Have just picked up this thread as I am at the point of giving up teaching. I am 54, teach in special ed and just about hanging in there.

I had some time off work two years ago due to stress. I went back to work but I no longer have the energy to be creative in the classroom as paperwork takes up so much of that time. I now do the job that two teachers used to do. More assistants to manage and more children with highly complex needs.

Teaching has become obsessed with meeting government targets and I feel as a society we are creating more problems than solving them by being driven this way as parents and teachers of the future generations.

I am disillusioned and feel swamped by state intervention and meddling.

Three weeks to make that decision.