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 trained two years ago with slightly older kids but still primary age. To echo what everyone else has said, you have to REALLY want it for it to be viable. The PGCE was hard work, especially with 20 years elapsed since I’d done any form of academic writing. Year 1 ECT was relentless and I was regularly working till 1am planning lessons (and that’s in a non-core subject that allegedly nobody cares about to quote the above poster!) there is a huge expectation that you take on more and more and more, pressure from above with marking policies, end of year shows, literacy deep dives, book checks or whatever other nonsense we have to evidence on any given week to SLT ON TOP OF actually doing the bloody job of teaching the kids! I very quickly discovered the actual teaching is only about 50% or the actual workload. It’s hard, but I love it.

I wouldn’t recommend it with such a young child (or at all really). Completely inflexible and soul destroying at the moment.

There is no money in education, toxic working environments and awful behaviour problems, many stemming from unmet SEN needs. Are you prepared to be verbally and physically assaulted?

Half the profession are desperate to get out and from what I can see on a large teachers Facebook group, they are desperate to get into the civil service.

I wouldn’t move at the moment. See what happens over the next few years, maybe with a new government.

I’ve been teaching for 21 years and I’m on the lookout for another job that doesn’t sap all my energy and I’m in an excellent school by most standards.

I've been teaching for 10 years and I'm now having a career break whilst my son is small.

The teaching part is wonderful No two days are the same and as a primary teacher, you really do feel bonded to your class as you get to know them and see them grow. Unfortunately, the teaching element is just half of the role now.

Planning can be relentless, headteacher expectations can be relentless. Parents can be downright nasty if they decide they don't like you, even when you're trying to do your best for those children, and I say that as a mother myself.

I'm hoping I can look towards a new path next year, hopefully tutoring. All the benefits of teaching but ho ofsted, parents evenings, or having to "volunteer" to do a club that you're then expected to run once per week.

Class exchange days are lovely, the whole of December and July is lovely but there is lots that isn't.

I love teaching and wouldn’t want to do anything else. That being said, I went into it with my eyes wide open and the pressure of the job has only increased.

Do you have much experience of working in schools? The salaried route is very competitive and tends to be aimed at those who have previously been HLTAs, cover supervisors etc. I did one of the salaried routes in the first year it existed when it was less competitive. The school very much expected you to be teaching the maximum amount of hours allowed very quickly as they were paying you a salary.

I think that the inflexibility of the job post-pandemic, has really been highlighted. Many of my friends now have the scope to work in a hybrid model and are much happier with a better work-life balance. I’ve found that I’m at school 7.30-5.30-so a ten hour day-at a minimum and feel like I’m just chasing my tail , then the next day it starts again. I feel like I’m on a treadmill, just getting through the next learning walk, book check, deep dive, police review, year group moderation, assessment week, data drop, parents evening, lesson observation etc etc

Many of our children are in dire need of external support but just aren’t getting it. Parents are frantic and can’t get through to doctors, nurses, health visitors, speech therapists, occupational therapists, paediatricians, counsellors, therapists etc and school is the one place they can turn up at and know they will be able to speak to someone. We then get desperate and upset parents and are so thinly stretched, there’s only so much we can do.

My other half is a secondary school teacher. From experience with him, he has missed almost all of our kids' childhoods. He has not been able to be there for first days, plays, sports days etc and he works at least half of the weekends and school holidays.

IMO it's not the best job for parents.

Have you thought about childminding? You can educate and be there for your own children?

Plus he works late into the evenings.

Teachers also don't get paid for all those holidays either.

I wasn’t going to post as I didn’t think I had anything to add that hadn’t already been said. But a previous poster mentioned her poor daughter who miscarried and was then made to do a Mother’s Day assembly. Adding my voice to this incase you think this sounds like an isolated incident in one school, because a very similar incident happened to me too, sadly.

It’s a very inflexible job, I wouldn’t do it as a single parent. I have a husband and family support, and I still left my teaching career!

I couldn’t recommend primary teaching to anyone. I qualified in 2003 and the job is NOT in any way what I originally trained and applied for and began working in.

If - and it’s a really big if - you get a ‘good’ headteacher then they might be willing to allow some flexibility for you to attend your own child’s events. Be aware that this is rare, and that it’s a real lottery. You really can’t tell until you work in a school how the culture there is.

