Becoming a teacher

[renniks]

Sorry I'm posting here for traffic.

Calling all you primary school teachers out there...

I have been in limbo for a few years on what I would like to do career wise. My DD has just started primary school and my DS will be starting 2021. I've decided becoming a primary school teacher would be perfect for me. Holidays when the kids are off, a career where I can work my way up and other benefiting factors. I don't have any degrees or A levels however I have GCSE's grade C and above in English, Maths, Literacy, Science, Literacy, Travel and Tourism, Business Studies and not really relevant but Beauty Therapy level 2.

Can anybody give me any advice on what my next steps should be and also if I even have enough qualifications to pursue this as a career choice. I really love the idea of teaching KS1 children.

I may sound strange now but it's the book marking, the lesson planning, the sheer amount of planning and putting thought into every single lesson making it so the children enjoy it but also are learning from it that gets me excited. I'm probably being too ambitious having 2 DC of my own who will also be primary school aged if/when I qualified.

Renniks You're excited for it now because it's not reality. When you're actually doing it day in, day out, it won't be exciting.

Do, why is it that you are thinking about this now op? Is it because your own children will be in school so you think it will be convenient? If you teach in a different school to your kids it will be logistically very hard. Do you have a good network of childminders and a supportive partner? What will you do when your children are ill? How will you cope with late nights (parents evenings etc)?
I only ask because i have had so many people come to do work experience with me in my classroom who fancy teaching because they think the holidays will be convenient and they think it’s a child friendly profession. It’s many amazing things, but child-friendly it most definitely ain’t.
If I were you at your education level right now, I’d look into being a TA- it’s a great career and you could start working in schools with kids much earlier than you would being a teacher and having to fanny about doing all these qualifications. TA’s at my school have fantastic opportunities and teach whole class sessions sometimes, as well as planning and reviewing interventions and clubs. It can be hugely rewarding and if you really want to work with kids, you would love it.

You will definitely need to get your degree first-or some courses I believe still offer qualified teacher status as part of a 4 year degree.

Please don’t underestimate the work it will take. Get some experience in a school as well. Being a teacher is an amazing thing but it is not a walk in the park! I would be considering also doing a year as a TA first. You will earn some money and have some idea of whether a career in a school is for you. Good luck.

Bluewavescrashing that isn’t actually true. TAs do attend meetings after school, Inset days, they do mark and sign off work, take home work especially cutting out and laminating and HLTAs do planning.

Renniks you would need a TA qualification. Look at the Cache website and your local college. Check with your Local Authority what they accept. Be wary of online courses as they aren’t always what they seem. Do not do the HLTA courses offered they do not give you the Status. HLTA course have to be done through the school and are meant for TA that have been in the job for a while and show they are working at a higher level. You would be better with a college course as it would be more enjoyable and widens your knowledge by listening and working with others. It would also give you the experience to go on to a degree course later on. TAs start on about £8:50 an hour but it depends on your county. Most jobs are part time but that would fit in with your children more if you could get a job nearby.

Teaching is a very difficult job. I know five teachers that left the profession last year. Good luck though.

Childcare can be tricky. Most teachers arrive at school 7am-7.45am to prepare for the day ahead, bearing in mind that children could be in class from 8.30am depending on the school. Add in a commute and a drop off for your children at a childminder on the way and you could be leaving your house before 7am every day. Breakfast clubs for children often don't start until 8am.

In the evening you will most likely be coming home after 10 hours at work with no break apart from 10 mins to eat a sandwich, possibly with more work to do in the evening,behaviour reports to log, etc. Then making dinner for your children, hearing them read, getting their uniform and bookbags ready for the next day putting a wash on etc. Up at 6am the next day. It is hard giving time to your own children when you are emotionally drained from looking after other people's, particularly if you are working in an area of high deprivation. Parents evenings, school performances, open evenings etc will also happen although not every week. Who will collect your children then?

Agree with pp. Start volunteering in your DC's school, reading with the kids, helping one to one, laminating resources, putting up displays etc. That's the easiest way to becoming a TA, if an opportunity comes up at the school. It'll help you decide if being a teacher is for you. You can also progress to becoming a teacher from a TA, if and when the time is right for you and your family.

It's also worth researching the pinch points for primary teaching and why teachers are leaving in droves. They all love teaching and love working with kids.

You don't need A levels, some universities will take you as an adult learner without A levels. This is how I got onto my degree... I did a 6 week uni led fast track course in the summer and then went straight into a BA . Check your local uni to see what they offer. At the most you will need to do an access course and then go onto a degree with QTS. You said you wanted to do ks1? If that's the case then do a degree in eyfs with QTS and you will be good to go. 4 years max and you will be a teacher.

Always worth looking on the OU too. You may be able to do an access or similar course that starts in the next 2-3 months and will show you are capable of university study and give you a MUCH higher chance of being accepted right into uni next September. It's all possible and quite easy. Just be brave and take the first step. You could literally have your plan in place by the end of the day.

You say the planning and the marking would excite you; please go and speak to a teacher. I've recently been observed and spent 5 hours on that lesson. Marking takes me at least 20 hours a week if I do it properly. Upcoming mocks; another 30 hours of my life.

I wish I could plan exciting lessons for each of my 25 teaching hours a week but I would literally not sleep if I did that. You will come to hate it rather than enjoy it, and I say this as an examiner so I get something out of marking rather than pure despair.

I'm not being a Debbie Downer but I don't think you have a realistic impression of teaching at all.

Back to my data analysis that I've already spent 3 hours on....

