Becoming a secondary teacher - am I crazy?

[oliviaskies]

For context - had my DD when I was very young. Have three decent a-levels in generic subjects. Worked in random, uninspiring jobs my whole life. Now that DD is older, I'm considering finding a uni that does a degree where I would get QTS at the end of it, hopefully one nearby, and becoming a secondary teacher. Has anybody done anything similar? It seems crazy to me to even consider it, but I'm in my 30's, so surely young enough for it to be worthwhile!
AIBU - don't do it/retrain in something else
AINBU - go for it!

Also - I'd be wanting teach English, not sure how in demand it is at the moment?

I keep adding stuff, but I'd be open to other subjects, but I did very well in my english lit a-level

English is always in demand. I'm a secondary school teacher of 24 years, teaching English and Media Studies. Go for it. It's hard work but rewarding. Finding the right school to work in is important. I'm lucky with where I am.

No, I’m a secondary teacher and I love it. It’s got a decent salary, the holidays are fabulous when you’ve got kids and it’s never boring.

It will be hard to do this given how things are with covid, but I'd suggest going into a school and spending some time shadowing a teacher. This will give you an idea of if it's for you and how crazy you are!

I retrained at 36 (from teaching to an academic role) and have not regretted it.

There are a lot (seriously, loads) of threads about becoming a teacher in the staffroom section. I would recommend having a read. Overall the picture is far more "don't do it" than "jump in".

As an ex English teacher I would say if you do go for it, there are pros and cons to the subject. As a core subject it is easier to find work and you are far less likely to end up having to teach outside of your specialism. But the scrutiny, marking load and pressure are all horrific. Additionally the new GCSEs are very dry and dull to teach, which makes the job far less satisfying than it used to be.

Thank you for replying! The holidays are definitely great, even though my DD is in college now I just think it'll be lovely to spend time with her, especially in the future if I have grandchildren!
I think I'm just desperate for a job that I feel has a purpose - nothing against desk jobs and the such, but nothing is more draining for me than waking up and going to a job that feels pointless

I did it when I was 30. The workload is massive - especially English. Each gcse essay can take 20 plus mins to mark. But, I love the students and it is a bit like parenthood: the best of times and the worst of times. You have to have good time management and organisation. Get on with all sorts and be able not to take yourself too seriously. Secondary students are great. They have a sense of humour and don't whitter on about annoying things like pencil cases and who took whose rubber. You do discover how inexplicably awful parents and humanity can be so be prepared for that - that goes for both state and private but then countering that, how completely amazing people are too. Don't have Dead Poet Society Visions and perhaps in September go and shadow in a school. Covid will put a dampner on things like this so perhaps leave doing it for another year?

Definitely go and do some work shadowing. You may be able to arrange it via the get into teaching website.
I'm not sure about a degree that includes QTS for Secondary. Have only heard of that for Primary.

In RL I have several friends who are secondary school teachers and they have free time and hobbies, and dont hate their jobs.On MN being a teacher is literally the most stressful, most time consuming profession you could go into and should be avoided at all costs.

flyingarcher Was definitely not planning on jumping straight into it, I'll have to have a proper sit down and do a lot of research. I've always been one of those people who got on well with most people, and I don't take things too personally, so I think those things will hopefully play in my favour. Shadowing sounds like a great idea so I can get an idea of the reality!

HedyPrism I got the information on QTS from the Get Into Teaching government website, but I'll definitely have to have a closer look into it, it may have just been for primary and I've misread

If you fancy working overseas it's brilliant - reasonable workload & a fantastic lifestyle with decent accommodation, a high salary & plenty of time to travel!

In the U.K...well, I did 15 years of it & I won't be returning.

I was 38, already had a subject degree and started a PGCE. I did six months. Felt totally overwhelmed, far too old, that I had no time and that I couldn't keep up. And I had come from a pressured, professional job requiring lots of extra out of hours work.

Go for it! Loads of people go into teaching years after finishing Uni - I think of it as a vocation. Sometimes people know exactly what they want to do, sometimes people realise after some life experience. My husband's primarily a Science teacher (has worked his way up SLT in charge of Science), absolutely loves it. Teaching is a great job for working your way up if you want to, or staying at one level if you want to. Best to try it and see if you like it - some schools might let you sit in on one or two lessons to get a feel for it, especially if you explain your reasoning and have a DNS.

