To retrain as a teacher at (just turned) 50?

[MyPearlCrow]

Just that really. I was a solicitor/partner in a law firm for my first career but burned out /got bored and cynical, so gave it up. luckily we can afford for me not to work which I realise is such a privilege.

I volunteer in a primary school now several days a week and essentially do an unpaid TA role. Here, TAs here are essentially teachers without all the planning/prep/responsibility, as in they actively teach the curriculum to small groups of children. They are highly skilled.

I have considered being a TA. I have been offered a paid role at my current school. But I’m still considering my options and it’s desperately badly paid. And all the TAs here are technically over qualified (all degree educated, or ex teachers, but don’t want the ridiculous workload of a teacher; entry requirement for TA role in England is just passes in gcse English maths and science) but they are paid peanuts. But it’s such a rewarding role and I love it. I think I could really add value.

Complete honesty here: I also realise that I’m used to running the show, in my old job. I suspect that in time I would want to make my own decisions on how to deal with my class, rather than carry out someone else’s instructions. I can already see ways I would want change up the teaching/approach for some children who are struggling. I am acutely aware that teachers just don’t have time to individualise the curriculum for 30 kids though, so I’m aware I might be looking at this from the 6-8 kids I currently take responsibility for in lessons and the ability to do this with a whole class might be much more limited.

i really love being with kids, I value education, I’m a good ‘teacher’ - as in I love to explain things simply and differently to children (or in my old role, to adults too).

Teachers - am I mad? I know too well how hard the job is these days. The primary curriculum here is crazy complicated. The breadth of ability and need is jaw dropping. But I truly believe in state education being a passport to a better life and would love to be part of that.

or do I just take the TA role, qualify up as much as I can in TA courses and accept I’ll be minimum wage forever but trying to make a difference?

important point: I have kids, so want to work part time. And train part time too. I know there are options for this but it will be competitive (I have top grades academically which I think might help). If I do a part time pgce, could I do my first year as a newly qualified teacher part time or is that not an option?

I don’t underestimate what a massive, difficult, demanding and at times (currently) desperately frustrating role teaching is. Am I too old for such a huge challenge? I’d love some wisdom from teachers and ex teachers please.

I think @ThrallsWife's description's rather accurate; however, I got round those problems partially by choosing to work part time. Now that brings a bunch of other problems (schools are often not very nice to part timers plus there's the wage cut and pension reduction to consider) but my current school are decent.

I use my day "off" to get a bunch of marking done where necessary, go to the gym, and do those appointments and things that would otherwise clutter up holidays.

I did manage to do an online course a couple of years back (in something that interested me but isn't directly relevant to teaching).

I can only afford to do this as DH and I were well established when I career changed, owned our house, had savings etc.

My main worry is some kind of physical illness, as teaching is so demanding on the body.

I do feel a bit resentful that I'm paid part time to work full time hours (in termtime) whereas DH is paid full time to work fewer hours most weeks! And can do meetings from home if he wishes.

Oh and the thing with schools not being candid about their pay and conditions drives me BONKERS.

Some job packs have no relevant info in and even lie/mislead. And schools wonder why it's hard to recruit...

I was categorically not making a difference to social justice by working in the law.

just my own experience, but for one child, doing daily one to one drilling on basic maths concepts, for just a few months, his test scores have increased dramatically, from 5/50 to 20/50. He understand basic concepts better. He can see a fraction and understand what it means in terms of a real life proportion. His times tables have improved dramatically. He may never meet age related expectations but he is learning how to learn, a vital skill in itself. He is learning that someone has his back, that his school thinks he matters, that what he does in school will be seen and appreciated. Seeing his face when he got his most recent test score was one of the most moving things I’ve ever experienced. It was a team effort, but I was a part of making that difference. Tiny steps mean something.

i know I can’t change the world, or change family circumstances or poverty or the kind of awful shit thrown at some of these kids, but making those little differences does mean something. To them, to me, to society. I am both idealistic and realistic in equal measure - I know I can’t change the world but I feel like I want to go down trying.

@MyPearlCrow this thread will (has) swung back and forth between the do it and avoid it.

As per my comment above, please contact nowteach.org.uk the charity co-founded by Lucy Kellaway for people exactly in your position.

I’ve not read the whole thread so apologies if I’m repeating anything. I started work as TA 12 years ago with the plan to go into teaching after a couple of years. However, once in a school, I saw for myself just how time consuming teaching is. I didn’t mind the hard work, I’d come from a 70 hour week. But as I had three children of my own, I could foresee the impact it would have on them. My DH works long hours and we wanted one of us to be around for our own children.
As my children have got older, I have switched roles to a higher paid pastoral position. This meant a lot of extra training, mostly at my own expense. But it is incredibly rewarding. Perhaps this might be something for you to consider? I have a lot of control over the interventions that I do and the direction of my role so this might suit you. The Labour government have said that there will be a mental health practitioner in all schools so there should be scope here. I recommend looking at Place2be for more information. Disclaimer: this isn’t the route I took so I can’t recommend them personally.
Good luck and don’t underestimate the value of committed TA.

