Thursday, 31 May, will be an anxious day for teachers and headteachers: it’s the last day on which teachers can hand in their resignation for July.

Teachers will have spent the months before deciding whether to stick with their current role, “twist” and try a new one or “bust” and walk away from the profession.

I wish, at this point, that I could provide a yes/no flowchart that will lead you to the “right” answer for you. However, we are, as one research participant put it, “living organisms working with other living organisms” and human relationships can be a tricky, messy business. 

Whilst there are certain “living organisms” you might be happy never to clap eyes on again, leaving others is less than easy. Your go-to person in a crisis, the fellow NQT you travelled the tricky training year with, the cleaner who always gave you a cheery good morning, and, of course, the dozens or hundreds of students you’ve seen grow in your care. I’ve written at some length about how tricky it is to say goodbye to young people - I can honestly say it never gets any easier. 

Then there’s the idea of stepping into the unknown - be it another school or a completely different context. This is both exciting, exhausting and terrifying - I’ve been known to go a whole six months without identifying the nearest loo.

I have no easy answers - but I do have access to experiences - my own, and those of the hundreds of teachers who’ve shared their stories with me. Below I explore some of the factors that may contribute to your reasons to stick, twist or bust.

Stick

Perspective is important: no school is perfect, and it may well be that teachers have had enough of certain policies or procedures - or indeed, people - but it is worth considering whether, on balance, you have enough reasons to feel happy to get to work each morning. 

And there’s always the possibility of resolution. If there’s a certain individual making your life at work miserable, there may be options to resolve this. I remember believing that a certain member of SLT couldn’t stand me and was going out of their way to make my life difficult. Teaching is an emotional job, after all, and when you feel criticised when you’re giving your all, it’s tough. In retrospect, I suspect she had enough to do to give me much airtime. What worked, in this case, was actually direct engagement. Rather than perceiving her criticisms as a desire to “bring me down”, I asked for her advice, and used it.                                                                                                 
There’s never a good time to leave students. I’m no advocate of feeling guilt-tripped into staying, but there is a distinct satisfaction in seeing young people grow, year on year, and in the relationships that come with having seen them at their most stroppy, their most vulnerable, their most triumphant. There is so much joy to be had in the classroom, and I do believe this joy grows with the years of knowing individuals. 

Twist

Having a healthy work-life balance is difficult - but hugely important - in teaching. 
“I just can’t give my loved ones what they need and deserve” is something that I’ve felt myself - and that I’ve heard from numerous teachers, male and female, young and more senior. Be it close friends, your own children, or people who rely on you to care for them, knowing that family ultimately matters more is something that can play a key role in a decision to leave.

I have heard stories that have truly haunted me from teachers who have been, at times literally, broken by prolonged negative experience at work. Yelling at colleagues, sobbing in store cupboards: these are not uncommon moments of explosion or implosion which lead teachers to decide to walk. The slow-burn version is just as toxic - the steady weight loss, the build-up of marital tension, the creeping depression or anxiety that leads you to look in the mirror and wonder where that person who loved their job has gone. No job is worth that kind of toll on your physical or mental health.

If your values aren’t aligned with that of your institution - the values set by your academy chain and your school leaders which influence every element of school life - this can create a dissonance which can be extremely hard to live with.

Bust

More than 50 per cent of the former teachers I spoke to for my book research said that a change in context might have been a factor in their decision to leave the classroom. Before you decide to take the leap from teaching (especially if it is early in your career), I would urge you to consider a change of school. The job can feel like a completely different one with a change of context.
 

Messy and complex then, yes. But of course, only you can decide what’s right for you. “My OK isn’t necessarily your OK,” as headteacher Helena Marsh says. Every set of circumstances is different. Listen to your loved ones. If you’ve been dreading arriving at work more often than you’ve been looking forward to it for weeks or months at a time, this isn’t something that can be ignored. But if you’re struggling and you’re unhappy and you haven’t spoken to anyone, do give it a try - it may just help.

Whatever you decide, I wish you all the very best.

Emma Kell is a secondary teacher in north-east London and author of How to Survive in Teaching