To consider retraining as a primary teacher?

My 23 year old daughter is a Primary School Teacher. She lived with us until a few months ago, so I have seen the amount of work involved. A typical week day for her was :

Up at 6am, get ready, make packed lunch etc
Get in to school by 7.30am
Teaching 9am-3pm
Planning 3pm-630pm
Arrive home 640pm
Dinner (cooked by me) 7pm
7pm-midnight more lesson preparation
Midnight - bed

Rinse and repeat. She was exhausted to the point of almost being ill. She had 5 special needs children in her class of 31 pupils. She had no teaching assistant or any help whatsoever. I did all of her washing/cooking/cleaning. She wants children of her own and has no idea how she could manage both without going part time.

She has actually just moved to the USA for 2-3 years, and she says it's like night and day at her new school. They allow time in the working day for prep. She as teaching assistants to help her. Class size is 18 pupils. She's home by 4.15pm with no school work to do - she actually has a life now!

So yeah, I think you'd be crazy to do this!

Most teachers I have spoken too have recommended being a TA or HLTA over teaching, would most agree with that or not

Depends what level of money you need really. A TA wage is not much more than minimum wage.

Doesn't help that my partner is a teacher as well. Very nice in the holidays but term-times are a struggle.

Training and the first few years would be very hard with your family circumstances. I am the same age as you with kids 9 and 12. I have nearly 20 years experience so have tricks up my sleeve and short-cuts to make life a bit easier but I am still crumbling under the strain of juggling my work and family life. In your first years of teaching everything takes longer to prepare. I don't know that I would start a teaching career at your stage of life.

My best friend did this, it's so sad watching her struggle with the planning and draining nature of the work. But i doubt it's like that for everyone. But you really really have to be all in, like a million percent, from what I've seen

If you were thinking secondary, it is better to train to teach a subject in short supply as then you get more choice of schools to work in. Easier to find a good job.
It does seem to matter a lot where you work. But that is no different to any other industry.

Not in a million years.

I am pretty much in the same situation!

Most teachers I have spoken too have recommended being a TA or HLTA over teaching, would most agree with that or not?

It is a rewarding yet frustrating job.

In the classroom, with the children yes incredibly rewarding.
However there are more children that can be draining coming into the classroom.

Draining because your the only consistent adult in their life. Draining as they cannot do anything independently and you can't work with them every day. Draining because there are behaviour issues of calling out, disrupting the class, draining because they are struggling with different languages and need you to take the time to explain the English again so they can understand.

This is just my current class and each child has a perfectly valid reason for doing what they do due to their needs and other situations but it's draining.

Then you have the endless planning. Have you included the additional support for SEN and those who don't have English and are you pushing those that get it and giving them challenge so they are not bored? That's for every lesson you teach. Then you have to mark and give feedback for every lesson you teach.

Then you have the data collections, are they meeting their targets? Who is on target, who isn't and why? What are you doing about it?

It is so rewarding yet draining. If you have the passion and the energy then go for it.

... and on the financial side it's a big drop in income (but we easily manage), but there is also a wonderful certainty that we never had before either.

That's a big decision to make, so you really need to look closely at it, and be prepared to stick with going down that path.

My DH made that transition after 15 years working in tech (late 30s). He was very burnt out, workload, stress, dynamically changing environment, etc. His dream was always to be a teacher, but the decision for primary level was a surprise, and came after research.

As other have suggested, the initial workload, and the school ethos/admin/policies was a very steep learning curve. Luckily he had great support from colleagues in a good school. He is very organized, efficient and coasting along in a routine.

He's very happy with the change, it's been great for our work/life balance, and feels he is doing something of value. I admit I miss some aspects the old situation though, all on the financial side.

This stood out for me
"I always volunteer to help in the classroom when the opportunity comes up"

Your kids must love you being so involved in their school life and if you are able to do this then you probably attend all the sports days, the school plays, the tea and cake for Mother's day.....

If you are a full time teacher you will be unlikely to be able to attend any event for your own children. As a parent I think you would be mad to give up a 50K job to do it. Teaching where "Every Child Matters" except your own!

Some years ago, I briefly, very briefly toyed with the idea of doing a PGCE in order to teach at GCSE/A level, but soon came to my senses.

Is it better teaching in Secondary Schools or worse ?

Also I have seen quite a few friends train as teachers, some of whom rapidly drop out. The ones who really struggle seem to have perfectionist tendencies or are the type of people who you can see would get bullied by the kids.

@Howshouldibehave so you work 2 days a week? Nobody gets a good pension working 2 days a week.

I am not a teacher but my friend did what you want to do. She too loved presenting.
She loves her job. She is very organised and works in a good school with great behaviour management policies. The SLT seems to be key.
If you really want to do it, go ahead. I suspect if you don't you will regret it.

That part I agree with: even at most I will only do 4 days per week as I can’t do full time. It’s too much, but I’ve switched on faster accrual and will buy additional units to compensate. Anyway - off topic OP 😂

If the workload was manageable, I would love to be full time.

I mean my current job involves a lot of meaningless paperwork and management pressure. I kind of feel like I might prefer all that crap if there’s something more rewarding involved in the middle of it!

That’s really positive thinking-I like it!

What I find is that I’m prepping for lessons from 7.40-8.40, teaching from 8.40-3.20 and only THEN starting the paperwork, so I’m 9 hours in already, and often can’t think straight by then!

If you compare against what you could accrue in a DC you’ll have done very well. It’s not the pension, it’s the part time work.

pensions are my thing abs it grates when people say PT it’s crap. It’s really not

I have taught for 20 years but because of being part time, my teachers pension info says I’ve only accrued about 8 years of pensionable time-that doesn’t sound very good.