To career change to primary teaching?

I now do 1 to 1 outreach teaching and it's so much better.

Can you tell me a bit more about this (by PM if you think it would derail the thread!). Do you work with a specific provider or through your LA? Do you work every day? With one child or multiple? In your house/theirs or a library type venue? What about pay? Holidays? Timings?

Thank you so much!

Don't do it don't do it don't do it. I told my friend who'd worked in education recruitment for years not to retrain as a primary teacher. Didn't listen to me. Lasted a year.

You will be working 7am to 7pm plus weekends.
You will be dealing with kids who are lovely and interested but also ones who throw stuff at you if you turn your back, who disrupt the whole class and who stop you ever delivering more than 5 minutes of the amazing lesson you spent hours putting together.
You will be dealing with parents who don't back up your given consequences for bad behaviour.

I taught high school. 5 lovely classes and 1 that made it absolute hell to go in every day. I now do 1 to 1 outreach teaching and it's so much better. These are the kids who would destroy a class lesson but 1 to 1 is what they need and respond to. So it's so rewarding.

I left primary teaching and went into a compliance role which is far easier and much more lucrative.

Would you be able to get a job training new solicitors. At least the trainees would be interested in learning and studying. Lots of my friends are teaching and looking at other careers. Why not find out from teachers what the job is really like. My friends tell about management having a go at them, parents and the kids. I am glad I am not a teacher!

But the stress and worry that comes with the high stakes in my current job cannot be matched by teaching

How do you know the stress cannot be matched by the stress in teaching when you have never done it? I wouldn't presume to comment on the stress levels of other jobs.

I hope you do back to your thread and engage with posters.

I left primary teaching last December after 20.years in. Mainstream education and the demands on teachers has been getting progressively worse for years and it's only going one way now.
I'm now an EOTAS Tutor 🌟

Oh..I’ve read your updates…yeah…if you’re having a meltdown and thinking people are abusing you over pointing out that teaching is just as stressful then I don’t think you’re thick skinned enough for a classroom.

I am a secondary school teacher. I trained when I had 3 young children. I’m still enjoying teaching although consider and investigate other jobs frequently. You’re not unreasonable for considering a career change but I would look at the starting salary for teachers. Then look at how many days a week you’d need to work in your current salary to be the same. Would you prefer to work 3 days a week in your current position and reduce your burnout/stress feelings that way.
I would suggest that you go and spend some significant time in a few different schools and see what is best for you.
It is not a stress free job and I’m sure your job feels more stressful than teaching but honestly I think that it’s just a different type of stress and in a way not really worth comparing them.
There’s no reason why you couldn’t do it but it also might be an ‘out of the fire into the frying pan’ situation.
I had many people tell me not to retrain as a teacher but honestly I haven’t regretted it. I may not make it to retirement age teaching but the kids make me laugh every single lesson. I get paid a decent salary for talking and being passionate about my subject. I would never have considered primary though. I think it’s much harder.

I kind of get an undercurrent of you thinking that the stress involved in teaching isn’t as serious as in law. When you say you worry about work and it being really serious things, there are really serious things to worry about in teaching and you will encounter no end of vulnerable children and VERY distressing situations. The pressure is unreal and the environment more often than not, toxic. The hours are relentless and what you do is never enough. You have to be ‘on’ all of the time. You can’t have a bad day where you hide behind a desk and computer screen. You’re in full performance mode all day. I gave up after 20 years and will never go back.

Pointing out that you don't know how stressful teaching is isn't 'abuse'. I wouldn't assume to know how stressful your job is. Why do you assume you know how stressful being a teacher is.

I left teaching a long time ago now, so have no strong feelings about what you said above. I worked in a range of schools, up to SLT level.

But what I would say is that, as a primary teacher, you are at the very frontline of safeguarding for young and vulnerable children:

Children at risk of serious physical abuse - I can still vividly recall the strangulation bruises around the neck of a child (who was under the age of five).

Children with serious medical conditions, for example children with severe allergies who might need you to administer an Epipen in the classroom, or children who might have an epileptic seizure or diabetes.

Children at risk of neglect - you will be the eyes and ears necessary to build up a picture for social services, although sometimes you may find that no action is taken.

I don’t doubt that your present job is stressful, but this is a different kind of stress.

Doing something that you dislike is the most stressful thing of all, regardless of any other factors. I would think if you can cope with the stress of being a solicitor then you would cope well with a teachers stress, the difference is you will be doing something satisfying which will energise you. I went from a legal role (but not solicitor) into childcare and am 1000% times happier. When work gets stressful now I handle it much better than I used to because I feel fulfilled. On paper my old job was much better but it didn't feel that way for me. Many people thought i was crazy but i was so stressed and unhappy. I see now it was a personality mismatch, I love the creative outlet I have now and I have a deep sense of achievement I never had before. Getting little Christmas gifts and hand made cards is more than any Christmas bonus I ever got.

I have two friends who recently qualified as teachers and love it. One was 48 when she started and left financial services. In truth she never shuts up harping on about it but I let her off, she is just so much happier.

Do what you gut tells you!

Makes me so fucking mad that people assume primary teaching is all colouring & counting. The stress is just as bloody hideous as secondary.

I wouldn't be so sure. Based on what knowledge of teaching?

I teach in a primary school in a rural village in Northern Ireland. We don’t have ofsted in NI which I believe makes it a more family friendly career here. I’m in school for 8.30 ish and stay until 5 most days. I no longer take books home and I don’t work at the weekends either. I never work in the holidays. I love my job and give 100% when I’m there.

I agree 100%! ⬆️

@RedYellowGreenBlu

I'm a 50 something Primary School Teacher looking to leave education.

