My Journey Through Teaching
Since before I took my A levels I wanted to be a primary school teacher. Being around children was something I loved and did plenty of voluntary experience during my A level and university studies to give me some background before entering into the teaching profession. I completed my PGCE in Kent and came back to East Anglia to find my first teaching job.
Burnout and the Struggle to Reconnect with Teaching
For 14 years I worked full time in education. Across schools in both Norfolk and Suffolk. There was some challenging times. As most people do (Ofsted inspections, getting to grips with working with parents, ever changing demands, “characters” in my classes to name a few). In general I enjoyed lots about my work. However, in the latter years of teaching full time I found it harder and harder to balance the demands of teaching in a small village school with life outside. It felt there was increasing pressure and my work life was seeping more and more into my life outside of school. I’m not alone in this I know. The evenings full of marking and planning and the weekends taken up with preparing for the next week. Snatching any time I could to try to keep up with classroom displays, marking, planning, class admin etc.
This led to me leaving teaching for a while. Taking a short term job outside of education, and returning to teaching a few months later. Trying to go back to mainstream teaching full time after leaving it was really challenging. Harder than I had ever imagined. Within a week I was signed off from work with work related stress. The only time I’ve ever needed to be signed off from work. I felt lost, teaching was all I had wanted to do. If I wasn’t a teacher, then what?
My Supply Teaching Experience
For me, supply teaching was a healing experience. I signed up and rediscovered my love for teaching. Supply teaching gave me back the parts of the job I had enjoyed without the same level of pressure. Yes there were days that were more tricky than others working on supply. But I felt proud of the work I did and the contribution I made to many different classes of children across the primary age range. Doing supply teaching gave me flexibility, and also the chance to teach in year groups or areas that I never would have applied for a job in. I even did days both in nursery education and working with Year 6 – very much out of my normal remit prior to that. My preferences were listened to. I was treated with respect and as a professional by the agency. I also really liked the ethos of 4myschools which appealed to me.
Finding Healing Through Supply Teaching
I’ve since retrained as a counsellor and have worked with children and young people around their emotional health. As well as working with adults in my private counselling business. Many teachers and support staff I’ve encountered feel worn down and drained by the daily grind of life in mainstream schools. I am not surprised that there is a recruitment and retention crisis within education. I would, and have recommended to anyone who has become disenchanted with working full-time in a school to give supply teaching a try. It may well give you back some of what you really missed, and some of the reasons why you went into teaching initially.
I will always be grateful to supply teaching, I really do view it as part of my recovery from a really challenging time. I am glad I had the courage to give it a go. Stepped out of my comfort zone and can recommend it.
Written by Clare Clarke, she now runs Clare Clarke Counselling.
