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.

If your training year you work on the job it’s £18 -33 k ( London more) as your unqualified.When you qualify then it’s £25,000 as M1 rising to £41,000 . More in London . You will do the same as a qualified teacher but without the salary but it might land you a job. Otherwise it’s PGCE - I got £1000 a month as shortage subject but that was years ago.

this is NASUWT the unions pay scale .

@Itloggedmeoutagain It's a higher apprenticeship. 20% of my contracted work hours are dedicated to my training. I was already working in the role that required teaching skills so my employer accessed the apprenticeship for me to get qualified. I wanted to highlight the point that 'teaching' is a varied role and that there are lots of other opportunities to work as a teacher outside of schools.

Do the teacher training and NQT year and then teach internationally. Much better lifestyle, well behaved children and usually the school will pay for your apartment, flights, healthcare etc...
Can do with kids too because 2 children can go to the school free - so many benefits to this... smaller class sizes, lovely friendship groups..

I don't have children yet (I'm pregnant with my first) and it's the best decision my partner and I ever made.
Makes horrendous teacher training worth it!

I share your frustrations with the system op, it is crazy that they make it so hard now. It was not so hard in the past, and I’m afraid I came across far too many senior teachers who seem to enjoy that they’ve made it so much harder for newbies. Anyone with any sense of ethics about this - I met one - has left or is doing the minimum to survive themselves.

Just to add, a university PGCE now is mostly placements, which translates into ‘making you do the job for free’, or more accurately still, making you pay to do the job, rather than training you to do it. It all seems to be designed to ensure that only rich, well-supported people have much of a chance. The primary interest of recruiters seems to be how much you played politics and smiled at the right people while on placement, rather than whether the job of teaching kids skills gets done. I came out of it with a much reduced respect for teachers actually, as the job is no longer about learning or any practical awareness and interest in improving what the child can actually do within their economic and other limitations. It just seems to be about being an agent of the state, enforcing social ie class, economic and sex-based boundaries, and social control.

Just to address the practical childcare issues, I found what I actually needed as a teacher was 7.30am to 4.30pm and not many places offer that. My solution was to use a nursery nearer the school, drop off on the dot of 8 and drive to school like the clappers, doing my photocopying the night before (secondary). I had to suck up the unneeded time at nursery. Fortunately it was by a big supermarket so I used to grab a coffee, do a bit of marking and sometimes sit in the car and cry because I was so exhausted, especially when I was pregnant (I never worked the hours some people are describing on here, but certainly 60 a week plus commute of 1.5 hours round trip).

I am still in teaching 11 years later but I only have one DC, my DH does much of the child stuff in termtime and I moved to the independent sector for better pay and conditions ASAP.

If you can find an independent with nursery, junior and senior on the same site you might just be able to get them to train you and get a discount on fees. Especially if you teach Physics.

I should add that DH and I chose a primary with wraparound 7.30am to 6pm after the nursery experience. By then I had a longer commute so the end of the day hours were welcome, but I still can't drop at 7.30am and do a 75 minute journey in 60 minutes, so DH still does most drop offs except on my days off (I work pt to keep the hours at 40 ish).

DH earns loads more as a university lecturer when you consider he works half the hours! I think I have more fun though.

I do like teenagers.

Just to add, a university PGCE now is mostly placements, which translates into ‘making you do the job for free’, or more accurately still, making you pay to do the job, rather than training you to do it

That's because trainee teachers are required to have 120 days of placement

I was just coming to say this. My school starts 8..15 with the kids! My own childrens school has a 8am drop off for breakfast club. I am completely stuck next year. I may even have to resign.

Yes, exactly this! I did my PGCE on an average of 5 hours' sleep a night and spent much of my second placement locked in the staff loo crying whenever I had a spare minute. Now it's 11 years later and I'm in a pretty senior position, but my god it was a tough beginning. And you can't choose your placement schools - you get what you're given.

Don’t resign yet! I mentioned earlier that colleagues of mine managed to get their DC’s breakfast club to start earlier. It can be done. You need to canvass opinion amongst other parents and see if you can find enough to make it financially viable for the breakfast club to open earlier.

7.30 childcare makes all the difference.

I am currently doing my PGCE (primary though, so will be a slightly different experience) as a mid-30s career-changer. How the academic side is delivered will massively depend on the university. Mine was 8 weeks in university, followed by 10 weeks on first placement, 8 weeks back at university and now my final 10 week placement.

