AIBU to leave my teaching career to earn minimum wage in a nursery?

[Purplepinkred]

I hate teaching. I can’t cope with constant challenging behaviour . Our school has cut TAs to a minimum and we can’t provide real support for children who desperately need it . We are papering over cracks and ignoring the real issues. COVID has magnified the attainment gap but we ignore it. Head teacher demands to know why Billu can’t do multiplication yet the truth is he can’t even count !
And we all know the truth but the teacher is held accountable .

Some children in Ks2 can’t read !!! But HT just cares about manipulating data. ‘ Put Mason in the corner he is never going to make it - focus on the good ones !’ It’s awful!

I arrive at 7.30am and leave at 5pm . Then go home and lesson planning take at least 3 hours of my eve and at least a whole Saturday if I’m lucky - sat and Sunday if I’m not lucky!

Anyway , I am. Senior leader . I warn £37k which after student loan, pension and tax is £1.900 a month . ( £475 a week)

I’m on maternity and I don’t want to go back to teaching as it is soul destroying . Once I have paid £300 nursery - I would have an income of £125 a week for working an extremely stressful job and not seeing my son .

I have had an interview at a local nursery . The salary is £22k a year - £1,500 a month - £375 a week .
However with discount - the nursery fees would only be £160 a week for baby . Meaning I’d be making £215 a week. So more than as a teacher when I’d only have (£125 a week left)

I realise pension is much better as a teacher and of course you get holidays but I’m thinking that If I worked in a nursery I would be less stressed and have more money and get to know my baby was safe as he would be at the same nursery . I would have no evening or weekend work to do either ! I would be much happier I believe.

Am I crazy to leave my career to work in a nursery ?

I absolutely hate teaching and don’t believe I can cope doing it with a baby !

Once DS is at school and we have no nursery fees, so I can look at other jobs - or I may work my way up at the nursery and love it and become a manager .

Will I be bored in a nursery ?

AIBU to walk away from a ‘career ‘ to basically a minimum wage job !?

@SatinHeart

One of the nursery assistants at my DC nursery once admitted to me that they end up taking paperwork home and doing it in the evenings/weekends.

Absolutely. I worked in a nursery for years and 90% of it was paperwork. It doesn't matter if you're not actually doing activities with the kids, as long as you've got it down on paper that you've done it for Ofsted. Awful.

@Ozanj do you really work in childcare? In the UK?
You often post things that are a little... at odds with my experience of early years

Lots of nannies bring their babies to work with them. It's very common and sometimes comes with lower wages (though not always).

Also lots of ex-teachers work in nurseries especially after having their own children!

@Purplepinkred I have been a teacher and worked in nursery - I basically did the same as you and switched to nursery as I didn't want to do the crazy hours of teaching and I needed something more family friendly when I had by own children.

Nursery is hard work of course but it's a million times easier than primary teaching. The pay does reflect that though.
Also it can be boring/repetitive compared to teaching - you probably wouldn't want to do it forever but for a couple of years it is a great option.

Go for it!

@LadyMacduff

What Ofsted did do , was an interview . To ask about work life balance . The Deputy sat in on it !! We all lied and said he enjoyed working in our school and there was a decent work life balance ( for fear of losing our jobs/ our jobs being made so difficult !)

Also the new EYFS emphasises minimal paperwork, most nurseries don't do written learning journals any more so there should be little paperwork to do and certainly the days of nursery nurses being expected to take work home or do it in their own time are long gone (especially with GDPR!).

I did this. I went from full time secondary to full time nursery assistant. It was joyful and easy and fun, and the workload was tiny. Eventually I went back, I missed my subject, but I loved my 'sabbatical'.

Hi OP,
I think you should ask to return to your job 3 days a week. You will still earn 22Kish and keep all of the school holidays which will be so nice (and very helpful) when your child is older.

The finances might be slightly tight with childcare fees but in a few short years your child will get 30 hours funded (if you and partner work and don't earn over threshold) and then of course will be in school when you will only need wraparound care for the 3 days.

This might be tough for a couple of years but once your child is in school you will be able to get most of your work done on your 2 days off when they are in school, and you will keep the majority of your wage.

The nursery might be tempting right now but once your child is in school but you are expected to work 7:30 - 6:00 each day that is going to become a grind and they will need before and after school care every day so difficult for them to do after school playdates/sports/leisure etc.

@thebabynanny
Thank you ! You get why I would do it for a couple of years to enjoy the years while my baby is young and I want to be able to give him as much of me as possible !!!

I know it won’t be easy but it will be easier .

Can I ask - what
Do you do now ?

My only fear is I might be a lot less unemployable if I have worked in a nursery for 3 years ? Than if I had just been a teacher !

And echoing what others have said, when i went back to teaching, it was in a different school and part time. It is a good job to have once you have children. I love teaching now.

I'm all for having a good work/ life balance but I think there's alot to consider here.

It may work financially whilst you have lo at nursery but this won't be forever.

Its not just your current position or a nursery job although teaching will always be challenging are there schools that might be less stressful abd a more supportive environment?

Have a look at admin roles in student services at universities.

