...to consider teacher training once DCs are at school?

[GandTforme]

Is teaching (primary) really so stressful and unpleasant?

My DTs are 18mo now and I work part time in local government (social work assistant within an adult team). My job is ok but the only way to progress would be to go full time in a few years when dc start school and train in social work - I'm not sure that I enjoy my job enough to do that.

I have always just had 'jobs' rather than a 'career' but I would like to remedy this in the future. The only thing that has ever really appealed to me is teaching. My local city has a training federation offering the pgce and I was toying with the idea of applying for this when the dc are 4/5 and I will once again be able to work/study full time. But after looking into it there are so many horror stories about how dreadful the job is these days, how many people burn out, how much overtime is required. Now I'm used to stress, working in a social work team. But what I read about teaching makes it sound like it's on another level of awfulness compared to other local government professions.

What's the truth? Would I be mad to consider working towards it?

MaisyPops, your ‘professional martyrs’ comment is ignorant and offensive. My 80 hour weeks were certainly not spent laminating. They were spent following ridiculously tight and lengthy marking policies, planning for ‘rapid and sustained progress’ for every pupil every lesson, creating subject reports for SLT and govs that were full of statistical analysis of and future provisions for each group and sub group (these were 40 pages long each and I was subject leader for 3 subjects), planning for performance management and filling out all the accompanying evidence, filling in a professional reflection journal, meetings, reports, planning bi-weekly assemblies, meeting with parents, completing personal/subject leadership/whole school development plan tasks, class assessments/analysis/next steps, creating displays that fit with the school policies ... Nothing that was not compulsory. Nothing that could have been reduced through using time differently. Then there were the extra events, trips and risk assessments and wider school life involvement.

Great that your experience is different and it’s good to hear there are still less demanding schools out there but don’t insinuate that those who work more hours than you are doing so necessarily because of their own shortcomings or choices.

OP, teaching is a great job. For many right now, being a teacher is not. I gave up state primary teaching so I could see my family more. Never regretted it. Regret not doing it sooner.

It entirely depends on your school. I love my job and have no regrets. Yes it’s a lot of hours but in a supportive school you are encouraged to prioritise and accept that you can’t possibly do it all.

Do not do this. I wouldn't recommend it as a profession to anyone.
I really regret wasting 8 years of my life teaching (primary). And yes, absolutely, to the posters who said teaching made them feel like they were never good enough.

I'm in my NQT year, did my PGCE last year my eldest is 13, youngest 7 with 2 in between. The PGCE was hard work but doable, my NQT year has been horrendous so far, love my class, love the school, love teaching but as others have said it's all the other stuff that wears you down. I do 8.30-4.30 because of the DC go home and work 8.30-11 most nights. I'm constantly shattered.

I'm looking to drop a day next year if I can as full time teaching + family life is hard going.

MaisyPops, your ‘professional martyrs’ comment is ignorant and offensive
No it's not.

Workload is school specific. One place I worked I had a similar workload to you. My current place values staff wellbeing so i do around a 50 hour week.

Fact remains I see a number of teachers who reinvent the wheel, make jazzy powerpoints / flip charts, sit cutting card sorts, planning lessons with 7 different colour coded worksheets, photocopying learning objectives to go in books, writing essays in books (which doesn't help progress), laminating the shit out of everything and then whine about how they work so long, never see their family.

Professional martyrs exist in many lines of work, teaching included.

I teach secondary, I honestly think part time teaching is the only way to have a work life balance and remain sane. As others have said, the teaching and the kids are great - it’s the paperwork, targets and pressure that are the issue. I’m fortunate that I’ve ended up in a more supportive school than most. I’m happy now I do three days a week, but most of the full time teachers I know have an exit plan within the next five years or so.

That said - the holidays are good, the money is decent and there is pretty good job security in terms of there always being a demand for teachers.

I'd say don't do it.
6/7 years ago is the point at which more and more pointless paperwork etc was much more noticeable.

Even if you go 0.6 or 0.8 it is.like full time in any other job.
You never feel on top.of things.
Having no time for dh or dc.
Unfair all round.

