Becoming a primary school teacher

Like everything public sector the NHS service is under funded but there's lots of scope for independent practice too, both self employed or working for a small team, charity or school. In the last 15 years I've done universal communication promotion work, seen children between 2 and 12 with a variety of needs, trained staff and parents, worked in two nurseries regularly and had a team lead role. I'm now moving over to independent practice for my change of scene!

It’s in Coventry.

I’d be interested to know more about this. I’ve been teaching for 21 years and need a change.

Just to give you a heads up - I’m coming to the end of my PGCE having retrainined in my 40s. I have loved the PGCE, had good marks and feedback.

i can’t get a job. There’s 50+ applicants for every job here, it’s bonkers and the most competitive job market I have ever been in.

i would guess that this isn’t the same for secondary, or in other areas of the country. It’s not just me - only 4 from my course have jobs lined up.

I'll give you another perspective.
I'm a primary school teacher who works part time and it is great. I arrive at 8.15 and leave anytime between 4 and 5. I don't do any work at home anymore. The holidays are my own.

The key is that I work part time, and I've been in the same year group for 5 years.

I can see it's already been suggested, but being a children's speech therapist might suit you. I've been one for 15 years after my teacher mum warning me off teaching! I work with 2-7 year olds. There are increasingly more routes in as there's a shortage. Message me if you have any questions :)

I’ve been a primary teacher for 30 years - still love my job - but wouldn’t recommend it! Because I know I’m lucky. My school is amazing - staff meetings only happen if there’s something important to actually discuss. Staff are not constrained by schemes and strict timetables and instead have the flexibility to make things work for them. We have the option to book two Friday afternoons off during the year and at least one teacher day as “time in lieu” as an acknowledgment of the over and above hours everyone does. Plus a teacher day for report writing (they take longer than this but it’s a help!) I’ve also never been turned down when I’ve asked for time off for my children’s graduations, school concerts etc or appointments that couldn’t be arranged for outside working hours. There’s a sense of goodwill where the head knows no one takes advantage and in return he gets staff willing to stay for end of term discos, residential etc.
staff are all supportive and listened to. We have a very simple assessment process as staff are trusted to know the children themselves. Marking policy is basic. Yet our recent dated was really positive and our levels are typically above national - proving that a lot of the pressures other school insist on are completely unnecessary. Unsurprisingly our staff retention is high!

I don’t recommend the job because I know how lucky I am when I listen to others talk about the ridiculous expectations placed on them. I know what the public perception of us is, and it’s really frustrating when the government make policies without ever stepping foot in a school. Thank goodness for an SLT who ignore those they can!! There are definitely good schools - if you can find one, it’s an amazing job.

The school you are in makes a difference and there are in-school training routes (where you start earning straight away). If you were thinking of getting TA experience, a big benefit of that or supply work is trying out school environments. It is a great job and I’ve seen a lot of people thrive who came from the corporate world: you’re used to hard work but this may feel more rewarding.

I am 10 years into being a primary school teacher. I have since had 2 young children and I work full time.

I do agree that teachers can be their own worst enemy. Would I like to be around more for my children? Yes. However they are still my priority and no headteacher could tell me otherwise. We are allowed to take our ppa to attend nativities and sports days. I had a paid morning out to take my son to his first day at school. I've been able to attend nursery settling sessions with him. I recieve unquestioned paid leave if he's ill. Any work I miss by attending events, I catch up on once the children are in bed.

I stay at work till 5ish 3 days a week and the other days I'm out as soon as I can. Definitely by 3.30. I don't do any work once home with my children and the only thing I do in the holidays is decorate my classroom, takes 1 day whilst my husband takes a day off. In fact I've been making this more and more child led as the years go by and actually decorate the room with the children present in class!

It is a job and many headteachers understand that. I am privileged to earn a good wage, have long holidays with my children and have a good support system of grandparents and after school clubs.

It is a stressful job for all the reasons other people have said and if I had my time again I probably wouldn't have done it, however it can and does work with a family.

These responses make me really sad.
I have been a teacher for 15 years and I still absolutely love it. My school is fantastic, work life balance. My chuldren are at my school which makes a big difference because they are with me in my class right until they start school and after they finish but we leave every night by 16.15. My head doesnt believe in paperwork for the sake of it nor in endless marking.

The children have a lovely time, we make space for fun and creativity and outdoor learning and I genuinely feel so lucky to get to do such a lovely job day in, day out. Sure there are some busy times or some stressful moments, but they are rare and would happen in any job.

Find the right school, and you'll have a lovely career. Plus, the holidays!

But agree with previous posters about recruitment. There seem to be hardly any jobs because budgets are so tight.

Also, completely recognise that my experience is not happening everywhere.

DP was a primary school teacher for five years. He ended up hating it due to the many pressures and quit. He works on the railway now and is much happier.

Long hours
you can have any time off term time no week day weddings, Christmas concert, sports day
you will spend your evenings and weekends marking/planing
lot of pressure

What about childminding?

It can be good but how much you enjoy the job and how much you can make it fit in with your family life depends hugely on who you work for. I’ve worked for. It can be an incredibly rewarding job and it can also be a stressful and unsupported job.

