To ask what is really so bad about a teaching career compared to other jobs? Does anyone actually enjoy it?

@Thepinkyponkc
Not a teacher anymore? Why did you stop?
So you never had to adapt your planning as they weren't getting it so they needed to go over it again a different way?
What about SEN paperwork? Planning interventions and adaptations?
Also you had a TA..... many of us don't anymore sadly, but even if I did they would be having to help in class / taking interventions etc every precious moment, not doing my photocopying!
Oh and having to work after school is not because I am fond of a chat!

In my opinion teaching, the actual teaching part, is the best and easiest job in the world!

However…that’s maybe 10% of the job. It’s not so much “the stuff around the edges”, it’s that those things take up far and away the vast majority of your time. If I just got paid to teach it’d be money for old rope. I’d be laughing! As it is I work in a setting with next to no behaviour issues on the minute-by-minute scale, no issues with uniform or planners, no detentions or duties, so have lost a big chunk of the crap that takes up time in a school, but I still spend a LOT of my time chasing up students who’ve missed deadlines, doing admin, marking imposed assessments which always seem to come at the worst time, doing data stuff, parents evenings and open evenings and the random pointless stuff we get set for performance targets. I spend a couple of hours a week planning (I like that), another couple doing standard marking (marking) but then at some times of year have absolutely hours and hours and hours of coursework assessment which is a real killer and very stressful.

In your post you talk about getting work done. In teaching the work is never, ever done.

Yes. There are no projects completed or cases won. It just goes on. And you can work every evening and every weekend and still not feel like you're doing enough to stop you from getting in trouble with SLT, never mind doing your best for your students.

Unfortunately, there seems to be more and more of ‘those sorts’ of schools around :(

When teachers are stuck on a pay scale in a school because they’d lose it if they more, but they have to pay the mortgage, it’s even worse.

Oh I know it does. Although hopefully a teacher with the traits I outlined previously, including strong boundaries, will not put up with bullying and will leave that sort of school of their own accord before being hounded out.

And then look forward to being put on Capability and bullied out.

It happens.

I will add that if you have a propensity for working in the evenings and at weekends in an effort to get ahead of yourself and feel less stressed… do not teach. That approach to work will see you working unsustainably long hours and burnt out within 3 years because you never ever get everything done and everything has to be done by yesterday.

Teaching needs the sort of personality h that can say:
”I have 20 things on my to-do list. I will work until 5pm on the things that are top priority for the children (not necessarily the priority for senior leadership team) and then clock off and have a nice evening with my family. I can make peace with the fact that some things on my to do list will never get done, but my wellbeing and relationships are more important to me than the school’s OFSTED rating or being in the headteachers good books”.

In your post you talk about getting work done. In teaching the work is never, ever done.

I would like Gillian Keegan to go and investigate!

What do they do in Ireland when it comes to schemes of work/resources? Individual schools up and down the country in England are paying exorbitant amounts of money for schemes- White Rose Maths, Twinkl, Phonicsplay etc etc on annual subscriptions and making publishers somewhere huge sums of money.

Under Labour, there were free QCA schemes of work to use, we had a free government phonics scheme to use. It’s amazing that this current government have decided that the Letters and Sounds scheme is no longer good enough (we liked it and our pupils made good progress with us for what it’s worth) so have released a list of ‘state sanctioned’ schemes that cost thousands from which schools must now choose. These obviously have to 100% match your reading scheme and display fonts, otherwise Ofsted will clobber you about ‘fidelity’. We had to spend thousands replacing all of our reading books (and had to lose a TA to pay for it).

I don’t see any of this benefitting anyone except the people running educational resource companies. It certainly isn’t benefitting schools (by emptying their budget on unnecessary purchases or teachers (by making them learn new schemes, make and download/cut up new resources and replan whole schemes of work). Is there any evidence base to say the children are benefitting from this huge redeployment of cash? I suspect sticking with the existing scheme and keeping their TA would have been better. Or if that scheme needed amending, why didn’t the government make the changes and re-release it to school…FREE!

