PGCE - Want to leave teaching...advice please

I suppose it would just be like starting again though. I don't have any experince of colleges/sixth form colleges, all my experience has been in secondary schools.

I am in such a mess now that the pgce has not worked out. Wanted to defer and just take time away from it to think about what I really wanted but that option was not available at my provider. I have told them I wish to leave but I wonder whether I should make one last ditch effort to see if they will keep me but defer me. I think it is too late though

You could try Teach First. I don't know too much about it, but it seems like you are basically a full teacher once you start in September (or are treated like one anyway) so you might prefer that.

You are also placed in VERY challenging schools - some may be enough to put people off teaching whereas they may have enjoyed it elsewhere.

Ps. It might not be too late; Speak to your provider. They don't want a drop out figure I'm sure plus they can't give the place to anyone else. At worst you might just need to convince them you are committed to completing the course.


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If you are interested in teaching in the independent sector I would recommend sticking with your course. Whilst the lack of QTS won't stop schools employing you if they want to, you will find it easier to get a job with a PGCE, and more importantly you wont have to explain to them why you quit. I think you will have a tough time persuading a school to take you on after leaving a course because you disagreed with certain aspects of it and found the workload tough going..I imagine this will also be true for many other employment sectors you may be interested in moving to.

Well I am making a last ditch effort to sort some kind of deferment out, but I have a feeling it is too late as the withdrawal may have gone through. The tutor convinced me there was no option of deferring which I think is silly as that Is what I desperately needed to get my head straight, prepare properly knowing what the workload was like (having underestimated it before), and generally reassess whether teaching is right for me.

Waiting to hear from the provider at the moment on what they will allow to happen or whether It is too late and I have gone

Well I am making a last ditch effort to sort some kind of deferment out, but I have a feeling it is too late as the withdrawal may have gone through. The tutor convinced me there was no option of deferring which I think is silly as that Is what I desperately needed to get my head straight, prepare properly knowing what the workload was like (having underestimated it before), and generally reassess whether teaching is right for me.

Waiting to hear from the provider at the moment on what they will allow to happen or whether It is too late and I have gone

Hi, I just read your post. I am a teacher who is currently leaving teaching. I know exactly how you feel, but I am a slight bit older than you. I've been teaching nearly 4 years now and I can tell you, it doesn't get easier. You really have to look deep within yourself to see if this is the right career for you. I decided it wasn't and best to leave now while I'm still young and I won't take too much of a pay cut. My reasoning was that I don't want to be marking books until 9pm and planning outstanding lessons every single night and being observed the whole time. I believe there is a better life out there for me, one that will at least have pay that equals the amount of effort I put in. There is no freedom in teaching, I would advise you to read some of the stories on the TES workplace dilemma forums. It's a hard decision to make, but if you're gonna leave- do it now while you are young.

Thanks for your post.

You sound as if you were being observed an awful lot. I thought that the PGCE was where you are observed 100% of the time, and this reduces to twice a term in the NQT year, and after that would only be a few times a year. I know they now have powers to observe people to death though - is this what happened to you? Did senior management have it in for you?

I agree, the hours and workload is a killer, and won't get better, same as the job will get harder and harder just as life is doing itself.

I am a GTP student and I understand where you are coming from. This is one of the 'pressure points' of the year apparently, when all of the reports/parents evening/assessments pile up and everything just starts to become unbearable. I LOVE my job and I LOVE my classes and I LOVE my school and my mentor is AMAZING but despite all of this I am still feeling exhausted and stressed. If I were in a less supportive environment, I would be really struggling to cope.

However, I think this is more about your approach to life than the PGCE workload itself. I remember you on here last year before the course started, and your 'my way or the highway' attitude then concerned me. I have looked at your other recent posts on here and my fears have been completely proven. You blame everybody but yourself for your problems and expect the world to revolve around you, your needs and your desires. How old are you? 12?! I can't imagine what a nightmare you must be to work alongside.

