AIBU to consider a career change to teaching?

[AlexaShutUp]

Or more to the point, am I being an idiot to consider it?

I have thought about teaching since I was a teenager, but my then teachers did their best to put me off. I have worked with young people and I love their energy, even though I know they can be a pain in the arse.

I'm soon to be made redundant, so I'm taking some time to decide my next steps. I could stay in my current field, which is better paid than teaching, or I could go back to the sector that I worked in previously, which is more rewarding but less well paid. However, the idea of teaching still keeps nagging away at me.

I know that teaching is stressful and I'm not attracted to it because of the widespread perceptions about long holidays/leaving work at 3pm. I know that it isn't like that, but I've worked for years in stressful senior management roles where I've had to take work home with me/haven't been able to switch off etc. I think I'm quite resilient overall.

Am I nuts to even consider it? I'd have to take a big hit in salary in the first few years, and probably wouldn't ever get back to what I earn now, but can someone give me an idea of what would be a reasonable expectation with regard to earnings, say, 5/6 years after qualifying?

Also, can anyone tell me how many hours per week they typically work, and how that's broken down? (E.g. how much time actually in the classroom, planning, marking, meetings, other stuff?)

I'd also like to get a better idea of what exactly teachers find really stressful about their jobs? E.g is it the long hours, the paperwork, the politics in school, dealing with the kids, dealing with parents or what?

I'd probably be looking at secondary school English teaching, ideally on one of the routes which allows you to qualify while working in a school. I'm mid forties. Would be interested to hear from all teachers, but especially from people who have switched careers into teaching and from those who have switched out from teaching to something else.

I know loads of people will come on this thread and say don't do it, but the desire to teach is not going away, so I need to make sure that I've really thought it through before I make a decision either way.

Your thoughts?

I’m in a similar position in that I’ve got the senior management stressful, never switching off, jobs under my belt and am in one now.

I volunteered in a school for a year and loved it. I know it’s not the same as being a teacher but it gave me a real feel for school and I’m thinking seriously about it in a few years.

So i would do it if i were you but get some experience first.

My thoughts are that you should look up the ‘The staffroom’ forum on MN and read throughout some of the hundreds of threads there begun by people with the same questions and answered endlessly by teachers.

Thank you both, I will have a look at the staffroom forum.

The problem is every school is different so you never really get a true idea of the hours you're likely to put in. Some will work all hours in shit schools or in high pressure schools, others will have a much better work life balance.
I'm primary so can't help but I know a few secondary English teachers and they all say the English marking is by far their biggest workload.
Money wise look at the teaching payscales. NQTs will generally start at M1. Traditionally people used to progress up the pay scale a point at year so you'd be looking at the top end of the main payscale after 6 years. However schools do not need to keep you progressing up and will often keep people back to stop the wage bill rising too high
www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/pay-pensions/pay-scales/england-pay-scales.html

Average secondary school teacher works 55 hours a week but English teachers probably work more than that.

For pay look at the teachers pay scale, assuming you meet your expectations each year you will move up through it

Do you have autonomy in your previous jobs cos theres next to none in teaching any longer. I think if you're water off a ducks back type you'd cope but if you take stuff to heart teaching will get to you. I worked with a near perfect teacher once ( difficult school, had the kids eating out of her hand, gave her all every lesson, patience of a saint etc) and she was still.criticised and made to feel she had to do more.

Only way to know for sure is to give it a go though.

For pay look at the teachers pay scale, assuming you meet your expectations each year you will move up through it

Assume also that many schools have crap-all money and will set you unachievable targets to ensure you don’t go up the pay scale. Or that you do manage to hit your targets but the budget still doesn’t allow you to progress.

OP-read the Staff Room board, I would say your question is posted at least twice a week on there. Also, shadow in a secondary school for a couple of weeks and talk to as many English teachers as you can.

@fedup21 well yeah there is always that, English is an in demand subject though so theres a bit more opportunity there

I echo PP - before making any decision try and get in a couple of schools for some experience.

Whilst there is a recruitment and retention crisis atm for a variety of reasons, there are still some of us left that are still love the job (I'm very skilled at moaning about it though ) but it definitely isn't for everyone - nothing like you remember school was like, nothing like any other role I have previously experienced (I started my training in my early 30s)

For pay look at the teachers pay scale, assuming you meet your expectations each year you will move up through it

Not any more. There is no money in schools. "Expectations" will be set ridiculously high. For example, in our school (which has some amazing teachers), no-one moved up the scale this year.

As for hours, it will vary school to school and department to department. I am an English teacher, and I generally get to school at 7 am and leave about 6 pm. This means I don't usually have to bring work home in the evenings, but I do usually work 5 -6 hours on a Sunday. My actual teaching hours (in the classroom with students) are 21 out of 25, plus 20 minutes a day with my form. The rest of the time is meetings, marking, paperwork etc. The marking load for English teachers is high compared to other subjects.

Despite the stress (which is sometimes enormous), I still really like my job! Do be aware though, that in a lot of schools, a lot of your time in the classroom will be spent dealing with low-level disruption - that can get very wearing.

When full time I probably did 60 hours a week.

What I hate about the job
Ridiculously high targets that are not achievable and make the kids feel useless
SLT micro management that don't allow us to teach in a way that best suits us
Paperwork - we have forms to fill in for every aspect of school life
Pointless initiatives

What I love
The kids
My colleagues
Breakthrough moments.

For the first time in 20 years I want to leave

I love it. Still wouldn’t do anything else.