I want to be a secondary teacher but I'm scared

[maybewellgettomeetashton]

I'm only a year away from a decade long stint as a stay at home mom and I have an amazing opportunity to start my life working again. I have 4 children ages 10-3

My head tells me to just work as a part time cleaner or carer for extra money for my family, my heart is telling me I'd regret it.

I really want to be a teacher at secondary or even college level but I'm really scared I'd breaking a massive mistake, getting into student debt, not earning for a few more years while I study and if I end up not liking it I'll be stuck.

I don't know what to do. I want to be a science teacher, but I need to get my alevels at college and then a degree university and then an extra year for a teaching degree. I think I'd love it. But then I have so much free time now to go to school plays and pick my kids up at 3:30pm every day.

I did a short (1 year) online course a few years ago to become a qualified teaching assistant but the younger children just blew my mind. I liked it. The school environment was great, the workload was quite a lot. But I ended up quitting to help DP focus on his career. It worked, he earns more now and we bought a house but I'm still where I was when I left school. infact I'm actually worse off now because I have 4 children so I'm still time poor and I'm restricted by their school schedule.

I don't know what to do.
I don't want to wake up in 20 years, all my children have moved out and I have nothing left for myself, but I also am wary of spending money and getting into debt for something that may not be so great, considering teachers are leaving in droves I'm worried that I couldn't do it.
so lucky to have been able to be a stay at home mom for so long, I'm so lucky to have a beautiful family but the eldest is moving to secondary soon and the youngest is starting school, it really shown me how short this part of my life will be and I don't want to put 100% of my life towards my children and be left with nothing for myself when they are older. Or worse, be left in a bad position should mine and dps relationship breakdown.

oh gosh. Does anyone have any advice?
I feel as confused as I did at 16 leaving school, but instead of being full of optimism I'm now full of doubt.

I wouldn’t consider teaching at the moment without any experience in the secondary sector.

You cannot compare working in a Primary school to working in a Secondary school, you need an entirely different skill set. For a start half of the students are likely to be bigger than you which makes classroom management a completely different beast. Talking to an 6 year old who loves whatever 6 year old love and talking to a 15 year old in a gang/sexually active/young carer running a household/ takes food home for breakfast club so their siblings can eat and trying to convince them that yes learning ionic bonding will really be important to their future is completely different. You won't just be working with high achievers that know they are going to do well and go to university but you will work with some children that have more challenging home lives than you can even imagine and keeping them engaged in education is difficult. Do not underestimate work experience in a Secondary school.

Honestly you currently don’t have any teenagers so I would start by trying to find a job in a secondary school and see if you like both the environment and teenagers.
Then maybe study for your a-levels without any commitment to high education. You will need to do well with them to be able to move on and teach any science as a subject. Perhaps if you do well and enjoy science as a subject then you would find a science technician role in a school more suitable to your family needs.

Don't do it 😔

Do you have a sixth form college/fe college close to you? There are mentoring and learning support roles that would value your experience to date and give you a taste of the range of roles available and a way to earn money now

You don't have to work holidays- I don't! I'm doing a bit of prep this evening but have just had two weeks of relaxing.

I work in secondary, in a very disadvantaged area, and it is the most rewarding career I have ever had.
id say get a job as a ta in secondary- the TA workload is very different to primary and I’ve heard it’s much easier (I’ve never worked in primary so can’t compare myself). Do an OU degree in the evenings. Even if you decide teaching isn’t for you, having a degree will open more doors anyway.
there is a crisis in education at the moment, but if you take the OU route, then pgce, it’s going to be 7years before you qualify (which is probably the perfect time as your youngest will be 10 so becoming more independent) and hopefully things will have sorted themselves out by then

I think a lot of women feel as you do after bringing up a family ,and then thinking "Whats next/Is that it" sort of thing. Having 4 DC and running a home would be very stressful. My Son has an MSC and he found going from GCSE(Which he found fairly easy) to A levels hard and harder still at Uni ! There is not much time left over really . I feel as a Society we always need to be seen as "doing" something.I dont mean to sound negative but just realistic really

@Mmndanone how did you become an unqualified secondary teacher?

Do the A levels and a degree. And see what doors open up to you.

I teach my native language. I have had no formal teacher training but am getting some on the job training.