Considering retraining as primary school teacher

[Thinkingofteaching]

Currently employed full time in a middle management position in HR for Civil Service. Absolutely hate it. Originally completed my degree in Education with a 2:1 but for personal reasons at the time decided not to continue to PGCE year straight after.

Fast-forward 10 years and I’m now mid-thirties, a (very content) lone parent to an 2 year old and generally happy in every aspect of my life besides work. AIBU to consider quitting my comfy but otherwise happiness-sapping role and retrain as a primary school teacher?

I’ve applied for the salaried route and am awaiting an update on next stage which would be interview. Looking for the views of either existing primary school teachers and / or, ideally, single parents who work in the field. No hyperbole please, just the facts.

Thanks in advance.

I’ve taught for 25 years and I love the job. I also did it as a single parent to two young children. It does very much depend on the school you are in and their culture. I no longer teach in England and do think there is too much accountability and pressure in their system. But the right school and it is honestly (I believe) the best job in the world.

I agree with embod. I love my job. Be prepared for long hours and you need reliable childcare from at least 8-5. You will then need to work at home once your child is in bed and probably some of the weekend too. Be prepared for parents evenings that are later too. I typically work 7.30-6 but I don’t have young children now. If you find a nice school with supportive SLT it’s doable. Good luck!

I loved being a teacher, but please bear in mind that it's almost completely inflexible. You would need to have iron clad support in place for things like child illness. Both the training and first couple of years as an Early Career Teacher are pretty relentless too.

If I'm honest, I'm not sure I would recommend teaching to anyone at the moment. 😢

Do it, I love it. Not a single parent myself but I have a 4 yo with a DH who works abroad sometimes. If I was you, I'm not sure I'd choose now as the time to do it. Although if you have a decent nursery that is open until 6 pm, you might be ok. Lots of parents are teachers but I find that there isn't really much flexibility because of this. E.g. Still expected to do late parents evenings and additional work etc. Being mum doesn't wash as an excuse so just be prepared for this.

I wouldnt. I have a flexible job and love that I can attend every sports day, workshop, nativity. I think teaching is a really restrictive job for parents.

Personally, I would hate hate doing hours of enriching curriculum prep with young children, engaging them etc and hen have to find the energy to be a fun mum too. Each to theor own, ris might be you to a Tee.

Can you consider a different post, at least until your child is in secondary? Time will pass, it just depends what your priority is for now.

As an ECT you will start on 30K. You will not have any flexibility to attend any parent events at your own child's school. You will be expected to work in your own time (many teachers work at least half a day at the weekend) and will need to work in the evenings when your child has gone to bed. If you have good support to enable you to do this then yes, go for it.

I honestly wouldn't recommend it as a single parent with young child. It is long hours and very inflexible. There are endless story cafes, mothers day sessions, sports days, assemblies, awards etc that I missed for my own DC because of the job. Also spending all day being the emotional anchor and engaging educator for 32 small people leaves very little in the tank for your own DC afterwards. I used to love my job wholeheartedly and parts of it are still brilliant but not enough to outweigh the rest imo and the massive teacher retention crisis (teachers leaving in droves) tells me I'm not alone. If you want to go ahead, you need an iron clad support network for your DC.

It’s a great job if you really are passionate about it. The training is hard, the NQT (now ECT) is harder. It takes time for it to not obliterate your life. Your hours depend entirely on the culture of your school, its marking policy etc. I work 10-11 hours in school most days except Fridays where I fuck off to the pub with everyone at 4pm.

The job can differ wildly from school to school and from year to year. You can have a supportive SLT and this makes things much better or you can have a shit one which makes smaller issues unbearable. The issue is that I’m not sure how you can really tell before you join a school, but visit and look around to get a feel of it when it comes time to look for jobs.

I don’t have kids but you won’t get time off for your kids’ stuff as a general rule. I think once on my training my mentor was allowed to go to the nativity but that’s it. I’m not sure how I’d manage both - my mum was a teacher and my childhood was a lot of getting screamed at because she was so stressed.

Personally I now feel I have a good work life balance (she says, working 11 hours a day in school), I met my boyfriend when he taught at the same school as me and I work with some of my closest friends. I wouldn’t do another job if you paid me a wage that was comparable to the hours I do.

Oh and my rule is I do not work at home, ever, unless it’s report season. I manage this as the most experienced teacher in the year group, therefore taking on more planning, teaching the lower maths set and planning everything alone for that, an incredibly heavy marking policy, a subject leadership that is being prepped for ofsted and a TLR3. You have to be incredibly efficient but it is possible. Maybe less so if you’re restricted in the hours you can work in school due to DC, though.

Definitely not. Teaching is a thankless job nowadays, and very difficult with a young family.

Look at the number of teachers leaving - they are not doing it lightly!

I changed careers after 15 years in primary education as I was just done with it.

If the job was just about teaching I’d still be in it and I’m loving it. Unfortunately there’s a ton of BS attached and many end up either completely jaded or the verge of a breakdown,

I'm.a secondary school.teacher. Been doing it for 28 years. I like my job but it can take over your life. It is relentless. As a primary school teacher eith a very young child I think.this would be extremely challenging. You might find yourself without energy for your own child🙄

I wouldn’t recommend primary teaching to anyone at the moment. I find it completely happiness-sapping and don’t know any teachers left in ‘real life’ who are happy and want to stay.

You need cast iron childcare for every term time day including days your child is ill, days their nursery/school is closed for snow or has inset, your parents evening/concerts etc You need to accept you will not get to take your child to school or go to their sports days/assemblies, concerts or plays. You will work long days, be micromanaged throughout each lesson, day and week, only ever be as a good as your last lesson observation and be vilified in the media for working 9-3/being lazy/work shy.

