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?

I wonder if that is the difference then?

Sorry, I'm not makjng much sense, but on here the majority of posters are parents, mums in fact. Wonder whether childless teachers are as dissatisfied. Teaching is seen as a family friendly job jn general but in reality is very inflexible.

OP I'm not a teacher so have no personal experience but 4 of my closest friends are (all primary).

When we get together socially, they all tend to spend the evening complaining about work. I don't mean the odd whinge here and there, I mean really stressful, demoralising stuff. One or the other of them seems to be at breaking point. This is going to sound terrible of me but I sometime find myself avoiding nights out because of it .

I run a preschool music franchise (sensory, developmental classes), I work term time only (although I do run sessions in the holidays but its by choice and for supplemental income iykwim).

I don't earn quite as much as my friends and being self employed does bring its own challenges but I'm so glad that I didn't train to be a teacher in the end

I'm a teacher, I love my job, even with all the negatives that everyone has pointed out. Only read to page 4, so forgive me if I am repeating other advice, but wanted to point out that come September, there will be no national salary progression for teachers. All and any pay increases will be at the discretion of the head (who of course is responsible for keeping to the ever-decreasing budget) and even if you do secure a pay increase, it will not be 'portable' so you'll go straight back down if you change jobs. So it won't take you a few years to get to £31 K, it will take forever.

Hope you get the £60K job.

I didn't know that Balia. That is awful

SPB, I'm sure the irony of what a poor parent you end up being if you are a FT teacher makes it worse, but my two closest colleagues are childless late 20-somethings and they too are utterly demoralised. Even for non-parents, the workload in term-time is punishing. Autumn term this year was 8 weeks, half term, 7 weeks. As others have said, the one week half-term is just catch up time - not a holiday, but a chance to do all the stuff you just can't fit into your normal 60+ hour week so that you start the next half term feeling there is a crumb of a chance you might stay on top of things. There is NO chance you will stay on top of things, because the goalposts move massively at the drop of a hat. It is not sustainable as a lifestyle and, once you pile on the growing public distrust of all public sector workers with their strong unions, cushy pensions and endless sick leave, the job you dreamt of, trained for and competed hard to get becomes something you resent and yes hate.

And I completely agree that it is very, very worrying that our children are being taught by people who feel like this. I try really hard not to let it affect my work in the classroom, but I know I don't always succeed. Add in what is happening to the National Curriculum from 2014, and I am glad my own children are through primary at least.

Crap. We're considering private schools, I realize the actual teachers aren't going to be any better but I suspect the overall teaching may be, because of the reasons we've been talking about. But we've not even looked yet, and I'd be going into it with an open mind

It's amazing reading this thread that the main issues that are being cited are the stress of too much to do in the time available and unsupportive senior management/government departments, rather than actually teaching the little blighters!

I usually get a sharp intake of breath when people discover I'm a secondary teacher and a "oh, I couldn't do that. Kids today, eh? " but for many of us in the job, the real stresses come from completely avoidable sources.

The ironic thing is that people are far better teachers in the classroom when they don't spend hours and hours sitting up late marking jotters and creating resources from scratch. I am far less knackered standing in front of my classes now and much better at actually running the class and responding to the pupils in front of me which gives them a much better educational experience.

Someday, the powers that be will get that.

This time last year I had a place on a PGCE course but got to take the job first - no move but £30k for 3 days per week and one horrible journey per week but I am so happy love my job and for the most part leave it at the end of the day

in retrospect I wanted out of my old job and thought teaching was the answer but it was only one escape route

Hth!!

The reality of teaching is that everything is cobbled together and half-arsed.Nothing is ever done properly

I'm not sure I agree with that bit - anything I ever do/did is done "properly" and I enjoy doing it - making resources, planning engaging lessons to suit the different ability levels. I dont enjoy having to write detailed lesson plans on all of them as this pretty much doubles my workload. I work in a big state school and I can say that all the staff there do this too, and enjoy that part of the job. I also don't really begrudge the taking work home thing because I knew that was part f the job. I enjoy looking for/creating things for my pupils.

My colleagues are good, committed teachers with a passion still for teaching pupils. It is the rest of the job that is difficult.

I wouldn't consider private school for my DC where we currently live because, IMO, the state schools are better. Besides, the private schools in my area pay a standard hourly rate to their staff regardless of experience or extra responsibilities and do not pay over the holidays.

I did briefly consider home educating though.

No way would I turn down a 60k job for teaching. Teaching is INTENSE. The training alone is hardcore.

Go for the 60k job, do it for a year, and if you hate it, do the TT.

Take the 60k job! 60k is a primary head or secondary deputy head and neither of those positions get the school holidays.

I'm retraining and I have the kind of teaching job lots of teachers would bite my hand off to have - part time, quite flexible, interesting etc. but I'm utterly demoralised, stressed and depressed.

