Teacher training

[Princesselsa1]

Considering a career change. I have fallen out of love with my well paid but DULL job. I’m nearly 40 and still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up 😂I enjoy working with young people having volunteered with a youth group in recent years. I currently sit in my bedroom on a computer and work pretty much alone. It’s driving me crazy.

I was looking at teaching. I’m a biochemistry graduate so could teach science. I’d be interested in other subjects too. Not just the ones that pay a bursary.

i thought they were crying out for teachers. Why make the training so bloody complicated? I can’t travel an hour to my closest university! I have 3 kids of my own. Plus the training when you could be at a school of your choice for first term then after spring you get shipped off to a mystery school. The earliest I can drop my kids off is 8am.

plus lots of subjects YOU need to pay ridiculous fees. And the starting salary is awful!

Am I missing something here?

The way I would do it would be fully on the job plus remote “lectures”. And in one school, with short bursts at other LOCAL schools. I literally can’t see that this is a job that you’d want to train for as a mum with kids.

it’s such a shame because I think I’d be quite good and can see That it would be enjoyable.

Despite the holidays, teaching is not a family friendly job.

Nothing family friendly about teaching. The hours don't work with most childcare when you factor Iin travel, most teachers start before 8am. Taking work home to do 3-5 hours easily a day, obviously you then can't spend time with anyone partner ot children. It's a completely single person only lifestyle.
Training is even more bonkers.

Yes was just going to say this. My dh leaves for work (deputy head ) at 645 and gets to work for 7 (same as when he was a class based teacher) he struggles to get home before after school club close at 6 and still works a couple of hours on the evening .

This.

I actually think teacher pay is ok - most of my friends who are teachers (I'm an ex teacher) are on £40,000 plus but have been teaching for about twenty years now . I don't earn anywhere near as much now in my non qualified nhs job that I would had I stayed in teaching but to be honest the money is the only thing I miss !!

Beware that some schools have an early start at 8.30 and in reality you need to be on site before that to get set up. Also no guarantee you'll get a job in a local school so you'll need to factor in a commute. Not to mention parents evenings, open evenings and twilight training often on top of a full day teaching. Honestly, the only family friendly thing is the school holidays.

I was a late career changer. My DCs were 6 and 9. I was in management consulting, lots of travel, nights away from home. I naively thought I was moving to something more family friendly.

The training was harder than teaching itself. But the job simply isn’t do-able at first in normal working hours. And a good chunk of holidays goes on being ill (your body quickly tunes into term dates and keeps going until there’s a break), catching up with things you skimped because you were so shattered by the end of term, and marking assessments. Even after teaching a good few years, really I only got 2-3 weeks more holiday than I did in my old job, and averaged over the year I was doing longer hours.

In secondary, once you’ve got 3 years under your belt, I think it becomes a little more manageable, provided you dodge any additional responsibility. But that will put a ceiling on your pay.

Why is it like that? The government have under-invested for years. And when they eventually woke up to the looming staffing crisis, they responded by throwing millions into the most ridiculously convoluted induction system you could imagine. Dreadfully dull, one size fits all and adding to workload not just for new teachers, but also their mentors. The DfE seems to be staffed by people who wilfully ignore what it’s actually like in the majority of schools.

The cynic in me thinks that the longer term goal is deprofessionalisation: humans for crowd control, food tech and PE, everything else digital/AI. Unless you’re in a private school that is.

Before you go further, I would advise sorting childcare for two weeks and shadowing a science teacher. For the whole day, every day. See what they do beyond the classroom - the pastoral stuff, the admin, the planning, the marking, the phone calls home, the data input, the bus line duties, the break duties, the detention duties. Get the whole picture and if you do go into it, at least it will be slightly less of a shock and the rigmarole of sorting your training route will be in service of something you know are better informed about.

I too was a late career changer with two young children, training was hard, placements were up to 90 minutes away from home and hours were relentless, indeed my mum moved in with me to look after the children ( no husband around) during all my placements just so I could get through the work. But teaching is relentless too so it's no good going in blinkered. You need to find out what teaching is REALLY like before signing your life away!

I have been accepted onto a primary teaching degree and it’s exactly the same - placements can be up to 1.5 hrs away and expected start time on placement is 8am - I have one ds in yr7 and one in reception and I just can’t find childcare to accommodate. It is so hard and it really doesn’t need to be I am at the point where I am going to give up my place. I hope
you manage to work something out, I am like you I have a career but it is dull which can be soul destroying at times x

The starting salary is actually very good now! It was a lot lower when I started teaching, and my placement was an hour away on a train because I didn't have a car...it was hardest year of my life. The real problem is your salary increases very little with experience, unless you move up to leadership roles.
And it's not a family friendly job. You will need to be in work at 8am. Then some days you finish at 4, then other times 8pm if you have parents evening or open evening. Then do some more work in the evening after the kids have gone to bed. Oh and weekends too.

Look at your local FE college. You can do the qual on the job. They are crying out for Applied science and T Level lecturers right now.

Teaching has a starting salary of over £25k, that isn't particularly low.

Teaching in general isn’t family friendly though, bar the holidays.

It’s a great job but term times are manic. The training is just the beginning!

@Princesselsa1
The earliest you can drop your kids off is at 8? At childcare? And then you'd have to travel to placement? That is impossible I'm afraid.

