To consider retraining as a teacher?

[bagelmonkey]

I no longer feel that my career is compatible with my family. I'd like a job where I don't need to work nights or weekends.
I've always enjoyed the parts of my job that involve teaching - I love helping people to understand things and sharing knowledge, although my teaching experience to date has been informal rather than formal. I think I'd enjoy being a teacher. I was thinking along the lines of secondary school biology/science.
I'm 33 with a 7mo DD. AIBU to consider doing a PGCE and a compete career change?

[An0therName]

OP - just a couple of links may be helpful

www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/


www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/files/Part-time%20full%20report%20final.pdf

[marriedinwhite]

I'm not a teacher but I work full time as a professional manager in a very large educational establishment which employs more than 1000 people. I earn £43,000, have professional qualifications and work very hard.

I start work at about 8.30, rarely break for lunch, leave at about 6 and often do about an hour and a half in the evenings, ie, over 50 hours per week. I also am very lucky because I have seven weeks annual leave per year plus the bank holidays (compared to the lecturers' 14 weeks and for people in more regular jobs - four to five weeks). I have a super pension, even now - with my employer contributing 14% of my salary per annum.

Surprisingly like most people with school age children whether they are teachers or not, we have to take our holidays in the school holidays (this is not merely the experience of teachers).

Oddly enough when I leave the building at 6ish there are very few teachers around - even fewer at 7ish.

It's called work and that's what working people do, often for far less money than the average teacher. Most working people just complain less.

[tenderheart]

YANBU to want to become a teacher but YABU to think it won't involve late nights or weekends. I am not saying every night and every weekend but you will be v. busy depending on time of year.

I am still up doing my plan for this term (yawn) and I have been teaching for 5 years! The thought of teacher training with a wee one and then the stress of NQT year makes me go eeeeekkk! I would wait till LO is a bit older and I would also suggest getting some classroom experience so you can be sure it is the job for you.

Good luck whatever you decide.

[An0therName]

if you come back to the UK - I think you can work part time even as junior doctor -
you can def do GP training part time - and loads of GPs work part time as well maybe you could take a career break for a year or so and pick up -know in the UK there are schemes to help with that as well
you will have worked so hard to get to and at medical school - and the finicial benifits when you do qualify would way more than teaching - unless you get to be head teacher

[Goingcrazy]

I did my PGCE 7 years ago when my children were 10 and 8. It was incredibly hard work and I couldn't have done it without my DH,who had 3 months gardening leave and took over all the cooking, childcare etc. My NQT was even harder work and I was probably working about 55-60 hours a week. There were times when I almost gave up.

However! It is the best job ever - it is never boring, can be really rewarding and 7 years on, it has become much easier. I still work long hours - I'm in school for 7:45 am and don't usually leave until about 5:45pm although there is flexibility if I need to leave early. I still do a few hours at the weekend as well and some evenings. The holidays are a definite bonus and although I still work during them I can work around my commitments and of course it's much easier now my DC are older.

I would say that if it's something you really want to do, then go for it. But if you're at all lukewarm about it, then think very seriously because I can't imagine doing this job unless you love it.

[whatsfordinnerthen]

Is it the job or just the hours that is getting you down? I know it is difficult but is there a way you can go part-time or move to a different job within medicine that is more 9-5? I totally understand how difficult it is to get from being a junior doctor to a place where you can pick and choose what you do. The process to becoming a part-time GP is not that easy and competitive to get into. Can you even train to be a GP part-time? I totally understand why you are finding this so hard, for me the sacrifice was not worth it.

If you really love medicine then I am sure you will find a way through this but on the other hand leaving is not the end of the world that some people seem to think it is, if it is the right decision for you.

[tryingtobemarypoppins2]

Part time GP could be great. You have worked so hard to not stay in medicine???? Could you train GP's?? My GP friend does this and seems to have a good work life balance.

I teach 3 days and use my PPA time to do the school run, so I can take to school 2 days a week and pick up 3 sometimes 4 days a week.

[penguin73]

I think if you take anything from this thread it must be the message that everybody has different experiences as a teacher, both in terms of workload and flexibility with time off. My advice would be to get in the classroom and get some real experience of what it is like day to day - in a variety of schools if possible. I retrained when DS was 8 and relied heavily on the hours he was at school/asleep to get the academic/paperwork side of the PGCE done - I can't imagine doing it with a baby. Now I love that I can be home relatively early and the increased time we get together during the week as well as having most of the school hols with him is brilliant, but it does mean starting work once he goes to bed as many teachers stay an hour or so after school to plan/prepare/mark/run clubs etc etc which I tend not to do. You also need to consider where you could end up working as others have said - as the gap between the number of qualified teachers and the number of posts available widens many are finding themselves with horrendous commutes and incredibly long days due to this. If teaching is something you feel passionately about then I would say go for it, but if your motivation is mainly the reduced working hours/convenience then it is certainly not for you.

[gardenpixies32]

I have discouraged my sister from going into teaching. I taught for 10 years (secondary school). I love teaching but hated all the crap that came with it. I earned a decent salary of 42k but gave that up and I am now a childminder earning a pittance.

