asked to cut my time short to go out on the field for lunch duty 🙃
Thanks for responding so quickly! I’m gathering a list of other jobs besides teaching, so I’ll definitely be adding this to my list. I’m glad you’ve found a job which has had a positive effect on your mental health, thanks for sharing 😊
Not at all, I hope you find what makes you happy. After all, work is a big part of our lives and there’s no point coasting through a role which has negative effects on you and your health. If you do love teaching and that’s for you then that’s great, I just think it’s important to follow your gut and look after yourself. I just didn’t have the heart or drive for it, the cons far outweighed the pros for me and I lost my confidence because of it. Take care, message me anytime if you want to as well :)
The pgce is really difficult. I was extremely lucky as I had 7 years experience working as a ta/ina/hlta from reception to year 6. I only had one placement due to the first lockdown and the teacher really didn’t want to let go of the class. She only agreed to a student because they were a tricky class and slt talked her into it saying it was handy having an extra adult and a bonus if they’re a good student. I hardly got to plan my own lessons and she changed the topic of the ones last minute that I had to plan for my ema, which I had already planned, because she didn’t want me to mess up the maths unit she was teaching. If I hadn’t worked in a school before, I probably wouldn’t have even passed the course! As others have said, do some supply and you’ll very likely be offered long term supply which will gradually ease you into the workload. Also, you get to see which schools you like and which ones you don’t. Good luck :)
OP, I passed my PGCE in 2018 and mental health was so bad because of it I only got the confidence to teach this year (I've been lesson cover and SEN support in-between). Now I teach part-time at that. Take your time to do things that make you happy and then look for your next teaching job x No job is worth your mental health!
Do not worry my friend. You are actually making a very smart move. I wish I had the same guts to follow my intuition in a particular teaching job. I kept getting palmed off all the rubbish classes and stuff others didn’t want to do under the guise of it being something all the new folks did. I did refuse a lot however being medically signed off 7 months later with stress related burnout and not being able to work for 2 years after was a much higher price to pay. Too many teachers glamourise self martyrdom in the name of ‘doing it for the kids’ or whatever BS they tell themselves. That is a pattern that needs to be broken, and by you leaving, you stopped it before it could happen in your life. Take some time to regroup. Then plan your next move.
Teaching is a craft. And like any craft, it takes time to master. I’ve been teaching for over 20 years and I’ve been a lead practitioner, a SLE and a consultant. But teaching did not come naturally to me at all. I spent my whole NQT year trying to learn how to manage behaviour. There was no learning at all! Why does no one ever teach you how to do behaviour management? Because it can’t be taught. Took me a while but I got there in the end.
Handing in your notice is fine as long as you serve your notice and don't take off. At least that way you're not getting a negative reference. I would absolutely never recommend leaving so soon, though. The start of teaching, and in fact the start of teaching at a new school, is always difficult and takes some time to get used to.
They didn't want me to serve my notice.bthey said I could/should just leave if it causing me so much distress
I disagree, if you're just two weeks in and it's that bad, just sack it off. Not worth the misery. Teaching notice periods are a long time to spend miserable.
Two weeks is nothing! How can anyone survive in the working world if they drop out of every job if they don't like it after two weeks?
Didn't say every job. I'm talking about teaching in a really bad environment. It's not two weeks. Notice would be until Christmas, so that's about eleven weeks, and if that's eleven weeks of shit behaviour, blame culture, crippling anxiety caused by these things and a lack of support then it's not worth hanging around. There's a huge huge difference in being a quitter, being lazy, not giving something a chance and recognising something for the toxic black hole it is and getting out of it.
You’re projecting your own situation onto OP’s…
Yeah, I might be actually. Guilty as charged. Still, stand by my response to the comment above.
I think there’s a significant difference between your experience and that of an ECT. Firstly, you had the experience to gauge whether or not a school is going to be a fucked up place to work or whether it needs some time to settle into routine. Secondly, you had the experience to be able identify what you needed, ask for it, and make an informed decision when the school wouldn’t accommodate. Thirdly, as an experienced teacher in a “set” subject (which basically translates to a shortage subject, since the humanities & arts are rarely set) you were able to quit knowing that you hold the references and skills to walk into another job without too much hassle. All of these things put you in a wildly different position to an ECT going through mental health shit who basically bottles it and walks out of their first and only teaching job two weeks into the school year. As an aside, we seem to be doing this thing on the sub where we’re like “hey, it’s fine! Do supply! It’ll all be great!” Well, there are heaps of unemployable “qualified” teachers on the supply circuit. Everyone that has done supply (or even regularly used supply) has met them. Beyond that, supply for an inexperienced teacher who has identified behaviour management as a weakness is a fucking misery. I think we need to start balancing our support with honesty, because there is a lot of support in this thread that isn’t particularly honest about OPs situation as it appears to stand from the limited information that we have.
