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.

@MyPearlCrow

I really have no idea what to do instead, which is part of the reason why I'm still there!!

I'm bloody good at my job & I genuinely enjoy teaching, but I often find myself standing in front of 30 kids, several of whom have significant SEN, some with mental health issues, half a dozen with extremely challenging negative behaviour & I just think, "Why am I doing this to myself?" ESPECIALLY when I'm paid literally pennies extra to do so.

I've considered adult education or tutoring but would need a teaching qualification for that & I just don't think I've got it in me to start that in my mid-fifties.

My friend was a teaching assistant and become a qualified teacher last year at the age of 48. She is literally on her knees with exhaustion and her blood pressure is through the roof. She counts the days to each school holiday even though she actually has to work a couple of days of each week she is off.

Poor leadership can be:
micromanaging
excessive paperwork
lack of trust in staff
excessive reliance on data
lack of clear vision and how to achieve it
rigid adherence to a 'system'
over use of 'learning walks' book scrutinies, lesson observations, data trawls, planning
lack of clear focus so change/adopt every new idea but never give time to embed/see results
be punitive rather than supportive

A previous (new) head instigated an assessment week every half term so he could track data then was suprised when pupil progress stopped rising as quickly.
Could not see that removing six weeks from teaching (one sixth of the year) for assessment/ monitoring would affect the amount we could teach.
You don't fatten a pig by weighing it as my Granny would say.
He had nice files to show the Governing Body though.

The point is that all this meticulous planning is done by teachers, and it’s impossible to do in the 2 hours a week given for planning, preparation and assessment (PPA). So it’s done at the weekends or during the school holidays. Each time there is a curriculum change, the planning has to be redone. Added to this is the need to differentiate planning for the individual children in the class, SEN, Pupil Premium, more able, EHCPs. Daily. Weekly.

That would have cut me like a knife, I’m so sorry.
My DC came to school with me, due to logistics.
It was lovely tbh, and I don’t think I ever missed out on anything.
Well, I did once miss a concert in high school due to Parents’ Evening, but I’d been to all the others and my DH and mum and dad went.

Just to say I did this at age 52. I retrained as a secondary school maths teacher. I really enjoyed my 10 years teaching and am so glad I did it.

I did end up working in a small private school though which probably helped.

I have to say while I don't think teaching is an easy job, I do think some long term teachers have no idea how hard industry jobs can be. In my previous job, I was reviewed every week and had to account for all my actions. Redundancies were always looming. It was tough.

An unexpected downside of teaching was how inflexible it is. It is difficult to go to your own children's sports day etc. However while the days are intense, you are never more than 6 weeks away from the next holiday.

I'd say go for it.

In answer to your question about leadership in schools OP, I saw quite a few individuals in SLT roles who were probably pretty inadequate and wouldn't have been highly regarded in business but used the school like a small pond to asset their authority. There were some (not all) SLT who were bullies towards kids and staff. There's something about the hierarchy of traditional schools that lends itself to dictators!

Definitely scrutinise the leadership - be bold and ask the Head about their values in an interview. I didn't do this enough as a younger less confident person, but I definitely would now.

The best Heads I worked with had little ego and would have been happy to share their values - and their values chimed with mine. I taught English and Drama and once worked for a Head who hated Shakespeare and clearly hated creativity - no surprises the school and role were awful. The worst Heads were narcissists who would be incensed at even being asked a question in an interview!

What matters to them, what do they genuinely care about? Is it their career, results, the school's image, quiet corridors? If so this is a red flag. Does your work, your specialism and your passion align with theirs? The head's approach will shape the culture of the school. You can navigate an egocentric middle leader as long as you've got the Head in your corner, ime.

You start with child centred education, start with where the child is and move them on, celebrating their achievements.

The best heads put the children at the centre of everything and they see them as a whole. They support the school, family and community and because of this are supported back.

I hear you. Thank you for being so honest. It sounds awful when you spell it out like that.

Is teachers v leaders quite us and them in general?

