A 33-year-old maths teacher from Swansea has left the profession for good after experiencing severe burnout, citing a punishing commute, endless marking, and deteriorating pupil behaviour as key factors. Charlotte Webborn, who spent eight years in the classroom, said she realised she had "nothing left" for her own two children after giving everything to her students.
Exhaustion and missed moments
Webborn described leaving home at 7am and sometimes not seeing her children in the morning. "You miss the small things like breakfast together or school drop-offs. It was all rushed, or left to my husband, Sam," she explained. The stress continued at home, where she spent evenings on her laptop planning and marking, leaving her too drained to engage with her family. "I'd walk through the door completely drained. I hated that I didn't have the energy for my own children," she said.
Worsening behaviour and bureaucracy
She also noted that the job had changed significantly since the pandemic, with her focus shifting from teaching to managing disruptive behaviour. "Behaviour has definitely got worse since Covid. There was just constant low-level disruption. You're firefighting all day – it stops being about teaching," she claimed. Increased bureaucracy, including paperwork, inspections, and constant scrutiny, further eroded her passion. "Even your planning time, you're expected to sit in school to do it. You're not treated like a professional," she added.
A turning point
In January of the previous year, Webborn decided she could no longer continue. "I got to January and just thought, 'I can't do this anymore.' I knew I didn't want to feel that exhausted anymore," she said. She sought a role that allowed her to teach but also have a life. She found it at Minerva Virtual Academy, a private online school for secondary pupils in the UK, where she started working in 2025.
A new balance
The remote position has transformed her daily routine. "I can go to a gym class before my children wake up, come home to give them breakfast, walk them to school, and still be ready to start teaching by 9am," she said. She now enjoys school runs and family time, something that was impossible before. "I would never go back to a classroom now. The role has given me a much better balance between my career and family life," she stated.
Her husband has noticed the change. "He says it's changed all of our lives. I'm more present, and I'm not snapping at the kids because I'm drained. They've got a mum who is actually there," she said.
Broader teacher burnout crisis
Webborn's experience reflects a wider issue in UK education. A study commissioned by Minerva Virtual Academy found that nearly three-quarters of teachers (74 percent) have considered leaving the profession due to burnout. Education Support's Teacher Wellbeing Survey indicates that 36 percent of teachers are at risk of probable clinical depression, and 77 percent experience symptoms of poor mental health due to work. The National Education Union's 2024 figures show that 41 percent of teachers find their workload unmanageable, and 68 percent cite poor work-life balance as a major stressor.
