Autistic teacher

I have taught for 40 years, much also in management and senior management and I still teach in retirement so my experience tells me the first point is that you must look after yourself because nobody else will 

Consider the point when you feel overwhelmed and exhausted and work backwards to think about what led to your struggle. If you cannot work it out then you will not be able to see the adjustments you need to ask for. Under the Equalities Act you can have anything you need to make your workload equal to those who are not autistic. As teaching is not always a supportive area I would:

1.Identify to the senior management team both your diagnosis and state of being overwhelmed.

If they cannot help you work out what adjustments you need the. Include HR and request support from Occupational Health.

If you do not think that any of these routes will be supportive for you then contact Access to Work and ask for somebody to do an assessment for you to look at how you can avoid future burnouts. They will not contact your school unless you give them permission.

Access to work will also pay money towards your school/workplace getting the things that you need. Remember that your school must legally provide adjustments and every autistic person has different needs so what anyone suggests to you might not be the answer because none of us know you. Access to work will provide you with a qualified person to talk through your profile. They are funded by the government 

My workplace has been told my needs and because of my additional difficulties I als need made to measure chairs and speech to write software, hardware for my laptop and supporting stands etc as well as suggested training for staff in understanding the effect of my autism,and a mentor for me to help me stop doing souch work thereby preventing burnout. I tell you all this because I want you to know that the education sector will support you and if you do go to Access to work then it is a legally required route that your workplace must accept.

Perhaps you need to take a day or two to think through your next step. Request support from HR to return to work if you have taken time off,and talk to a professional advisor at Access to Work to consider whether you need support that will cost in which case they will tell you if they will pay for it,you need to pay for it,or your workplace needs to pay.

Once we are struggling it is often because we are overwhelmed. The key is to know your own profile and put in place those small steps that help you e.g. I use noise cancelling headphones and I have a soundproofed room I can go to when I need to. As I am retired I just teach part time now but I still have support at work and an Access to work and health at work plan.

At the very least your management should be completing the HR documents for mental health and support for health at work with you.

Please do not struggle.on. it is a strength to accept health and because we are autistic this often means we have to get others to work in lusively with us because they do not always see our need 

Hi

I’m a teacher and also recently diagnosed 

I like to use the holidays to “fill up my cup” and do all the things that I know will leave me feeling ready to go back to the new term

is there anything you do on a daily or weekly basis to help with the day-to-day?

When you take your breaks is there somewhere you can go that is totally isolated to just decompress in peace? That sounds like it could be easy to implement if that sort of thing works for you. Because I think burnout is a "pressure valve" and it would be better to regularly release the pressure build up as a prevention of burnout rather than get that far as to need to and/or struggle to recover once the burn out has already happened.