David Allerton, 36, has been teaching French and Spanish for three years at Trinity school, Nottingham, after a decade of travelling the world teaching English as a foreign language.
He earns pound;24,000, is a home owner with a mortgage of pound;45,000, having received family help to buy and has changed his lifestyle a lot since returning to the UK and taking up teaching full time.
Mr Allerton has given up drinking in the week because of the pressures of the job. He usually spends evenings watching a film at home, or listening to the radio after a trip to the gym. He rarely watches television, and sees friends about once a week. “Teaching is definitely a vocation, but one I wasn’t ready for straight out of university, it has been a real lifestyle change,” he said.
He leaves home at 7.30am, cycling to work three times a week, and leaves school between 4pm and 5pm, usually after several hours of preparation or marking. He usually takes more work home, and uses his laptop to prepare lesson plans.
At the weekends he tries not to work and likes to go away - he has travelled abroad 11 times in the last academic year, five times with the school. “Though I do very little at the weekends, I think about it a lot, but by going away I can switch off and take my mind off work.”
SK