Would love to hear from teachers!

[CeeCee123]

Hi,

I would love to get some honest feedback from some working mums who are teachers. I've been seriously considering a career change into teaching, partly because I want to do something more family friendly but it's hard to know how realistic I'm being in thinking that teaching would be a move in that direction.

My son is 17 months and I've been back at work for about 4 months now, full time. I very much wanted part time work but have not been able to find anything. In addition, I work in head office retail which is one of the worst industries at the moment (except the Financial Sector, which is where my husband works!). I'm also feeling disillusioned about the corporate world and the idea of helping children learn really appeals to me. My initial thought has been to work towards teaching Maths as I am currently in a very numerate job, it's one of my strongest subjects and I loved it at school. I haven't really thought too long and hard about age range although I think I'd be happy in primary or secondary.

Anyway, another thing that is really heavily weighing into my decision is the fact that I am struggling with my son being in childcare from 8 - 5.30 every day. I feel that during the week I really only get to see him for about an hour of quality time a day. I suppose what I'm really curious to know is that for you working mum teachers, are you able to at least get home, have some time with your children even if it means working later in the evening? I know that school holidays are not totally free, but do you at least feel that you get some more time with your children during the holidays? I guess what it all boils down to is do you feel that your work/life balance is any better as a teacher than it is as a full time office worker?

Thanks so much for your input!

[janeite]

In term time my work/life balance is rubbish - but the holidays are a huge compensation for that.

[S1ur]

Teachers have a crap work/life balance IME.

They start early and finish late, and mark at evenings/weekends. If you were a f-t teacher I would anticipate your child being at least from 8am til at least 5 most days, certainly 430. P-t easier to arrange and more opportunities, though you may find your days off being eaten a little by prep. Things with an office job is you can often leave it behind at the end of the day, I don't know any teachers who do that.

BUT BUT BUT, yes holidays do help a lot!

[CandleQueen]

Ditto janeite.

I work part time, but still end up doing full time paper work/ planning etc.

The training is very hard and first few years are tough. Contrary to popular belief, teaching is not the easy option, it is hard work, entails long hours (I wish I could teach on flexi-time!) and everybody has a opinion on your teaching.
However, holidays are good, you can spend time your children, and it can be a very fulfilling profession.

[woodenbox]

ceecee, I am a teacher at secondary level. My dd is at nursery 5 days a week from 8 till between 4 and 5. On a 'good day', i can collect her at 4, we go home and spend a couple of hours playing, having tea, watching tv and then the bed and bath thing together. Other days, I collect her at 5 nad have less time for these things. I now only work 4 days a week as i went back full time after having her and couldn't manage. On my 'day off', I do the cleaning and shopping, and catch up on my school work. i laso have to spend a few hours each weekend working - my DH normally takes her out. Holidays are fantastic, of course.The downside is not being able to take time off to take her to school on her first day, go to nativity plays, sports' day etc, this is going to break my heart wwhen she is older, I know.
There are days when i would love to be in a 9 till 5 job where I didn't have to bring work home for evenings and weekends but deep down ,I know I won't ever leave teaching.

After that essay, I do not think I have satisfactory work life balance!
good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[Caz10]

Sorry, have to agree with what everyone else has said - I went back to my FT primary teaching job in August and have been hating it ever since - struggling to get away by 5pm, really missing DD, and feeling guilt stricken at weekends because I am needing DH to take her away for a couple of hours at a time so I can do work. Working every evening so house is a total sh1t tip.

Honestly - I wouldn't!!

[janeite]

Woodenbox is absolutely right about missing all of the nativities and things. But if you are working full time already, you probably miss them anyway.

I am helped hugely by the fact that dp works part time, in order to see the girls out to school (took them when in primary) and most nights be here when they get back (collected them when in primary) - that made a massive difference to how we felt and because he doesn't have to bring much work home, it makes me feel okay about working at home, knowing that he's there to entertain them should they want entertaining.

[WEESLEEKITLauriefairycake]

DH is a full-time secondary school teacher - he leaves home at 6.45 and gets home at 7pm.

He marks and plans all weekend and does not take the half-terms off but does take a week at Easter and at Christmas and 4 weeks in the summer so he gets a full 6 weeks off.

He is head of faculty though so I think that's a lot more work.

In Primary it's better - best friend is a primary school teacher (yr 4) and she leaves home at 8 and gets back by 5 - she says she roughly does 10 hours extra on top of that a week and she takes all the holidays. The downside for her is that she never gets to Nativity plays etc and inset days are a bugger for childcare as she has a child in primary school (not her school).

[KingRolo]

Well, I'm still on maternity leave so have yet to discover just how difficult it's going to be to teach full time and be a mum.