My childless full-time colleagues are under the impression if they work really, really hard they will get rewarded and slt will be dead impressed. My experience is that we are all disposable and slt/ the system will take whatever it can from you, but not necessarily reward you for your insanely hard work.

So take the 60k. Teaching will always be there as an option later on - there's a shortage of teachers coming up, plus many are leaving due to the erosion of pay and conditions. I'd wait until the gov are paying people to train again rather than pay out for yourself to do so at the moment.

I would imagine that a 60k job is also intense.

In my previous retail linked career I was often away from home for days at a time, at least I can fit my marking and planning around the children.

I am in a role similar to a deputy head, I take my holidays. All our senior staff take their holidays.

I'm seriously considering moving into teaching - I am the living cliche, 3 children, previous journalistic career which was very demanding, Eng lit degree, second degree, family all teachers

Some teachers have kindly allowed me into their schools next term to have a chat about it/observe some lessons.

This thread gives me pause for thought.

I currently work in a call centre, public sector, part time 25K pro rata (I have OOH enhancements) I currently work bank holidays (I have two 9 hr back shifts and three night shifts to look forward to) xmas day. NYE/Day etc

But I never worry about my work - when I clock off, I 'forget' about it. My work is relentless but not challenging. My toilet breaks are timed. Nights shifts make me ill.
It's so hard trying to balance it all - time with kids, work.

I'm going to start playing the lottery

I work long hours during term time, but one day a week I clock off. I do not give teaching a second thought .

During the holidays I do similar.

I have four children , hope for more and find teaching helps me to be a very good parent.

40k a year (could easily be earning 60k in another 5 years), 4 years post PGCE work perhaps 3 weeks of my 18 weeks holiday a year and 1 day every other weekend. Work 2 evenings p/w 7-11pm.

Love it. It's hard but not unreasonable. I have an excellent and fair manager and I get to teach in lovely facilities. My school is shielded from the new initiatives bollocks and we do not teach the NC.

Pressure is immense in terms of results and targets. --but I think this is true of many jobs.

Free breakfast, lunch and afternoon cake. Free Gym. Subsidised housing.

So in short, teach if you want to, but for the love of God don't teach in the state sector!

Do you have a nanny arisbottle? Or a husband working flexible hours? Does anyone ever see their school performances?

It sounds like you've found your niche in life and are doing very well. But how on earth are you managing 4 long days a week and children?

Flic. That sounds a lot better!

I think all teachers like the kids, that's why they are teachers. I teach secondary, and the kids are great. They are without a doubt the best bit of the job.

It's the rest of the stuff that makes us so fed up.

I was a teacher, but retrained for another career and I am now in a better paid industry. I think we need to know more about your other job to be able to help with a decision. My current job is 9-5.30 and while I work in my lunch hour a bit, there is little work beyond this, even in our busy periods (though my boss is a bit of a workaholic so probably protects me from having to do more). When I leave work, I can forget it, whereas I found that teaching ate into my psyche and it took me at least a week to switch off in the holidays. Teaching is also something that can take all the time that you give it and you can still feel inadequate about the output because you can put huge amounts of time into planning and still feel like you are winging it a bit. I also didn't really like teaching the beligerent end of the pupil spectrum, some teenagers are really quite unpleasant and I felt no obligation to put myself in front of them. Also please be aware that if you teach English, I think you will be teaching English Language more than Literature as most children do English Language GCSE but a fair proportion don't take Literature.

i love my current school and have always worked in state schools...but i do find myself paying more attention to private sector section in the TES jobs!

mind you, its tough in other ways in private schools, I think...

Private schools are tough, but the rewards are better.

Toilet breaks... Ours aren't timed, but they can only take place at certain times. I often don't have time to go for a wee all day.

We don't have a nanny but we do have a home help who comes in as DH leaves for work or starts work ( 8am) - I start work at 7am. One day a week we have a family breakfast together and I do not go to school unit 8:15. She also picks up our youngest from school and remains with him until DH or I get home, I usually get home just after 6pm.

I then have time with my family until about 8:30-9pm ( in my previous job I was often home later or not at all) before I start working again until about midnight . My children are in bed then , so are not affected by my working. Every week I have an SMT meeting which lasts until about 6:15 at the latest, usually much earlier. I will have at the most one other compulsory meeting. If I want to , the other days I can be home by 4pm. I don't do it that often but I can do, something that was impossible under my old job.

My husband has some flexibility, he has an office but can also work from home if needed.

I don't get to go to school concerts for my eldest and younger children if they are in the school day - it was the same in my old job unless I took the whole day off and I had to give so much notice it rarely worked out.

My middle second child goes to school where I teach and the others will do, so I often get to to go to anything they are involved in.