Quitting career to do PGCE?

[DisneyLady1]

Hi Mumsnetters,

I'm at a crossroads, and unsure what to do. Thought I'd post on here to see if anyone has any nuggets of advice!

I've been lucky to get a place on a PGCE course teaching English at high school level, starting in a few months. It's something I've always dreamed of doing, but was advised by other teachers I know to do something different (at least initially).

After having DC1 I now feel is a good time to take the plunge, as I'm not getting any younger!! There is never a good time to do something like this (I find) and I am lucky to have savings to fall back on for the year of study.

I do have some worries though!

Worry one: Is PGCE compatible with a child in nursery? I would hate to get through the year and feel as if I'd missed out on his development and like an absent mother. I know some people unfortunately don't have any options when it comes to this, but my current job have kindly agreed to let me work part time. I've heard horror stories about the PGCE but understand that people maybe only share them on here if they've gone through a bad experience. I do work in a high pressure business and have done for 15 years, so I am excellent at prioritising and doing just enough to get by.

Worry two: Is teaching as hard as people say it is? I read horrendous accounts on here, but my friends and family who are high school teachers all say it's not actually that bad, and they don't seem to be working all evenings/weekends/holidays like I hear some people do. What's the truth? I loved my experiences teaching, but work experience can only show you so much as you don't have the accountability/targets etc that real full time teachers would.

Worry three: I'll be quitting a solid and stable career with a decent salary for the unknown. I like my current job, it is satisfying... but I just don't feel as if it has much meaning to me. I think that's why it is low stress, because it doesn't actually matter in the grand scheme of things! I'd like to do something that matters to me, but I know this will bring other stresses too, and my salary will be cut by more than 60% to do this.

So it's a question of following my passion and the unknown vs. sticking with a stable, yet perhaps less exciting career.

Thanks for reading my rant and any advice you might offer!

How long has he been an English teacher? I know many fantastic teachers who loved the job... until they didn't.

It's easy to say he will never have another career, but for many teachers the job and conditions have changed so much the job they leave is almost unrecognisable from what it was when they first began.

I’m overpromoted because I don’t recognise the rosy tinted glow you’re putting on teaching? Also a lousy mentor as well according to you. Well shit, I hope someone warns the ECTs and trainees I’ve mentored that it was all in vain. Acknowledging that you don’t sound like you’re a teacher as you are an isolated voice on this thread doesn’t allow you to attack me and make assumptions like that. I bet you’re a joy to line manage

And I’m working on a Saturday to create a sensory area for a school with a 40%+ of deprived children. It’s shit but also doesn’t make me a crappy teacher. Just an overworked one.

On the other hand, based on her experience so far (and obviously it's early days) my daughter has recommended teaching to two of her friends.

One trained with her ITT provider last year and takes up his first job in September (maths teacher). The other is hoping to start training as a history teacher next year (has recently made a late application - again to the same ITT provider).

I left teaching a few years ago and would never go back. I lasted 9 years. There were many good things about the job but the bureaucracy and extra pressure made me sick with stress. I could never get on top of things.

Week by week I'd be either a good teacher and my home life, marriage and kids suffered, or vice versa. Impossible to strike a balance.

I wish wish wish I'd trained in OT instead. I wasted my one year of savings to do the PGCE and now I can't afford to retrain in anything that isn't funded.

Do any of them have young children?

@Boomboom22 , @GiantPandaAttacks I genuinely appreciate both of your insights. Thank you for sharing.

@noblegiraffe No they don't. I agree that that will be an added complication for the OP, especially if her husband often works away. I mentioned earlier that one of the other trainees from my daughter's PGCE cohort had two young children but coped because she had a very supportive husband.

But I was responding to the comment from @Jifmicroliquid that she wouldn't recommend anyone to go into teaching.

I was a teacher. The thing you won’t be able to imagine is quite how you’ll never get your to-do list ticked off, never get anything done to the level you want, never ever feel like you are doing anything well enough because the job is bigger than one person can do. If you are the kind of person that can manage that then you may be ok. Most can’t!

I wouldn’t recommend it but you will make your own mind up!