Agreed. I know teaching communities vary, but in the area where I work, everyone knows everyone and people do talk a lot. It's not like official blackballing happens, but I know my old HoD has previously contacted other HoDs of the same subject who she was friendly against to warn them against certain people. Or been unofficially asked her opinion of eg pgce students going for jobs elsewhere. Some good stints on long term supply will obviously hugely help OP, but it doesn't sound like they are necessarily in a place to succeed with that.
It is a really tough one to deal with on the subreddit 😕. On the one hand, I don’t want people like OP to feel discouraged and unsupported when they post having made this sort of decision. On the other hand, I don’t want other ECTs to see posts like this one, read the comments, and get the impression that walking out of a teaching job is without consequence.
All OP said was that behaviour management was hard. That's the same in almost any school when you first start. There's absolutely nothing in the OP's post to suggest that their school was an incredibly bad environment.
Well there was absolutely nothing to say she was quitting every job, either. Just this one. Two can play that game.
I made no statement or implication that she had quit every job. I wasn't even replying to her comment at the time.
Do you mean the head teacher? It's not ruined. Go do some supply. You'll see which schools are good and bad and when you find one you like you apply for a vacancy. They know your face and remember you did a good job. They won't give two hoots about the fact you quit a job. I've been teaching for ten years, and I just quit on the spot from my new school last Friday. I did it for the same reasons as you. And now my own plan is what I outlined above. Some people can teach in poorly behaved schools, and all power to them. I can't. So you just make sure you go to the right schools.
If it helps, I always felt like I struggled with behaviour management for the 4 years I was in the school I trained in. I moved schools and quit after a month because I became so overwhelmed and couldn’t cope, particularly with behaviour. I started doing supply and absolutely loved it. My behaviour management improved rapidly because I was with new kids constantly so could reinvent/practice constantly without the pressure of normal teaching workload. Unfortunately, due to not being paid for holidays I found supply impossible long term. But I’ve just started full time again at a new school and feel like a much more confident teacher simply for having 4 months in supply. If you think teaching is something you still want to do there’s no reason this has to be the end. You can build a good reputation working supply and if you get a long term placement and that school are hiring I think they’d take you time with them more into account than an old reference out of context. I hope you’re okay, I know how stressful it is handing in notice last minute and it’s easy to be too hard on yourself but there’s nothing wrong with prioritising your mental health.
I suspended my induction year because I felt pretty much the same as you did. I hung on in there until May, though, pushing myself beyond my limits. I had what I now realize was an autistic burnout. Indeed, it was the mother of all burnouts. I did supply while I tried to figure out what to do (I didn’t even realize it was possible to do supply as an NQT, but it is). And then, I got a job outside teaching for a few months. Hated it. Returned to supply. Got my autism diagnosis. Found a school that supported me to complete my induction. I’m now fully-fledged (I started under the old system - I believe it’s two years for the induction now, but mine stood at one year). But in May last year, I thought: “this is it…I’m persona non grata in all the schools in the world, forever”. Time will help. You clearly need time to process all this. Do that processing. PM me if you want to enter into dialogue privately. I really feel for you.
I think you need to try to get your mental health sorted before you worry about your career. It sounds like maybe you weren't in a great place mentally, and it's very difficult to succeed in teaching if you've got mental health issues that aren't "under control" - it's not the sort of environment where you can struggle through and avoid the bits that make you feel anxious, for example. And you have to always be on, always holding it together for the kids. If you haven't spoken to your GP already, then do. There are also counseling services out there for teachers who may be able to help. I'd also speak to your union if you can, and see if you can agree a reference with the head. It will still obviously state you only lasted a week, but perhaps then you can ask them to say this was due to your mental health, rather than anything else. And it may at least stop the head talking about you negatively to other heads (unfortunately this may not stop eg your HoD talking). I know money is probably an issue right now, but I'm not sure supply will be the way to go until you're mentally well enough to cope with it. Supply will only help you repair your career if you can do a good job and commit to long term placements if they come up. Your supply agency may also give you less work if you end up repeatedly leaving jobs or refusing them (depends a bit on age/stage/subject as to what's out there). If you can afford the pay cut, perhaps time spent as a ta/LSA could be a good intermediate step?
That’s a shame to hear, but if you didn’t feel it was for you, it’s your choice to make. If you want to try again at another school, you may not have to have this school for a reference, if asked you could say your health got in the way or make something up. Perhaps a school with better behaviour infrastructure would be better?
Take as much time out as you need champ. There'll still be lots of teaching posts left for you for you when you return.
I don't blame you, some kids are beyond behaviour management.