University days vary in terms of time on campus. Some days it was 9-5, other days 10-2 and anything in between. I've known others on different courses with similar situations.

School days I am in by 7:30am, but rarely there after 4:30pm unless there's a specific reason to be. If I leave at 4:30pm, I tend to do another hour or so of work when I get home if I need to, but certainly none of the midnight finishes I've heard others talk about.

In this placement I have 1.5 days non-contact time per week, so I get a lot done in that time. The first placement was 2 days non-contact time so got even more done (that was actually too much time out of the classroom ).

I think I've been incredibly lucky with my placement schools as no mentor horror stories and I haven't found the workload too bad. I do have an hour long commute to school and it has been similar on both placements.

I think coming at it from a different career, rather than straight out of uni, can be beneficial in that you're likely used to working in a professional environment, managing politics, dealing with a variety of people (some of whom you may not get on with but have to work with) and a good sense of time management etc. That's obviously not to say a lot of 21/22 year olds wouldn't have the same, but I certainly don't think I would have handled this year quite so well if I was straight out of an undergrad!

For what it's worth I am, so far, very happy with my decision to re-train. It's stimulating, interesting, hilarious at times and very fulfilling. There are frustrations of course but aren't there in any job? How I will feel in a couple of years time though I have no idea!

I did choose my placement school and it was walking distance from the school that was training me. I did a week in another secondary for my specialist subject and day visits to a primary and a SEMH school. I arranged all this and got the funding school to sign off (the second subject HOD did help me find the placement). Training days were in central London. I did GTP which no longer exists but my experience was if you do a load of research and are patient and flexible, you can put together a programme that works for you.

Set against that, nearly everything useful I've learnt about teaching was from doing it and watching others. A lot of the training days were completely irrelevant as it was all very general and those of us at academically selective schools quickly learnt to keep our mouths shut.

Phantomhawk - I admire your positivity and optimism, and wish you all the best. But I have to add that my first year in a school, after 4 years' worth of Uni and PGCE, and a year backpacking around the world, was the worst year of my life. I have never felt exhaustion like it. You need to be prepared and not assume that it's going to be like your training year. The deadlines, the paperwork, the being lumbered with the difficult classes that no-one else wants, the petty jealousies, the learning curve of class control, the marking load...and that was 50 years ago, when kids didn't have phones, social media distractions, drugs, peer pressure. You will need to eat well, get loads of sleep, pace yourself, ask for help when you need to, don't take anything personally, develop your own unique teaching persona and style. I felt that I was just about in my stride when I took leave after 5 years to have my first DC. I am still in touch with some of those students, who are now almost pensioners themselves! Teaching is THE most amazing, satisfying and stimulating career, provided you can survive those first couple of years. I would not have wanted to do anything else, and can look back on 47 years' worth of fantastic experiences.

Hints include:
Really getting to know your students-consult their records and find out about their backgrounds and family life. Talk to them, as if they were your own kid-show interest in their successes at sport, their hobbies, their pets, if they are younger. Say hello and smile out in the playground.
Really know your subject and show that you are passionate about it. Kids respect above all that you know what you are talking about. Make it fun - I can give you all sorts of activities to get them onside, if you would like.
Ignore the old rule about "don't smile until Easter" - smile at them when you first meet them. If anyone takes the mick, perfect the deathstare. Single them out. Don't let the first one be the first of many-nip rudeness in the bud.
Smack kids over the head with a piece of paper if they do well...it's a stylised hug.
I could go on, and would if I were not going for a hair cut!
Good luck!

I'm 12 years in, Secondary core subject. I am rarely in before 815 and don't need to 'set up my room' daily. I am not in early as I am not a morning person, I do not work effectively at all at that time of day! I have never been in before 815 throughout training year onwards.

I do work late, I stay most nights till 5/6ish, I am more efficient then and prep stuff for following few days. I work at home most nights as well, but not every night now - it has reduced over the years.

DH is in charge before school, I take the after school juggle, both kids are KS1 currently.

It isn't family friendly, it is the best and the worst job in world and I generally love every minute of it.

I also mentor trainees and do not need to check in with them daily, these are people following the SCITT programme who we discuss stuff as it comes up and would not expect them to be discuss todays lessons at the start of the day if the need to discuss.

I work efficiently during the day, I work through lunch most days - crap for social side but means I keep on top of things, I work in the car when my kids are at extra curricular clubs, I only work 4 days a week and try to get the bulk of work done on my day off when the kids are at school.