To ask who would be a teacher?

[hatchibombatour]

I am a senior manager in healthcare and in my mid 40s. It's something I fell into, I'm not actually qualified to do anything - my degree and MA are in non-vocational subjects. I have been unhappy for a long time and want to get out. I'd like to do something meaningful and 'real'. I've often thought about teaching, it's often been suggested to me, but been put off.

I've read threads on here where teachers warn against joining teaching. I'm not afraid of hard work, I work hard at the moment, and long hours. I know I've got transferable skills. I do volunteer reading at a local primary school and love it, love spending time with the children and seeing how they improve, helping them to improve. I appreciate teaching and volunteer reading are entirely different things, and I don't know if I would want to do primary or secondary (I have an absolute passion for English language and literature).

I've had a recent lightbulb moment, thought JFDI! Would I be completely nuts?

[TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince]

I was in industry for 8 years before going into teaching. Industry was a walk in the park compared to teaching.

[lastlaugh]

Read Every Life Matters by Rachel Forster and Crying in Cupboards by can't remember who before you go near teaching. At least then you can go with eyes open

[Cary2012]

It's hard. I work a fifty hour week if I'm lucky. Often seventy hours. Too much data. Already getting sarcastic jibes about having six weeks off soon. I wish, if I get half of that time free of planning etc., I'll be pleased.

Would I change it? Not on your nelly! I love it! I teach English, mainly Lit at KS4 and KS5. Sometimes I can't believe I am being paid to teach understanding irony in Pride and Prejudice or analysing Hamlet. Other times I want to weep at the piles of marking, endless observations and data.

Just bear one thing in mind: it isn't a job, it's a vocation. If you are passionate about working with and helping young people, go for it. If you're not sure, swerve.

[cardibach]

Cary I hate the whole idea of a 'vocation'. It's a really good way to undermine and underpay professionals.
I've been teaching nearly 30 years, all in state until the last 3 when I moved to independent to save my sanity and job. I wouldn't still be aching if I worked in state. I do longer jumpers now for less pay but I'm allowed to actually teach.
Don't do it. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The system is broken, and it breaks most of the people who go into it now, sadly.

[cardibach]

Teaching not aching. Longer hours, not jumpers. What is my iPad on!

[Fannyfannakerpants]

I'm lucky. I job share with a great colleague, I have a great, fairly small class (under 30), I don't have to show any planning and am trusted to get on with it and I work in a great school with other teachers who really care about the kids. However I still wouldnt recommend it. I feel sick at the thought of how children are pushed through a broken system and are nothing but figures to senior management and governors. I teach made up grammar and constantly changing maths. I physically wince if the head walks past as i know that nothing i do will ever be good enough and i have to constantly justify why little Billy isn't where he should be, even though dads just left home and he never has breakfast.
We, as a society, have completely forgotten What they need to be successful humans.
If you want to work with kids, great! Do It! But you won't find What your looking for in teaching.

[worlybear]

Train and take a Tefl course.
You won't earn as much as a state teacher but it is 100% less pressurised and the kids actually want to learn!

[Cary2012]

cardibach, I agree. But I get such a buzz from enthusing young minds and seeing them achieve, and it outweighs the cons. The cons are massive, which is why I always advise that if the fire isn't there, don't do it. The kids I teach are in a massive high school, not an affluent catchment by any means...it's very rewarding.

I have seen outstanding teachers leave the profession due to cutbacks, unreasonable demands and too much box ticking and not enough contact time. It's sad and wrong. That's what I mean about vocation: you have to cope with all that and focus on the students. And that's why the system is flawed.

[Rosieposy4]

I love being a teacher. Took a pay cut about 10 years ago to retrain.
Like you i was undecided between primary and secondary, so glad i jumped for the older kids, think there are a lot more issues for primary, not least the parents.
It is unrelenting hard work during term, but the students are generally good fun ( echo pp re thick skin needed) and the holidays always appear just in time for a well earned collapse.

[MaisyPops]

I'm a teacher and love teaching the kids.

It's stressful at times but I work in a great school (and am all too aware of how a less supportive school makes life hell for some).

What annoys me the most is when people sit at home bad mouthing teachers or coming on sites like mumsnet full of their own "big I am/my child wouldn't..." etc and then feel entitled to complain about anything and everything, from names in a class to school uniform to overriding detentions etc.

At the end of the day, there's a reason for the retention crisis.

[kaitlinktm]

Primary - no way. Too much red tape and none teaching pressure. If you where left to teach the kids then maybe but look at the private sector or overseas

Secondary - maybe but have a proper look

This annoys me - believe me there was just as much red tape and non-teaching pressure in the secondary school I taught at for 20+ years as I have observed whilst working in primary for the last three.

Both sectors are tough - it isn't a case of one-upmanship or a race to the bottom and it is insulting to colleagues in different sectors to imply that one is so much harder than the other.

[HamletsSister]

I have been teaching for 27 years and I love it! English teacher so the marking is huge but I love working with kids.

Disclaimer- I work in Scotland in a tiny school so not a typical job but one I really enjoy.

[Cary2012]

English marking is immense. I can spend 20 mins marking a piece of extended writing. Multiply that by 25...and that's just one class. And I teach 18 classes a week.

[spanieleyes]

And in primary you are expected to mark every lesson before the next one the following day, so a minimum of 60 books a night ( and year 6's can write a lot in a lesson!)

[cardibach]

Cary I get that. I've taught unchallenging schools. I know the joy of making a difference, of seeing progress happen. It's not enough, and it shouldn't be enough. Any time any of us lets it be enough we allow government to walk over us, make cuts, undervalue us and further disadvantage those children.

[cardibach]

Taught in challenging schools. Not unchallenging. Why does the iPad want to undermine me?