My current school is rural, generally good behaviour, and full of wealthy families with high expectations. But funding is appalling - it’s a leafy shire so we’ve been woefully underfunded for years which means the current stage of affairs is dreadful. Teachers are leading multiple subjects, prepping deep dives, managing data, preparing governors reports, managing all the endless day to day paperwork, and totally unsupported because we’ve no money to properly pay TAs and dinner ladies and nobody is willing to drive out to our school for such a pittance… so teaching staff were told we need to take up the slack. SEND children are unable to cope and were told we just have to manage it, and to adapt our planning to personalise it for sometimes up to ten different sets of needs within the class on top of the ordinary planning burden.

I joined the school when it had a great headteacher who was respected by all and who held his staff in high regard. He left after covid and the new one is unfortunately absolutely toxic. The work environment is just awful - constant micromanagement and being told off like children in staff meetings despite being OFSTED ‘good’ and SIAMS outstanding.

I’m hoping I can escape by Christmas and honestly, I’m done with it. I want out. I’m spending my summer holidays sending job applications to anything I can find that I seem vaguely qualified for that isn’t teaching. I want my life back, and I can’t bear the thought of another year spent in such a soul destroying, broken system.

do it! I love it. It’s I intellectually challenging. There are so many things we don’t know. It is hard but very rewarding. It is fun. On your worst day the children will chat to you about their thoughts and feelings and games and keep you the most humble person in the world. I love it as a career.

What will you do if dc is ill? It’s really hard to take time off, especially as you still have to provide cover,by 8am in the morning. You will be judged by parents, the kids and other staff who have to cover for you on top of their regular workload, if you take time off. I have three kids but I’ve only been able to manage splitting it with dh and some help from my parents. Maybe if you have other support you’ll be ok but it’s so tough being off work as a teacher, especially with the guilt you feel.

I taught in primary for 14 years and left for a career in higher education 5 years ago. I still have anxiety dreams about being back in the classroom. You honestly couldn't drag me back - fucking awful job.

Be prepared for zero flexibility. School holidays are wonderful but both schools I've worked in have prevented me from attending things for my children, including a nativity play, every sports day, even my child's filling! You cannot book a day off as you would in any other profession!
People believe its a child friendly profession but as more and more people are able to access flexible working it is really difficult to not be on the school gate even once during the week.

You will miss your child's first day at school and as someone else said, you will need childcare back up. Every day you miss costs the school a small fortune and so heads aren't too generous allowing you time with your sick child.

There were parts I loved, of course but there was no balance with my family life and the pay didn't justify it.

Echoing the previous posters who mentioned lack of empathy around miscarriage, I was in Y6, lost my daughter late in pregnancy, and was put under so much pressure that I was back at work teaching a full timetable, plus a data drop and the 2 parents evenings I'd missed, before my darling girl was even buried. When I went to SLT with concerns around my workload I was literally told to get on with it as "it's no different for you than anyone else". I was off the day of her burial (which they tried to give me unpaid!) and then came back to work to find I'd been moved into a Y1 class with a heavily pregnant Teaching Assistant because I was "too unreliable in Y6 as you're bound to get pregnant again". Admittedly, I didn't stay at this school but just to reiterate, these stories sadly aren't rare.

I did it as a second career and don’t regret it at all. Teaching is extraordinarily hard but I think it helps when you’ve had another career first because you aren’t a stranger to hard work and you appreciate the perks (not just the holidays but the ‘quick win’ nature of the job). I enrolled my primary aged DC in my school which makes it much easier to parent and be a teacher. It is tough when they’re little because they need your attention at the end of the day when you just want to get started with your prep for the next day but it is workable.
The only thing I’ve found frustrating (and this could just be my school) is that my leadership background counts for nothing when it comes to career development. I’m expected to work my way up slowly like everyone else and there’s zero acknowledgement of my transferable skills. It means being managed by inexperienced managers again which is slightly frustrating second time round when I’d like to offer them mentorship and support but I’m back at the bottom of the ladder again!

@Hungryfrogs23 That is so shocking, I can’t believe anyone could be so cruel

I mean I have to say, this is completely f*ed up isn’t it.

It’s not the first time i’ve heard this of course, but seriously.

