It has now been 6 months since I left the classroom as a Year 5/6 teacher and turned away from my role as Deputy Headteacher which I had only started a year before.
I have never really spent time writing about my decision on this blog and so thought it was about time, after all many of you helped in a small way to me actually getting the Deputy post in the first place and have been there to provide encouragement and support.
The last 6 months have flown by and I have enjoyed every minute!
I decided to leave teaching because of a variety of things, but the elephant in the room which was nagging me for months, was my desire to work with teachers and student beyond one school. Thankfully I rubbed my eyes and embraced the elephant, so to speak!
I chose to apply for a Deputy Head post not out of any deep desire to run my own school or be a headteacher, it was simply that I needed to change my circumstance and needed to feel I was contributing more to the running of a school.
I don’t regret my decision, but I think the specific challenges of the position and school went a long way to dampen my enthusiasm and zeal for school leadership. Sadly it led to some of the lowest times I have ever had in my teaching career.
It all seemed to come down to compromise. Due to my time being unnecessarily stretched compared to other Deputies I knew, I was making compromises with the quality of my teaching, the quality of my admin and the quality of my preparation. I had never really had to deal with such forced compromise in the past, on reflection that unsettled me deeply and is certainly something I never want to see again.
In my first week as a Deputy I wrote that, “No other 5 day stretch has ever examined and pressurised my professional facets as those just gone.” Well those 5 days continued on and the remainder of the year proved even more challenging than that tumultuous first week.
So what has changed?
The most notable things are a better quality of time with my family, variety through project work and being able to work with more schools and teachers.
I never really got to a stage that I was comfortably balancing work and life during my year as a deputy and so the quality of time with my family was hugely affected. There was always something nagging in my mind that hadn’t quite been completed or needed doing. I was never 100% focused on the here and now, and time was lost with the family.
This contributed to an unhealthy cumulative pressure I hadn’t experienced, both physically and emotionally – needless to say I am now glad to see the back of it.
The variety of work we have at NoTosh has been such a brilliant foil to the trudging monotony of the last few years. No week is the same – we will be wading in the deepest of intense research one week and design thinking with teachers the next. We are are also working with lots of schools and supporting teachers so I am never far from the classroom.
I have also enjoyed the ebb and flow of project work which allows you to see things to a natural completion in the relatively short term. At school the long term completion of a poject would feel most satisfying at the end of terms or the end of a year.
This “shipping” as Seth Godin would put it generates motivation and your energy levels rise as you move on to the next project. I am enjoying this way of working and although I have really felt I have had to adjust over the last few months, success and completeness is always in sight, something markedly lacking from my experience as a deputy headteacher.
One thing I realised, from those closest to me, was that things are not set in stone ad infinitum, even a job as all consuming as a deputy headteacher, and when things don’t work out you have to plan and actively choose to get yourself out of it. Linchpin by Seth Godin proved to be an important read for me in those difficult times and which underlined the importance of action.
All of that said I know that perhaps given a different set of circumstances I would have had a completely different experience as a new deputy and I have not discounted that maybe one day I will give it another go. But not right now 🙂
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I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Neil Hopkin, his kindness and generosity helped me steady the ship and find the elephant again in the darkened room. And also thanks to my good friend Ewan McIntosh for giving me hope and believing in me, even when I didn’t!
Thank you for your support over the last year and half, things took a wrong turn for a while back there but I am now doing a job I love (again), the future is bright.
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Pic the winds of skagit. by heanster
Sometimes we need to confront any outcome of the decision we made. There are personal reasons that others dont’ really understand when you choose your own decision they think whatever you are right is the best for you but it’s own life so don’t mind what other will say to you rather go for any decision that will make you happy and not regret later on instead.. Let’s think every decision we will make and let not blame ourselves as well no matter what are the consequences
People tend to turned their back on something that don’t make them happy so your decision was 100% right and you are on the right track. Just continue to do what you love and can make you happy and don’t regret..
I think we should not regret whatever decision we make since it was our choice and if we regret the time will not be turn back instead let’s accept the truth and move on.. I think your decision was right since right now you are happy..
