What To Do If You’re Tired of Classroom Teaching

Where do you see yourself in three years’ time? For many teachers, the answer is pretty simple – doing what they do now, but with more experience (and maybe a tasty promotion to a leadership position).

But if you’re looking at your own situation as a mainstream teacher and finding it hard to transpose it into the medium-term, it might be time to make a change. The most meaningful classroom moments – those golden points of synergy and understanding when an idea clicks into place in your pupils’ minds - can only occur when educators are 100% engaged with what they’re doing.

But education is a process, not a setting. Just because you’re not gelling with life in the conventional classroom anymore doesn’t mean you can’t continue to teach. After all, you’ve worked hard to make good on your desire to make a difference to young people’s lives. Luckily, there are plenty of other avenues that you can take to find fulfilment in your teaching career.

If you’re ready to make a change this coming September, you could consider these two alternative pathways within education. 

If you’ve worked in a school, you’ve almost certainly taught children with Special Educational Needs (SEN). Whether they have autism, dyslexia, Down Syndrome or any other condition, great strides have been made in accommodating pupils with SEN in mainstream education. But for those children whose needs can’t be as easily accommodated, there remain many special schools.

Both mainstream and special schools require dedicated SEN teachers who work predominantly (or exclusively) with SEN children. These educators are responsible for navigating the often-complex needs of these pupils and finding the ways they learn best.

SEN provision can incorporate a broad set of conditions, with each child presenting differing requirements that teachers need to adapt to. If you’re the problem-solving type, or just looking to inject some more variety into your working life, each day as a SEN specialist will surface some new challenges. One thing’s for sure; lesson planning will never be the same again.

A special needs teacher with a few years’ experience can then progress to the role of SENCo (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator). This entails administrative responsibility for putting the right pathways in place for children registered with SEN. You’ll remove obstacles to learning, make good on pupils’ EHC plans and ensure that all staff are adhering to the school’s SEN code of practice. SENCos will also liaise with parents and build partnerships with the local council and health services. It’s a multifaceted, full-time role that takes compassion, organisational nous and stores of compassion.

There’s no avoiding it: working as a SEN teacher can be quite difficult. You’ll have to forge yourself a seemingly endless series of new teaching styles to suit each need and negotiate some challenging behaviour. But there’s a reason why many grizzled SEN veterans say they wouldn’t even think about returning to mainstream teaching. That’s because it’s one of the most rewarding career paths anybody can choose, with the potential to make an incalculable difference to the lives of the children who need it most.

If you think working with children with special needs and disabilities might be the path for you, take a look at our latest SEN teaching jobs.    

Think back on the most recent lesson you taught. Among the 30 or so pupils in front of you, were there some who needed a bit more attention than you were able to give?

Every classroom is a mix of abilities, with some children lagging others depending on the subject. Unfortunately, the pandemic’s impact on learning has only widened these attainment gaps.

There is a strong bedrock of evidence that targeted, small-group or one-to-one tutoring is among the most effective ways of bringing struggling pupils back up to speed with their peers. This is the reason why over a million children have received this kind of instruction through the National Tutoring Programme since 2020.

These sessions have been delivered by an army of qualified teachers-turned-tutors, who have undergone extensive training in preparation.

If you’ve ever felt more naturally concerned with the outcomes of particular pupils than the class as a group, or that your work as a classroom teacher isn’t having the necessary effect on the children who need it most, a path into tutoring is well worth considering.

Until very recently the preserve of the monied, private tutoring has been democratised by the NTP. Its benefits are now a part of learning across the school system, reaching some of the country’s most disadvantaged pupils. The DfE have indicated that this model of provision is likely to become permanently embedded in the daily schooling over the coming years. Experienced teachers looking to make a break from the classroom will almost certainly remain in high demand.

Your work as a tutor could be genuinely transformative for countless children. By applying your teaching skills in a setting that focuses on pupils as individuals with distinct ways of learning, you could bring out talents that your pupils didn’t even know they had.

To find out more about how you can join the UK’s biggest ever catch-up programme, check out our hub page here.