The Right Job for Me
Primary School Science Lead, Samantha Smith shares how the experience of 1:1 coaching over her return to work helped her to realise that she was exactly where she wanted to be in her personal and professional life.
When I first began coaching, I was quite overwhelmed at work and I was at a stalemate where I wasn’t sure that teaching was still for me. So I wanted to go through the motions with my coach, and develop those tools to support me in education and at the end of it I wanted to make a decision about whether teaching was still the right job for me. And I can happily confirm that it actually is the right job for me! I’ve had such wonderful support from my coach, who helped me to realise that.
I have developed so many new skills. The main thing has been my confidence: I didn’t feel confident enough to say how I was feeling to my colleagues or my senior leadership team; I wasn’t confident in my decisions; I didn’t feel brave. But after working through things with my coach, I’ve been so much kinder to myself, so much more assertive in my role, and had difficult conversations with people, which has benefited me greatly. I just feel a lot happier being a teacher at school.
All these new skills that I’ve got have supported me in my home life as well with my little girl – I’m much snappier at making decisions about what she’s going to wear in the morning! I’m feeling so much more positive in all aspects of my life. I feel a lot happier when I’m at home with my little girl. In the first couple of coaching sessions, I said I felt really guilty because I don’t play enough with my child, but my coach helped me reframe the thoughts I’ve had where I’ve felt that I’m not doing the best that I can, but I am – I’m developing my child in lots of different ways that I hadn’t even thought about before. Coaching helped me realise how much I’m doing, and that this is enough for my child.
At work, I felt like I was working incredibly hard beforehand, but now I realise how much work I am doing – always giving 100% at work, and we spoke about how this 100% might look different from day to day. Coaching has supported me with different tools to reduce anxiety at school as well, sourcing ideas from other people, and other ways to reduce overwhelm.
I’ve really enjoyed the structure of the sessions, talking about targets and how I can achieve that target. The recap at the start of each session has been lovely to talk through how I’ve achieved those goals from the last session.
I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity. The coaching has supported me in every aspect of my life. It’s made me a lot happier, and I’m really grateful that now I’m happy to stay in teaching because of the support from my coach.