To ask teachers/school workers...

[twosmallones]

...whether the benefits of working term time only are worth it?
I work in a sales job 4 days a week as I have 2 pre-school age children. I commute 90 minutes each way 2 days per week and do 2 days per week at home, so the kids are in nursery 4 full days.
I have been considering various routes into teaching but I am feeling that leaving them in nursery 5 days a week, with no flexibility, is a lot. I obviously have to balance this with the fact I will get more time off during the year to spend with them however.
Has anyone else retrained as a teacher/TA etc post children and felt that it was a good option for them and their family?
Thanks in advance.

Sorry if this sounds daft, but for those saying how you would miss your own children's assemblies/sports days/plays/etc, couldn't thay be worked.out by teaching at the same school as own children attend

Well no, you'd be busy teaching your class while your child is in their school play etc.

I gave up my position as a primary school teacher to be a sahm. There were several reasons as to why really....but the main reason being that I didn't enjoy it due to the workload etc etc. It definitely has to be a job you love!!!

Pretty simple mistake mango: It's fair enough to share your experiences as a Secondary English teacher, its not OK to make assumptions of other teaching roles you have no experience in. then cover your arse with some flimsy get out statement

Also, it's not the summer holidays for all of us yet!!

I'm a teacher/assistant head/Senco. Paid holidays are brilliant- perfect for family life. However during term time (39 weeks a year) I work around 70 hours a week. I leave the house at 7am, get home for 7-7:30pm, work for 1-2 hours most evenings and do 5-6 hours on Sunday's.

Yes Pipbin is right, even if youre in the same school you cant just leave your own class to go and watch your dc's assemblies, shows etc. This is absolutely not allowed at my school.

FT PGCE & NQT years were awful.

Now working PT (0.8) and with a 9 year old and an 11 year old who are fairly self-sufficient life is good :)

This might be my own issue I know, but to offer a different perspective, I'm the child of a teacher and think it's not family friendly. Both my parents worked hard, long hours, evenings, weekends but somehow it was far easier to share one parent with an office than it was to share the other with other children.

I obviously have to balance this with the fact I will get more time off during the year to spend with them however.

You need to seriously rethink this, it won't happen.

It's also worth noting that if you don't teach in the school your children attend (and sometimes even then) you will never see your children's nativity play, sports day, special assembly etc etc.

Well no, you'd be busy teaching your class while your child is in their school play etc.

Bit blunt of an answer. So schools never have sports day with all the years out on the field together or play performances in the evening??

I mean come on, all the answers here are painting such a bleak shitty picture of being a teacher and having own children. I mean really? Is it that bad? I know lots of teachers with young families?

I can't imagine, say, an Art teacher or a primary teacher putting in every evening and weekend during term time

and if some secondary teachers think that some other teaching jobs require considerably less work than their own, that explains why people outside of teaching might assume this as well.

People generally have no idea of what other people's jobs involve unless they live with them!

"I know lots of teachers with young families?"

In a 12-class school, I am the only full time class teacher with school-age children or younger.

And I cannot keep it up any longer - going p/t in September.

Several of the FT TAs have children and are qualified teachers, but work as TAs not teachers because they cannot get FT teaching to work with a family.

When there are whole school events like Sports Day, you are far too busy with your own class to watch other classes - you have to manage behaviour, ensure no-one runs off, console those who are scared / stressed by noise / crying cos they didnt win, deal with cut knees, wet pants, trying to find little Jimmy's water bottle etc etc.

You literally have no awareness of which other classes are even at the event because you are so busy.

Remember there's only 1 teacher and 1 TA for 30+ children. You cant just say oh i'll be back in 5, i'm off to watch my son do the long jump. Its impossible.

I teach in my eldest DC school and still don't see the plays, sports days, assemblies etc because we are in different key stages.

The holidays are a perk but during term time I barely see my children.

I should have said that I work in primary. IME, primary is worse than secondary in terms of grinding workload, in particular the focus on overnight marking for the next lesson every night, and adaptation of plans based on the previous day's lesson for every subject.