Yeah it really is 8am. My DH has a job that he can’t be around all the time. Some days he does drop off but other days he starts at 5 or stays over… it’s very random. Self employed in a creative job.

sounds like a no go for now.

Why is so bloody hard? Because it’s a PROFESSION.

Teaching really isn't a job you do for money. I'm in school from 7:45 every day so that I can aim to be out by 5:30 but at least 1-2 times a week this is more like 6/6:30. As pp said, your body tunes into term times so you're ill pretty much every holiday for at least the first week (and ill again in the first week back when all the children return with fresh new viruses to spread around the school!).

I'm in secondary and am lucky to have been teaching the same/similar exam boards for most of my career but changed schools last year and this came with new exam boards to get to grips with. I've been teaching for nearly 10 years now and feel like I've got a pretty good handle on my marking systems, planning and resources etc but it's still a huge set back in terms of time to have to change all your resources for new modules/exam systems - you could end up having to do this 3-4 times in your first two years depending on how many placement schools you have/if you move schools for NQT/NQT+1.

I did my TT relatively late (I was 24 and most people on my course had graduated that summer) via schools direct and it was a good option in the sense that I had most of my time in one school which I chose to interview direct to, was allowed to reach out to and choose my preferred second placement, and already had been working in another industry so wasn't fresh out of uni which I think helped mindset wise, and it was still the toughest year of my life (I nearly quit twice!), closely followed by my NQT. The amount of work you have to do is insane - I was starting work (as in, sat at my desk in my classroom) at 6:30am and working until 11:30 most days of my NQT year, also working only slightly fewer hours on Saturdays & Sundays - I was in a boarding school and had lots of young staff there so we were all in it together which definitely helped but it's definitely not a family friendly option and I don't know if I could do that now!

Despite all of this, I absolutely adore teaching - particularly in my current school. I love working with young people (they're hilarious, interesting, and you do often get those moments where you learn something new because of a student's different perspective), love my subject and that I get to immerse myself in it every day, and love my colleagues (though I have worked in departments where bullying has been rife and, again, made me want to quit). I always say that if you feel like this about teaching then it's the best job in the world, but if you don't, then it's the worst.

I'm a teacher with young kids, only works because I did the training before I had them. Now with them it only works because my husband has a job which can be flexible. I am in work for 7:45.

Yes your skills are very much in demand. From my experience, the Uni I was with took well-being very seriously. They don’t want anyone to drop out of the course. So, they did everything they could to ensure people were placed at certain school depending on their situation eg no car, children etc
I really think you could make it work - there were two Mums on my course with me.
Best decision I made. Good luck OP

To reflect the reality of doing the job.

I’ve been a teacher for 13 years and I really enjoy it, but I wouldn’t describe it as family friendly. Having the holidays with the DCs is the best part but the terms are intense.

When my oldest DC was 1 and I returned to work, he was in nursery at 7am and I often didn’t pick him up until 5.30 at the earliest. I’m fortunate to work at a school that is as family friendly as it can be and always lets teacher parents attend plays, sports days, first day of school etc. Many won’t allow that or only if unpaid.

I’m in leadership now and I really like my job but I have to work very hard to not let it mentally take over my life. I’m not doing too well with that at the moment. Sometimes it does feel like my own children come last.

Did exactly this seventeen years ago with a six year old. Was tough. Uni was an hours drive and although first placement was in my hometown and he second - much longer one- was 45 mins away. Also, because I did English, we had a drama session on a Monday night at uni. Meant I didn’t see the little one on Mondays at all!

Having said all that, I have a fabulous career and have transformed our families lives. If I had just stayed doing what I did our lives would have been very different. I do love my job. It is bloody hard and sometimes - quite a bit lately- I am under an awful lot of pressure and my workload is almost unmanageable.

kids are fab but policies are frankly nuts.

Irony is our DS went to uni- and got a super job - but gave it up last year for teaching! Past week he got his first teaching job for sept and qualified this summer.

he’s open minded , knows it’ll be tough but seeing me working late and under pressure hasn’t put him off!

to be fair, teaching your lessons are the best bits and they keep you going.

can’t deny that the 13 weeks holidays are brilliant 🤩 but I still do work at home (sometimes teach revision classes in school) but as time has gone on I have a better work life balance than I did .

i think you should try and find a way to commute if you can. It’s without doubt the hardest time of my life , those first years, but worth it .

good luck !

And you're paid like cr*p for the privilege.

Teachers are not valued and it shows in so many ways.

Teacher training is brutal. NQT year is bloody torture. A couple of years in the strain of the job becomes unmanageable & your cohort start to leave, THEN you find out if you have it in you to teach.

Well done for realising it's a shit deal before jumping in, OP.

If there is an academy chain in your area see if they do SCITT. You may be able to stay at one school for the whole year (my DH did) and they will find you an ECT job in the network.

It is tough though. We don't have kids and I was sick to the back teeth of doing all the housework/cooking etc by the time July came round. He would regularly work until 9/10pm after going into school for 7.

I would definitely recommend you get in touch with Now Teach though. Making teacher training accessible to career changers is what they do. A chat with them cannot hurt. You might be able to do it part time or some other accommodations can be found.