To still want to pursue a career in secondary school teaching even though everything I’ve read warns me off?

[Overmydeadbody456]

I am in the finance industry at the moment, and have been for 15 years. I’ve been wanting to be a teacher for years, but got complacent and kept pushing it further down the line. Pay and bonuses in my field are good which I would say was the main reason, however the job is very stressful and I’m just getting tired of it

This year, I feel i’ve developed this overwhelming urge that I need to move into a vocation that I actually want to do. Teaching has always seemed so much fun and rewarding. But any teachers I speak to or any forums I read all are advising people not to move into it because of all the red tape and funding cuts.
Has anyone here decided to completely switch careers and move into teaching despite being warned not to?
My subject would probably be business studies/economics

It depends on subject too. Economics needs updating... Maths probably not so much.

Don't do it in England anyway.

If you really have to teach then go abroad and at least get paid well for it in classrooms where the children actually know how to behave themselves.

I have a few teacher friends in inner London schools. They enjoy it but are part time with small children. One earns around 55k prorata. They defo work more than their hours but usually at home & only the odd days over the holidays. However they are both at great schools with good management which I think makes the difference.

You can't compare the first few years with when you're established, either. As with all career changes, even it all goes well you have to be prepared for several years of transition and low earnings. The positive is that if you make it through the first few years there are lots of opportunities due to the attrition rate.

I’m a secondary school teacher who did it straight out of Uni and has been teaching for ten years now. In my opinion it’s a great job in the right school and part time. I wouldn’t go back to full time and if I was looking for another job I wouldn’t consider a school unless I knew someone who was already there who could vouch for it being a decent school to work in. The last place I worked broke me, I’ve never been so stressed and unhappy - ended up signed off when I started crying one Sunday and quite literally couldn’t stop. I’m happy now I have a work life balance and I think there are a lot of great things about teaching, but the advice about getting experience first is spot on.

Banana is correct. There are lots of aspects of working in particular schools that you can't find out before accepting a post, unless you know someone on the inside. One issue that seems unreasonably difficult is establishing what hours you're actually required to work and that means you can easily get into issues with childcare. The way in which form tutoring and registrations are handled is crucial if you're doing a race against time after school or nursery drop off and it would be useful to know if the school is prone to regular before and after school meetings too.

You can't compare the first few years with when you're established, either. As with all career changes, even it all goes well you have to be prepared for several years of transition and low earnings. The positive is that if you make it through the first few years there are lots of opportunities due to the attrition rate.
This is quite true. As with any profession there's training enough to be competent, finding your feet as a new teacher (year 1-2), starting to find your rhythm and things settling (year 3-4) and then 5+ you realise how little you actually knew in years 1-4, you've got lots automatic and can generally confidently hold your own, see through the crap etc.

Being in a good school helps, but there are two narratives I find quite damaging to trainees/new teachers:

1. That you should expect 70 hour weeks and it to be terrible otherwise you're not really doing enough, you're cutting corners etc. when I started, I was working til 11pm every day but I was good and gave myself Saturday off from working... that's the reality if you're going to teach.
2. That once you're through your training/NQT year you know enough to be sorted as a teacher and so if you're finding yourself stressed in the 3rd year then that's just what teaching is like.

It's an ongoing professional development journey. I thought in 3rd year I had some things sorted and was working silly hours but it was worth it to be a good teacher. Now I look back and realise it was hard because I was still a new teacher and still learning my craft and contrary to some rapid promotion schemes where you're SLT 4 years out of training (often with a stint as a DfE advisor with 18 months in the classroom), it takes time to master things.

I teach in a college which is far preferable to secondary school, would you consider college?

I haven’t met a happy secondary school teacher yet . They all want to leave, feel worn out and undervalued. I can’t say I blame them...

True but salaried SD routes are far and few between and mean picking up more teaching quickly so the successful applicants tend to be those who have got significant svhool experience behind them, in our area that's the case anyway.

That isn't the case in my area.

Yes, I moved at 42 and it is fucking ace.

And how old are you now MrsCarthorse?

I have been teaching 4 years now. I still love it but do occasionally threaten to leave so I'll leave some thoughts here.

1. There are some salaried routes for teach first/schools direct. However, it's very unlikely you will get on them (they usually require 3 years education experience) plus you have to teach for another year before your qualified and unqualified = lower pay as you won't be offered MPS
2. Teaching kids is great, some of the adults... Not so much. There is a lot of politics in schools and can be a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare navigating everything.
3. I have don't supply and worked in some amazing and some dreadful schools. Do your research before accepting a position
4. Secondary is great but comes with cons too. Teenagers are moody things.
5. PGCE is mentally draining. NQT year is physically draining.
6. You will be scrutinised by everyone for everything. Parents, SLT, learning walks, observations, data "why didn't little Johnny pass maths" "well it might have something to do with the fact his attendance is 56%" "perhaps you should make the lessons more fun, then he'd come in!" And so on. (I don't teach maths)

Although a lot of this sounds negative, it is a very rewarding job - like the moment a child who is struggling just "gets" something. I've kept all the cards/thank you notes I've been given by students and whenever I've had an awful day I read that and know I've made a difference however small it may be.

My dd (13) and her friends made up a song about the subject they were learning in history. They didn’t get set that work but did it and the history teacher laughed and laughed. I guess it’s those moments that make it worth it.

I've been teaching 7 years.
I can honestly say I've never wanted to leave the profession, at least not so far.

I'm on mat leave at the moment, I'm going back 3 days a week and have dropped my management role. I'm hoping that I will climb back up once baby is older. I'm not sure I can see me running a department and having a baby, but I did used to run a department and then work in a boarding house. There was one week where I worked 90 hours. That was fun.