I think it heavily depends on the kind of school you end up in. For example my daughter goes to a very small infants school, there is 3 classes (reception, year 1 and year 2) and the biggest class only has 20 kids. There is at least one TA in each class, DD is in reception and they have two. Each teacher has been there for 15 years + and they genuinely seem to enjoy their jobs. I suppose it helps that they teach the same year group each year so they already have tons of planning from the previous years which just needs tweaking every now and again. If you can get in to a school like that it would be great, but I think they're hard to come by.

DH retrained as a teacher after a city career 10 years ago. He's secondary. While it's far from a perfect job, for him it was absolutely the right choice. Very anecdotally, the career changer teachers he knows are all happier than those who have done it since graduation. I do think some of the posts here understate some of the advantages - e.g. 'you won't get more time with your own children except in the holidays' - that is a huge except. I don't think you quite appreciate how huge if you've not worked a job with a standard leave pattern with school-aged children. How much flexibility does your partner have? For us, one teacher and one non-teacher is so ideal - we accept that DH cannot do any daytime school stuff, so has never seen a nativity etc., but I can use a ton of annual leave to have half days for all that stuff because, unlike every other working parent I know, I'm not desperately saving all my leave for the school holidays because we'll have to find childcare if I don't.

I think it depends on the school. I had some very supportive leaders and some who were obsessed with Ofsted, data, and attendance.

Our neighbour worked as a TA for quite some years, then decided she'd train as a primary teacher. The difference to her life was astonishing - she told us (both former teachers) that she rued the day she'd done it, because she absolutely hated it. She said she'd no idea how different - how hard - it was going to be.

The thing she found brutal was how much of her time outside the classroom was taken up with planning, preparation and especially marking.

My only just 5 year old granddaughter told me that she wanted to do an activity with her teacher auntie. I suggested she asked her. "But she's always working" was her reply.

And she is. When we suggest getting together at a weekend or having a couple of days away together in the holidays, my daughter (the auntie), who loves to do those things, always has to try to find time around all the work she needs to do. And even DGD had picked up on it

Have you thought about mentoring in a school? I did this for a few years and it was more rewarding than being a teacher. You work with children in small groups or 1:1 to help with social and emotional barriers to leaning.
You have more autonomy and the pay was better than a TA.

I think you should go for it. It might not work out but if you don't try you won't know.

I am not a teacher but am the mother of someone in her third year of teaching (secondary) as well as having a sister and a number of friends who teach.

I rarely see anything positive on Mumsnet about teaching. Yet my daughter loves it - as does her boyfriend who teaches at the same school. I think they have been lucky with their school as I think the quality of the local management makes a huge difference and theirs seems excellent. But even so, theirs cannot be the only happy and well-run school in England!

I know someone who did it at exactly the same age and is now a teacher. She regrets it enormously.

“I just take the TA role, qualify up as much as I can in TA courses”

Don't spend any money on TA courses.
You already have a degree.

Perhaps you could look for pastoral work in secondary schools. There are opportunities to move further up the salary ladder but you aren’t as bogged down with the marking/ paperwork as with teaching.

The older students on my PGCE course struggled and also struggled to find a job. That’s a really small sample though, I suppose.

Not if you teach in a school like the last one I was in.

Lots of schools don't like strong mature voices from the inside. Lots of mature teachers are managed out.

my friend is a TA for the same reasons you mention in your post. however he has a good lifestyle because he works part time and does a job that has meaning and purpose, but earns the same amount from dividends from his investments. if you don't need the money then being a TA is likely a better option for you.

Yep. After my DH'S death (I was 55) my return to work heralded a whole lot of questions about whether I was thinking about retiring now. Both from the youngsters who wanted to get promoted to my management role, and from SLT looking forward to saving money on a relatively expensive teacher and employing a cheap newly qualified one.

Crazy idea in my view. I tried it in my late 40s but left half way through PGCE as it really wasn't for me - both my personality and also seeing the misery of everyone trying to do the job. A friend who was BRILLIANTLY suitable for teaching, absolutely wonderful gift with kids and super organised, also starting in her late 40s/early 50s, quickly got bullied out by management. Perhaps she thought, like you, that a confident older voice might be able to improve things? There's also the worry that you'll find it very hard to get a part-time starter job - everyone wants them so the competition is very high. And has menopause hit yet? If not, get ready for some fun! Your energy levels may drop off a cliff just when you need to have more energy than you've ever had before.