I;ve been teaching for 8 years but I was never happy because if the stress so much paper works and deadlines to meet on time. I have not time for myself, and family until I decided to quit the same as yours. Now Im happy I never regret my decision.
Really admire your decision Tom. And your story will inspire I’m sure.
I stuck in for my first dht for 3 terms and had I not got a position elsewhere feel I could well have settled into a counter job in thorntons! Life’s too short and skills aside, if your passions been dampened you have sold out.
You bit the bullet, life is gd- gd for u !
Well done Tom – it’s eerie how similar our recent experiences have been; I could have written a post that resembled this closely. I think the main thing that I would have added is how society’s general low regard for teachers was a critical factor in my leaving the classroom – there are just too many poor stereotypes; which really does wrankle when you consider how damn hard most teachers work (in the face of daily compromises). I’m also still working in a job that aims to assist teachers and students, especially in regards to cybersafety and technology – and I won’t forget about my many colleagues in this role, always striving to make their jobs more valued and respected, meaningful and most importantly, positively influencing and engaging with the students.
Hi Tom,
Meeting you for the first and only time at a Headteachers conference in County Durham you truly inspired me, you have the drive and the vision which is sometimes found lacking within our schools. I admire your enthusiasm although it must have been a tough decision to call. Only through one person can change be made and you are that person, the whole of the educational system in this country needs to be looked at as the students need to be stimulated in different ways. The young people of our times are evolving, using new language and communications mediums to engage with their peers as the world in which they live in travels at an ever increasing speed. You state you have left the classroom but I put it to you that the classroom is no longer inside a school as schools will become a thing of the past and students will be in charge of their own learning which they will gather from the whole world at the click of a button or the tap of a screen as most of them are now experiencing with people like you engaging them.
Keep up the great work and all the best to your family
I’m a bit of a novice to all of this blogging etc but am finding it all some of the most stimulating professional development in nearly 30 years of teaching. Having just made the move back into school as Deputy Head after four years as a Local Authority Primary Adviser I’m having very mixed feelings. Work life balance has changed for the worse but with all my experience I feel I am starting to make a real difference in my school although every day is full of compromises.Teachers need teachers to inspire them so don’t have any regrets Tom, you’ve done the right thing.
Thanks Kevin I appreciate your comments and support 🙂
I would be the first to admit that I never really succeeded at compromising or balancing the pressures you face as a DHT and I have a deeper respect for those that do and do it well. I am grateful for you taking the time to comment and it is nice to hear that even at those times when I was feeling low I could have such an impact on you – I am fortunate to be able to put all my energies now into doing that more widely.
“the world is your classroom” – thanks so much Jose I am grateful fo your thoughts and always appreciate your support.
On reflection that sense of not completing things is deeply embedded in my recollections of my teaching career – or not completing things as well as we would like due to time. Came to a head as deputy.
The time constraints are the hardest things to deal with for me Ian – give me the time to do the job as well as I can anything else leads to a compromise I am just not comfortable to make.
Hope I didn’t come across as implying you no longer inspire. You certainly do still inspire! =)
Thanks for the comment Jonathan and good luck with your own journey – I hope that it goes well and brings you great success.
Thanks for your comment – what has been the key thing you have learned looking back over the last 17 years?
I do hope to continue to inspire where I can – and I am ambitious about the scale of what I can have an impact on – not simply confined to a single school anymore.
Thankyou David, I am lucky to be able to look back on that part of my career and take from it the lessons and leave the rest. I appreciate your support.
“obligation and paperwork, stress and general unhappiness.” wow I have struggled with that! And certainly know what you mean by how those things smother your passions. Thanks for your comment and your support.
I am sure if you still add value they will David! Thanks for your comment, I have learned loads from the last 5 months and it has been a great adventure so far – and we have all just started!
Good luck with your new endeavour. I have a week left in my own teaching post before I leave to become a technology consultant for my local Area Education Agency. Will I miss the classroom? Absolutely, but the chance to work with the teachers to help implement new and exciting technology in the classroom is something that I too have had a desire to do for some time now.
Consider it a calling. I know that, given your experience and commitment, you will excel in your new post and I look forward to hearing about your experiences at NoTosh.