The pre-requisits for a potentially happy career in teaching are:

• cast-iron mental health, emotionally stable and resilient.
• Able to advocate for yourself and maintain your boundaries. Not a people pleaser.
• Not a perfectionist.
• Naturally calm and well-organised, even under pressure.
• Like children, especially the naughty ones.
• Sense of humour / appreciation for the absurd.

If you can tick these boxes you have a shot at being a great teacher and enjoying it!

My uncle just retired from teaching. He was really passionate about it but disheartened by changes to his school that weren't in the kids interests. This was a private school. Not one of the best, but certainly decent.
My mum adored teaching, she taught adults English for business, then did ESOL and adult literacy. She worked inprivate colleges then public FE. You need to spend a lot of your own time preparing lessons and marking.
My DH got chucked under the bus when he was promoted to head of department when he'd only been a technician previously. They gave him a sheet of A4 paper with guidance on how to run the department and teach the kids!?
So I think it is very mixed. But massively rewarding to see the students progressing. Mostly you have to really care about them.

If schools in Ireland can teach children without all of the bollocks we are subjected to in England, what’s the point of it all?

I'd really, really like to know the answer to this question.

Consider the fact that teaching is theoretically an enjoyable and fulfilling thing to do, and that teachers have long holidays, can theoretically leave work at 3 or 3:30 and have great job security and good pensions and can find jobs pretty much anywhere in the country they fancy living.

...And then consider the fact that 40,000 teachers quit teaching last year and schools cannot find teachers to replace them. Deciding to be a teacher at the moment must be a bit like watching people streaming out of a burning building and deciding to go in and have a look around.

I’ve been a teacher for 30 years. I'm very lucky to be in a girls' grammar school with virtually no behaviour issues. That's what makes it doable for me. If I end up leaving this school before retirement for whatever reason, I won't work in another school.

Echo all the above - I'm in Primary in England and the behaviour for me is exhausting. Trying to balance the different needs of various pupils is a hard task and I feel awful when I don't meet all of them. You go into this type of job to help children after all and you'll reflect back constantly on wether you could've done things better. You can be subjected to abuse from children and their parents, usually because of varying MH needs that current services cannot meet so there is no resolution. I do however have some fantastic students I work with and I look forward to being with them on most days.

Also if you have a crap day and want to come on Mumsnet to just vent, don't go anywhere other than the Education/TheStaffroom section because society as a whole seems to have very little respect for teachers/teaching/school staff and you'll be reminded constantly of the long holidays that'll make up for any problems in your job.

Teaching and supporting students is my 2nd career, I remember being full of energy when I started in my 40s. 10 years later and I'm mentally and physically exhausted - I'm usually ill in the holidays because the adrenaline keeps me going during term...just about...then I crash. Teaching is like performing/acting for 6 hours a day in front of a mixed crowd!

I absolutely love it. I’ve been teaching since 1994 - with three maternity leave breaks. However, I suspect I wouldn’t still be going strong at 57 in many schools in the state sector. I work in an independent school with a very supportive department where my experience is valued. Behaviour is good and we have flexibility in what/how we teach. I teach English so marking load is big but as I’ve been doing it a long time I’m good at prioritising. I think it can still be a great career but I’d choose my school wisely.

In addition to what people have posted up thread. It is much harder to carry incompetent Co workers in teaching as it has direct impact on your time which is already rammed. I'm currently working 10 hour days with very little break. I work 4 days officially but i am working every day off atm. I am carrying 4 non specialist teachers in my subject due to staff leaving. It will ease eventually but it is pretty intense right now. I'm not a line manager but if I don't do this it will have huge impacts on the students and teachers.

I know others will come in with "other professions do this" and I know teaching is not the only hard job. But it's important to realise that when you are in the classroom teaching you can deal with literally nothing else so all the rest of it is waiting for you once you're done. Add to that the decline in behaviour, the pressure of an unsuitable curriculum and supporting Sen needs that shouldn't even really be in mainstream......emotionally after 6 hours of student contact in a day you are completely exhausted.....and then I comes the phone calls, marking and planning for the next round. And That's a basic day excluding parents evening, meetings, training etc etc.

