To wonder why someone would want to be a secondary school teacher?

[Teateet]

Not judging anyone, despite the tittle, but I was wondering why people remain secondary school teachers.
Just finished an opening evening at a secondary school for prospective students and I left with the following thought: unless you adore teaching and view it as absolute vocation, being a secondary school teacher sucks.

The pay isn't fantastic, and very poor in London, for a graduate.
There is very little room to coast if you're have a rough day / week.
Breaks a prescribed, you cannot have a coffee / tea break when you feel like it
Dealing with teenagers, who have their own angst.
Dealing with abuse from students and parents.

I noticed that there alot of teachers 45 + and not much below.
i am assuming, the older ones got to the property ladder and are pretty secure financially.

It just seems like a tough gig.

I qualified and left within 2 years. It’s an impossible job. I loved the young people but class sizes and classroom dynamics are all wrong. Workload is ridiculous. The only ones sticking it out are those who can’t leave, or who love self-punishment.

I certainly wouldn't want my dc to follow me into the profession

I noticed that there alot of teachers 45 + and not much below.

We've got the highest proportion of primary and secondary teachers under the age of 30 in the OECD. We have a very young teaching profession on average as a lot of female teachers quit in their mid thirties which coincides with motherhood. It's not a very family-friendly profession.

I really enjoy teaching, as in being in the classroom with the kids. It is very tiring and intense though, and I'm part time. I don't think I could have done it as long as I have if I were full time. Hats off to those who do.

I've done office work though, and that was boring as hell. Teaching is never boring.

I couldn't ever teacher, I'm sure the students would eat me for breakfast. I'm support staff and sometimes spend a small amount of time in the classroom with the teachers. I think they are amazing, some are much better at it then others (as in they can actually get the whole class to listen to the instructions and do the work) and sometimes it's the students that are the problem. Working in a core subject area we have all students and some just are not interested in the subject or very weak at it.

I do worry that most of our teachers are older and not long for retirement. Their aren't many young teachers and certainly not many good traning candidates. I can see in 10 years time we will have lost half the department to retirement and their will be no one to replace them. These teachers are still here as it it's worth them retraining into a different career, they are hanging on for their pensions. But there certainly aren't many younger teachers coming in or staying.

I'm a science technician, I will sometimes support practical work in the classroom. But try to hide in the preproom most of the time.

You’re not being unreasonable. Why do you think so many teachers are leaving the profession?

This (and others on here tonight) are such positive messages, they should quote from these in recruitment campaigns for Teaching

It's endlessly rewarding, interesting, and challenging on every level, emotionally, physically and intellectually, which more than makes up for the downsides.

I’m a secondary teacher.

in it’s day, it’s still the best job in the world…

it helps that I work in a good school and I adore the subject I teach!

Holidays, pension, good pay, easy entry into the profession.

It is all the positives people have said. However it's had a negative impact on my family life as I feel burnt out at the end of most days. My dc are sick of seeing me work at home. Is that balanced out by spending holidays with them? I'm not sure

Genuinely - amazing holidays. The pay is pretty good. Good pension. Not horrifically long hours. I regret not doing teaching. But I can see it’s a much much tougher job now than before.

54still fkn love it
Pay is not good,? but we we rely on my husband salary, which is awful I suppose.)

The kids are so funny, and also after you’ve been doing it as long as I have you leave a legacy - unlike many jobs -and kids remember you and thank you for things you did.

i’ve seen kids through some of the worst times you could imagine and some of the happiest and that makes the job worth doing.

Also the fact that I never had to put my kids in summer school or clubs and it’s really brilliant for family life.

Yep you’re right. I went part time so I can manage the workload. I teach a high marking subject.

Being in the classroom is great fun and young people keep me young but would I recommend teaching as a profession? Would I heck!

It was draining when I began 26 years ago - it’s absolutely exhausting now.

I fantasise about working in a bank!

