My teaching colleagues call the day I am not in school my “day off”. I presume they think that I am an independently wealthy man who only got into teaching as a hobby, you know, to give something back.

When they are in front of a class teaching, maybe they imagine I take day trips to the seaside, spend all day in the cinema or explore ruined castles in the lowlands of Scotland. It doesn’t feel like a day off to me; it is far more mundane than that - a day of writing articles like this or looking for other ways to earn money to stay “part-time”.

But even though it isn’t a lark, I certainly won’t go back to teaching full-time if I can help it, even though I enjoy the job most of the time. Former Financial Times journalist Lucy Kellaway switched careers to teaching before eventually reducing her hours, too. She said recently in Tes: “It seems to me that working three days is the difference between teaching being just unendurably hard work, and it being - it’s not easy - it’s just completely manageable.”

The online teaching community has experienced a sense of collective schadenfreude over the difficulties acknowledged by Kellaway, founder of the Now Teach teacher-recruitment agency, who might have thought teaching was a good career switch for professionals wishing to wind down. But I have to admit I do share her positive view of working part-time.

In my experience, working reduced hours stops the job being an unremitting slog and allows me to enter the classroom feeling fresher on my return-to-class day. It gives me breathing space and I think a different perspective than if I was in school every day.

Going away and doing something else unrelated to teaching gives me some much-needed distance, which can make attainment or discipline-related issues less likely to dominate my waking thoughts. Another bonus is I don’t get the Sunday-night blues, as I only work one more day before being away from school again.

Salary sacrifice

It goes without saying the biggest negative of working part-time is slicing a large percentage from a salary that isn’t exactly generous to start with. Furthermore, deciding to work part-time will also negatively affect your chances of promotion, as the commitment of someone who doesn’t want to be there every day can readily be questioned by management looking to hire or promote.

Some heads of department expect the same amount of development work from their part-time staff as their full-time staff, and the same level of commitment to parents’ nights and staff training, thereby creating a workload imbalance, although this isn’t something I have experienced personally.

Yet, while working part-time has a negative effect on your final pension, it could mean having the energy to work longer, as the job does not feel as exhausting on a part-time basis. I can’t imagine working five days a week and lasting until I am 67 without leaving the classroom in a wooden box, but think I might be able to just manage it on a part-time basis.

Taking into account all of the above quibbles, if your options are leaving the profession altogether or retiring early, teaching part-time is something worth considering if you think you can afford it. Although the grass is not always greener, that leisurely day at the beach on your own in the middle of the Scottish winter might make you yearn to be back in the classroom.

Gordon Cairns is a teacher of English in Scotland