My stepdaughter is a secondary school teacher, did 2 years after uni in the private sector before moving into teaching. Loves it, does the odd late evening but nothing excessive. Has young child and manages to balance everything (much like anyone working with a family). She'd never go back to the private sector.

I completed a PGCE this academic year (science subject) with two children who are older primary ages. I’ve hugely enjoyed the year, especially completing the assignments and learning about cognitive science. I have spent most holidays and weekends studying (Oct - May) which It has been to the detriment of my kids, but they understood the reasons and we now have the holidays together. My husband also works away frequently and I left a senior corporate job, which has been a few years in the planning.

I love teaching, many teachers I work with also enjoy teaching and wouldn’t do anything else. The PGCE year was intense but the Uni and mentors went out of their way to accommodate my circumstances. You have to accept you don’t be able to spend as much time planning and creating fantastic lessons as other students because you have other priorities, but the course is manageable and I passed with a distinction. You need to be efficient, you can spend 1 hour completing a task or 3 hours. You will want to spend 3 hours on it but if you need to prioritise.

Although I prepared for teaching, there were some things you can’t prepare for, namely the behaviour. I was shocked by the swearing, punching, and disruption in one of my placement schools. The behaviour management teams are on hand and supportive, but when you have kids in gangs etc this is very difficult to manage. Some teachers thrive in this environment as they can really make a difference to the kids, you don’t know until you’re there, if this is right for you.

The teacher interview process is also brutal, I thought with my experience I’d be able to walk into the school of my choice, but this is simply not the case. I’ve been lucky to find a school I am suited to, although my timetable is varied and I’m teaching a few different subjects. I’m open to this though, you need to be flexible.

My advice would be to go in with your eyes open as schools have changed so much in the last 10-20 years. Once you’re in a school the chances are you will stay there for years, as you need to ask the school for references (each time you apply for another job) - this is obviously much different to corporate jobs where the applications are generally secretive. If you are in the wrong school for you, I imagine in it would be unsustainable to stay there, given the demands of teaching.

It has been the right choice for me but I’d say it’s hard to know if it’s right for you until you’re on the course.

My dh has started working away maybe 50% of the time in recent years. It's really tough, especially when your children are small (mine are all secondary age now). If he had been travelling as much when they couldn't make their own way to and from school, I'd have to have used a nanny, childminder or before/after school club. When they were small and in three different settings, I did end up hiring an excellent nanny, as I physically couldn't get them to and from the places they needed to be, but it was £££.

I now work PT and have some semblance of a work-life balance, but this has come with experience and long hours in previous years meaning that lessons take far less time to plan and prepare now. I've been in my current school for several years which helps, and I don't teach an essay subject.

Thanks so much for the balanced account @Mrs23 , really good to hear from someone in a similar position and how you made it work.

Agreed about being pragmatic re. Studies. I think my current role has elements of that in it too - there is always more you can do, and it just takes time to understand what is acceptable to get by as we only have 24 hours in a day.

Food for thought!

I do want to say that I really really cherish the holidays with my dc though ❤️.

I was a teacher for over 20 years, wouldn’t recommend anyone to go into teaching.
I’d stay in your low stress job, enjoy your life, enjoy time with your child, you can’t get that back. I remember getting to the end of the school year, being too knackered to function for two weeks, just wanted to sleep or sit in silence so my kids didn’t get the best of me for their summer holidays.

Talk to DH. If you want to do this you'll need a nanny. Group childcare doesn't start early enough for teachers and I don't know how you'd cover marking, after school meetings and parents' evenings without someone else at home.

It's important you're not massively underslept. You need your wits about you. Commuting by car can be dangerous if you're very tired.

Do you think your mum would help? Mine did one day including an early morning when DD was little. She also once had her stay over when I had a parents' evening and DH was abroad. DH did a weekday childcare every week in termtime for 3 years. We used a nursery near school rather than home. We paid for ft nursery and I used the days in school holidays to get on top of coursework marking, teacher training paperwork etc.

I don't regret it but the first few years were hard and also the transition to primary school. We've both had to make career compromises. It wasn't all on me.