However, I do know that my work life balance was pretty poor even before having a baby - leaving the house at 7.30am, home by 5.30pm, often marking until 7.00pm or 8.00pm. Then there are consultation evenings, trips, meetings... at least once a fortnight I'd still be in school at 9pm. The holidays are good but you do need to spend quite a chunk of them on marking and planning. At Easter for example I'd always dedicate one of the weeks to school work, the other to relaxing.

So I'd say if you want to teach then go for it as it is an incredibly rewarding job. But if it's a good work-life balance you're after then forget it. Hope this helps!

[Littlefish]

Sorry CeeCee but I agree with everyone else.

I work part time (2 days per week). I leave the house at 7.00am and get home at 6.30pm. I do those long days because I have to make sure that everything is finished by Friday so I don't leave stuff for my job-share partner to have to sort out. In a way, part time is just as hard as full time.

Even though I only work 2 days, I also spend about 5 hours every Wednesday doing my preparation etc. while dd is in nursery and a couple of hours on Thursday night as well.

Yes, teaching is a secure profession
Yes, the holidays are wonderful
Yes, the job satisfaction is HUGE

But, the hours are long both at school and at home. The stress levels are high. The training is tough. I don't think that I would have been able to do it with a 17month old. There is a mumsnetter called LewisFan who is doing her PGCE - it might be worth putting a call out to her for her experiences.

[keiralou]

I wouldn't really recommend it - lots of people think its a good option for working mums but i agree with alot that has already been said here. I have a 45min commute to school (sometimes longer). Until going on maternity leave my DH would have to take dd's to nursery / childminder so I could get to work before 8 and then i would be clock watching to make sure i got back in time to collect them from C/M at 6. Felt like I was a crap mum and a crap teacher.

[CandleQueen]

Also, the time off with holidays is good (apart from the extra days/weeks planning) but it also means you will never get a cheap off peak holiday again.
DH & I both teach, so we don't bother with abroad anymore - we cannot afford the flights or hotels in holiday time. Even peak UK holidays are pricey.

[dramaqueen]

I did my PGCE with a 6 month old and 2.5 yr old. It was fairly hard but not as hard as the job I had left. I then had a break for 2 years and am now completing my NQT "year", part time over 2.5 years. I will be qualified by the end of the summer term.

The PGCE was intensive, and I did have to do a fair amount at the weekends but only during placements. The NQT year has been getting easier and now I do no planning or marking at home. I do go into school occasionally in my time off (I work 0.5 at the moment) to attend meetings etc but still have time to shop/clean/have lunch with friends. I hardly ever work during the holidays.

I find the whole job much less stressful than my previous role, but realise that I am in the minority here

[Wonderstuff]

I have gone back 3 days and teach SEN I am really loving it and feel I have a good balance. I get good money for 3 days a week, when I was in industry I was earning the same money for a ft job. Because I am SEN I have very few classes, I teach 5 normal size groups in total, the rest is small groups and 1:1 which means less marking and and report writing. The head at my school is quite good and will allow the odd afternoon off for dcs sports days and plays. DD is in nursery from 8 until 5.30. I do take some work home at the weekend but only a couple of hours worth.
I agree with everyone else that training is tough, I can't imagine doing it with a preschooler tbh, and the first couple of years I found very hard work and at that point I was working crazy hours. I have just started (today) doing a specialist dyslexia course and that is going to be lots and lots of work, but is not forever.

[allgonebellyup]

i put up a thread like this on lone parents - i already work full time in a secondary school but only as a cover supervisor and it works really well at the moment.
But next year i hope to go to do the teacher training and am terrified i wont be able to cope.

i do also do a lot of open uni studying at home as well as working, so i hope i am gaining enough experience in the work-a-holic route!

i'd been waiting til my youngest was at school to do all this, and i still feel guilty leaving him and dd at the childminders in the mornings!

[Wonderstuff]

Agree with candle, never having cheap holidays is the biggest drawback imo.

[scienceteacher]

I did my PGCE when my second child was a baby. I had a really great job before that, but became dissillusioned like you. If I am being perfectly honest, I would have said that the right thing for me to have done would have been to jack in work altogether, but I couldn't turn my back on my degree (first in my family, and all that).

I did my PGCE, which I found fairly easy compared to a corporate job, and found my first teaching job. That was OK but fairly stressful due to low level discipline issues (that was in the mid-90s and it is much, much worse now). I can't say I was particularly happy.

I was rescued by my third pregnancy. Teaching could not support hte childcare, so I had no choice but to give up. I taught for four terms. I loved every minute of my SAH life. I threw myself into it (church stuff, mostly).

After 8 years at home, two children in independent school and three waiting in the wings, it was time for me to contribute financially to the household. I rtw when my youngest was 3. She is now 6 and I am working full time.

