In more than 20 years in the teaching profession, I have said many “goodbyes” to schools. More often than not,  I departed to seek new challenges, to get a sense of progression and release. I assumed it was the “thing to do” - teachers move, that’s how we progress, right?

But in recent years, I have come to doubt this presumption. I have come to realise that it is just as possible and potentially important to value staying in the same job, in the same school. And I think we need to celebrate that.

I remember being told at the front end of my career not to stay in the same job for more than three years because I would run the risk of making myself “unpromotable”.

I am now 12 years into my current job, during which time I have received no promotions, and yet I couldn’t be happier.

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The benefits of teachers staying put

My school, attended by my two children, is less than two miles from my front door. I know the systems and I know the staff - there is a real comfort in this.

Most of all, I know the pupils and their parents. They trust me, and this creates a genuine sense of job satisfaction.

Whereas it would be an exaggeration to say I could do my job with my eyes shut, there is real security in the familiarity of both the rich experience I have built up over years of doing the same job, and the refined expertise that this experience provides for me.

Of course, the challenge is to keep sharp professionally and to avoid stagnation. However, given the stability that years in the same place provides, and the attendant work-life balance that it is possible to cultivate, this challenge is not difficult to overcome.

Extra qualifications

In recent years, I have completed a second master’s degree, this time in a completely different academic discipline to my day-to-day classroom delivery, and the whole experience was thoroughly energising. I would recommend it to anyone.

Another benefit to being in the same place over an extended time period is that management grow to trust you - in my case, enough to be released on two-day blocks over three years to complete this qualification.  

Meanwhile, I have also published resources with educational publishers, and found the experience of working with a high-quality editor, going through the process of producing multiple drafts, and all the proofreading and formatting highly invigorating.

Reaching out

I have written Inset courses, which I deliver to local primary and secondary schools on areas such as behaviour management and engaging disaffected pupils through sport, all of which I am convinced I could not have achieved had I chosen to chase promotion elsewhere.

But the most cherished benefit of staying put has been a renewed focus on my beloved sport of judo. A healthy work-life balance has meant that I have been able to train enough to gain my 5th Dan black belt (the highest competitive grade in the world) as well as qualify for selection for team GB and fight internationally, albeit in the masters’ section - a polite term for old men!

Don’t feel the pressure

If you are chasing promotions, and moving from job to job, always in motion, then fantastic - do it, with no regrets.

But if you are happy where you are, and are saying constant goodbyes to those around you whom you are releasing to go because of their choices, don’t feel in any way intimidated or under pressure to conform.

You have nothing to prove to anyone. It is equally valid, and ultimately very satisfying, personally and professionally, if you can settle once and for all - in your heart you should feel that it is OK to stay.

Christian Pountain is head of RE and director of spirituality at a secondary school in Lancashire