I've been conflicted for years - it can be incredibly rewarding & great fun, but it's also utterly soul destroying & beyond exhausting. Hardest job I've ever done, by far & sadly, if I had my time again, I wouldn't do it.

I’m a teacher and I love it. I teach Year 6 and am an English Lead Practitioner. I don’t find workload an issue if I’m honest, although I’ve been doing the job long enough to know how to work smart. I do work evenings sometimes but so does my husband who is corporate; in fact, I’d say he works longer hours outside work than I do. In my school, we aren’t micromanaged and the children are lovely; it’s a deprived area we’re in so we aren’t coasting off affluence - our children are genuinely great and the SLT supportive over any behaviour issues.

I’m not sure I’d recommend it as a job though as I’ve only felt like this now I’m very experienced; getting to this point is a slog, but I guess you could say the same of any career!

I've done both: solicitor, then trained and worked as a secondary teacher and now back to law. I personally found teaching more stressful than law - and I only worked 0.5! However, I'm still glad I trained and taught for a few years. And every person and job is different so nobody can tell you which is best. If you have young children then I would not retrain now, the PGCE year is gruelling. I would wait until they are at high school to do it. But otherwise, I'd say try it and see. You might love it and you can always go back to law if you don't. Also I did secondary and I think behaviour is generally worse and the kids less malleable. I did a stint at primary as part of teacher training and the children were so easily pleased!

I've been a teacher for a fair few years and over my time have worked with the full age range from reception to Post 16. I love being in the classroom and children are the best but it's all the other stuff and not enough time to do the core job properly because of all the other hoops to jump through.

Expectations have ramped up over my career but none contact time has decreased so you have to do everything out of school time. You aren't given the time and resources needed to do the job but it's then your fault when things aren't how other people subjectively judge they should be.

You also have to cover your back in so many ways as parents and SLT hold you accountable (not the child) and you have to justify decisions you make, what you say, the tone you use etc when you are rushing around trying to do 50 things at once.

I'm a well established teacher with a reputation for being firm but fair and I'm usually well liked by pupils, parents and staff but even I get my fair share of rude, even abusive, emails and phone calls from parents who will always believe their child over the professional. These take a long time to deal with and are soul destroying and usually over the slightest thing.

it's not a profession to go into if you haven't got a thick skin and it is fairly stressful. I always say we try to cram a full year's worth of work into the 39 school weeks and that brings it's own stresses.

I teach in Special Education- love it. Kids make me laugh, it's often unpredictable and when the kids learn to do something, I feel a huge sense of pride!

I'm not a teacher so can't comment on the actual job, but I know locally a number of teachers who can't get a job in primary teaching. There is a shortage of roles and the birth rate is dropping, so it will only get worse. Check the situation where you live.

I used to love how rewarding my job was but the reward is dwarfed by the other shit not to mention constant worry

That's exactly how I feel about teaching! The being with the children part is amazing, but totally dwarfed by the rest of it and you know when you're wishing that part away so you can try to make a dent in your massive pile of 'other shit', you know something is badly wrong. Teaching wasn't like this when I started which is what makes me most sad.

It's important though, not to compare stress or try one-upmanship with it, I think. Maybe it's a different stress to the high-stakes stress of operating on a patient who might die, or representing a person who might go to prison if you don't do it well, but it's still stressful. I wouldn't presume to say I would find it more or less stressful than your job because I haven't done your job, but you appear to be suggesting that you'll be ok with it, despite having never done it, because you're used to stress. The fact you left due to burnout is important not to forget.

The stress I feel is the 'boiling frog' analogy. I coped with the increase in paperwork, observations, PMR, increase in parental contact to 24/7, the prescribed scripts of schemes of work and strict timetabling. But that doesn't stop, it expands and the micromanagement gets continually worse, the complaints get worse, the behaviour gets worse, your TA gets removed, you don't just have 4 pupils with SEN in your class, you have 6/7/8/9 and still no extra support, but you are still expecting to make all children make progress, and still expected to stick to the script, and you still have to do displays, photocopying, plan for your unpaid curriculum areas, prepare for Ofsted, parents evenings, report writing, keep on top of marking ready for data drops and book scrutinies, and plan topic days, lead trips, plan concerts and assemblies, oh and another child with an EHCP has joined your class, taking you to 31 with no extra support. It's the relentless creep of workload that I find stressful and am often ill during the holidays because my body feels like it just packs up when I stop the plate-spinning for a few days.

You might be fine, but don't dismiss the stress just because you have different stress in your current job.

There's a book out where a man travels the UK, talking to people about their jobs. He meets a teacher who had been an army officer and been in Afghanistan . He said without hesitation that teaching was more stressful. I really wouldn't diminish the stress levels.

You seem quite short-tempered when you are told something you don't like to hear. The swearing and aggression from your last few posts doesn't bode well for a career in which you will need to hold your temper far more often than you can imagine.

Even shadowing a teacher will not give you a sufficient impression of the workload and stress that comes with the job as so much of it is now taken home, because there is no time left in the day for you to do the things required of you to actually teach. Workload seems to have exploded in the last 3 years or so, and I hadn't thought that was possible, but it's what happens when schools have no money left and many are already in a budget deficit. No money for TAs means the teacher does it, no money for admin staff, pastoral staff, cover supervisors, lunchtime staff or increasingly even cleaning staff means the teacher does it.

I have worked before my kids got up this morning, am working now while I'm waiting for food to finish cooking, will be working later when my children are playing, will be working this evening and likely most of tomorrow, too, and still not be done. I am working 2-3 hours before school starts, stay until 5pm, work again from 8-10pm. And I am efficient. Very efficient.

You're welcome to try it. We need the staff. But be under no illusion of how hard you will work, how much stress and pressure you will be under and how much of an impact this is going to have on your life, your health and your relationships.