I’ve been working in the education field for over a decade now. In all honesty, I entered the profession as a bit of a fluke, a means to an end, a way to facilitate my want to travel. I soon fell in love with the scope you had to make a difference to the lives of children and families, with the level of connection and variety every day held. I trained to teach with Teach First, specialising in the Early Years. I held a variety of roles in a range of London boroughs and ended my teaching career as Assistant Vice – Principal, responsible for Early Years, Early Reading and outdoor learning. 

For several years, I endeavoured to make my career in teaching sustainable, each time thinking a new job title, a new borough or a new school would be the answer. A new school would ensure a healthier leadership team, a new role would allow for greater autonomy over meaningless datafication, and on and on the list went. Like so many educators, I gave so much of myself to the point where my mental and physical health suffered, but I continued to ignore this until I felt I had no choice but to resign. For me, I’d ignored the signs of burnout for too long, and teaching had become unsustainable.  I undoubtedly would have benefited and been immensely grateful for a space which offered support in my aim of making my career in teaching in the classroom sustainable, perhaps it would have prevented me from leaving the classroom altogether. Who knows? I made the difficult decision to resign (owing to burnout and anxiety) from my senior leadership and teaching post where I was responsible for teaching Year 1, leading Early Reading across the school, as well as being phase leader of Early Years.