You want to teach 'your way' - which you think, despite only having had a few months' experience - is better than established methodologies that are proven to help children. Can you not see how arrogant that is? You don't see the 'point' in differentiation - so kids who aren't at the same level as their peers just have to sit there and stare out of the window while the content of the lesson goes completely over their heads? Can you not see how narrow minded that attitude is?! I have no idea how you got onto a PGCE course with these ideas.

Teachers exist to get the best out of students - not impose their own whims on them. The days of teachers getting to lecture students on topics of their own choice are over, I'm afraid. I have found that in my GTP year so far I have had loads of my expectations and preconceptions shattered. However, I have been mature enough to recognise that, despite being an older entrant with a lot of work experience under my belt - I don't know it all, I do have a lot to learn, and while I may think a lot of the stuff I'm being asked to do is annoying or pedantic, I can understand why it's done - usually because it helps students. Yes, banging on about targets and how to reach them is boring and restrictive, but you know what? If little Jenny needs an A in English to achieve her dream of going to university, then I'll fill in as many boxes as I need to ensure that she can get there, because at the end of the day, that's my job - to equip kids with what they need to get where they want to go in life. It's not about me. It's about them. And I'm sure that sounds preachy, but I believe it. Kids need teachers who are there for them, not for themselves.

You really need to grow up and start realising that it's not everyone else with the problem - the common denominator in all of your woes is - surprise, surprise - you. It looks like your tutor has recognised this and wants you off the course. He's doing it for your own good, so even though you clearly don't think much of anyone's opinion aside from your own, I'd trust his judgement on this one and quit while you're ahead. The teaching profession isn't going to change to suit you, and as you're not going to change yourself, it's best you leave now.

Well I wasn't formally observed.. Just the head of faculty kept walking in to my lessons constantly. This is completely different and a completely different atmosphere to where I taught previously. I wouldn't recommend anyone to teach in the British system. If you're going to teach, go to Ireland where you'll be treated like a human being and not a machine. Ireland has a much better system with higher quality exams and grades, and the quality of teaching is better because the teachers are happy and not stressed.

Completely agree. Although it is not just Ireland were things are better, it is globally, as i have just said to another member, take a look at our education system on a global scale. They simply cannot go on about how brilliant teaching in this country is when quite clearly there are major faults with it at the present time.

Some people go in blind to it all, and will be walked all over and tell themselves it is all for the kids benefit, but when you look at the bigger picture, the kids in England are not in any benefit at all!

Thanks for posting although I won't comment on personal things.

So if these 'established methodologies' are proven to help children, why is it that our education system is so dire on a world scale, ever since these principles have come about?

You have to remember here that schools these days are exam factories. It is target driven. Passing exams is the aim, schools just pay lip service to the other stuff, and if people don't pass, teachers are accountable. Teachers are accountable for behaviour as well, which could be affected by many different things.

There is certainly a culture of zero-tolerance to not having all boxes ticked, and creativity in lessons goes out of the window in the face of all this. It becomes box ticking, telling kids off and dodging a telling off from senior management. There is nothing wrong with wanting to take a traditional approach, but you are made to feel this is wrong during the training, when we all know that really this stuff about creativity, differentiation, etc. ends up taking a back seat later on.

Hi, I just read your post. I am a teacher who is currently leaving teaching. I know exactly how you feel, but I am a slight bit older than you. I've been teaching nearly 4 years now and I can tell you, it doesn't get easier. You really have to look deep within yourself to see if this is the right career for you. I decided it wasn't and best to leave now while I'm still young and I won't take too much of a pay cut. My reasoning was that I don't want to be marking books until 9pm and planning outstanding lessons every single night and being observed the whole time. I believe there is a better life out there for me, one that will at least have pay that equals the amount of effort I put in. There is no freedom in teaching, I would advise you to read some of the stories on the TES workplace dilemma forums. It's a hard decision to make, but if you're gonna leave- do it now while you are young.

Yes of course you don't want to comment on personal things. You are completely unable to take criticism; which is why your tutor and PGCE mentor and department colleagues all want rid of you.

Everything you're saying is everything that most teachers moan about. You're not unique. Yes, there are boxes to tick. Yes there are pointless initiatives and senior management to please. Yes it is target driven.

