Phew, what a term! it's certainly been a baptism of fire - a tough Ofsted inspection in my 3rd week and a multitude of other issues to deal with. Despite it being over a week since I've taught I'm still feeling pretty stressed, and not particularly enamoured with the thought of going back to school on Monday.

Throughout my PGCE I never ever once doubted my decision to go into teaching. And I'm sad to say that over the past few weeks I've been seriously looking around at different post-teaching options.

I believe I'm not a bad teacher, but all the other &*%$ you have to deal with in teaching prevents me from doing what i really want to do (teach!) as well as I believe I can. There is an endless pile of paperwork, and I constantly feel like I'm not on top of everything. I've decided I'll aim for the end of my NQT year (December) and then reassess things. I don't want to leave teaching, but I'm not sure how long I can keep up the 60+ hour weeks!

I've been in contact with my small group of PGCE friends over half term.... out of 10 of us, 1 has already left her job, 2 haven't got jobs yet (despite being stunning teachers - the schools' loss!) and 2 have already handed in their notice to leave in the summer. There's something very very wrong with teaching for this to be happening.