I chose to arrive at school at the crack of dawn so I could leave earlier in the afternoons, a typical day was 7am-4:30-5pm (apart from days there were meetings and parents evenings which made it a 7am-7pm day and my old school had 2 parents evenings per year group which made it 14 parents evenings a year!

If it is what you want, go for it. Think carefully and do your research first!

[whatsfordinnerthen]

I am an ex-doctor and I gave it up before I had children but I know I would have found it almost intolerable with children. The question is do you really want to leave medicine or are you just finding it hard at the moment? I knew I did not want to be a doctor from the beginning really so leaving my career was a great relief and I have never regretted it since.

If you love teaching this can be a massive part of lots of different jobs and you really can use your degree to your advantage and the skills you have are really useful. Don't make the mistake of thinking you have to leap from one profession to another because you need the identity in it.

Since leaving medicine I have been a medical secretary and done other admin jobs in the NHS which to be honest I have really enjoyed. I am now embarking on going back to work now my youngest has started school. I couldn't be happier!

[WilsonFrickett]

Lots of good advice on here but I think the key thing is - are there available teaching jobs in your subject, in your area? Because I know of a lot of newly-qualified teachers who are either doing supply teaching or on contracts. In my DS school for example, there is a vacancy for his class teacher but that's only going to be offered as a contract till the end of this school year.

[KittyFane]

I'd like a job where I don't need to work nights or weekends
You are in for a nasty shock OP :o !!!

[Teapotqueen]

Helo - Getting v.v. stressed at the moment. Not enough hours in the evening to get all the planning done. Glad it's not just me:)

[cornsylk]

Anyone remember that thread where everyone was saying it was really hard work and then Cod came on and said it was a piece of piss?

[pink13]

I teach English and have for 6 years now, I still work to about 9pm every night and have to do at least half a day at the weekend. My DH has just trained as a Biology and Chemistry teacher (this is his first full year teaching). Most nights he is still working at gone 10pm. Yes you can do it at home, and yes there are longer holidays (although the 'set' dates mean a premium price to go away), but the pay is lower than many professions. It can be an amazing job and we both love it, but you have to be really passionate about it to make it work.

[NorfolkNChance]

Teaching is a fantastic career if you are passionate about it. It is not something you can do half heartedly or without full focus.

The hours with a small child can be manageable and teachers do manage it even full time but there is a LOT that goes in teaching behind the scenes that few outside of education see.

My advice is to talk to as many teachers in RL that you can, if you can get time to volunteer in a school and shadow a teacher to help understand the true nature of the job. The PGCE/GTP & NQT year are very hard and personally it wasn't until my 4th year of teaching that I found things easing up in terms of workload because planning was becoming easier as I grew in confidence etc.

[NinkyNonker]

It does depend heavily on subject as well. As secondary English teacher the marking load is heavy heavy heavy, so there is no way of doing it outside of evenings etc.

[noblegiraffe]

Biology isn't a shortage subject is it? I'd check out the TES online to see what jobs are like in your area before potentially giving up a job to retrain for one that doesn't exist. Lots of schools are laying off teachers at the moment due to budget cuts.

[BuckminsterFullerene]

I confess I haven't read the whole thread but:

"I'd like a job where I don't need to work nights or weekends." And you think that's teaching?!

Ahhahahahahahahahahaha!

Oh, you crack me up!

[Mishy1234]

I don't think YABU to consider it, but think carefully and do considerable research. I think it's one of those jobs that you really need to be passionate about and not do because it's seen as an easier option.

My SIL and BIL are both secondary teachers and have been honest that it's a reasonable gig. They do take work home and do stuff in the holidays, but tbh who doesn't! I'm not a teacher, but I certainly do a considerable amount of work in the evenings/weekends and don't get anything like the same number of holidays. I think that teachers feel like they constantly have to defend themselves against all the comments about their holidays etc, but some don't seem to recognise that most professional jobs involve similar level of pressure, if not more.

I would say go for it, if it's what you really want.

[weegiemum]

I'm married to a GP

It is not a "Piece of Piss" - maybe he takes his job more seriously than your niece, LaurieFairieCake! And I say that as a secondary teacher.

I now teach adults and it is totally different to teaching children. If your only experience is in adult ed, it is really not the same!

[Cereal]

Definitely spend some time in schools (more than one if possible) and try to get some experience.

[TheFallenMadonna]

You need to go into a school and see life in a school classroom. It is not all sharing knowledge, and it is very different to teaching university students for example. And the pay is nothing like as good. I do love it though, and I an a science teacher!

[eslteacher]

I have quite a few friends who are teachers...I can think of three particularly good friends, all very different, all teaching in secondary schools in different parts of the country. All three of them seem to hate it. One of them has just gone on maternity leave and plans on never going back, the other one is looking to get out of it but doesn't know how, the other I think is trying to transfer to another educational-related thing that is not teaching directly.

The reasons that none of them seem to like it are: working with a hell of a lot of kids who are completely resistant to learning anything at all, working with unreaslistic/pointless targets and guidelines about how to teach and what the children must be doing, being forced to spend a disproportionate amount of energy on the minority of rowdy/unruly kids, how much work they have to bring home at weekends and on the evenings.

Maybe I just know some unusually disatisfied teachers though!