To ask any teachers whether they’d advise their own dc against teaching?

[Polenta]

Dd is 20 - she’s done two years of uni and is currently on a year abroad in France before returning to complete her final year in the UK next year.

In terms of what she wants to do after uni, she’s torn between Teach First and the Civil Service Fast Stream (I know they’re both very competitive and she very possibly wouldn’t get in on her first application/maybe at all).

It just made me wonder - there are so many threads on here from teachers at the absolute end of their tether. Would you be happy if your own dc wanted to go into teaching?

(Fwiw, I’m a GP and I’m very glad none of my dc wanted to become GPs!)

I would advise against teaching. I am primary though - secondary might be better.

Teach first is great for transferable skills. Lots of big companies recognise it as a great starting point.
I know at least 5 people I went to uni with that did teach first and are now earning £100k+ for huge companies in London and abroad.

I would recommend it as an eye opener. It's just a year isn't it? and you can decide from there. Nothing wrong with saying 'i tried it and it wasn't for me, however I learnt xyz'

Both my parents were teachers, and tried to dissuade me from teaching. I went ahead and did it anyway.
I really should have listened to them!

I love my job; I'm a Head of History. Taught for well over 20 years - and I would not recommend it to any of my own DC. I also have a DS with a Maths degree, who frankly earns a hell of a lot more than I do, working in Industry.

I earn £43,000 in my 50s. He earns around £60,000 aged 27. He works less hours too.

Yes. With a maths degree she could get a better job and better pay elsewhere

I'd recommend teaching but wouldn't go for Teach First.

It's very sink or swim and a number of their ambassadors can end up with (in my opinion) a slight saviour complex about how they're so much better than any other teachers because they did teach first. There's a big push on getting fast tracked into leadership and I'm not entirely convinced that sort of fast track model.works in a career where front line experience actually counts for a lot in terms of credibility.

My Dsis talked my DD out of it. (DD has just graduated)

I considered a PGCE after my degree and decided I'd rather go into industry. Really wish I'd got qualified as now it would be a useful skill to possess. The thought of training and qualifying now at my age (50s) is just too daunting. If she thinks she might like to teach in the future and that her career chances in the civil services won't be harmed by joining in 2 or 3 years time, then she should seriously consider getting qualified now. Having said that, I know a teacher who left school with few qualifications, worked on a production line, had a family and then went back to studying.

I dont thing Teach First is the best route for training. However, I am a teacher, Head of Department and Head of Year. I absolutely love my job and would recommend it to anyone. As a working mum, my salary is very good and the holidays mean I have a lot of time with my kids. I love teaching, it is a vocation, not just a career.

I've been teaching for 30 years. DD has a place on a PGCE when she left university but decided not to take it up. I have never been more relieved about anything. It's not the job it was and without the skills I learned when it was a different job I'd struggle now. Young teachers are taken advantage of and burn out.

Close friend and I are both teachers. Both have advised our DC not to teach. In fact, DD2 was considering music at uni but decided against it as a music degree so often means a teaching job and she's seen first hand what that means. She's doing Physics and keeping the music as a hobby.

Friend's DC is doing business. Both of us are silently relieved. If things changed it's basically a rewarding job, but at the moment the pay and conditions are just shit.

I've been teaching for over 20 years. dd wanted to go into teaching when she was younger but I've convinced her not to.

She could hedge her bets - apply for both but the Civil Service lets you defer for two years if you do TeachFirst (or any other of the public sector focused graduate schemes). Doesn't necessarily have to be a choice.

What I would say though is, teaching is an incredibly rewarding, incredibly challenging, fulfilling, frustrating job. I wouldn't go into it if you don't fundamentally care about children and really want them to succeed. I don't love the idea of teaching as a 'leadership development programme'. I did TF over a decade ago, but because I really wanted to be a teacher. Can't say I feel so strongly about it now though...

My parents were both teachers. They were vehemently opposed to me or my sister going into teaching in any way, shape or form!
My mam taught primary school and dad taught secondary and lectured at a HE college, so they covered the full range between them.
My neighbour started teaching at a local comp. in January and is now signed off with stress and desperate to get a new job. He has been assaulted,sworn at, spat on, and threatened 😐

I teach secondary maths and love it. I have a very part time job and as such it suits me well with 2 small kids.

I came to teaching relatively late and would say 2 things

• teach first (learn to teach later) isn't the only option for work based learning, school direct is much easier hours wise.
• with a maths degree she'll have much better pay and progression prospects in the civil service. She could quite easily end up on £70k+ in 5-6 years if she's good and plays her cards right.

Nope! ... Just No!. Do ANYTHING else!!

I would suggest a pcge rather than teach first, but i love my job.
I am a late career changer, and the salaries are still pretty poor ( been teaching 9 years and am on about 40k) but the job is fab. Literally never a dull moment, plenty of challenging ones, and loads of amazing ones.

