After reading a thread warning against teaching as a career!!

Yeah it is. I did it for the cash not the good of my heart.

Its just slave labour now. Mainly female slaves

For many people that leave teaching its not the teaching that is the problem.
As long as you are aware of the ever rising behavioural issues and the continual desire of goverments to pile more and more work on teachers.
Increasing even more levels of work load.
Pushing more and more responibility on to the teachers and the never ending poor SLT that buy into crap ideas or are just extremely poor with their own little cliqhes.
You will have a fighting chance.

Also rememeber that even if you find a good school, with good managment and entirely supportive colleagues the school is only ever one change away from that changing.

OP just be really realistic how much work goes into your completing your PGCE/QTS. The amount of work is unlike anything you’ve ever done!

I was previously a TA and honestly it’s nothing like being a teacher. The pressures of teaching is nothing like that of a TA. Be prepared for a lot of hard work for the next few years

I agree with this. I think there’s a distinction here between pressure and responsibility. GCSE (and even SATs) students are put under much more explicit pressure than past generations about exam outcomes. I think what the previous poster was getting at was the arguably excessive responsibility placed on the school for those outcomes when coming under judgement from external agencies, without appropriately accounting for contextual factors. I think both things are true.

Yes, my sister teaches abroad and loves it,

Higher wage, she doesn't pay rent, and her salary is tax-free.

The posts about teaching being a vocation are complete rubbish. It is a job that still needs to pay your bills without feeling that you should go unrewarded for the extras you will be expected to do. Saying it is a vocation is a way of trying to normalise the unrealistic expectations the job now entails.
TAing does not give you a REAL insight into teaching, do not be guided by this .

Go to any profession and people will moan “it isn’t like it was” and “it’s changed”.

I think Teaching is great overall, a good salary with optional added bolt one once you have settled in. Pension and perks are good. Yes it isn’t an easy role and technically youre a preformer for 5-6 hours a day (not to mention the countless meetings / extra training / assemblies / projects / displays / reports / marking / lesson planning / communications to parents - all daily) which is exhausting and no one sees unless they work there.

Every job has difficult areas and good areas, teaching is excellent for if you plan a family to r even if you don’t, you have a nice paid holiday time to travel around the world.

downsides are parents moaning about the smallest thing, some kids being down right rude and parents think no way possible. Government and their budgets. Parents think you sit there all day looking at your emails. Can be emotional, but overall the kids are brilliant and make it a great choice and something that warms your heart regularly.

Go for it!

I was advised not to go into teaching 26 years ago. 26 years later, I'm glad I ignored that advice.

It sounds like you have a goal which is a great idea. And a passion, which you need to survive!
You are probably already aware of how tiring it can be, being with kids all day. This, plus hours on top for all the other jobs.
Prepare for not having any time or life during PGCE
Make sure your OH /family knows they need to pick up ALL the slack.
Remember you are only one person and the to do list never ends. Set your boundaries early on.
Wish you luck OP. I had to walk away but managed 3 decades.

I'm a teacher and have been for 13 years. I absolutely love my job and genuinely look forward to going to work 99% of the time. I have four children and now work part time (3 days) 😁

I've been a teacher for 21 years and being in the classroom still gives me a buzz. Being a TA you already know the challenges teachers face. There have been several times I have thought about giving it up but it's the kids I teach which draw me back. Finding the right school for you is important and it's not always those on paper which are the best for you. I've been at my current school for 5 years and it's great! I have a Headteacher who respects me and listens to me and colleagues who I can vent with and are dependable. And that is the reason I'm happy in my current post. During my career I've worked up to middle management and I'm happy staying there for the foreseeable future and I also work for an exam board. I have a family with 2 primary age children and me being a teacher can be tough on them. But between myself and my very supportive DH we make it work. It's a tough career in a variety of different ways, and definitely not for everyone (but which career is?)but extremely rewarding!

I was talking to a teacher (Secondary, mainstream) at a Xmas gathering. She said she loved it. Been doing it quite a while too.

I don’t think the pressure was pushed off children.

I frequently had year 11’s in tears at the pressure they were under.

Just be aware that most of the things people complain about are not part of the TA role. So pressure from senior leadership, parents, paperwork etc.

I took a redundancy deal a few years ago and it lasted until early retirement..i taught A levels and btec and had appx 17 happy years in an FE college...some awful students but a lot worse was several really nasty vile bullying managers who were totally incompetent...a lot of good staff left because of them but i stuck it out and they all eventually moved on...I never experienced such nasty people ever in all my different jobs and the bullies were totally protected and nothing was ever done about them.