Avoid avoid avoid. I’ll never get the time back with my own children that I spent doing ridiculous things because the senior leadership team said they needed to be done. ‘Interactive’ display boards. Lesson plans to the nearest five minutes. Stupid unattainable targets.

How about training in speech therapy?

I was a secondary teacher but now a primary TA.
The stress of being the class teacher is immense, in secondary the focus was on exam grades; I taught for over 15 years and the first few years were fine, students underperforming were spoken to, asked what they were going to do to improve, parents supportive (generally). That changed over the years to what are you doing as a teacher. Kids wanting it handed to them on a plate. Parents complaining their child wasn't getting top marks, but blaming teachers rather than looking at their child's work and helping support them.

Being a TA is fab as you (sometimes) get the better parts of the job such as interacting with children. You also don't generally deal with the parents or have the admin to do.

I would note that TA roles are being cut however, and that some of the posters who have said they do enjoy teaching and are able to balance the job within reasonable hours are people who mention things like giving photocopying to TAs to do which not every one has (e.g. general TA roles have been cut and are therefore shared across a key stage and only in mornings where I work, therefore some classes have no one to help support with any jobs or with any children on certain days, so you couldn't necessarily rely on a TA doing tasks for you if they were urgent in case they were placed elsewhere that day).

Absolute nightmare of a job full time with children. Lovely job (in the right school) part time. Wouldn’t go back to FT in a million years.

I enjoy it!
I retrained at 38 after running my own business. That was ten years ago. It’s had its up and downs. It was definitely hard hard work to start with but has eased as the years go by and my own children are a bit older. My youngest (of 5) is just about to finish year 6 and my 3 youngest all went to my own school. This meant I have never missed any of their school activities.
I know I’m lucky with my school though and I do hear a lot of horror stories. I work in a small rural school for context.

I'm an early years teacher and I absolutely love it. I'm tired and I work long days, but I properly love my job. My own kids have to go to breakfast club and after school club, which feels rough at times but we do get the majority of school holidays together. It's deffo not an easy job. You get paid basic hours eg. 8:30-3:30 but obviously planning, assessment, reports, setting up classroom and resources etc are usually mostly outside of this time.
I worked as TA first and loved that as well.
Fingers crossed you find your path! X

Haven't read the whole thread (sorry)

Secondary teacher here - I love teaching, being in the classroom, doing the teaching.

I think as a job it certainly has some huge challenges, including challenging students (and worse - parents!). There's a lot of work outside of actually teaching - prep, marking and admin. Some if this gets easier the more years you teach for (including dealing with both students and parents)

School holidays are a plus but the school day for teachers is obviously longer than for students so this means that managing school run for your own child is tricky, and having all annual leave set means no popping to sports day or school play for your child. But these are part of the nature of the job.

I think happiness in school depends largely on your team and senior leaders. My school has great management and I am part of a lovely team. Overall I enjoy teaching as a job very much

I’m an early years teacher in a school. I teach full time and I lead the department. I also trained late with 3 children - they were 2, 5 and 8 when I started training. Training was hard with kids but not impossible. Especially if you have a good support network.

I love my job. Genuinely.
It’s far harder than it should be due to budget constraints and a constantly changing political agenda. Workload is high and I do work far too many hours, but I’m happy with my salary, however, Mumsnet wouldn’t consider it high. Especially if you break it down hourly (which I don’t because it’s too depressing).

The rumours are true… your school holidays are generally commandeered by school work (even in Early Years) and when you aren’t working, you’ll generally feel guilty about not working. When you are, you’ll feel guilty about neglecting your own children during the holidays 😂. There’s a never ending todo list, and imposter syndrome is high.

But there are moments of joy every single day and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

If you go into it, do it with your eyes open. Volunteer in the type of setting you could see yourself working in, and research the right training course for you. I don’t regret doing it at all.

Yes. But I am secondary trained and work in an independent through school. Small class sizes, kids who want to learn. My work at the primary end exempts me from exam work on the whole which makes life easier.

but…it is a thankless, difficult job with increasingly complex children who think they are owed your head on a stick. I wouldn’t advise doing it.

The pay is poor.

The hours are terrible, 7am-5pm and 8pm-10pm is a standard day, probably longer if you have meetings, and often at least one full day of work on the weekends.
The holidays are unpaid, but you're expected to use them for work.
There is no flexibility. You will not be permitted to have time off for your children's school events or sports days. You will not be permitted to take a day off for a family member's wedding. You might get a day off for a funeral, if it's a very close relative, but no guarantees.
You will be expected to put the wellbeing of other people's children before your own.
You will be expected to deal with the results of poor parenting, poverty and lack of SEN provision.
You will not get any thanks and will be blamed if you fail to solve the above problems.

Oh yes I forgot about all the hate. And the part where we're accused of being, "Woke", checking lunchboxes and throwing out anything unhealthy, teaching their children all about how to catch the gay, taking children to mosques but not to church, blah blah. Basically anything bigots can make up.

I was a primary sendco and retrained as a social worker and work with teens with additional needs now in preparation for adulthood.. still stressful but more flexible (do a 9 day fortnight can pick my kids up sometimes etc) been here 5 years wouldn't go back to school now x