Quitting Teaching: When to Leave and What Next

If you’re thinking about quitting teaching, you’re in good company. The latest national workforce data shows 39% of Australian teachers intend to leave the profession before retirement, and another 35% are unsure. The decision comes down to three questions: are the problems fixable at your current school, would a different way of teaching (such as casual relief work) solve them, and do you have a plan for what comes next? This guide covers the warning signs, how to resign well, and the options that keep your qualification working for you.

How many teachers are thinking about quitting?

The Australian Teacher Workforce Data puts numbers on what most staffrooms already know. In the most recent national survey, 39% of teachers intended to leave the profession before retirement, 35% were unsure, and 26% planned to stay until they retire.

The reasons are consistent. Heavy workload (75%), work-life balance (69%) and the impact of teaching on wellbeing and mental health (68%) top the list, followed by administrative workload (63%) and insufficient pay (52%).

Two findings from the same research are worth sitting with before you hand in your notice.

First, intentions rarely match actions. Only 5% of teachers planned to leave within a year, and AITSL notes that stated intentions of 30 to 40% tend to translate to actual turnover closer to 10 to 15% over five years. Many teachers who feel like leaving find a different arrangement within the profession instead.

Second, burnout matters more than a bad term. AITSL found that burnout had the strongest relationship to intentions to leave, particularly in the short term, and short-term intentions are the ones most likely to become real departures. If you recognise burnout in yourself, treat the decision as a health question first and a career question second.

How do you know it’s time to leave a teaching role?

The most useful diagnostic is working out whether your problem is the school, the role, or the profession. Each points to a different move.

The problem is the school. Poor leadership, a culture that grinds you down, or relationships that have soured. If you light up describing teaching but dread describing your school, a transfer or a new school solves more than a career change would.

The problem is the role. Full-time classroom loads, reporting cycles and playground duty rosters suit some seasons of life better than others. If the teaching itself still works for you and the wraparound load does the damage, a change in how you teach (part-time, job share, casual) is worth testing before you leave.

The problem is the profession. If the classroom itself has stopped giving anything back, no timetable adjustment will fix that. Career objectives count here too: if you want progression your school cannot offer, or your goals have moved somewhere teaching cannot follow, that is a legitimate reason to go.

A practical test: write down the three things that most make you want to quit. For each one, ask whether it would follow you to another school. Workload structures often will. A specific leadership team will not.

Do you have to leave teaching entirely?

No, and the workforce data suggests many teachers find their answer inside the profession. Casual and relief teachers were among the groups most likely to intend to stay in teaching until retirement, which says something about what control over your own diary does for longevity.

Casual teaching changes the deal in specific ways:

• You choose the days you work and block out the ones you don’t
• Reporting cycles, staff meetings and after-hours parent contact largely stay with the permanent staff
• Your registration and classroom skills stay current while you decide what’s next
• Daily rates are strong. See our teacher salary guide for current casual rates by state.

For many teachers weighing up an exit, a term or two of casual work acts as a circuit breaker: income continues, the pressure valve opens, and the decision about leaving gets made with a clear head. If you’re in NSW, our guide to casual teaching in NSW covers approvals and how to get started.

What’s the best way to resign from a teaching job?

However sure you are, leave well. Education is a small sector and your references travel with you.

• Check your obligations first. Read your contract or award for the required notice period, and check your state department’s resignation process if you’re in a public school. Notice requirements differ between systems and between permanent, temporary and contract roles.
• Tell your principal before anyone else. A direct conversation, early, keeps the relationship intact and gives the school time to plan. Word travels fast in schools; make sure yours arrives first-hand.
• Time it around the term. Where you can, align your departure with the end of a term or semester. It reduces disruption for your students and it is remembered.
• Put it in writing. A short, professional resignation letter stating your final day. No grievances; that conversation, if needed, belongs elsewhere.
• Finish properly. Complete your marking, hand over your programs and class notes, and leave your room and records in a state you’d want to inherit.
• Lock in your referees. Before you go, confirm who will speak for you. If the relationship with leadership is strained, a head teacher or experienced colleague who knows your work can carry that weight.

What if you’re leaving on bad terms?

Sometimes the relationship is beyond saving. Fulfil your contractual obligations, keep your conduct professional to the last day, and identify the colleagues who know your work and will vouch for it. In interviews, only raise a difficult exit if asked directly, keep the account brief and factual, and move the conversation to what you’re looking for next.

What are your options after leaving?

• A new school. Same career, different context. Often the highest-value move for the least disruption.
• Casual or part-time teaching. Keep the income and the registration while you reset.
• Education-adjacent roles. Curriculum design, education technology, tutoring businesses, training and assessment, education policy. Your classroom skills are the qualification.
• A different career. Teachers carry communication, planning, stakeholder management and performance-under-pressure skills that employers pay for. Reframe them properly: our teacher resume guide and free template shows how to present your experience for any audience.

Finding your next role

Whether you’re looking for a new school, testing casual work, or browsing what’s out there, ClassCover covers all three from one profile. ClassCover Jobs lists full-time, part-time and contract education roles across Australia, with filters for job type, school type, subject and location. And if you want work while you look, the same profile connects you with schools booking casual teachers in your area.