To ask if there are any teachers out there who love their job?

[MadameGazelle]

I will be applying for a PGCE Primary Education in September, to start September 2012 if I'm accepted. By coincidence I keep reading threads on MN about how difficult and stressful teaching is and how un-family-friendly it is as a career. I have 2 young children, one in Reception and one in Pre-school nursery and part of the reason I was considering teaching was the thought that it may be more family friendly. Are there any teachers out there who love their jobs, aren't about to collapse with stress and can basically reassure me that I'm not about to make a huge mistake! TIA

I love teaching hate the paperwork

I have recently returned after maternity leave and found teaching to be far from family friendly and I work in a school that has been superb in terms of my time off with DD.

Also term time only childcare is rare if you want a nursery.

exactly kapok - that's good managemnet. Well done you and wish there were more like you

My nursery eventually offered me term time only fees after they told me it was going to be £950/month for 3 days a week and I would only use it during term time! I said no way...so they offered it to keep me! I think you are right, it is rare.

So I pay for 39 weeks but spread the payments ovee 12 months. Still, I have to pay 1/2 fees for childminder during holidays for older DC

ditto pudding - my own mum didn't even warn me! It's the work in the evenings when you are totally shattered and never being able to cut off during term time that I dislike the most.

I am very intrigued as to what the OP is thinking after hearing such different and honest views..?

I wouldn't even have the balls to ask for it. But then I am secondary and teach in Scotland. I guess it's slightly different here?

That was in response to kapok, btw, sorry!

Just realised half my post doesn't make much sense. Shows how bloody knackered I am all the time! I meant that even if you have planning from the year before, not year below.

I enjoy many aspects of my job - obv the teaching is the main bit, and being in an institution where learning is valued.

I don't love all the extra stuff - I should be writing long, detailed 6th form reports as we speak - but can bear it at the moment.

I spent long, long hours when on PGCE and NQT planning etc and am not sure how I would have managed this with a family.

I now have DD (after teaching 5 years) and am expecting DC2 - I currently work 3 days a week.

I have to say that I am anticipating this being a family-friendly job ongoing, mainly in the holidays, and being able to get home early most nights (I get to school at 7am to work).

However, as I would be the main breadwinner if working f/t, there will be pressure on me to go back f/t when possible, get promotion (currently have a small amount of paid-for responsibility). And I am already worried that this will make life v difficult at home, due to all the extra markinge etc I will need to do. And how tired I will be. And that won't be for about five years!

Yes, I love my job. I've been teaching for 10+ years and went down to 4 days a week after DD1 was born 6 years ago.

Since having my DCs I've become a much more efficient teacher; I work through my lunchtimes to get marking etc. done and don't get home until 5.59pm (our nanny works until 6pm). I probably work harder than most of my non-parent colleagues but I suspect that has more to do with personalities and priorities than it does parenthood! Teaching is full-on, especially Primary (DH is a secondary school teacher and has the luxury of free lessons in addition to PPA) and it pays to be organised but also to decide what your priorities are both in home life and in schoool life; hoovering and toilet cleaning aren't more important than reading bedtime stories or going out for a day with your children.

I try hard to avoid doing planning etc. when my DCs are up and about which is possible as a classroom teacher but less so once you've taken on additional responsibilities (which in Primary is inevitable once you've completed the NQT year).

So long as you're highly organised, you've got childcare (including back-up childcare) arranged and have accepted you may well have to pay all year round, have a supportive partner and really really want to be a teacher, then it's do-able. It's a wonderful job but life-consuming rather than family-friendly!

Ime, it can be difficult when they're tiny but less so when they are of school age.

Oh, and if you are lucky enough to get a part-time teaching position i.e. job-share in one school, it can be tricky finding new part-time positions if/when you want to move on.

SE13Mummy- when you say your husband gets free periods in addition to PPA, do you mean his PPA is considered to be outside of school hours, or simply that he has some extra free periods?

Because most schools I've experience of, more than 10% off timetable is rare.