Why do you want to teach? Don’t do it just because you quite like children/your subject and think the holidays will be convenient,

I love my job as a primary school teacher. I'm on mat leave at the moment but worked 7am-7pm most days and currently trying to figure out how I can cut this down when I go back. I didn't work weekends or holidays though. Like others have said, you will need good childcare in place as you will often have meetings after school. Depending on the school you are in, you may not be allowed to attend your own child's assemblies, sports days etc. Ask about this in job interviews if this is important to you.

One thing I would say about attending events for your own children this is very dependent on the school. I have friends who have missed events for their own children as they haven’t been allowed. As a head now myself I have always allowed staff to attend assemblies, performances, sports day and waving off when their child off on their residential. I think that’s the least I can do for hard working staff (I also would never expect this to be unpaid)

Teaching is an incredibly tough job. Not family friendly at all. Think of all the strikes there have been recently. They weren't doing that for fun trust me.

It's a great job at the right school. At ours there is no problem if we want to watch our own children in their school events, we just cover the class internally and everyone helps each other out.

So do it but choose your school wisely!

Teaching is without a doubt one of the toughest jobs. Despite that it is incredibly rewarding and I absolutely love my job.

I am lucky to work in a school that allows me to go to important school events for my child; sports days, performances, celebration assemblies, etc.

I worked part time for a while after DC was born. I was asked to go to full time after a few years, I was able to negotiate this. I can pick DC up twice a week at 3:30 (leave 20 minutes early). DC comes into school with me if our school holidays don’t fall exact. But in return they get the best of me. I also don’t stay late (other than staff meeting or prearranged nights). I do spend lots of time with DC after school but sacrifice a lot of evenings after DC bedtime.

On the other hand, if anything (God forbid) happened to my DH I would not be able to afford to do my job. I would have to find something else. I don’t do my job for my wage (I know it’s 💩), I do genuinely love what I do. And I know I am lucky to be in a position where I can do something I love.

Childcare for breakfast club each morning and a couple of nights after school club can cost us £150+ a month. It’s not particularly a family friendly job.

Primary school teaching is all encompassing, particularly in your early career.
As people have said, it very much depends on the school you're in. My life was made a nightmare. I was working about 80 hours a week, no help or support and barely able to speak to my daughter each day.
It is relentless and without the back up of great people both in and out of work, it's utterly grim. I personally wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy.
Could you look at moving departments in the CS instead,? It's a good career and pension to give up.

This is another thing that is dependent on the school though. I teach a mixed age class so no one to share planning with, and have to plan maths and English (and homework) for two year groups so essentially doing double. I subject lead 3 subjects, even though I'm part-time, and we also have Ofsted due. Contrary to other teachers here though, our head is good at giving time off for our own children's sports days and nativities (not other random assemblies and coffee mornings beyond that though). I enjoy my job a lot, but not sure I'd actively choose it as a career now, particularly with the increasing number of MATs.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. You’ve made really great points, especially about what I would potentially be compromising in terms of my own child.

I suppose the main thing that I want is a job that, a) makes me happy, and b) that I feel passionately about. Teaching, at least on paper, ticks these boxes for me. I do remember my placements well and one teacher in particular went out of her way to tell me often how miserable she was every day that she woke up and had to get ready to go to work. Despite this, teaching is the only job that I’ve ever imagined wanting to do. At the moment, I feel utterly miserable every time I think about work. I can do my job well, but I’m totally apathetic to it. It brings me zero fulfilment, and I suppose (perhaps naively) I want my child to grow seeing his only parent enjoying the work I do, even if that means that I’m not always as present for her as I might otherwise be.

I’ll continue to give it some thought. If I’m successful in getting an interview, you’ve definitely given me questions to ask.

Thanks again. It’s been very helpful.

OP,
There's a Facebook group for teachers and so many teachers go into the civil service to escape teaching/how most schools are now. I hate to be a downer but just to give you some pause.

Probably enough people have pointed out the reality of teaching nowadays (a lot more pressured than ten years ago in lots of schools).

My slightly different slant is- is there a way for you to get more fulfilment in your life without changing job? Eg getting an interesting hobby, doing some volunteering? That way you could keep the security/stability of your civil service job but maybe get the mental challenge/whatever else you feel you're missing in your current job.

I really wouldn't want to be a full time teacher as a single parent and I teach at a very cushty school where things aren't as bad as at 99% of places. It's so time consuming and there's little flexibility.

I wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy. It’s absolutely soul destroying. So many neglected children it breaks my heart. I want to shake at least two parents every day. I spend hours fruitlessly filling out safe guarding reports and although our safe guarding officer is incredible, other agencies do nothing.
It’s the most frustrating job I’ve ever done and if I knew then what I know now I’d NEVER have gone into it.

I wouldn’t. Especially not primary.
If you can get a job in a big secondary teaching a niche area that you are passionate about but is not a core subject, not overly academic and nobody’s all that fussed about (e.g Art, Sports) then I truly wouldn't consider it.

My daughter qualified as a teacher and completed just under three years and is now back at uni doing another vocational degree.

The hours were relentless. The expectation that you will complete things at the weekend saps your personal life.

Her final straw was having a miscarriage and being made to deliver the mother's day assembly on her first day back after her d&c. Cruel beyond measure.

Don't believe that because women are in the senior team they will empathise with the juggle of work, life and raising a child.

I echo someone else's statement, there is a reason teachers are leaving in droves.

But maybe she was at an awful school.