To start with, the training money, then the pay is good (well, OK for a graduate profession). Then you see your non-teaching peers outearn you, but to retrain means going back to the beginning, salary wise, which most can't afford to do. So they stay.

I also think teachers become institutionalised, to be honest.

I'm still a teacher 15+ years in because I opted to teach in a private school where I avoid most behaviour problems that grind state school teachers down. It means I can go in, teach the subject I know best, work with engaged, interested teenagers, see them grow, flourish and shine. Then leave it, like I would any other job. Without that, I'd have been out years ago and probably earning tons more for less work.

I somewhat take offense at this. I'm nearly thirty years in and won't do anything else. I'm in a lovely school, the kids are great and I've been doing it long enough that planning now isn't much of a chore. I'm not staying because I'm scared or deluded. Plenty on here are telling you genuine reasons why they love it. I guess your friends were in tough schools perhaps? Or had a poor management team. Also there can be a sort of competitive "it's so awful" thing that people sort of expect you to say. If you find it comparatively easy or enjoyable you might just nod along.

The kids were great, loved teaching my subject.

I was forced out by poor SLT due to my age 45+ and being expensive.

Also standing up to management when they were being abusive twats probably didn't help either.

This entirely. Every word!

Thank you.

How will Labour recruit 6,500 new teachers?
And retain them…

Well hopefully by not being complete dicks to the teaching profession like the Tories were.

I’ve been in teaching for 15 years and love it.

I was lucky to progress relatively quickly (a lot of that comes down to being in the right place at the right time), so the pay is good, especially once you factor in the pension.

I think that keeps a lot of people who have fallen out of love with the profession feeling stuck in it. I still love it though, I love teaching my subject and working with teenagers. Every day is different and the kids are hilarious.

I’ve always promised myself I’ll stop when I’m not enjoying it anymore. Whether that’s to take a step down from senior leadership, go part time or to leave the profession entirely and do something else. I’ve you’re not enjoying it anymore it has a way of really wrecking people.

Agree!! Funny nobody ever describes financial services as a vocation

I discouraged my kids from thinking about teaching. As when you think of all the unpaid hours in the evenings / holidays they are probably on little more than the minimum wage. I personally wouldn’t want 6wks off either at once, it would mess up my routine too much! I like routine. Neither of my kids wanted to be a teacher anyway.

Partner of a teacher here. In my opinion, almost everything about it sounds awful, but she is hanging in there. Her current school (ofsted requires improvement) is slightly better than her old ofsted outstanding school where she had a breakdown and was off sick for 4 months due to an incompetent SLT trying to give her an unacceptable workload and bully her out. They eventually succeeded- unions involved and all got very nasty. At that point she nearly left the profession but decided to stick with it and found her current job.

Her new school is slightly better. She got a promotion last year is a head of department and probably works 12 hours a day most days and at least a day at the weekend, still has to deal with rubbish management, having to deal with members of the team not pulling their weight, micromanaging and bullying managers and SLT, challenging kids and parents etc, yet her salary has only increased by about £80 each month...

It dictates 90% of our lives, we can never do anything on evenings in the week because she's too tired/ has work to do, and if we do anything at the weekend, she is stressing about work and preoccupied. It dictates when we can go on holiday. Yes the pay and holidays are good, but for the amount of stress it's hard to see what the attraction to it is, and some of the behaviors from management/ SLT in schools would simply never happen in other lines of work, be viewed as totally unacceptable and probably illegal.

I wish she would try something else but we aren't in a financial position for her to do so at the moment. And she does love the kids, which I suppose makes it all worth it... Of our friends who are also teachers, a lot of them are very similar and put up with a lot of crap. Ultimately I feel it's a lifestyle choice and you either 'get it' or you don't...

Also there can be a sort of competitive "it's so awful" thing that people sort of expect you to say. If you find it comparatively easy or enjoyable you might just nod along.

Yes I think this happens a bit on Mumsnet to be honest.

I agree with PPs that it's refreshing to see so many happy teachers on this thread.

A family member is in financial services. Their bonus last year was more than my salary.