To retrain as a teacher at 54?

[Goblincore]

The job I currently have is looking like it might not go on for much longer. Its a design and marketing role that I've had for years. I have a degree in English Literature and was looking at pgce
There's a good one at Exeter University which isn't a million miles away.

Am I mad to consider it? I'm sure English teachers are ten a penny wishes she'd done computer science or something

I mean they probably won't accept me anyway.

@SunShinesBrightly

I love the way teachers forget that they earn a very decent salary for their demanding job. At least 3x your average TA does

TA 17K
NQT starting salary 24/25K

TA £17k starting salary FTE, when they'll actually only be paid max 25 hours pw 42 weeks per year. Actual salary c. £9300

TA salary after 4 years approx £19k FT = c. £10400

NQT salary £24373. Main scale teacher without additional responsibilities, after 4 years £30599.

I’m an English teacher and also 54 but have been teaching since my late 20s. I think you should spend some time in a range of different English Depts to get a feel for the job before applying for a PGCE. Just email the ahead of English and ask if you can shadow for a couple of days. It’s a pretty time consuming and absorbing job. In terms of age - you’ll be cheap as an NQT so not necessarily an issue. Do you love the subject? If you live in the West. Or try jobs are not that easy to come by. I moved from London to Taunton 16 years ago and whereas in London jobs were ten a Penny it was much tougher down here. Feel free to DM me if you like.

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun

If you didn't like TEFL why do you think you would like secondary school teaching?

TEFL is a very different kettle of fish to Secondary English teaching and I say this as someone who’s done both. Hated TEFL but 26 years of classroom teaching and still love it.

Yes, I agree but if she didn't like TEFL, it's worth thinking about why. I did it for years and didn't like it but it was ultimately because I didn't like teaching really. Some ages are better than others but it comes down to not really enjoying teaching.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

You must be joking! I’ve got ill health retirement as teaching broke my mental health. I’m 56.

Everyone i worked with in their late 40’s and 50’s is desperate to get out. It’s a brutal physically demanding career.

Someone on here defined it as ‘being in an abusive relationship! This is so true. The small lovely bit ( being with the kids) ruined by the horror of the rest of it.

I’m sorry you feel this way and I hear it from lots of teachers but it’s not true for everyone. My school is great and my department very supportive. I’m 54 and am respected by staff and students and have plenty of energy left to carry on and no desperate urge to go,part time or retire. I think it’s down to school environment.

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun - fair point. I didn’t like it because it’s the literature that I’m passionate about and there’s not much of that in TEFL. My grammar is pretty Shonky!

My school was great with lovely dept and good SLT. It still killed me though

I’m an ex-teacher. I loved the children too and I loved teaching - but I didnt love the management team (unprofessional and backstabbing, very unlike, say, an office job that I’d done before), the reams of unnecessary paperwork, the long evenings and weekends devoted to work, and the pressure.

So if you’re looking for an honest answer - no, I wouldn’t do a PGCE. Retrain for a different career, yes, but teaching isn’t the inspiring career it’s made out to be. Teachers are undervalued and overworked in the U.K. Most of the people I trained with have left teaching and their overall feeling is relief. Teaching could be a wonderful job if teachers were trusted to teach, but the reality is very different.

I also think you’d struggle to find a job as an English teacher. Maths or science, maybe, or even foreign languages, but there’s no shortage of English teachers.

TA salaries are usually pro rata to 38 weeks + 5 weeks holiday pay so full-time TT is about 12k, and they are no longer teachers PA's but typically taking interventions with the most challenging pupils.

NQT salaries are 24k ish but you're only on a reduced timetable whilst you do Induction which is now 2 years. Plus the salary will go up every year as you climb the Main Scale. Pick your school carefully, look for one that has cover supervisors rather than use teachers. Plus if you're doing GCSE and A level come April two year whole groups leave.

It is a demanding job. If you have the passion and drive go for it. Worst case you train and go back to Marketing, or teach Marketing in HE.

@Intherightplace

Definitely go for it. A lot of the problems the teaching profession has at the moment come about because people have been in the job too long IMO. You'll have long enough to enjoy it and not so long that you become jaded plus parents and students will assume that you're long experienced so you won't face some of the issues younger NQTs suffer

I'd agree a SCITT might be better though.

I can’t roll my eyes hard enough at this statement. The majority of problems in teaching stem from constant reductions in funding and unrealistic expectations from SLT and parents. Shockingly, teachers with experience are generally more useful because we - shock! - know our subjects and how to teach effectively. Older teachers still struggle with behaviour management - once the students figure out you have little experience, age and apparent maturity mean nothing.

However OP - I am an English teacher and I love my subject and I love the actual teaching aspect. I would sound a tiny note of caution - we have a recently qualified teacher who changed careers in their forties. They have the potential to be brilliant but struggle taking advice when it comes from younger staff. It’s the only issue I’ve really come across with people switching careers.

Also, the pay is shite for the first couple of years and lots of courses have waitlists because people made redundant by the pandemic choose teaching as a second career.