You sound like you've over romanticized it in the extreme OP, sorry. Most of my friends who teach have left and they went into it wanting the novelty of all those things, being excited, still loved teaching and being around kids and were good at it by all accounts.

The primary teachers I do know don't have much free time, seem to hate (and always be complaining about) their colleagues and headteachers, really hate all the kids parents, hate the PTA, hate Ofsted, hate the politics, hate parent teacher evenings, hate doing school reports. The list goes on. The only thing anyone seems to like is teaching the kids unharassed, which seems to be a very small % of the job.

The hours are long, morale is often low and the marking and preparation takes up so much time. On top of that teachers are constantly critiqued and observed. I know the bought of teaching is wonderful but in reality it is really really hard!

Our country needs more teachers but for me working 60+ hours a week was not compatible with having my own children. My colleagues managed it by getting up at 3 on Sunday mornings.

I wish I'd of trained for something else...it's very rewarding yet time consuming.

Not much free time for your own family in the early days and the salary is rubbish!

I may sound strange now but it's the book marking, the lesson planning, the sheer amount of planning and putting thought into every single lesson making it so the children enjoy it but also are learning from it that gets me excited

It’s lovely in theory. In practice, it’s a fucking nightmare.
You need to spend time in school. You’ve got a totally unrealistic perception of what it’s like. When you’re marking 60 books a day, it grinds you down.

I was in your situation around a year ago, I have started with a cache level 3 course in teaching and learning which I have paid for monthly and I also volunteered in a local school. I will have completed it in 4 months and I am then going to do an open University degree in children and young people before going on to do either eyts or qts. It’s a lot of work so may be worth helping out in a school to get a feel for it before you commit but I have so far found it very enjoyable. Posters above are definitely correct though when they say how tough teachers have it and how much work they have to do

Yes you can absolutely be a primary school teacher, you'll just need to do the relevant qualifications. I'm not sure what the lead time is on getting qualified as a primary school teacher at the level of education you have but if you're keen to get straight in then maybe look to see if the administrative or marketing departments in local primary schools have any vacancies? You'll have the same working times more or less (maybe slightly more as they might have to be in a few days before/after term)

I may sound strange now but it's the book marking, the lesson planning, the sheer amount of planning and putting thought into every single lesson making it so the children enjoy it but also are learning from it that gets me excited
I used to enjoy that but what I didn't enjoy was management specifying with ever increasing detail in what format this was to be written, which published (expensive) scheme we had to use for each subject, writing down why I was doing each thing in minute detail (I was a professional and knew why I was doing it, the planning was supposed to be for me to refer to ffs). Ditto with marking, even in Reception a scheme was introduced whereby we had to have a written dialogue with the child over each piece of work and how to improve - Ok in Year 6, maybe, but with a four year old that could not yet read or write it was beyond ridiculous. This is the sort of thing that grinds teachers down.

I’m a primary school teacher OP and I love it but it’s hard work! I would encourage you to have a look at the Get Into Teaching website. And get some voluntary work experience in a school.

I agree with others and echo the opinion that you seem to have a rather rosy and naive idea about what the day to day realities of teaching are like. Lots of people love the idea of working with little ones and think it's at an easy job with great holidays. I cannot shout loudly enough how untrue this is. The job is unrecognizable from the job when I started nearly 20 years ago. I hated it just before I left to have my baby. I didn't go back after maternity leave because I knew I could try to be a good teacher or a good mum, not both, and I couldn't bear that.
I don't know a single teacher who is confident in their job. Constantly being told that children are not making enough progress, your planning is not detailed enough, your assessments aren't frequent enough, etc, it's relentless. There is a horrible 'them and us' ethos where teachers are disrespected, unsupported and bashed by everyone. Nobody seems to be on your side, not the head, the government, etc. It's become a very unattractive job and a crisis is immanent. The requirements upon teachers and the work load necessary is not sustainable.

*imminent

Howlovely Your post really resonates with me.

It isn’t a family friendly career and it will take quite a while before you qualify. I agree that volunteering first is a good idea and then having some experience as a TA may help you to get on to a course.

Bear in mind too, that the average life span of a teacher these days is about five years. There aren’t lots of opportunities for career progression in primary schools, especially small ones.

I wouldn’t choose it again.

You can either do a access course (1yr - £1k) then a full time degree (3yrs circa 30k) and then a PGCE (1yr - £9.5k

Or

1. You'll more than likely need a level 3 qualification to secure a TA job, you can do this and do work experience in a primary school 6hrs a week

2. Once you qualify as a TA then you can to the foundation degree in primary education, held at a college but will be university led. This will probably cost around 8k for the 2 years and will be 1 or 2 evenings a week alongside a TA job (that counts as part of the course)

3. Once you have finished the foundation degree you then need to to a year at university topping up to a Ba in education (another 9k)

4. Next you either need to do a SCITT or a PGCE, another 9k and this will be full time so you can't work as well.

They're the options I'm aware of anyway, hope this helps

It’s an expensive long process to train now. The job itself is difficult to explain-you simply have to get into schools and shadow staff. TA-ing or volunteering would be a good place to start.

Please don’t come on here and ignore people who you think are being depressing about teaching. Listen to them and then go and find out for yourself. That’s far better than spending £50k training and leaving after 6 months saying you wish you’d known the reality of the job.

Read some of the posts on the Staffroom board where teachers have had enough/are leaving teaching and want to know what other jobs there are etc

Teaching is hard and the hours are long goalposts change all of the time and we are at an all time funding low.

But I still absolutely love it!! It’s just so rewarding and satisfying if you find the right school.

Go and see what it’s all about. I think it’s important to get some experience first.