The occasional extras of displays (every display is expected to change at least 1x per term, some more often), clubs and very much greater accessibility to parents add hours as well, of course, but it is the 96 books to be marked every night and the 5 lessons a day to be tweaked following the previous day's lesson that do not combine well with busy family life with a teen and near teen who have wide-ranging extra-curricular lives.

Quite right rollonthesummer, although the difference is mostly teachers aren't making a comparison. Were not saying 'I work harder than x y z', but simply 'I work hard'.

Bit blunt of an answer. So schools never have sports day with all the years out on the field together or play performances in the evening??

If you teach primary, then sports days are usually split into KS1 and KS2 due to sheer numbers. If your children are in the ks you teach in, then you'll see them-though will obviously be responsible for your own class/races at the same time, so may not see much of your own class as you've got the eyes of all the parents on you and you need to be concentrating. Your head might be nice and let you go and watch them if it's another afternoon tha the one yours was-often if you can persuade a colleague to double up and have 60 children for an hour whilst you're gone.

If your schools are infant and junior schools-they are totally separate, different sports days/fields/head teachers etc usually so things may be more difficult if you teach in the infant bit and your children are in the juniors etc

Play performances in the evening only happen in Y5/6 here.

I am a T.A and I love it.. Not because it fits in with the children's school day but because it is a job that I adore. However, I will say this. Pay is shocking! gone are the days when T.A's. Simply prepared the classroom and mixed paint. Now we are required to actually teach and for peanuts.So you do really need to be doing it for the love of it rather then the remuneration. Would I consider training to be a teacher?? No way,No how! I have 4 children between the ages of 13 and 6 and I know too much about how many hours teachers put in outside of school and how stressful the job is.

Thanks for the replies. I am aware I sound like an idealistic twat.

Do you all think teaching is one of the jobs 'up there' with being one of the most non-family friendly then?

And how much do TAs earn? (If no-one minds me being nosy!)

I think also the OP asked whether it was a good option for others and their families.

Teaching is more of a vocation than a job. If it is what yu want to do, do it - I trained when my children had already started primary and now can't imagine doing any other job.

But it is NOT very family friendly - or at least not for the reasons that anyone thinks it is.
a) The holidays are good.
b) The final 4+ hours of your day, once the children have left the building and after any clubs or meetings, can be done at any time. I have always valued that flexibility - I leave school fairly early (compared with my previous job as a middle manager in industry - so 5pm or so), act as mum taxi, homework-helper and cook for the next 3 hours or so, then settle down to work again at between 8 or 9 pm. I then work until past midnight many nights, but for me the ability to take e.g. DD to dance, DS to orchestra or football and then collect them again, and sit down for a family meal, is REALLY valuable.

I know lots of teachers with young families

I also know lots of teachers with young families, however, I only know of 2 teachers with young families who are full time-the rest are all part time.

The full time ones (I know them both very well) are on anti-depressants and one has had large parts of this year off with stress.

I work as admin in a sixth form which is term time only and so far has been quite flexible and I have been able to use toil from helping out at Parents Evenings to go to DDs Sports Days, shows etc.
I have just been offered a job as a secondary TA so not sure how that will compare.

Have you thought about teaching at a sixth form or FE college maybe part time you don't always need a teaching qualification but can work towards it and whilst it's part time you would probably earn more than an admin or TA.

No, I don't think is is amongst the most non-family friendly - but I think it is the one with the biggest gap between how family friendly you THINK it will be and how family friendly it ACTUALLY is IYSWIM?

No, I don't think is is amongst the most non-family friendly - but I think it is the one with the biggest gap between how family friendly you THINK it will be and how family friendly it ACTUALLY is IYSWIM?

Understood

Do you all think teaching is one of the jobs 'up there' with being one of the most non-family friendly then

I think you've gone from one extreme to the other there!

I am part time and I have very supportive and local parents and in laws as well as good friends who can help out in an emergency. My husband also has a very flexible job and if the children are ill or have a play/sports day, someone is always there for them. I am very lucky- and consider my job, in my situation, to be pretty family friendly.

If I didn't have any of these things-it wouldn't be terribly family friendly, but I wouldn't want to label it as one of the jobs 'up there' with being one of the most non-family friendly! Perhaps a single parent who works away on an oil rig would go on that list!