I trained as a teacher in my early 30s and I was exhausted even then - I can't even imagine how wiped out it would leave me in my early 50s (I work for the NHS in a library/education related role). There are lots of other things you could do if you enjoy working with kids - information officer type roles; or if you enjoy education - education or training officer in the NHS or other large organisation, just as an example. At least you'll mostly be with people who actually want to learn, or at least are too polite to give you a hard time about it....Couldn't you look at something like teaching design part-time if you're dead set? The new T-Levels will be coming online soon, although as others have said, FE isn't exactly the most secure career choice, it's pretty much all sessional these days, with a few exceptions.

(Oh, and my teacher friends the same age as me who are still in teaching would also say "don't do it". One of them has just got their HGV licence, though continues to teach and tutor a bit part-time.) On the subject of vacancies and the government continually trotting out the "there is a shortage of teachers", my somewhat cynical but extremely accurate interpretation is "there is a shortage of young, cheap teachers in places like central London" and/or "there is a shortage of devoted experienced Academy Leaders who we can rely to bleat the party line about how utterly fantastic the government reforms are". Although perhaps 30-odd years of sitting in pointless management meetings (even in a non-teaching environment) that repeat around every 11 years or so has left me somewhat jaded...

Certainly where I'm originally from, the North East, there really isn't a teacher shortage, and permanent, full-time jobs are like gold dust. (Though that isn't only teaching, to be fair...)

And on a slightly different note, like you, I loved English at school (didn't do a degree in it for a range of reasons); but I'm not sure the way that teachers have to deliver it now bears any resemblance to even the very grammar-school-type method my secondary school used - I don't think I'd enjoy it much, these days.

Good luck though, whatever you decide to do.

*Intherightplace
Definitely go for it. A lot of the problems the teaching
profession has at the moment come about because people
have been in the job too long IMO. You'll have long enough
to enjoy it and not so long that you become jaded

Nothing like a nice bit of ageism is there?

A lot of the ‘problems’ come from inexperienced staff being promoted too high with not enough experience to manage people properly.

That's not ageist, I'd told OP she's absolutely not to old to retrain

IMO no one should stay in any job too long. We become stuck in our ways and progress is seen as a bad thing, experienced people always think the way it was done when they were young is the best way, usually with rose tinted glasses.

I worked in a commercial world for 20 odd years before schools and it was the same there.

I disagree. The longer someone stays in a job, the more stability and experience they offer. Stability is particularly important in teaching. They also know all the ins and outs of a workplace.

It depends what benefits your perceive. You need a range of people in every workplace from eager 20’s to steady 60’s.

Hi I'm 50 and I start my teacher training in September. After being a TA for years I've decided to go for it and get qualified.
Have you already got a degree ? I'm doing the Schools Direct route - only takes a school year to do the training . I'm going for QTS only - it's not obligatory to do the PGCE with this route.
I think if it feels right you should go for it

I think at 54 starting again as a Teacher could be challenging! I mean you are probably more than capable, but would be starting again on a low salary in your mid 50s! Some of my family have taught and are in truth quite happy to retire!

If you do then use Now Teach, they're an incredibly charity which helps you do it.

I quit teaching after 30 years of teaching at your age - utterly exhausted and demoralised. I would have been amazed if my previous school would have interviewed anyone over the age of 50 - other than for Maths and Science (they would have interviewed ANYONE to fill those post!). Sorry, but I could not recommend it to my worst enemy.

Can you offer a second subject? Are you tied to where you currently live?

Do you know what the job situation is in your area? Can you ask some local teachers/head teachers? Are you tied to a particular area?

Honestly I wouldn't. I'm a teacher and everyone I know is looking to get out of it. And it doesn't get any easier with age!

It's also super competitive and while they aren't allowed to discriminate on age , they will.

Please don't think I'm being a kill joy but I want to be honest with you.

Arse if only that were true. Schools want older and more expensive teachers out. Experience counts for nothing and many of us feel that we are seen as old school and incapable of new methods - which we have seen ten times before, but with different names!

Just another thought are you in an 11+ area could you set yourself up as a tutor for this, there is HUGE demand here in Bucks? Have you investigated the possibility of private tutoring for A’level and GCSE too?

Hey op. I'm 51 and I am about to start English teacher training in FE in Sept. As another poster mentioned, though many teachers are leaving at this age this is probably because they've spent the last 30 years doing it. We haven't. We're new. We're fresh! So we are a bargain - we have age and experience but we're cheap! I've just spent the last 2 years in learning support in local FE college. I love FE and this is where I want to stay. They offer GCSE English language and Functional Skills. Managed to get my placement for the year at my college. Can't wait!! Though slightly nervous of course. I'm doing the PGDET rather than PGCE. Which turned out to attract a rather generous bursary too. I say go for it! You don't get another time round.

I recruit and train Secondary teachers (PGCE, SCITT and ECTs). I still teach too. People in their 50s are very welcome, bringing lots of life experience to the job. If you are in good health and open to learning, I don't see why not. There are good teachers of all ages, backgrounds, etc, just as there are bad. It's down to what you bring to the job.
Truth re PGCEs is they are very unlikely to turn you down, every trainee generates funding. Don't doubt yourself.
You could have 10 years in a job you really enjoy.
If you're not sure, why not write to local schools and go in to observe an English faculty for a week.