Haven't RTFT.

You will always get people with strong opinions on these threads, one way or another. For some reason teachers can be rather a defensive group. It is a hard job, it's tiring, but I don't believe it is dramatically harder than every other job out there in the way some teachers might suggest. I was a classroom teacher, albeit a long time ago, and I loved exactly what you love - those moments when something clicks for someone. I left teaching only to move into an adjacent profession which is all about the kids with SEND, and still spend half my working life in classrooms. The kids are still amazing, there is still joy in kids' progress. My DD has been on work experience this week and 4 year olds still find wonder in a strangely shaped stone or a shiny beetle, they still love stories.

To me I don't really see what you have to lose here. You train and get QTS, ok you have the year of training but it sounds like that will fly by with your experience. Then you give teaching a go, and if it doesn't work out you can drop down to HLTA. You just have a lot more flexibility and the chance of a lot more pay.

If for whatever reason I couldn't work in my current role I would go back into teaching in a heartbeat.

There's no doubt that teaching needs people like you, OP. Only you can find out if it's worth it for you. Also, to a certain extent schools just need an appropriate adult in the room (and often it's hard for them to even find or afford one of those). Of course you realise that you're not going to change the world, but you might find yourself frustrated by tye baseline (in staff quality, specialism and general standards) schools are willing to accept (because they have no choice).

I left teaching in 2019 after 26 years.

When I left I was working 2 days a week in a Year 1 class.

I would arrive at 7:10am and leave at 5:30pm and still not get everything done. There is always something else thrown at you by SLT.

There was NO autonomy where I worked, I never felt that I had time to get to know the children and the scrutiny was intense.

I left because the role had changed too much, for the worst.
How anyone was managing to do it full time is beyond me.

I now have a tutoring business which I adore...I get to teach without all the other stresses.
Financially, I make the same working 10 hours a week now as I did when I was working 2 days in a school.

This makes me think even more that being a TA is right for you or a tutor.

I had a class of 30 children every year with all ranges of ability and needs. I couldn’t dedicate the time needed to each individual child to make things click. I did my absolute best to but I just couldn’t. My brightest kids understood the concepts as I taught to the whole class and were able to get on with it. My children with the most need required constant support to do any of the activities. If they weren’t supported, their behaviour deteriorated through frustration and boredom. I shared a TA with the other class in my year group (when we had one) so guess who dipped out… Yep! The children in the middle who could get on with learning quietly but still needed support to help their understanding. I did my best for every child but it wasn’t enough. Splitting myself in 30 is not achievable or sustainable.

Hello, and thank you. Is your tutoring evenings and weekends and is it all privately paid?

Completely get this, and see it. We have the equivalent of at least a FT TA in each class where I am, I think because of amount of need/very challenging behaviour for all the reasons you state. I’m aware that I am spotting things and just running with them myself just because it’s clear that the lessons are going way over their heads. Luckily the teachers are embracing this and allowing me to work out how to teach at least basic concepts to these very needy kids. Sounds awful but they have nothing to lose, it’s either let me see what I can think up off the top of my head or do nothing as, for all the reasons you state, they cannot tailor the curriculum to each individual child and essentially these kids have been all but written off as impossible to teach.

I am all too aware that this would not be my role or possible as a teacher. I am bearing this in mind.

A pp suggested training (however I do that) as a teacher, trying it and if it doesn’t work for whatever reason dropping back to HLTA position. I think that’s quite attractive as a plan.

@cardibach

No, I don't think all teachers think it is the worst job in the world and I have a lot of sympathy for them. But I do have experience of multiple professions and I think that OP probably needs to weight the views of those who have had a second career in teaching higher than those who have only taught in terms of the comparative position. There are so many on the teaching threads that say "don't do it, it's the hardest job" which is because the job has got a lot worse over the last couple of decades and the rate of burnout is high, but that is true of many professions for different reasons. It's not exclusive to teaching.

By way of example of a typical city law firm, in an intake of 100 only about 5 will stay in that firm and more than half will not work in law by mid career. It's a job in which there would previously have been down times (used to be the case that you got trainees to walk documents across town and file in person etc), but where emails and online filings etc have totally changed things for the worse. I know many people who have had nervous breakdowns.

As an example, when I was working 80 hour weeks in law, I had a junior doctor join as a trainee. She coped with the hours and liked the extra money and would have been a great lawyer, but she found it utterly soulless and has gone back to medicine, where she has been really successful. She is a much happier doctor for knowing what she would sacrifice for more money and less life and death stress - basically, her conditions are awful, but she values the purpose. Ideally, her conditions would be much better. It's not a race to the bottom.

Teaching should not be like that - my teachers in the 90s had a radically better work life balance than my kids' teachers today. I do feel for teachers.

Only OP can say whether she is ready to go back into the frying pan. Whether it is a better or worse one for her, who can say. It will be a different frying pan.

I think that’s a great way of summing it up.

