Becoming a primary school teacher

Teachers are leaving at alarming rates. Clue, it's not because they want a better paid job.

Don't do it!

And being slated every time you turn the telly on/open a paper or look at the comments about teachers on social media.

According to a lot of people, we are all a bunch of part-time, lazy, Marxists who couldn't hack it in the real world, who are in it just to indoctrinate their kids (whilst in the same breath saying that schools should be open 10 hours a day to provide childcare for working parents!).

Stick to your corporate job and get a rewarding hobby or two instead!

Hi,

I was a primary teacher for 14 years but I left around 2015. I enjoyed it but I worked in SEND schools mostly and was a non classed based SENCO in mainstream. I think if you find a school where you are valued and an area of teaching you are passionate about it can work but I think things have got worse since I left!

I left due to my baby being diagnosed with a medical issue and I decided to start my own business teaching children's cooking classes. We now have franchises in different areas of the country and I absolutely love the freedom it gives me, being my own boss but still getting to work with children... all the good bits basically! You could perhaps look into doing something like this?

If you're happy to work 16 hour days, including weekends, yet your work still isn't done and you'll get grief for not doing it, even though you've prioritised everything that needed to be done first or you'd get grief from somewhere else, you're happy to deal with parents who are irate/disengaged/aggressive/precious, you are very good at behaviour management and differentiating, you don't mind potentially being kicked, punched, spat at, sworn at, tables thrown at you etc, and you don't mind working through your holidays because things need to be done and it's not just lesson prep, it's stuff like painting the classroom, repairing outdoor equipment, herding chickens, and much more, then sure! Go for it!

Very little of teaching now is actually teaching. It's mostly crowd control, paperwork, and keeping everyone safe, while being yelled at by SLT and the parents. Enjoy ☺️

I moved from teaching (and school leadership) to the corporate world. My corporate job is vastly better, in every possible way.

If you have children, you will have NO time for them, you will be hugely underpaid, massively overworked and never feel like you are doing a good job.

I now do about 1/10 of what I used to in terms of workload, see my children, can go to performances and sports days, and never feel undervalued or overworked.

Don’t do it.

I was a marketing manager for 15 years before teaching, so I think I have seen both sides of the coin. Corporate jobs may not give you the same level of satisfaction, but they are a walk in the park in terms of workload, stress and stamina required.

Teaching has changed massively since Gove; congested curriculum, endless testing and budgets so tiny that even children with EHCPs often don't get additional support. It is brutal.

The advice given by several on here of getting a TA job first is excellent. You would learn so much. I did a PGCE and wished I had been a TA first as I would have been so much better prepared. So the benefit is two-fold; you have a good understanding of what happens in the classroom as well as getting more of a feel for if teaching is for you.

Although I am still teaching, I only do supply combined with my own tutoring clients. Supply is very poorly paid and you get so much disrespect from children, but it is extremely flexible and you don't have to get caught up in all the school politics and goverment hoops (as in jump through).

Teachers are their own worst enemy. Do not go along with ridiculous expectations and get your union involved if you are expected to work more than 40 hrs per week. I have worked as a teacher for many years and on the whole have loved most of it. It has enabled me to work abroad, work part time and do supply work to fit around having my family. Most of my headteachers have not been great but not too intrusive. I’m only now wanting to leave the profession and have 3 years to go. I can’t wait to have time to myself and my own interests in retirement. On the whole though it’s been a great job for me and can’t think of any other work I would have loved as much.

If you want to prioritise your children over other people’s, don’t become a teacher. You’ll miss Christmas performances, sports day, anything lovely like waving your child off on a residential because you can’t take a days holiday / work flexitime.

You will spend more time with other people’s children than your own and no amount of holidays is worth that.

I've been teaching for 26 years. Teaching has its pros and cons...
Cons-
It isn't easy. I work most nights, I work Sunday afternoon, I work before and after school, I work half my lunch break.

I've never been to my Y6 son's sports day, I missed his KS1 Nativity, I couldn't do drop off/pick up...

I go into school in the summer hols- my son dreaded it every year! But he got to know the care taker really well!

And obviously Ofsted!

Pros-
Holidays
Pay is good (although unions would disagree)
Incredibly rewarding
Two days are never the same

Only you can decide if it's for you. Go and volunteer in a school and see what you think.

That makes all the difference.

It’s a very heavy workload. Find fulfilment elsewhere in your life or try another job but don’t go into teaching at the moment. Private schools are better though.

Smaller infant only unit or village school for example.

Small schools can be an absolute nightmare for workload these days-trying to plan for and teach multiple year groups/key stage curriculums simultaneously whilst coordinating maths, phonics, history, geography, ICT, SEND and PE curriculum areas as there are so few teachers in the school, everyone gets 50 (unpaid) jobs each! Small schools round here can't keep teachers-they just burnout.

My husband is a deputy head in a primary, still has a class.
he leaves before 7 every morning, gets bavk around 630 then works every evening 7-9. Works all day Sunday. Works about 30% of every school holiday .
I used to be a teacher in secondary/ I’ll be honest I rarely was at work till 5 and only had a few hours most week of preparation.
primary is so intense and the workload is huge
yes the pupils are less intimidating and irs a nicer atmosphere than secondary but a young kid with challenging behaviour can be just as disruptive and stressful as a teenager and a lot harder to reason with. I think a lot of potential teachers are completely unaware of how challenging behaviour can be in primary schools.
also you have to teach everything whereas secondary you specialise in one subject and can often recycle plans.
I do think it is well paid- my husband is a high earner and moved up to management quickly but it’s very stressful - calls and emails at all hours of the day and weekends

Early years only jobs in a school are few and far between. If you work in primary, you can move from year to year. F2 and year 6 are worlds apart and like different jobs.