I would not advise it. I have done 13 years and I am leaving at Christmas.

I swore that I would never teach, having seen my Mum (SLT at the end of her career) working endless hours.

I have been teaching around 15 years now and whilst I wouldn’t encourage mine to do it outright, I wouldn’t tell them not to either. For me it’s been hugely rewarding and I love being in a job where no two days are the same. I am challenged in every possible way and even better, I get to help little ones to develop and progress.

There are many downsides to teaching (the money being fairly high on my list) but hand on heart I can say that I’m proud of the job I do. If my children want to teach I wouldn’t actively try to stop them. I would make sure that they really knew what it entailed though.

I wouldn’t encourage Teach First though. I would go down a SCITT which gives a PGCE.

My own parents aren’t teachers but several parents of friends put me off accepting a pgce place. Unless you have the sheer enthusiasm (naïveté?) that’s going to get you through teach first I wouldn’t do it. I don’t have that, a few friends who did and some of them have done well out of it, however I’d say that their experiences have been very variable- a pgce seems like a steadier route. Also, TF used to be very employable I’m sure, I know two people from early cohorts who have made a lot of money out of it in the long run as experience, now however I think it’s become a route into teaching rather than a cv booster - would be interested if anyone ‘in industry’ can confirm or deny that.

8 years into teaching here. I started off in primary and did 6years teaching years 4-6. I now teach secondary, years 9-11.

I can hand on heart say that YES is it a hard job. You MUST possess people skills and be able to rule a class with discipline, respect and humour. Those things do not come naturally to some people. Especially from what I have seen in high school (more people are suited to primary I think). If a school is letting students assault teachers, then notices should be handed in. Not all schools are like that. I work in a tough area but my school has an excellent behaviour system in place.

I find workload much easier to manage in high school. In primary, I was given 1hr50 mins ppa a week full time. I work 4 days now and get 4 hours ppa most weeks! I get in at 7:30am, work solidly through (don’t have lunch) until 5pm when I go home and that’s that. I am extremely organised and effective and good at saying no and standing up for myself. The point I’m making is I do about 45 hrs a week when I should only be part time. Colleagues who are not as organised work much longer hours. It doesn’t suit everyone.

Would I recommend it to my children? Well, if you’re good then in my experience schools will lighten the load to keep you. However it is a bloody hard game and you have to stay on top of things or they run away! So no, I wouldn’t recommend it. I love it though. Unfortunately the job chose me, I didn’t choose it!

My late mum was a PS teacher and had a real vocation for it - she never ever went to work, she only ever went to teach.

Nevertheless, by the end of her life, teaching had changed so much from the career that she entered, that she said she wouldn't do it again as a youngster now. She always advised me against it on the grounds that you'd spend so much of your time drowning in paperwork.

Oh and bloody teach first! I have supported several trainees on that awful course! Literally chucked in the deep end with barely any support. Also, teachers are so busy they are lucky to find a kind soul to take them under their wing! Looks like a crap entry into teaching to me but hey ho.

Also I’m mid fast stream applications- The magnitude by which it is more intense than a pgce application is... large. If it’s still open I suggest she do the tests this year to get an idea of what they’re like, no harm in doing that if she would like to apply properly next year

I wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy! My kids wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.

I went into teaching 10 years ago and became a Deputy 5 years in (earn £50K). I didn't purposely aim to go into leadership so quickly but was lucky to get some fabulous opportunities and that is where I ended up.

There are aspects of my job that I absolutely love - I do have a genuine passion for education and eradicating illiteracy in particular. At my school we have a very wide range of needs and also many children who speak different languages who are amazing to work with. I quite simply get real purpose from working with the children in my school; it is in a very deprived area and I see it as giving these children a chance to make something of themselves when they come from families who are third or fourth generation unemployed.

BUT - I would not want my son to go into it for these reasons:

• the fact that the 'teaching' aspect can be narrowed so much (due to trying to support children with mental health issues, safeguarding,deprivation, family breakdown etc). It is not that I don't think these issue should not be dealt with at all, it is just that they sometimes overtake the actual element of teaching.

-our country's view of the profession in general (hence why I am going to lead/teach in a school abroad in the next few years when my son has left home) -the parents; in my school the parents are very hard to engage, sometimes abusive, unsupportive of some aspects of school life and think that as a school we should provide EVERYTHING for their children. It is soul destroying -the government; in only ten years there have been different frameworks, different assessment systems, different tests brought in, different Heads of Ofsted (with vastly differing opinions) and it feels like the changes are never ending (and quite often, not for the best).

I don't think I will have any problems with my son wanting to teach - when I once asked him, he snorted and said 'why would I want to spend my life working? Evenings, weekends....why would I want to do that?'!!