I quit teaching because the focus was on getting good inspection results, which is not the same as doing what is right for your students. Most of the criticisms against my teaching was that I didn't do enough exam practise, I actually cared about trying to get children to think and investigate. The current changes the Tory's are making is going to make this even worse, going back to stone age fact memorising, a pretty useless life skill - but at least the population will stop thinking for themselves and asking questions. The work life balance was crap just because the kids are are on holiday doesn't mean the teachers are. During term time I worked every weekend, refused to socialise in the evenings because I had marking and planning to do. Seriously everyone here who has a chip on their shoulder for working in the private sector get lost. I don't know what your job is like, you don't know what a teachers job is like. All I can say is that if the prime reason for doing your job is making money you have no idea what it's like working in a school, or a hospital, for the police or the fire brigade. You do those things because you love them, you want to help people. That means you don't stop doing your job because your hours are up and why you are so vulnerable to get screwed by your employer. Also find me one state school teacher who hasn't spent their own money on resources for students. Lots of teachers I know are against the 6 week holiday (designed to let kids go help their parents farm) because it makes zero sense educationally, we should have shorter more frequent breaks... but we can't change that because it's tradition, the weakest of all the reasons.