Certainly not in Scotland where there are very few jobs on qualifying

I am a teacher abroad and love it. I’d not teach in the UK though, even though I adore the job.

I am a teacher and taught through having my children.
Do it, but check it is what you really, really want. Can you do some work experience in a school? When my children were young I worked part time.
I did have a husband, and in the end, there was only one event we couldn't attend....so sent a grandparent instead.
I work in Reception and we have all sorts turn up for activities in school.....parents/grandparents/ aunties/uncles/ friends/neighbours/ friends parents in the class and some that just can't make it.

Everyone is forever trying to juggle their lives.

The kids make you happy to an extent. The adults however can make you an anxious, miserable wreck. If you are an over thinker or suffer from anxiety in any capacity- do not entertain the idea of it.

You’re only Miss Honey with the kids between 9-3. Everything else is absolute shite. 7-9 and 3-6 and your lunchtimes are admin, meetings, marking, displays and parent meetings. Many of these things are pointless. In your early career you won’t know what pointless things you can swerve and where you can save time, it will be all consuming.

You’ll have a lot of the shite you hate about CS, with zero flexibility.

In your shoes, I would side step into a different branch of CS- project based or policy work in a department you feel strongly about before pivoting to the wider third sector.

I had a some really great times as a primary school teacher and stayed a lot longer than most, but teaching in the standard British state school at is absolutely incompatible with my sanity. And I was at a ‘nice’ school.

I read your title wrong. I thought it said you were thinking about restraining a primary school teacher. I had also sorts of thoughts going through my head and so I opened the thread.

Regarding your question, I would say go for it, definitely. You never know what it could lead to, how about even being had teacher in years to come?

From experience, I retrained in my mid 40s as a Fraud Examiner and spent many happy work years thoroughly enjoying a job I wish I'd known existed for many years Prior.

Good look I hope you follow your dreams.

When you start, you will probably need to do some work at evenings/weekends. After teaching a few years, I was able to get everything done by working 10 hours a day (including through lunch), but I never took anything home with me. This does depend on the school- some schools have a much higher workload than others.

Having schools holidays off will be hugely beneficial to you as a parent, especially a single parent.

I also love the job- there a really shit parts, don't get me wrong, but I absolutely love working with children and feeling like I'm making a positive difference in the world. It's hard, and not for everyone, but it may well be for you! Good luck xxx

You don't have any choice about this. I find this self congratularly attitude a bit thick. It isn't a decision not to work at home, it is the luck of the draw, nothing to do with "efficiency". If you have a lucky job in a lucky school, it is possible, If not, it is a choice between working the hours you are told to work or resigning.

I have worked in about 10 schools. Hours per week range from 65-over 100, which meant working straight through the night several times a week for about 5 years. Current job I get everything done being onsite 7.30-5.30 ( ie, the entire time the premises are open) previous job I did not get everything done being on site 5am -6pm - again, the entire time the premises were open.

No change in my efficiency, different jobs, different schools, different managers.

The best clue is to look for how many other staff are parents ( in the second school I mentioned there, no mothers at all on the staff) however, schools can change very fast, and a school which is reasonable to work in can become a school with a management of slave drivers with the appointment of one new member ( and yes, I do consider it slavery if you habitually have no opportunity to sleep or stop for a meal)

Having said that, it does work out well with child care in the school holidays. Half terms won't always match up with your child's schools, not will the start or end of holidays, but you are likely to get at least 4 weeks the same in the summer, and 1 week at easter and Christmas.

I did it as a single Mum. If you are in a city, where you can easily leave a school that has become unreasonable to move to another, it is doable. If you are in a small town with only 3 local schools within reach, much harder

@Nevermay As I said in my previous post, the job differs wildly depending on your school, the marking policy, SLT etc. We do have a heavy marking policy compared to most schools. If I was in a different school who expected even more, there is no guarantee that I would be able to do this, but I think it’s important to show that teaching can (and honestly should) get to a point where you aren’t working for hours at home because this is often what is said online. Also, like, sorry but this is my experience? Just because it isn’t yours doesn’t mean it’s not correct. I stated the extra things I have not to “self congratulate” but to show that I’m not an ECT simply teaching and marking.

My post was intended to show the OP that it is possible to have a work life balance as a primary school teacher. I obviously should have said that OP will be working through the night, my bad!