To think Primary School Teacher could be a great job?

[greyskiesandcarpet]

I hear so many negative things about teaching nowadays, but I wonder how bad primary teaching is, in comparison to any other demanding corporate job? This isn't me washing over the fact that some of the job must be really tough, but I want to hear some positive stories. I know a couple of people that couldn't deal with the stress of corporate life, but have excelled in teaching.

please can you highlight where I said teaching is the only stressful job?

fwiw yes i have worked in a call centre. Hated it. But this thread is not about call centres. I was just replying to a poster who said that teachers should try having an audit instead of ofsted and that their clients are worse than the pupils.

So the correct response to this. As per the 'response to teachers handbook' that some on here use is >

If you don't like it leave.

I didn't say you said that teaching is the only stressful job.

My point is that teachers on mumsnet (look at the many threads) always go on about how stressful their job is.

And they seem to have little empathy, insight and awareness that other people also have stressful jobs.

It really is the best and the worst. Being in the classroom is golden and the best feeling when you can see your groundwork and preparation making a real difference to someone's learning.

After three decades in various roles in education, currently teaching primary (again) I'm finally considering my options.

I can hands down say that I know more about and spend more time on the minutiae of scores of other people's kids' lives than I do my own two DC. It's been like it forever.

This weekend, I'm all blocked out: all school related. Online CPD, online meetings with other colleagues to plan new units of work, preparing to renew classroom displays, data-crunching, submitting assessment data, labelling new sets of books, generating individualised targets and reviewing bespoke provision for SEN pupils. Plus preparing for two lesson observations next week and subsequent book-looks, and performance management review. And acknowledging and responding to the ever-mounting correspondence.

It's not an anomaly; most weekends are like this and we're not even an 'Outstanding' school, just a normal primary.

What's tipped me over the edge is talking to former colleagues who have left teaching who say they don't even miss the holidays because they have their evenings and weekends back, and over the course of a year, this more than makes up for it.

I've had two brilliant TAs in the last two years who both joined us with a view to becoming teachers but who have now back-pedalled and bowed out; they can see it's a trap. The cosh which perpetually hangs over our heads is: "but it's for the children" ‐spend your break quick-firing phonics at target pupils, teach playground games at lunchtime, run targeted interventions before the start of the school day, so many small encroachments on personal time because you can't argue with "it's for the children" in the education sector without being considered an absolute ogre.

I did leave. I don't work there anymore.

I'm talking about one of my previous jobs.

I love teaching! The interactions with the children are (mostly) fab!

But I hate my job. I hate the admin. The data. The paperwork. The behaviour management reporting. It's not family friendly. It has long hours. I have to meet data targets (aka get children to achieve ridiculous expectations given their age). The 5h1t from parents. The never being good enough. The observations. The lack of respect from some children, reiterated by their parents. The language that comes out of he childrens mouths these days. The expectation that we'll potty train/teach them how to brush their teeth/tie their shoes/put their coats and jumpers on/etc etc, in addition to the curriculum. I hate testing small children, YR baseline, Y1 phonics screening, Y2 SATS, Y4 timetables, Y6 SATS. The pressure on them and me. I hate telling parents their child hasn't met the expectations. I hate the current teaching fad which we must spend hours pouring over in meetings and twilights and INSETS just to be dropped the following year in favour and a new fad. I hate the change of language that makes the world of difference e.g. differentiation to adaptation when actually it's the same thing. I hate the class sizes, I hate that I can't nurture my charges as much as I'd like individually. I hate that my TA gets pulled left right and centre so that I don't have the support we need in our class. I hate that there isn't the money to buy new resources or to replace the broken ones we have. I hate the lack of glue sticks and the expectations that everything is still stuck in books orderly. I hate not being able to pee when I need to.

I love teaching. I hate my job as a state schools primary teacher.

So why don't you leave?

People change careers a lot.

I just think it's a bit insensitive sometimes for people to bang on about how hard teaching is (and teachers do it a lot on mumsnet)

when

It's well paid.
Other people have much worse jobs

I saw on another thread a teacher saying "I want to leave teaching , but I don't want to take a paycut"

My favourite piece of training was the external training that said "if a child won't take their coat off, ignore it and tackle it later once they are engaged in the lesson".

I tried this only to have a member of the SLT come in and disrupt the lesson by trying to get the pupil to take the coat off, then pull me into a meeting about it to tell me off for following the training that they provide.

Some SLT could find their arse with an atlas.

So on threads where posters ask about the job you expect teachers to gloss over how stressful it is?

And it most cases it is brought up by other posters or goady fuckers who just want to cause a ruck.

And I could regale the OP for hours about how I enjoyed teaching and why, but it wouldn't be being honest about the job.

I also think its nasty that when anyone comes onto mumsnet, who expresses an interest in becoming a teacher, like the OP,

She is instantly told not to do it, that its awful, she is told that teaching is terrible by a multitude of posters.

Until she is scared off.

Let someone enter a career, if they want.

Yes of course you should "gloss over" the stressful parts.

Why scare someone when they want to start a career. There are good and bad things in all jobs. You shouldn't overload people with negative information.

It's nasty.

Someone just joined my large corporate company yesterday.

i didn't spend three hours telling her that the company is shit and awful.

I told her useful things.

IMO Its more "nasty" to gloss over the stressful parts when they take up the majority of the job.

Its telling that you would prefer to trap someone in a job than tell them the truth.

The child who tried to stab me was under 11. Quite frankly it was an awful lot more than distressing and painful. And he is still walking about our school because sadly, in Scotland, far too many people agree with you that he was only a child.

@Roundthemoon Teaching is not particularly well remunerated given the number of hours most teachers put in, and the fact that it is a profession requiring registration.

I would gladly take a considerable pay-cut if my hours could be capped at 40h/pw (currently legislated to be 32.5 hours / week). As is, I'm putting in somewhere between 50-60, falling asleep at my laptop most nights ‐my fitbit doesn't even register my sleep as actual 'sleep'‐ so for every two hours I work, I'm technically working another for free.

Because "...for the children", natch.

Routinely punch and kicked by students? Like everyday? I don’t know why anyone would teach if that’s the case.

Trap someone! Youre ridiculous. Lol. No job is a prison.

You are aware that people are free to leave a job at any time yes?

People can switch careers any time they want.

They can try primary teaching if they want. The OP wants to try it.

If they don't like it, they can leave.

My friend used to be a primary teacher, he now works in marketing.

Would you want to leave then? Genuine question.

My friend recently changed jobs from being a primary teacher to working in marketing.

I remember as a young teacher being guilt tripped into all the "For the children" nonsense and how I should "Show willing" etc etc

Now, there are virtually no staff who help out at fetes, coffee mornings and Christmas Fayres by giving up what little free time they had.

You brought up not wanting to take a pay cut

Most people that ask about teaching are doing A levels, so you would trap them in upto 4/5 yrs of uni debt. thus trapping them in to a job that, if you explain it to them, don't fully know about the job because you have glossed over the "stressful" bits.

I don't leave because I love teaching.

Most people? According to what source?

You can change most to some if you like. It was an attempt to not generalise.

Evidence for their lack of empathy for other jobs? I think that's just one of those things people make up infer from teachers' complaints about the state of the teaching profession atm. Are teachers saying 'Piss off nurses, social workers, retail assistants and carers. You have it much easier than us!'? I really don't think so.

Seriously - have you thought about why it is that you interpret 'My job is stressful' as 'No other jobs are stressful'? It's completely illogical. Teachers know that there are plenty of stressful jobs. We're not idiots. I can think of umpteen other jobs that would be very stressful. I don't post about them, because I don't have any experience of doing them.