[BoggledMind]

I'm another one who loves being with the children and the actual teaching part but hates the politics and the system. I have taught for 10 years now and am planning to leave and retrain after my maternity leave finishes. I'm mentally and physically worn out by it all. My mum was a teacher and she always tried to dissuade me from going into teaching but I didn't listen. I will be telling my dd to avoid the education system at all costs as well. I've even considered home educating my own children because I loathe aspects of the system so much. I still may do this depending on what my dd's new school is like.

Between me and my sil, who is also a teacher, we've put a lot of people off going into it by simply explaining what daily, weekly, monthly, yearly life is like for a teacher. Until you go into teaching you have no idea what it is like and it's hard to explain it so that people understand. As others have said, there is a reason for the retention crisis.

[KittyVonCatsington]

You wouldn't be completely nuts to do it at all!

My question to you is, "Why are you unhappy in your current job?".

If you tell us, we could say if it would also be an issue in teaching or not...

[SomewhatIdiosyncratic]

I'm having a lovely break doing the clichéd spending time with my family.

I found full time teaching compromised the needs of my family too much to be worth the pay. DH has a demanding job with long hours and travel so it makes sense to keep his which pays double. I love teaching in a classroom, but the toll on my family of a 5 & 3 year old spending 50 hours a week in childcare plus still having 2-3 hours of work to drag home to keep afloat was too much. I was working to "good enough" but still had to work in the holidays setting my alarm at 6am to work before the DCs rose and fobbing them off with "cinema day" where I'd bring them to my classroom, ply them with popcorn and put DVDs on my projector while I spent 5 hours ploughing through 50 GCSE books that were too heavy to lug home. It was a sad moment when the thought of teaching a class felt like a hindrance in shifting my way through a mound of paperwork. Work has to be marked twice. Student data analysed with personalised targets set.

Entering the profession in the early 2000s, I knew it wasn't an easy option, and being a new teacher the planning was laborious, but what you had to do was pretty well connected to the job. Now the paperwork and back covering has exploded. Everything has to be created on powerpoint because the textbooks are decrepit, out of date and out of fashion anyway and the printing/ photocopying budget minimal. Classroom stationary has to be supplied yourself as there's no budget for it. Hard earned benefits such as restrictions on cover on planning time have been eroded by academisation and lack of funding.

The system in short, is a mess.

I've taken a natural opportunity for a break while it was there. I may return to the classroom one day (assuming anyone wil pay for me on M6 again) as I've got out early enough, but the system has to change for everyone's well being.

[JennyBlueWren]

I love teaching but find so many things get in the way of teaching!

Part of the problem with the job is that you can always be doing more/better and it sometimes feels impossible to do your best for everyone.
Also it can really affect your personal life. It can take over and you find yourself not spending quality time with your loved ones (marking while my son scribbles next to me is how we spend our weekend!) and bringing the stress home. However that is manageable if you are the sort of person who can switch off/prioritise.

[Armi]

I love teaching, absolutely Iove it. When it's all going well, it's the best job in the world. However....in my 20 years in the profession something really weird has happened. To start with, targets were introduced and that was ok, they were something to aim for, as one aims for a target in archery. Gradually, targets have become something you absolutely must achieve, whilst simultaneously becoming utterly unachievable. For example, I teach a bottom set Year 10. Lovely, lovely students who work exceedingly hard. I also work hard to ensure all their work is fully differentiated and all students can access the (non-tiered) examination system. I have high expectations of them in terms of behaviour and achievement - they never let me down. But four of my students - in a bottom set class in a non-grammar school in a grammar school area - are targeted Level 6, roughly the equivalent of a high B in old GCSE money. They can barely read!!!!

It's crackers. It sets the students up for ridiculous stress and failure and, I imagine, will give the academy chain a reading to remove my Upper Pay Scale payments when the kids don't achieve the results. I do lunchtime sessions, after school sessions, one to one sessions with these kids....the fact is that they really are smashing but they simply cannot access the current exam system. It's just awful for them and fir me.

Still. Great holidays, eh?

[Armi]

*reason
*for

I teach proof-reading, you know.

[stoplickingthetelly]

I'm a head of department in a secondary school (part time) and dh is a deputy of a primary school. We've also got 2 young children. I've been teaching 11 years and although there are parts of the job I enjoy, but I got to pick all over again I wouldn't choose teaching. I feel trapped now. Dh and I cannot keep going at this pace and level stress until we are nearly 70!

[FloofyFloo]

I love parts of my job. I love seeing children 'get it's. I love it being different every day. I don't even really mind the extra hours and hours and most of Sunday every week.

I hate the system. The pressure on children. The pressure on schools. Knowing that there is no money to do the thing that you know will help that child. Constantly spending my own money on little things that might help. Knowing that some children just will not be ready, just can not meet expectations, and yet the expectation is that instead of working from where they are we continue to try and get them to make accelerated progress.

By all means join the profession, but there are cases when you can not make the difference you know is needed because you're tied by the system, and it's hard, and the holidays are amazing but they are like that to make up for no time elsewhere and having a constant working list in your mind, to avoid complete burnout!

Teaching will make you cry. Sometimes, if you're lucky with pride!

[Lightpurpletulip]

I've been teaching for 15 years now. I was ready to chuck in the towel a couple of years ago, having been in a multi academy chain type school. I had been signed off sick, unable to recover from a chest infection. I was so run down.

However, by chance I spotted a job in a local faith school and thought I'd give it one last go.

Well, I'm so glad I did. I have my teaching mojo back and I love my job.

So, the moral of the story is.... Choose the school wisely. There are still a few sensible heads who value their staff, try their best to reduce ridiculous administrative tasks that don't benefit the kids and stick two fingers up to Ofsted. Unfortunately they are few and far between.