Should I train to be a teacher or move for a £60K paid job?

[Arthurlager]

I have a dilemma and would welcome opinions.

I am 39, have 3 DC, 11, 9, 6. I have a place on a teacher training course in September. It will mean no income for a year then a starting salary of £21K. And fab holidays of course. Things are already very tight financially. Just to keep my options open I have applied for, and got through to the last stage for, a job paying a starting salary of £60K, final salary pension, bonus scheme etc.

If I am offered the job, it would mean moving house to a part of the country I have always liked, moving schools etc, something I have never done before. But of course it is F/T so I would need a childminder or nanny as we have no family there.

So...what would you choose?

This is very sad to read but I wonder what all the people in the 60k job would be saying. Probably most of the same things. Every job has its problems. Paperwork and stress levels are high everywhere.. There is no perfect job although some people will thankfully enjoy elements of their jobs that keep them going. I changed career 6 months ago after working at home for 6 yrs. I am back in a job I used to do. Money is less, stress is high but I enjoy it. Mornings and evenings are manic and I hardly see my kids 3 days a week. I am off for Easter and shattered. Working with children is very stressful and demanding. I don't think there is an easy option at all and life is hard. I think you need to think what it would be like to work full time in the demands of the other job. I think they will be equally hard IMO. I wish you the best with whatever you decide. I am very happy with my decision as needed a change. I am lucky that I will be able to alter my hours in summer so will get more time with kids but that will mean less pay and less security as I will be self employed.

What in particular are you finding horrifying, SPB?

That so many otherwise professional and dedicated teachers find their jobs so over-demanding and frustrating. That people are coming on saying they like the actual teaching part but constantly have "the fear" (I've had a "fear" job before, nothing I did was ever good enough) and I lasted a year. I realise this isn't all teachers just the ones who've chosen to respond to this thread, but srill.

Weekends you write as though you aren't a teacher?

No I am not a teacher. Just saying that to make choice between 2 jobs you need the bad about the other one as well and the good of course. I admire teachers massively and really hope my sons teacher does not hate her job

I adore teaching English and I'm good at it. It's exhausting and can be deeply frustrating (paperwork, marking, unfair senior management expectations, appalling pupil behaviour etc) BUT I wouldn't do anything else.

But I am 15 years in, earn £36,500 pro-rata'd over 3.5 days, and my kids are now 10 & 8 so the juggling act is getting easier. My experience means I can wing some if my lessons - I could not work in a school where you are expected to hand in and stick to detailed pre-planned lessons. My dh usually works from home so he can go to the special assemblies I know I would never get time off for.

I'm not sure I would go into teaching as a new entrant now. And I do think you HAVE to want to do it - for me the sense of vocation and love for the job is what keeps me going - not sure your posts exhibit that, op.

The number of teachers (including Leadership) that I've seen in tears, or off with stress and anxiety this term (from two different schools) is telling a story about Gove/Wiltshaw and their policies.

Weekends, that's not what the OP is asking. We know that there are many, many jobs that are more challenging or stressful or whatever. No one here is playing misery Top Trumps.
She asked a question and some of us answered it to the best of our considerable knowledge of the inside experience of teaching.
I'm sure that you could write as confidently about being self-employed from home.

I'm half thinking of returning to teaching, but with a husband that works away and no family support (to go to the assemblies etc) I'd like to do something else.

I do wish I'd realised this earlier sometimes. I'm 34, oxbridge etc etc but only really qualified to teach.

(I love teaching, would stick at pt teaching if I had family support)

I was only adding a point. Apologies...

I despair really. I really thought to myself... I know lets play misery trumps... Not

The question was not should I retrain to be a teacher... It was between two scenarios if I read it correctly. All I meant was that you need both sides to get a good picture.

Weekend, it's just that on any threads when a teacher is perceived as whinging about how hard the job is, someone always comes along and says:

'You think you have it so hard, try being a frontline squaddie, a top line executive, a junior doctor in a hospital, a freelance fire eater with hiccups and no insurance'

As if the fact that other jobs have challenges invalidates other people's opinions of theirs.

But presumably if the OP has been offered a 60K job in her own field of expertise, she knows what it will entail.

I think you read too much into my comments. It was never meant to invalidate any ones opinion. I was simply meaning to state that the other job may also have many negative points as all jobs have and to make an informed decision especially such a major one you need all the facts.

Have a good day all. I not having an argument about this. Was certainly not my intention

Take the 60k job.

NQT here - the PGCE left me physically and mentally shattered (no previous major health issues) The NQT so far has been hellish, I am hardworking, compassionate and have excellent subject knowledge. I find it hugely rewarding getting through to "difficult" kids. However SMT don't trust staff, half the printers and.copiers in the building don't work, the HT allows a situation where basically some kids run riot and.vandalise the place, a member of staff was assaulted and.the pupil remains in school... unless you really have a burning vocation and are made of steel then for gods sake take the other job.Yes, you will be expected to work long hours BUT you will be paid for it.

Wow! This thread is a really fine example of just how low morale is in Education at the moment

As a teacher, I love my job and I am in a very good school who care for their staff. it's still very tough.

Do the teacher training if that is your dream, because it really does need to be a vocation. nd the training is very tough indeed. s one poster said, it will become the first and only thing in your waking world, giving all the lesson planning, resource making, assessment marking and essay writing you have to do..... All at the same time!

Sadly, there is nothing else I would rather do in the world than teach!

Teach. You can have my job. I'll take the 60k one.

Nearly twenty years in, love my subject, love teaching, love the kids - but Gove and Wilshaw are driving me out. Fuckers.

Former teacher here, don't regret leaving for a second. I too taught a subject that I loved and still hated it. I was regularly in tears of anger an frustration, had overwhelming 'Sunday night dread', it was truly awful. In the end I had next to no affinity with the students and actively disliked most of them.

60 grand plus pension to move to a part of the country you like?! Fingers crossed you get it!

If you are offered the other job, take it, rent your house out, try out the new job/area for the next few months and if it doesn't live up to your expectations you can still move back and start the course in September. Or perhaps take the job but ask if the course can be deferred for a year to leave your options open.

I do 3 days teaching and Dh is full time. Is is hard work and stressful at times. I get Sunday Feeling iykwim. Lots of my friends are teachers. From my experience it is not as bad as described by others on this thread. i have worked in 3 different schools over 12 years and have generally found colleagues supportive although not always. Spot checking and having to hand in planning in advance etc has been minimal. I agree expectations in terms of performance are ridiculously high and goal posts move constantly. I would love to earn more but i would not move house and away from family to do it.

Another teacher here...take the job. Don't even think about teaching. You will have no life....and the holidays...well I am doing school work for 5 of the 10 days holidays, and that isn't really enough time to get done what I need to do.