Oops sorry bit if a rant but the actual teaching is a great thing to do, the rest of it is just bullshit.

So I think you’d be great! I moved from business HR , high level job and did my PGCe and became a primary school teacher. I found I was able to manage my time very effectively- very business like and used excel etc so lesson planning was fine. I would map my whole year out, half term plans in a few hours and then say to day would take me ten mins or so- I used to have all my holidays basically bar a few weeks of working. But ! I didn’t chat 🤣 to others at school, I worked and marked through lunch, made to do lists, gave my TAS stuff to photocopy a week ahead etc I managed it like I did In Business . My other Pgce friends who hadn’t come from that background stuggled a lot- sat in the staff room in their lunch hour, marked at home whilst watching telly etc so it became too imposing.

actual teaching I loved - I had the early years children and also older year groups. I could give them lots of time, enjoyed the topics so I’d say go for it!

It's heavily scrutinised- it felt like I was never trusted to just do the job. All the observations I had to have drove me away in the end.

In your current job do you have someone every so often sat in the corner of the room with a clipboard staring at you and making notes? That's how teaching feels.

I’ve been a secondary teacher for 20+ years and have some management responsibilities. I can’t imagine doing anything else.

It is exhausting though - by the end of each half-term block I am on my knees and spend the first part of each holiday just sleeping and recovering.

As others have said, it has changed massively over the course of my career in terms of pupil behaviour and demands from management.

I love teaching but agree with the previous posts. Whether you can survive / thrive depends a LOT on the school and the individuals in management positions. I teach 11-18 and having A-level teaching is a welcome break from the behaviour management.
Second the recommendation to spend some time in a school. This used to be compulsory before applying for a PGCE.

I am head of a core subject in a secondary school serving a deprived area.
I love teaching, I genuinely do. I love seeing kids get something in lessons, I love their questions and the things they do that make me smile. It is a great job.
I work in a school with supportive SLT and as a result, good behaviour.

That said, it can be absolutely brutal. Dealing with parents, duties, form issues, following up various things with parents or colleagues, extra curricular stuff, marking assessments etc. For me, also making sure my department runs smoothly and the sheer pressure of knowing you are ultimately responsible for the progress of the children in your subject. Observations/Ofsted/quality assurance.

There are days when I barely have time to go to the toilet.

Before embarking on a pgce I would strongly advise you spend some time in schools, speaking with teachers and looking at what the job entails.

Seems we are doing well.

I switched careers from a commercial job to primary teaching in my early 50s. As previous posters suggested, massive pay cut (and obviously only student loan while training), so you need to plan for that.

I’m far more fulfilled in my work now; I regularly feel that the work I do has a purpose and visible outcomes and at the end of the school year I tend to have a real sense of a job well done which is great.
However, I routinely sleep poorly due to worrying about certain children, parents or situations beyond my control. This academic year I have been ill in every single holiday (as in needing to stay in bed, be on antibiotics etc) which makes the holiday not a holiday plus loses me the time I’d normally have to catch up on life stuff .
I’m finding parent behaviour increasingly bizarre and difficult to deal with, particularly as our school allows them to email us directly. Some really nasty comment on a Friday or Saturday evening can really destroy a weekend. And quite often on the Monday morning they’ll behave as though it was never said.

I think coming from a professional background is really helpful with lots of aspects of teaching though. I find it easy to do lots of the admin - written reports, formal letters, excel spreadsheets- that others find a chore. Plus I don’t have too much of an issue being observed as my previous work was always scrutinised by others as part of the quality review process.

I did my Support Plans ( IEP) in September. Other than that I have fortnightly plans .

They only take me maybe 10 mins as it’s just copy and paste and change a few bits .

I am in special education now but could easily be back to class in September. My class colleagues don’t do much more time other than in their first year where they are an NQT .

I wouldn't do it. All the teachers on here seem to hate it