My experience: I did a PGCE in 1998/1999. Been teaching since then.

It’s never been an easy job but once league tables became significant, pressure for results has been pushed onto teachers and off the shoulders of children. This has meant there is a lot more data analysis/ deep dives/scrutiny than at the start of my career.

Added to this, expectations on teachers to repair all of society’s ills has just gone nuts.

For me, the classroom teaching is still by far the best thing about the job. I still get excited by planning lessons (alone or with colleagues) but the number of interventions I am expected to deliver, the amount of paper work to complete just to prove I am doing my job is soul destroying .

I now work in an indie and don’t have half as much paper-work as state colleagues and there are no behaviour issues like state school either but the job is still hard.

OP, education needs good new teachers so please go for it but do have secure boundaries to prevent the job taking over your life.

I think teacher training is a good idea, good people still need to do this job. I currently teach and I have found it demanding and exhausting but I presently love it. I would do it again, but I'd start in one of the creative arts. Don't worry - you should do it.

My DD is in her first year of teaching Primary and she loves it.

Her youth and enthusiasm and optimism help a lot.

She is in a deprived area with a very challenging class but feels like she is making a difference and is very happy.
She works long hours and is shattered but really does love it.

Ive been teaching for 23 yrs and am a teaching mentor. I would not on it. Ive wangled myself a good part time number with lovely kids and mentees but I would not want to train now. If the school has poor behaviour definitely do not do it. Slt need to have the staffs backs and often dont.

It's a good career when you are young, have lots of energy, even better if you aren't the main breadwinner and have money in the bank... But it's hell if you are getting older, have family commitments like children or elderly parents, are the main or only breadwinner, have no savings or inheritance looming, and are perhaps struggling with your own health concerns... It's a lovely job for someone with time, no commitments and creativity, but it's not a job to be doing for the sake of a necessary pay cheque.

In my central London school all the female teachers were online dating and looking for a canary wharf banker type. Once they found him they were pregnant pretty quickly in their mid 30s and never returned. The similarly aged males were exhausted in early 40s and looking for a way out from senior management roles on 40k to 50k. No one was over 50. The days of the old guard who had a 30 to 40 year 'career' is long gone, and getting shorter by the day when schools can swap 1 experienced staff member for 2 nqt's in financial terms..

It's a great job for a time of your life, it's hopeless for a long term future - for example the term of a 30 year mortgage. Teachers have to adapt these days, try other careers, or their health will end their time in teaching long before their P45...

I’ve been teaching 18 years in primary mainstream. Yes, there are bad days and negatives but there are also lots of great moments too. Don’t let what you read put you off - let’s be honest, no one comes on to post about the positives. I also think the pay is pretty good 🤷‍♀️ and I live in the Home Counties 25 mins train from London, work part time (4 days a week - I use my day off to plan, prep etc and really minimise what I do outside of this but also work in a 2 form entry school so planning is shared and we use a lot schemes) and think having the holidays to spend with my child and husband (also works in education) is so great. Good luck.

Supply is not a good way to develop your skills and can be a lonely existence for an ECT. Many special schools in my LA don't use supply as it's expensive and disruptive for the children, they juggle internally.

Exactly. You’re not going into it blind.
Best of luck!

The right school makes a difference and that's about personalities and support systems not OFSTED gradings (although not having OFSTED breathing down your back in a school with issues does help)

It sounds like you're going in with eyes wide open and not expecting a cushy 9-3 filled with the joy of feeding enthusiastic young minds, and cushy school holidays.

I was being warned off teaching about 25 years ago. I'm back in schools working in a pupil-facing support role and making the use of my PGCE and years teaching. There is a lot more variation of support roles in schools now and while my teaching background isn't essential, it's very helpful in many ways.

In mainstream school, I'm finding that the social skills (linking into behaviour) has declined, and the external support for struggling pupils has diminished. The range of pupils is recognisable. The proportion of those struggling or being challenging has increased. I still love working with young people and there are lovely young people in every class.

I don't want the workload of a classroom teacher as it's not compatible with the needs of my family life.

We need teachers in society. I just wish that at school and government policy levels that conditions were healthier for work/life balance and staff retention.

Long term beyond classrooms, a PGCE and teaching experience displays many transferable attributes to other occupations if teaching isn't the right path.