What are you looking for? Taking back control

Penny Whelan

Advice for teachers on choosing the right school, seeking career opportunities, finding support, and prioritising wellbeing in education.

We hear constantly how teachers are leaving the profession in droves, and I think we can all understand why! Teaching is an incredibly tough and demanding job with little time to take breaks during the day, and the majority of us spend hours each evening continuing to work in an effort to do the very best we can for our students. Weekends don’t even exist for most teachers, and you can forget trying to organise a catch up with friends any time soon. We always have too much to do.

However, I’d argue that a lot of this is a matter of choice. It might be your line manager or member of SLT that makes requests that cause you to be working outside of school hours. It might be the fact that you’ve got a bit behind and you’ve got a stack of 30 English books to mark before tomorrow. It might be any number of things about a school that mean you’re exhausted, and I’m not blaming the school, we all know the expectations put on the profession and can feel the pressure, but ultimately, where you work is a matter of choice.

Choose wisely

I’ve heard the analogy that choosing a school to work in is a bit like choosing a house or a car or a wedding dress. You just know when you’ve found the right one. You can tell when you walk into a school environment whether it feels comfortable or not, whether it’s warm or cold, welcoming or just a little bit off. It takes a while to understand the culture and ethos of a school and to establish whether it aligns to your own, but you can gauge so much from a place by those initial moments being in the building and interacting with pupils and staff. Always go and have a look round a school before an interview.

I’ve been lucky enough to work with and visit lots of schools and I genuinely loved and could see myself working in many of them. However, I’ve been in my school for 17 years now and I still love it as much as I did when I first trained there. It was an initial feeling. I trained there as a student teacher and I was made to feel so welcome by colleagues. If you didn’t appear in the staffroom at some point during the day for a break, someone would come and find you. If you needed support, people were there to help. Everyone was approachable and everyone was (and still is!) respected. Students were polite and proud of their school. Don’t get me wrong, there are always difficulties and things to tackle, but the general feeling of my school was, and still is, one of teamwork and family. Everyone who comes into the school feels it and comments on it. I was lucky to be able to work there a few years later when I qualified and I have no intention of leaving any time soon. In saying that, I am fully aware that it is not the right fit for everyone, but it does happen to be for me.

If you’re unsure whether you’re in the right place, then perhaps you’re not. I’m not suggesting you go and hand your notice in! All I mean by this is that it’s worth carefully considering where you choose to spend 8 hours of your time every day, 5 days a week, until you retire. Life is too short to be unhappy.

Move if it feels right to

Lots of teachers move schools after a few years and I do think this is healthy. It brings experience and new ideas and helps you to see that there are different approaches to almost everything. It also allows you to progress in your career, in whichever way you want to do that. Moving “up” and becoming a member of senior leadership is what everyone who doesn’t teach thinks you should be doing, but there are so many different ways to progress in education. Find a place of work that has the opportunities you are interested in and will let you take on responsibilities and be part of a team that can grow and develop. A place where class teachers are respected and seen to be as important (if not more so!) than any member of SLT. A place that values Teaching Assistants and appreciates the contribution they bring to the classroom and to the children every single day. Where all staff, whatever their role, are included. Don’t ever think that becoming SLT or Head is the only way to progress. Do what is right for you!

I always thought my school was unique in its culture and ethos, but, although I do think it’s very special, I was wrong to think it was alone. There are many schools like it with amazing staff and leaders, supportive Heads and wonderful colleagues, so please don’t think that you must find “the one” and never consider moving on. Just make sure you’re moving on to somewhere you really want to be that gives you the same feeling.

Think about what you want

What is it that you want to achieve in your teaching career? I think this is an important question to ask yourself and consider. Perhaps you absolutely love being in the classroom and you want to stay there. Maybe you want to move into senior leadership, or mentor student teachers, or maybe you want to lead certain subjects and develop CPD training. You might want the opportunity to work with other schools and help support colleagues across your local area. Whatever it is that you want to achieve, you need to make sure you are somewhere that can give you and support you with those opportunities. Talk to senior leaders and be honest about where you see yourself and what you want to do. They aren’t mind readers and they won’t know what your ambition is if you don’t tell them.

Find support

Teaching is far from easy. There will be many times in your career when you need support from colleagues and senior leaders. Whatever you need help with, whether it’s with subject knowledge, behaviour management, understanding certain aspects of teaching, or perhaps personal issues, physical or mental health, you need to make sure you are somewhere that values you and will support you. I am hugely grateful for the people I work with, who often know I’m struggling before I do. They are a second family, and whilst some people like to keep work and personal life very separate, I still believe you need people around you who you feel you can talk to.

Look after yourself

The most important thing out of everything I’ve said is to make sure you look after yourself. Look after your own physical, mental health and wellbeing, and if you are unhappy, do something about it. At the very least, talk to someone who can help you to do something about it. There are many wonderful people and organisations that were created to help teachers and those who work in education and we should use them.

Further Reading:

www.educationsupport.org.uk – they have a free helpline and a wonderful website with events and resources

www.speakupmhw.co.uk – a particular focus on Men’s mental health and wellbeing

www.wbc.lgfl.org.uk/why.html – how to support mental health and wellbeing in schools