I think many, many jobs and careers are stressful, difficult, populated by people who want to leave, often public sector, often private sector, for varying reasons.

The 14 weeks school holidays is a massive point here. I know teachers work a lot of it, but so did I, and on half of that entitlement. I have talked to clients on a ski slope, settled cases on a beach, lost entire holidays to deals (I mean literally cancelled the holiday). I remember once being in a park with my two under 2 and having to manage them on the equipment with my phone tucked under my chin. I still remember the looks from other parents. Utterly normal to me and any other lawyer parents I know. I do think that for people who have done stressful jobs elsewhere, having double the theoretical time off could be a really relevant.

and I know that all of teachers’ time off isn’t paid but the pay is not the key issue for me, it is work life balance overall. And my experience of ‘balance’ is probably already skewed and, ironically, I think that could actually help in adjusting to the challenges of teaching.

I may be wrong. But I may be right and how great would that be if I were?

I left teaching 3 years ago and now work in an intense civil service role. I love my job and don’t feel burnt out because:

The people I work with are challenging (they are on Probation so this is to be expected). However, their behaviour is not blamed on me. We also have clear strategies for managing extreme behaviour that is supportive of staff.

There are realistic expectations of what I am able to accomplish with them - you can lead a horse to water and all that. In teaching, my pay increase one year was pivotal on all 30 children reaching age-related expectations. Not sure why they thought I could miraculously do that when the previous 5 (all very good) teachers hadn’t been able to.

I enjoy having 37 hours that I can work flexibly. Around my groups, my time is my own to manage and I’ve now had it agreed that I work Tuesday-Friday only but still paid full-time. This would not have been feasible in teaching.

My practice is my own. My strengths are celebrated and shared with the team in a way that they never were in teaching. My areas for development are not a stick to beat me with or threaten capabilities.

I have taken a dramatic drop in leave in terms of days off but a massive increase in terms of time off. My 3 day weekends are my own and I can use all of my annual leave for me and my family. This is freeing!

There are many unmanageable professions and teaching is just one of them. It doesn’t need to be a race to the bottom.

Go for it OP, our children need people like you, and if it gets too much, you can leave.

@MyPearlCrow

I work every weekday evening, usually between 3:45 and 6, which is 2 1 hour sessions with a 15 minute break in between.

Term time only except for 4 weeks of the summer holidays when I offer my students sessions as most of them are preparing for the Kent Test which takes place in mid September.

My other students are also Primary-aged children who want a boost in English, Maths or both.

I love it! It's on my terms so on the rare occasion that I need to cancel (for a meeting at DC's school eg) I can do so.

At 55, it feels great to be my own boss.

I don't think my DSis (PGCE trained but works as a HLTA) is unhappy with her choices and my overseas trained colleague who also choosing to be a HLTA instead of teaching (but 4 days per week) seems to derive genuine joy from supporting children who struggle.

The crucial point though: neither has a mortgage.

Being realistic about what you can achieve doesn’t help if school leadership aren’t - they then demand the impossible and manage you out if you don’t nearly kill your self trying to achieve it.

MyPearlCrow

How do you imagine a typical day, week, term, year would be like once you are a qualified teacher? I think this is a good starting point and then teachers can tell you if you expectations are close to reality.

I started out in accountancy. Didn’t stay long because I didn’t enjoy it, but I have worked in another field.
Ive seen Nobidy at any point say it’s the hardest job. Hard, yes. Relentless, yes. But I haven’t seen any teacher say it’s the hardest job. That accusation always comes though.
Why choose a frying pan at all if you don’t need to?

@cardibach

First post!

Yep. You're mad. Wouldn't do it again for a million pound a year.

We all went into it thinking we would make a difference. I can't think of any job I would rather do less and I mean any job.

And @cardibach yes, OP doesn't have to work, so she should weigh that in the balance. She doesn't have to be in a frying pan at all. But she might feel that it is worth it for the purpose it gives her. Idealistic, yes, but surely to be encouraged so long as she knows the downfalls?

I honestly don’t know. I am gaining insight from being in a school, but that’s the same as volunteering in a law firm for a while - you’d still have no idea what the job of a qualified solicitor actually entails in practice - in your firm, with your management, your personal skill set and your strengths and weaknesses - until you do it.

what I’m doing here is info gathering and it’s genuinely priceless.

Because if no one got in the pan, except in relation to pure financial need, no benevolence of any kind would ever occur. It’s a bit sad you’d even ask that question. Some of us are motivated by things other than money and I’m privileged to have to choice about what I do now, which is empowering.

I think that’s a really key point - most jobs can be gruelling in the knowledge that you have no choice about doing it, financially. As with most things in life, choice is liberating and can make an enormous difference to one’s view of something. If we feel compelled into something, it’s always going to grate. Those 50 per cent of teachers who want to leave are obviously struggling about what to do instead - something I completely understand and empathise with - or they would have left, and if there is nothing obvious to replace that role without retraining costs and hassle then continuing in a thankless, difficult, time-consuming, unrealistic role must be soul destroying. I do completely get that.