I enjoy my job now and hope to stick this one out until I retire in 20 years. I am lucky in that my 3 youngest children are at the same school as me, so we travel together and I do get to see them during the day.

I did my PGCE 14 years ago, and it is just in the last year that I feel that I have arrived in a place where I am comfortable and happy to stay for the longterm.

My advice to you is to really think about what you want. Is teaching a half-way house as it was for me way back then? Are you thinking of doing it for emotional reasons like mine (not wanting to turn my back on my own education)?

Go into teaching because you have a passion for education, and use your work experience as a marketing tool. Schools like teachers with industrial experience, but this does not trump passion for teaching.

[Feenie]

I agree with everyone else. And the holidays are lovely! But here I am again, having put ds to bed, put washing on, sorted ironing, sitting down to at least 2 hours of marking/preparing before I fall into bed. Had just texted my friend at school - she is marking also - to say 'what a life!'
Wouldn't recommend at the mo. Ask me during the day tomorrow, you may get a different answer!

[rachels103]

Whatever you do, do not go into teaching because you think it will give you a better work life balance as the main reason. I have had this conversation with so many people who can't see beyond the holidays as a reason to teach. You have to really want to do it.

As previous posts have said, the holidays are a great benefit of teaching. However for every day you sneak away at 4, there will be parents' evenings, concerts, meetings etc. that keep you there til your dc are in bed, and you will work at home to compensate for any extra time you claim with your family.

I work full time and the only way I can do it is because my dh is working part time, and also because I'm in my 7th year of teaching so planning, marking and preparation don't take as long any more.

In my PGCE year and first year of teaching, I would usually be at school by 7.45, rarely left before 5.30 and took work home every weekend and most evenings.

I love my job and wouldn't change it for the world, so I'm not trying to say how hard done by I am at all. In comparison to many people working full time it is still a better profession to fit in with family life, but you do need to look at all sides I think, and make a decision based on whether you will enjoy and find satisfaction in the job. My advice before making any decisions would be to spend some time in a school - you'll soon see what it is really like.

Good luck!

[scienceteacher]

Almost ditto in terms of children's ages. Ditto in terms of relative difficulty of job. I found teaching much easier, although not as satisfying, than the job I left.

I probably did it for all the wrong reasons, but 14 years on, I am very very happy with where I am.

[allgonebellyup]

science teacher, what job did you do before????

[ladycornyofsilke]

Wonderstuff where are you doing your course?

[scienceteacher]

I did R&D for a major health and beauty company.

[Heated]

The answer to your OP is a mix of yes and no.

Yes, you'll get 13 weeks holiday to spend with your dc which is lovely. My dcs go into childcare at 7.30 and are picked up between 4.30/5o'clock, the exception being when I have after school meetings (as a bog standard teacher 2 a month, not including parents eves). My hb teaches maths and brings very little marking home, except exam papers, most is done in class then and there. Because maths is a pretty static subject, often with fixed schemes of work, the preparation, once established, is not heavy although there are big changes ahead with the introduction of functional skills. Maths teachers are in short supply, so it's easier to get a job and they get a golden hello too (actually, do they still?). You also have a decent final salary pension (for now!), you contribute 6%, the employer 8%.

Unfortunately I don't teach maths, so my evenings are taken up with marking and prep once the dcs are in bed and that's how you'll spend your PGCE and NQT years. They are the hardest years in teaching as you will be expected to produce your own materials, plan how you are going to teach, complete assignments and, of course, get to grips with classroom management. It is physically and emotionally tough.

My dh teaches in a tough school and loves it, I teach in a very nice school and mostly I love it too . If you think it would suit you, then go for it!

[dramaqueen]

Actually, Scienceteacher, I think in hindsight that I did it for the wrong reasons as well . However I now really enjoy it, although it has taken me a while to get to this point. I think alot of it has to do with confidence in the classroom.

[twinsetandpearls]

My school day finishes late - 3.35, on the odd occasion I can get away by half four to be home by five but it is really really hard and it does mean a lot of work at home.

I would not go into teaching to achieve a life work balance particularly if you have any kind of perfectionist traits.

I am an extreme example as I also battle depression but the only way my family works with me as a teacher is to have dp on reduced hours and working at home.

I leave for work at 7 so am at my desk by 7.30. I will usually live at 5.30pm to be home by six. I then have to do a few more hours in the evening. I work on average about 4-6 hours at a weekend but at certain times it will be much more.

BUT the holidays mean that my dd and I have real quality time together and I do not have to worry about childcare.

I would only become a teacher if you really want to, I love it and would not want to do anything else. But people who teach for any other reason end up crap or dont last, either way they end up unhappy.