*DBS

I’ve just semi retired from teaching secondary English for 30 years. I’ve moved house and started doing supply because I wasn’t prepared to do it any more. The classroom bits are great and inspiring and fun, but the rest of it is soul destroying. Secondary English is not a doable job long term. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

I retrained as a secondary teacher at 34. I love it but the workload is insane. You have to really, really love it to be good at it. Anyone who does it for the money (ha!), holidays or because they think it fits in with family life will most likely end up burning out and hate it.
It's never dull and the kids are mostly amazing but it is a challenge and exhausting. I can't see myself doing the job into my 50's and beyond.

Also I am not aware of any degree routes that include QTS at secondary level, it is only primary that has this route, though I may be wrong as things do change. You normally do your specialist undergrad degree (min 3 years) then top up with a PGCE (1 year)

Work as an examiner during your degree - and I would personally recommend doing a degree then pace in case you want to do something else afterwards.

I did it this way and loved teaching English - it is a great subject but unfortunately it is very time consuming and difficult now.

Yes do the degree as it gives you more options (private schools, A’level). You need the subject knowledge (try teaching TSEliot to A’level students)

Teaching has a poor retention rate for a reason. The stats are really poor for keeping people in the profession beyond 5 years. Contrary to popular belief there isn't a recruitment problem in teaching, there is a retention problem. So think on the fact that plenty of people are keen to enter the profession but not enough want to say.

There is more support and a new framework coming in to support early career teachers. We don't know yet whether this will have an impact on retention but it is supposed to.

I taught English and I won't bore you with the ins and outs of why I left because individual anecdotes don't make the difference here, the wider picture should inform you much better. In short I loved the kids, loved planning and delivering lessons and hated the red tape, admin and politics. I was good at my job but I aged visibly in the time I was doing it (more than I should). I wouldn't go back.

I’m leaving secondary teaching after ten years. I wanted so badly for it to be the job of my dreams, but it actually made me unbelievably stressed and ultimately very unhappy.

The worst part for me was the sheer number of students who just didn’t really value education, and as a result it felt like I was constantly working my arse off to provide something that they just didn’t want or care about. Every class had lovely students who tried hard, but these were FAR outweighed by students who had no passion for learning and were happy to just coast. This sometimes resulted in them being disruptive, but more often they would just spend every lesson incessantly socialising instead of properly participating. What I mean by this is talking to eachother instead of listening to explanations and discussions, then talking to eachother rather than attempting tasks set. I would find myself repeating every instruction 5 times because they just didn’t listen or comply, over and over again. This might sound fine, ‘kids will be kids’, but trust me it wears you down when they just don’t invest in their own futures at all. This attitude may be because a love of learning is not being instilled at home, but it is a deep-seated issue that IMO being an inspiring teacher won’t fix.

Add to all of this the huge workload (planning, marking, admin) and the fact that you spend all day every day in the spotlight (imagine doing 5 or 6 fully interactive presentations to 30-plus-strong audiences every workday). Then you have the constantly changing parameters for what makes a ‘good’ lesson, which makes you feel at best confused and at worst like you’re never good enough for other people to rate your abilities as highly as you want them to. Plus parents and kids complaining about things because you can’t keep everyone happy.... gah!

For context I have worked at a mixture of schools: grammar, private (overseas), deprived and high-achieving state schools. I was always rated a ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ teacher and over the years I received lots of recognition from colleagues, managers, students and parents (just saying this so I’m not dismissed as a disgruntled failed teacher ha).

I think teaching is romanticised and it DOES have those rewarding moments, but in my experience these have been few and far between in comparison to constantly feeling crap about yourself.

Sorry, this turned into a rant. I just wanted to make sure you hear the negatives because honestly I think teaching has destroyed my self esteem! There are times I feel gutted I spent so much time and money qualifying to teach when I could have been focusing on another career where I would be able to work a normal amount of hours and still feel like I’m doing a good job.

Anyway, best of luck whatever you decide. It might be a good idea to register on the TES website and read some forums on there to get some other teacher perspectives?

No personal experience. But a good friend went back and qualified as a secondary level physics teacher when he was 32 a couple of years ago. He lasted a year and his mental health was quite badly affected. He said that if he ever talked about going back to teaching to shoot him...he had a solid professional career and was used to busy target driven environments. He described the workload as brutal and a lack of support. But you can see good and bad in any profession

There are lots of jobs that are meaningful though, if that’s your motivation.

I'm a primary teacher (don't know much about the secondary world, but can't imagine it's much different)... All I would say is that the training process is fairly horrendous, incredibly stressful, and not very family friendly. It also requires a certain personality type. You have to be fairly laid back, not easily rattled and a clear and precise communicator. You also need to be able to put on a bit of an act and "be the biggest person in the room."

Being a bit older will help you out as well, as you'll have a bit more gravitas in the classroom.