But something you will realise when you actually leave university and enter the real world is that ALL JOBS ARE LIKE THIS.

No matter where you work, you will have to cope with all of the things you have moaned about. They're annoying but they're part of the structure of life.

Those of us with brains, passion and initiative find ways to work around the system and bring about positive change within it.

Those who have none of those qualities just spend their lives moaning and talking about how the system is broken, without doing anything to change it.

You are basing your experience of school life on the two very short placements you have done. This is another proof of your narrow minded attitude to life.

In my school, there are targets and boxes and all of the things that you're complaining about. But the colleagues I work with still deliver creative, exciting and innovative lessons and have wonderful relationships with their students. They offer extra curricular activities to widen kids' horizons. They have fun at work because they keep learning and they keep innovating. They don't let the system get them down - they do what's required of them but they do it their way.

Maybe you've been in schools where this doesn't happen. But that doesn't mean that all schools are like that.

There are thousands of teachers who are like the teachers I have been fortunate enough to work with, and they're getting kids through their exams while still teaching them to be brilliant, engaging and inventive people. It is possible.

So stop moaning about what you can't do and think about what you can do. How can you bring about change within the system? How can you work creatively with the strictures you've been given? What alternatives to the current way of doing things could you try?

Or you could just give up and leave, and find a new career.

But I warn you now - with your current attitude, in six months' time, you'll be in exactly the same position.

If you don't change, nothing else will.

Out of interest, what are you moving onto?

I can't fix it all myself, we as a society need to change the procedures in order to improve. The UK system is way down the list on a global scale. No matter how many of these activities the youngsters get, they are significantly disadvantaged by a system which limits their achievements anyway. New teachers just blindly putting up with everything and getting walked all over brainwashed into this ofsted 'outstanding' mentality, pretending it is for the kids benefit are kidding themselves as they know, these very youngsters enter a global market upon leaving study, and they will be at the back of the queue.

Ofsted outstanding is just for advertisement. It doesn't mean that kids there get any better education than they do at a 'satisfactory' school. Visit these places (I have). There is no difference. If people like me did not stand up to these things, everyone would be convinced that we are on the right track, when we clearly are not.

It needs to come from the top, central government. Bring back traditional teaching, more effective discipline (this culture of giving them loads of chances is farcical), and improve the system.

Hi all,

Pull up a chair, this is going to be a good one.

I am now halfway through (as near as damn it) my PGCE, and in all honesty I should have left at christmas. I was full of enthusiasm going into september, being able to talk about my subject (Maths) on a daily basis, interacting with the kids, teaching things how I wanted to teach things and really enjoying helping the kids to learn.

We are now in February, and after spending all of January on the uni parts of the course, bored out of my mind, I am now going into placement 2 with no desire to teach at all. All this course has done is put me off teaching. All the hassle involved with the job makes me want to leave. Pressure, Ofsted, Government moving the goalposts all the time, Behaviour, Workload of marking, planning etc. It just is not my cup of tea. It is not what I want it to be, and not what I thought it would be.

It is just a nightmare. I have little freedom in my teaching. You must have a starter, you must have a plenary (I hate the things), you must use millions of different stupid activities (chalk and talk or using textbooks are a no-no according to these ofsted driven robots). You must do everything possible to engage these youngsters in something they have no desire to do at all. Any talk of SEN demoralizes me. I wanted to teach Maths! I am not Merlin the Magician!

I have no desire at all to be an NQT, and as such have not applied for any jobs. Others on my course seem to be embracing the challenge, but I just don't want the hassle anymore. Ever been to an NQT meeting? There's an experience. The session leader with comments like "that would not be outstanding." and "that would be inadequate". Education is ruled by this desire for 'ofsted outstanding'. The privatisation (academisation) of schools is a worry, as are a number of other things such as changes to pay.

I am really disillusioned with teaching as a whole. Has anyone got any useful advice to give me? I am still young and just want to leave the course and do something completely different. I don't see the point of staying on for another 5 months, I don't want to teach anymore.