Very interesting piece Tom.
I have been acting dht for over a year now and with a very full timetable too. Therefore I can relate to your reasons and can.see that elephant for myself.
You did the right thing Tom. It cannot be good to work 14 hour days at least 6 days a week and never get close to completing things. Holidays are a time to catch up and for that we get to work until we are 67 etc… As a teaching Head, with no children of my own I can confirm it doesn’t get any better. The job of teaching is great but in the end it’s a mugs game.
There just isn’t time to develop great additional approaches in the vast majority of schools. I doubt you would begin to think of returning to a role like Deputy Head or Head. There are schools with brilliant IT practitioners they generally appear to move on. Good luck to us all, may we continue to find ways of inspiring our children.
David
My reaction when you first told me at Nottigham train station over a lukewarm and overpriced latte was one of admiration: here was a guy who knew what he wanted and was taking steps towards achieving it. If only I were as brave as you.
I can’t say I was surprised though, as it was clear to me your potential wasn’t being developed in your previous roles. Now the world is your classroom.
I look forward to continuing to learn from you Tom.
Tom, when you let it be known that you had left teaching and took up your new role with Ewan at NoTosh, I was both shocked and happy for you. Shocked because you have been such an inspirational teacher not only to your students but to other fellow educators and you were leaving that behind. Happy because you were doing so for all the right reasons. I know how you feel when you talk about a work life balance. The further up the chain of management I get the more that balance I have worked so hard at gets challenged. I have thought about leaving and have looked at other avenues but not quite yet.
It’s an honest post just like every other post you have written and one that has left me thinking, just like the rest.
It’s ironic for me that when I first met you, you had recently started the DHT position and even then, at your lowest point, I found you a complete inspiration (and I still do). It was a talk by Ewan McIntosh that motivated me and the continuing inspiration that you (amongst others) brought as a serving deputy at the GTAUK that gave me the cutting edge at interview. Since then I’ve found every minute to be varied and exciting – great successes followed by epic mistakes – but each a learning opportunity. And the biggest challenge has been that of compromise. Each day the challenge to make high quality interactions with children, parents, teachers, fellow senior leaders, advisors and colleagues from other schools has been far from a trudging monotony, but certainly an act of compromise.
Great post Tom. I had similar feelings when I joined the GA, but knew that I had a part to play in supporting colleagues and it was time for me personally to do something else. We all have to take our own learning journey…
Interesting post, Tom. I don’t think you turned your back on teaching at all, you just took on a different way of teaching. 17 years ago I left the classroom behind and moved into PD for teachers. When I taught I could influence the lives of around 30 students a year, no I (hopefully) get to positively influence hundreds of students. It’s still teaching, it’s just different teaching and in many ways a lot more satisfying although there are some things I will always miss – crazy things like school camps!
Another (perhaps bigger) elephant in the room seems to be the feeling that somehow those who have left teaching are letting the children down. Given this, I think this is a brave post and I applaud you for bringing these issues into the open. We need an open and honest look at why great people leave teaching.
What *is* letting learners down is the fact that the systems in the UK often don’t support inspirational people like yourself to stay in teaching and stay inspirational.
However, you have shown that through tough decisions you can not only stay inspiring, but bring that to benefit on an even wider scale. As someone who has also been hugely influenced by ‘Linchpin’, I think what you have gone through demonstrates the power of that kind of thinking.
Thank you for sharing these thoughts!
I’m smiling for you Tom! Nice to read and full of hope, light and success. Well done!
Congratulations. You made a brave move and many teachers never find that elephant in the room because it gets pushed back and covered by obligation and paperwork, stress and general unhappiness. I applaud you for two things – putting your family first and putting your happiness as an educator next. We need great classroom teachers, we need great school leaders and we need great educators of teachers. Keep up the awesome work and keep enjoying what you do!
Insightful post Tom. Often does people good to get out for a while or even altogether, especially if family are not the priority (or so it seems). The day I don’t enjoy interacting with some fine young people and even the wee monsters is the day I’m going back to my old job. Do you think they’ll let me go to Afghanistan aged 53? 😎