The pressure of secondary is the same. In primary you just get the same kids all day, secondary you have up to 20ish different groups a week. So more names to learn. But if the kids are annoying then you don't see them so often, so it's swings and roundabouts!

MaisyPops, your ‘professional martyrs’ comment is ignorant and offensive

I agree with Maisy. Yes some schools are more demanding ( not naming any Academy Trusts in particular) but some teachers and I have seen plenty just simply faff on. They do reinvent the wheel. They stare at a screen for ages and in my last department they just bloody gossip for hours and say they have been working! They make meetings last hours when it could be said in a couple of sentences.

Maisy I don’t even work 50 hours some weeks. Some weeks a lot fewer hours. Week before Christmas.

Maybe because I just love Physics though and even try to engage my 9 year old ( sneakily though)
I could teach with a pen and a board. However we have all done the fancy PowerPoints between us as a team. So its now done until the change the GCSE again.

Don’t do it, just don’t. I’ve been teaching 21 years, could do it with my eyes closed.

But still feel not good enough, still think I’m crap. Even though all the evidence says otherwise. I had months off with stres about 6 years ago, and it’s building up again.

Government policy atm is just shit. Class sizes are massive, courses not running, no equipment that works.

I think you have to be prepared that think you are crap as a teacher even though you may not be. Also, as well as being stressful and noisy it’s physically exhausting too. I wore a stepper once. 10000 steps per day every day. To say nothing of carrying and lugging stuff around.

I think it is a brutal job

I did my PGCE when my youngest two (twins) started reception. I have 4. My other 2 were in year 4 and 2.

The PGCE year was awful- working full time (7:30-6:30 most days plus marking/planning in the evenings and all day Sat or Sun), uni once a fortnight, weekly observations and studying/writing essays whilst trying to parent, wife and live. I generally worked til midnight or later every evening and school holidays, whilst studying, I worked 6pm-3am so I could see my children. I cried a lot. BUT I set myself a goal- I was not missing a year of my babies’ lives for nothing so I graduated as an ’outstanding teacher’. I’ve not worked full time since and I won’t, not until my children are independent.

It’s a HARD 9 months- but that qualification and career are now mine. I love making a difference and I especially love all the time I have with my own children- I don’t have to share them!

Do it! It’s short-term pain for long-term gain!

I worked part time through my PGCE so found my NQT year relatively easy in comparison. Now I work in a small independent school with small classes with lovely kids. We don’t have as much paperwork as the state sector but it is slowly creeping up.

The teaching bit is good but the rest of it is soul destroying. Whilst you do get weekends and holidays at home with your kids You don’t really enjoy them as you will begrudge your own children wanting your time as you’re too busy marking, planning or completing a target sheet or 90. That’s the truth of it.

Before I had a child, teaching was brilliant, I could put all my energy into it and I found it rewarding, now that I have a dd I spend my entire life feeling crap about my job and my home life - both require more time and energy than I have to give to them.

In all honesty do not train to be a teacher if you already have children you will regret it.

I beg you, don't do it. Like a previous poster I dropped out through severe stress on my final placement. Did the 4yr b ed. I loved teaching and it had been a lifelong dream, plus I was good at it, I got good feedback, sometimes outstanding. But I totally had a breakdown (along with several other members of staff at the same school). I didn't have children then, I would hate to be a teacher with my own children. Sad state of affairs really.

Tinkerbec
Glad it's not just me.

When I do a scheme of learning it is bloody good and detailed, differentiated, the lot, which is why it really pisses me off when others don't pull their weight & do the minimum badly because then not everyone benefits from the supposed benefits of having good schemes of work.

One of my colleagues is always so overwhelmed with work she spends her PPA talking to her boyfriend on the phone. She makes a big deal of how many books she is taking home but she pisses about in school.

Like I say, some school cultures are terrible. But whining reinvent the wheel folk annoy me.

I wouldn't recommend it either. I went part time after my first child was born and have no intentions of ever being full time again even once my youngest is in school. Part time is bearable but to be honest a change in career is always on my mind.

I have a number of close friends who are teachers and have raised children whilst in the job and they’ve all been okay. Im not saying many things don’t need improving because they do but a lot of the complaints here happen in every stressful job.