My mum was in your exact position when she had me. She was a teacher, hated it due to the long hours, work at home, missing out on time with her kids as she had to plan, the ever changing behaviour of kids. She hated it when she had my big sister but returned after her maternity leave ended and it was awful for her. She missed so much of her evenings with my sister and when she had me, she decided life was for living, her priority was spending time with her family and she quit! She has never once regretted it in over 30 years!

I would say go for it! It sounds like you need to change your career as it’s making you miserable. Not only would you be better off money wise, you would have more time to spend with your family, more time to enjoy the simple things in life and you would be much happier! Life is too short and if it will make life better, it’s a no brainer! Good luck!

Our LA is crying out for SEND officers and lead SEND officers many were previously teachers (your LA might call them inclusion officers) Local Government hours and perks and a decent pension scheme.

I also meant to say she moved to be a nursery nurse! She never looked back

[quote Purplepinkred]@thebabynanny
Thank you ! You get why I would do it for a couple of years to enjoy the years while my baby is young and I want to be able to give him as much of me as possible !!!

I know it won’t be easy but it will be easier .

Can I ask - what
Do you do now ?

My only fear is I might be a lot less unemployable if I have worked in a nursery for 3 years ? Than if I had just been a teacher ![/quote]
I ended up as an early years teacher/leader for a while in a private nursery - I negotiated to work set hours 7.30-3, and when I left at 3 I took nothing home with me, did no work at home so I could pick up my child from preschool and completely spend the time with him after work. I could also take time off for his nativity play, sports afternoon, summer fair, all that kind of thing. Money wasn't great though, about £18-19k.
When I went on maternity leave I started my own side business as a night nanny/sleep coach and did some childminding until my youngest was 3.
Now I do 3 days a week 9-3 in her preschool (not as a teacher though I am the senco so some extra duties during work hours only) and some night nannying/sleep coaching on the side.
She goes to school in September so I guess I will rethink then about what to do next...

Have you considered going part time as a teacher? Maybe 3 days a week?
The salary would be roughly the same as what you'd get working at nursery full time. Nursery fees would also be much less .
You'd have less stress from school, less work to plan/mark for school, 2 full days to spend with your baby and all holidays off with your son.

Worth considering

Apologies if you’ve answered this already but what’s the hourly rate you’d be paid? Interested to know what such a qualified candidate could expect (o I suppose, receive)!

You could do it with the hope of moving up quickly if that would interest you. Room supervisor and later down the line a your child gets older maybe assistant mgr then mgr. All very doable with your qualifications I'd imagine!

They might think you are over qualified but you could explain what you could bring to them and why you are leaving teaching. Sounds like they wld be lucky to have you.

@Purplepinkred

You sound very stressed out and working all those hours and putting up with all that stress on a daily basis is not sustainable in the long term. From what I hear conditions in school are much worse since the pandemic.

Good mental health has to come first. Do what is right for you now. You can always reassess further down the line when DC is at school.

@YellowOranges

Apologies if you’ve answered this already but what’s the hourly rate you’d be paid? Interested to know what such a qualified candidate could expect (o I suppose, receive)!

Probably something between £9.50 and £11.

I did some work experience in a nursery where one of the assistants was a former teacher, she was lovely - seemed happy, I didn’t ask too many questions about it. She’d worked there a few years at that point so I’m guessing happy with her decision.

Are your deductions correct? I was taking home more than that on M6 with no additional responsibilities.

Also it sounds like your school is pretty awful. Maybe I've been lucky but I've never had a headteacher telling me to give up on any child or grilling me as to why a child can't do something. That being said I still found full time mainstream teaching absolutely exhausting. Since having DD I've gone part time in a specialist unit within a mainstream school and I LOVE IT. Just consider that there are other options within teaching apart from the exact job you're doing now.

I’ve just ended a 20 year nursery career to become a childminder. I’m only 2 months in and earning more with far less stress.

Ex teacher here! I pretty much did what you are thinking except at a private school. My hours were the same as yours and I was so stressed and unhappy. The change for me and my family including my two children has been immense. I don't regret it for a second. I may return to teaching one day when my children are much older. Maybe I won't though. But my family and mental health are more important. Np one truly understands it unless they are a teacher, married to one or have a close relative who is. Get out now and enjoy your life. I still feel it is strange that I have such a lower amount of stress in my life. It's great of course but it's almost like it's taken time for my body and mind to readjust having been running on major stresse for so long!
Good luck. You will be happier!

I think you could look at a £25000 job if it did condensed hours (and nurseries around her do that) then you only need 4 days at nursery and if you get the tax free child care (IE partner/husband earns under £100,000 a year after certain allowances) then you probably will be taking home greater than you £800/MTH target (if one child).

I’d go for it. You sound sensible, and what you have proposed is well-researched, and works well for your family. Earning less means paying less tax and NI, in addition to the actual increase in income as you’ll be paying less nursery fees. That’s without the benefits of having more time to spend with your son, and as a family.
I think they would be lucky to have you in their staff, I’ve interviewed people who do not fit the usual person specification, but it’s more important that they fit in with the team, and often bring a fresh viewpoint to our speciality.
Good luck!