What is it you hate about your corporate job? You may find teaching isn't all that different but less pay and respect.

I've taught for years and it wore me down. I now do part-time supply work and part-time elsewhere. I've rekindled my love of teaching and love not being tied to the politics and boundaries of one school. I also have my free time back but couldn't do it without the experience of being a class teacher first.

I do!

Been teaching for 12 years and maybe I’m just lucky in my school but never had a huge workload issue. I get to work at 8, leave at 4.30 (do tend to work through my lunch, it’s worth adding) and I never, literally never, have to take work home or work at evenings.
We reuse/adapt planning from previous years, every couple of years our scheme changes for different subjects so fresh planning has to be done, but it’s not like we are doing brand new, reinventing the wheel planning for every subject every year. I work in a three form primary so all jobs like planning/setting homework/website updates are split between three.

There are downsides like arsey parents, difficult children, unsupportive management, but the pros (working with a great team, the holidays, the nice side of working with nice children etc etc) definitely outweigh the cons for me.

You’re getting a lot of negative replies (those are people’s experiences so I’m not knocking them). But for balance, my husband and sister are both primary teachers and, though there are some negatives, on balance, they are happy. My sister did a couple of other jobs before and prefers this. You need to find a school that fits with your wishes. Smaller infant only unit or village school for example. My sister and the teachers at my children’s school leave by 4/4.30 if it’s not a meeting night. My sister and husband do some evening and weekend working, but not crazy. The holidays are largely their own and a godsend from a childcare pov.

I did the move from corporate to teaching and I absolutely loved teaching and didn’t regret changing jobs (I’m currently at home with my son hence the past tense). I worked predominantly in year two and year six and loved both for different reasons.

I worked as a TA for two years first to check I liked it and that made teacher training pretty straightforward. I was a TA in a private school (I couldn’t afford my salary to drop too much) and then I trained and worked in a state school until mat leave. In both schools, I had great colleagues and generally had a good work/life balance (although I realise now I rarely socialised during term time and just caught up with friends during the hols!) .

I think plenty of parents teach and make a success of it. Looking at the responsibility teachers have and how much I felt I needed to put into the work week (e.g pretty much always leaving after 6pm), I personally would worry about doing all that and having children to pick up/look after too but maybe that’s slightly skewed by my year 6 experience! Plus I’m not sure how much your partner could share those responsibilities. I would 100% work as a TA and offer tutoring as I found that work load much more manageable but budgets means TA jobs aren’t as easy to come by.

Finally, I will also say that I have never felt more tired than I have after a challenging day teaching. The stresses and challenges of my corporate job were much less stressful for me than the intensity of teaching. I definitely went into teaching with rose tinted glasses but the reality was still something I loved. I do think I also lucked out with really incredible SLTs which can make all the difference. Good luck with your decision!

Occupational therapy or speech and language therapy? Or forest school leader, but that's less secure/well paid.

I teach in secondary, but it’s the same story as everyone has commented from the start. Definitely try to get some experience in a primary/early years classroom if you can.

Throwing it out there - have you considered childminding? It is "family friendly" in the sense that you are working from your own home, but obviously you're looking after other peoples' children at the same time. As yours are a bit older they may like having you around more even if you are splitting your attention with other children? Or some kids may hate that. You have to do a course with your council and register with Ofsted and be inspected. The rules would let you have basically one baby and a couple of toddlers/pre-schoolers, and then you can be more flexible about before/after school care and holiday care, as long as you can meet the needs of all the children. Some childminders do a lot of school run activity and others stick to focusing on the younger ones. You get to be your own boss, but would need to manage working with parental expectation to some degree or you could find parents don't want to use your services if e.g. you don't want to work Mondays or Fridays, or decide you don't want to do school runs, or don't have outside space at home or have a big dog. But there are shortages of childcare in most areas so some parents will take what they can get! You would need to have space in your house to manage the children and if yours are older it would mean a bit of a return to baby/toddler toys and equipment, unless you can designate space like a conservatory or garden room as the main play room.

It may be that little children aren't so much your thing, but figured would mention!

I don’t understand your point? I think we agree. The point I was making was that it seems obvious to focus on teaching 4 year olds letter sounds and how to form letter shapes correctly before sitting them down to write as in ‘today we are learning to write a list/set of instructions/letter to Santa’- many children cannot write at all, so are completely unable to engage with this. Others are ready to do this. You start from where they are at, which is different for all children.

Yes, writing with lower ability 4 year olds is really tough! Many start school unable to hear letter sounds or write them

Well why should they be able to?! In Europe they would have years ahead of them before going to school! This race to get children to achieve achieve from such a tiny age is just crazy, and dangerous to their well-being.

I’ve been teaching primary for 25 years. I still enjoy the job. I have a lovely class this year. But. If you want to pursue teaching, you need to be free of commitments outside of teaching. You have 2 children who need you. I was able to devote 15 years to my career before having children. I only returned part-time.

I would not advise you to pursue this until your children are at Uni.

I have friends who love it but they work in good schools with good SLT