Like other stuff have said, it pisses me off that the only way to cope is to be part time. It’s masking the shite situation in schools,

Consider that it really is a job where you give so much of yourself too. You can't ever have an off-day, where you keep your head down and just get on with your work.
You have to be the smiley, encouraging decision-making performer all day - and then start your real work once the children have left.
It is very, very tiring being 'on' all day, every day. You get home and want to fall asleep on the sofa because you're exhausted from the mental challenges of the day, but you can't because you have 30 books to mark, 2 lessons to plan, resources to make, emails to reply to, data to upload/extrapolate/report on, behaviour reports to file and that's just on any given average day.

You may assume that there are staff 'behind the scenes' supporting you. There's not. You want a resource that fits your class - you research it then make it yourself. Then you print it, photocopy it, cut it up, laminate it maybe, use it, file it away for another time (hopefully). Then you do that every day.

As superman and other PP have said, check with your potential training provider where the placement schools are. I was shipped out with a huge commute with awful traffic which made a huge difference when there is so much work to be done when you get home.

I’m a few months into a Primary PGCE and have 2 young DC (3 and 6).

I have struggled being away from them and broke down and one of my mentor meetings due to overwhelming feelings of guilt.

The workload is tough, but (so far) doable - I may not be saying so in a couple of months

Threads like this with teachers / ex-teachers advising not to enter the profession do worry me.

OP, I too was considering retraining as a teacher, albeit primary. That or Law.

But everyone seems to be saying ”Fuck NO” about both professions.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman not in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a job.

So what is a woman to do? 😭

Oh and my uni were very accommodating with my first placement - my travel was c.10 minutes by car.

I made it clear on my school placement form that I had 2 DC I would need to drop off in the morning before going to my placement and would need to be placed relatively near by in case of emergency.

I am hoping it is the same with my second placement.

Ex teacher here. I started my degree 4 months after my son was born. I flew threw the course, the academic and the placements.

Starting teaching- it was a whole new ball game. I lasted a year and I jumped ship.

It helped me as in I have stayed in a 'teacher/trainer/facilitator' role, and within 5 years of qualifying I was on almost 50k- just not within primary education.

I loved the teaching aspect, I loved the kids, I didn't mind the planning- but it was the shit that came with it. The no appreciation. Seeing teachers crying in the toilets because they were burnt out. Seeing the bitching that went on in the staff room (what I seen was bad and that was in 4 different schools).

Many of my friends and family are teachers and lecturers. I would say 80% are ready to go, 70% can not afford to loose their pay check so are stuck, 20% are leaving in July and 4 left last July.

My best friend was a head of department, an excellent teacher, I had a phone call one morning, could I meet her urgently in a coffee shop, I rushed there and she was a mess. She had phoned in sick to school, she had reached her breaking point, and it killed me to see her like that.

Her husband thought she should just 'get on with it'. We talked for 5 hours. That's when she made her decision to go. Her reasons? The same as everyone's- was not the kids, it was the crap that went with it. 7:30am start-6:00pm finish, then all the extra curricular they were expected to do, sometimes not getting home until 9:00pm then having to mark plan etc.

Since she left in July, she is a totally different person.

I know I'm only giving you the horror, and someone will come along to tell you the nice. But so many people can not be wrong.

Not only hard on dc. It's very difficult for anyone who has a dh or dp who isn't a teacher to understand what the demands are.
Many relationships between one teacher and non teacher do not survive due to the demands.

I teach Reception part time because full time just wasn't working for our family. I'd never go back full time now, not even when the DCs leave home because the 'other' stuff is simply overwhelming on top of full time hours. I love it; being in class soothes my soul and the children just make my day every single day.

You only ever go into school because you love it; the work can be hard, the hours can be long, during term time you never really feel switched off from it and some terms feel like an absolute uphill battle (the 8 week term from October half term to December just gone was one of the most brutal I've ever known).

Read the replies here, take into consideration the fact that the PGCE will be the 'nice' part and decide if you're willing and able to devote so much of yourself to a job where the rewards aren't always great.