He has X free periods, a proportion of which are 'protected' i.e. PPA. I imagine it's largely down to timetabling and the fact that he teaches a lot of 6th form. At his school most teachers are lucky enough to be given more than 10% PPA!

Teaching is certainly a vocation especially in primary. I love my job and although it is child friendly when it comes to holidays (unless you DC goes to school in a different county and have their half term at a completely different time) the hours are not family friendly (I need to leave for work at 7.30am and child care at that time is not easy to find) and there is very limited flexibility (before I had children I was returning from a holiday and had to return on the Sunday as school started on the Monday, my friends could return on the Monday, I paid £200 for flights, they paid £40!). I only work one day a week now I have young children as I do not want to miss sports days and assemblys but I would like to change schools but finding part time work is very hard. Since having children I have only done PPA cover so that the amount of planning and paperwork I have to do is very limited. Before children I spent nearly all my time doing stuff for school I would not want to do that now so will wait till my children are older before going back for more days. My DH is also a teacher and he works most evenings and usually one day over the weekend. He has never seen an assembly etc other than on video. The training I found very hard and very time consuming although there were people on the course with children. I suppose if you are focused you can make it work.

Gosh I sound really depressing but I still would not do any other job!

My DH is a teacher, a HoD, and has been a teacher for nearly 15 years and I'm training to be a TA.

Lots of people over the years have said to me 'oh why don't you be a teacher' and I would love to get QTS but I know that with 4 kids I just couldn't do it without going completely crackers.

My DH's workload is pretty intense, his job is not family friendly at all. In one school he worked in he couldn't even get compassionate leave while his mum was very ill in ICU 'cos ofsted were in (well technically he could have done but he would have been in the shit). And he has never attended a sports day, nativity play, assembly for our own kids.

Having said all that he loves his job, he loves 'teaching' and developing his team and it's the things like seeing 'grown up' pupils who are happy, and getting nice letters from parents that balance out all the paperwork and govt crap.

I'm only training to be a TA but I can say that when you work in a school and have a good day it's really good and the best feeling in the world. The bad days though....

I love my job as a sec teacher, Head of Faculty. Wouldn't like to be SLT as it's not much more money esp with tax rises, and taking repsonsibility for adults' performance is not something I could do. I think it's still the case that far too many unsuitable people come into/remain in teaching and are carried by the hardworking majority. Red tape and union threats mean that their incompetence and its effect on the kids and the organisation is tolerated. Because I don't believe some people have the capacity to improve I would therefore not take that step. I do a 60hr+ week in termtime, shadowed by two student teachers, two overseas residentials and one French daytrip per year, plus welcoming overseas groups to our school, all very time-consuming but incredibly rewarding. The main bugs are:

• SLT who invent extra initiatives to make a name for themselves, creating work for everyone else
• unhelpful, rude admin / site management staff who think that all teachers have an easy life compared to them (I don't include TAs in this)
• 'Cover Supervisors' who vary from brilliant to a total waste of space, which sends mixed messages to the kids and are, on balance, not helpful - give me a proper supply teacher any day

I've worked in the City, and my husband's an engineer - now that is work !

Vive les vacances :)

I love my job (primary but SLD).

It is VERY stressful, mainly due to other adults (lack of support, lack of staff etc) rather than the children. I love the teaching bit and actually quite like some of the paperwork (reports, reviews, progression, planning and so on) but I work in a very specialist area and am lucky to be in a school that is relatively flexible with regards to those of us who have a family. Still, working 60 - 80 hrs a week isn't all that much fun.

LargeGlassOfRedPlease seriously, I'm totally put off , am going to see how my work experience goes up until the Summer Holidays and the decide if I'm going to apply for the PGCE in September. However, I am glad I asked, I wanted honest answers and would rather know the truth before I embark on something and the reality is very different to my perception. There's no way I want to be working 12-14 hour days plus the weekends and missing my children grow up. My current job is very flexible, I probably don't realise how good I've got it. Thanks to everyone for your honest answers