I have been a teaching principal since 2009. I work in a rural school with a diminishing student population and therefore a decreasing staff also. In the past 4 years we have lost 1 teaching post and 2 full-time SNA posts. These adults were crucial to ensuring the ongoing provision of a high standard of education to the pupils in my school, yet we are expected to do so and to implement the unending stream of edicts and programmes without them. In that time despite the decrease in human resources the workload on teachers and on myself as a teaching principal has become all but unbearable. I teach a full day, drag bags of corrections home, attend to my private life and on a daily basis spend another 3 hours on my administration duties. To say that this is unsustainable for any human is an understatement. I would step down if there was a mechanism to do so. I would seek another position but there is no fair progression available to us. I am taking career break for the coming school year, not because I need it for family or further education, but because I need a break. I need a break from a job I love and I school I am dedicated to because my employer does not value me enough to support me in the work that I do.
