What would you think if your adult child wanted to become a primary school teacher ?

[SwanWings]

Really smart, still in uni, it's that adult dc life and their choice, but I probably worry it could lead to a hard life, low pay, too many demanding parents, unrealistic expectations from the schools, being inspected alot.

Just wondering what you'd think if was adult child considering this
Of course we will support dc regardless and of course its a valuable job indeed

I’m in my 50s and know three primary teachers inc a head. They mostly have a lovely life work balance and go out a lot. They seem to have good salaries. Compared to my friends who are in law, finance and publishing they seem much happier. Less stressed. Corporate life can be demanding and toxic. It isn’t an easier option.

I talked my daughter out of teaching recently. Pay, parents, and workload being a factor. All the really dedicated teachers I know work 10 hour days. Honestly, if she were that passionate about it I would have been unsuccessful.

Nope.
All teachers I work with think their wage is commensurate for what they do.

Ah I was not aware of that since my friends do have permanent jobs. That is worth bearing in mind.

My eldest is a teacher. He was exceptionally clever at school, all top grades, first in maths at a top uni so theoretically could have done anything. He wanted to teach. A few years on it's abundantly clear it was the right choice. He loves his job in a way that's rare to see. The pay is enough, much better if you progress to management but like many other teachers I know DS doesn't want that because he just wants to teach. Many years ago DH became a manager in his career and hated it because he was no longer doing the job he loved.
My other DC has a more prestigious, higher paid job but it's a means to an end, he doesn't love it.

Teaching can be really rewarding, you are doing an essential job.

Isn’t the baseline salary for teachers increasing to approx £54k September 2027? So I’d say it’s not a low paid job, and whilst difficult you’d hope it would also be rewarding.
I would be proud they want to inspire the younger generation

Primary teaching in pretty safe from AI, great pension, great holidays and (if money is a priority) private heads get very good six figure salaries.

Without teachers, we are all ignorant and illiterate.

No, not as far as I know.

If it is workload, the teacher can address it with his/ her employer. I respect teachers.

No clue where you got that from. Depends on the secondary school and how organised your subject / department is. Some people work 70-hr weeks. Others... Don't. How much you care about the quality of your work and lessons matters too. As well as how much you care about the students.

I’d say run for the hills. Dh is a primary head, I’m secondary head of department. Both been teaching over 20 years. It just gets worse and worse each year. I wouldn’t recommend it to my dc at all. And the pay really isn’t all that good compared to many other skilled graduate positions once you’re 20+ years in. There’s a reason why teachers are leaving in droves.

Well my daughter, 23, just qualified as a primary teacher and starts her first post in a few weeks!

I am extremely proud but will admit a little to being apprehensive for her. I think she will be amazing, but just hope she’s not knocked back by demanding parents before she’s found her confidence.

@W0tnow They might work 50 hours a week and a bit at weekends in term time, they certainly don’t in the 10 weeks of holidays they get.

I think it's 13 weeks holiday.

Is the issue that full time working hours are compressed into what is effectively a part time working pattern? If you compare the hours to an equivalent eg NHS band with 6 weeks of leave, that's a difference of 7 weeks. 7 weeks times roughly 40 hours is 280 hours - which would account for the need for evening work during term time. There's no way I could do my full time job in 195 days - I would have to work long days to get through everything. The difficulty of course is that schools are obviously closed during the holidays so there's a limited amount that could be accomplished.

I would hope it makes my son happy and fulfilled. If that's what he wants to do then I support him. It might not turn out the right thing, who knows with most jobs, but don't know if you dont try.

It wouldn’t worry me at all but I would hope they really loved the idea and wanted to do it. Heaven knows you HAVE to want to do that job. Ex TA who briefly thought about training and then came to my senses 🤣🤣.

That doesn’t mean it’s not low paid. If people do it for altruistic reasons then that’s great but for anyone with a modicum of ability they could earn 3 or 4 times as much in the private sector without any additional effort.

People are just too used to being paid peanuts so accept it as being normal.

No way would my children even consider it! I was a primary teacher for 22 years and massively regret not leaving the profession sooner. It is truly relentless and getting worse. Nobody respects teachers sadly.
I now tutor (SEND) which I love, but no pay in the school holidays is very hard financially.
All of my kids are academically much smarter than me, mainly because they had more options in terms of schooling and opportunities available to them. I did OK, but not to the same degree as they have done.
I am confident they will all find themselves in much more highly paid and more well-respected careers.

I’d be delighted, knowing what a great job they’d do and how happy it would make them.

As a teacher of 30+ years I’ve successfully managed to put my dc off considering a career in teaching. The current state of the education system leaves little room for all the things about teaching that make it feel worthwhile; it’s become very formulaic, academies are all lookalikes, no room for creativity and individuality, and new teachers now have such little understanding of child development which comes through in how SEND is being met (or not). They’re being taught to deliver a predesigned curriculum, not how to actually think about what children need to make progress. Effective pedagogy is severely lacking. As a result of all this and more, children are not having their needs met and that’s not what I went in to teaching to do.

They generally do use a fair chunk of this time for planning, setting up classrooms etc.

For a long time primary teachers did work longer hours than secondary ones, about 5 hours a week more on average. This was shown in data from the various unions. Now the average working week is almost exactly the same and has been for a few years. The workload in primary teaching has definitely improved in the past 10 years with more schemes of work and less focus on marking every piece of work with 'two stars and a wish' or whatever. I look back on what I used to do and can't believe it - both that we were expected to do things that were a complete waste of time or that everyone was so accepting that that was just the way it was!

That's interesting, though not the case for the teachers I know. From what they are all saying, the workload has never been higher and the job is only getting harder. It is good if it is improving though.