I think I shall give up my job

In a way, I am a better teacher than I have ever been. I am very comfortable in front of a class (unless they are being riotous) and I know my stuff very well. I am pretty good at planning a lesson. I feel that the students trust me.

But there are aspects of the job that I hate. One of them is to do with retention. The teachers are leaned on very hard to make sure that all the students take their exams before they leave. This is sometimes impossible, for example, in the case of bereavements - usually one or two a year have to suddenly return to Germany (etc.) in tears and never return. But sometimes it is simply a matter of making a students prioritise the exam over their job, and this is where bullying comes in. I am not a bully. I do not spend 15 minutes in the corridor with a student pushing her into telling her boss that she cannot do her job on a certain day because she has an exam. Especially when she is clearly scared of letting someone down and promises to come on another occasion for the exam. I would rather try to find another session for the "mop-ups".

Even though my boss does it with a kind look on his face, he is actually a bully, and what's more, I think he knows that I think so, just as I know he thinks I am far too soft.

I also hate the meaningless target-setting and the ILP's. I don't like the fact that to get the funding, all the students have to do an exam that means nothing outside the UK. OK, it's an exam, but it has no kudos. I look at the reading test and I think that some questions are unfair - impossible to teach to. I have a degree in English Language and Literature and I can't answer correctly some of the Level 1 reading test questions. The answers are mysterious to me. That shouldn't happen, but I am afraid the tests are not set as carefully as they should be, or indeed, as they used to be.

I like teaching but it's the other stuff - the endless box ticking - and covering our backs for the inspections - that bother me. Most weeks I am thinking: I can't really be bothered with this any more, and I find it weird that my colleagues love it, and will spend hours trying to decide whether to award one mark for pronunciation or not.