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.

You have said yourself that many of the TAs used to be teachers but the workload and stress all became too much.

I will never go back to teaching (I was good too!)

I retrained as a teacher in my 30s. I struggled when I reached my 50s because of menopause. I can only speak for myself but maybe something to take into account on top of all the other comments

It does sound like it may be worth your trying although getting through the PGCE and ECT years will take you 3 years- maybe longer if part time.

I'm early forties and have been doing it since late 20s. It's a mental and physical job and in primary you have to be pretty good at managing a whole range of things, including being a subject lead which you are not paid for.

In terms of planning ideally we would use the same things every year and that happens to a certain extent but you always have to adapt it/rewrite due to a number of different reasons.

My school is currently in a very hard place with behaviour and we have had lots of changes of staff and Headteachers which means there is constant change.

I'm in KS1. One day this week, I was desperately trying to teach my lessons but I have two boys who tantrum quite regularly, we had 3 wet themselves throughout the day and a major safeguarding disclosure. That's on top of at least 10 children who need a lot of support with learning daily in every lesson. We also have speech and language targets for about 4 of them which we are expected to deliver as the S &L therapist only sees them termly. I also have a severely autistic child who has a one to one and needs extra support and planning.

Many parents expect the schools to give them lots of help with parenting and we also fill in forms for ADHD referrals etc.

That's some of the things you do on top of planning, teaching, marking, staff meetings, loads of paperwork, assessments, observations and inspections. I'm also an ECT mentor and we go through an online programme.

I do like my job but I also feel like I may have had more energy for other things if I were not teaching and doing work at home each week. I feel I have got good at juggling and luckily I don't feel like my children suffer too much. I did 3 days and currently do 4 but often do work on my day off to help my workload. I do feel envious of other sectors where people get a lot more benefits and less stress although I know there are many other stressful jobs too.

Hope that helps in some way and the best of luck. Maybe a HLTA would be good although you will have a lot of the expectations of a teacher without the extra pay. Less whole school stuff though.

Why not start the training anyway and see how it goes? You will be able to train part-time with some providers. It can be a very good job if you find the right school.

I always wondered why that was? I’m assuming private schools don’t bear the brunt of it so they might not realise how time consuming it is every single time the curriculum changes?

If you can afford the year’s training and don’t rely on the ECT income, why not go for it? If you don’t like it, you can do supply for up to 5 years without passing the two ECT years. I know I made a huge difference to many students’ lives in my 25 years as a teacher. My only regrets are that I lost out on precious time with my own DC (who was born 4 years after I qualified) and that towards the end I was burned out and couldn’t see a way out. It took a few years to find my exit route.

Private schools don’t have to follow the National Curriculum.

I think you should do it. You have a realistic and informed idea of what it would be like; you sound as if you’d be very good at it; you value it; we need more great teachers! You could always move to part time after a couple of years. I dropped to 0.8 of a timetable two years ago and it has transformed my life!

I left primary teaching 8 years ago at 49 after close to 30 years. Nothing could induce me to return. I still have panicky school dreams e.g. sudden inspection, never ending queue of children, trying to meet everyone's needs and impossible targets. There is never any down time, you can never be prepared enough even if you spend every waking moment planning because the minute you step in the classroom in the morning there will be a change. The workload is immense.
If you do go for it, don't look on it as a long term career. Give yourself 5 maybe 10 years. Have a social life now as it will be hard to have one once teaching!

I retired eight years ago. The OFSTED dreams haven't entirely stopped, but they're a lot less frequent at least!

I would suggest that your enjoyment relies heavily on where you train and where you work.

I trained a long time ago in two very difficult schools with one particularly nasty training teacher. Hated it.

Did my NQT year in a tricky place, which was marginally better than my training schools, and stayed there for several years. Finally left because I started to have panic attacks.

Moved to another school and stayed there for years. Colleagues had mental breakdowns. I was very miserable.

Decided to either leave teaching or try a completely different type of school.

So left state and moved into single sex independent school and I, for the for the first time, saw pleasure in teaching. It's still extremely pressurised, I'll start here until I retire.

I don't know if primary is better, but the workload and expectations are appalling in state secondary. Behaviour management, data, parents' demands, SLT standing on top of you so that their lights shine, the amount of personal time taken with the job, the sleepless nights and the anxiety dreams, the exhaustion, the misery. It really is awful.

I'm going to go against the grain... I love my job! I've been teaching nearly 20 years. Yes it's stressful and tiring, but it's also rewarding and varied and you get great holidays. Go for it!

Some more things about poor management
Those that say the right things but then put strategies in place that are the opposite of what they say or have teachers train in.
Have an "open door" policy but its always closed or if you go in tell you that you are wrong or that others don't mind.
On the same theme, management that doesn't like it when you ask for clarification or query their PoV.
Separates all the departments out into smaller cliques but talks about the school family.
Uses buzz words but doesn't explain them.
Has little or no control over their SLT.
Has clear favourites in the school workforce.

Has an a workforce of almost entirely young or new teachers.
The governors are entirely in the pocket of the headteacher.

My sister retrained as a teacher in her late 40s - she’s now at her second primary school. I think she’s a fantastic teacher - she does loads of extra stuff - writes and puts on plays, runs choirs and other music groups, leads musical assemblies etc

However, she has been constantly passed over for promotion - at her last school she didn’t even get an interview for a new arts lead position, even though she was already doing the job and the much younger teacher who got it asked her to carry on with all the extra stuff as otherwise there’d be no arts provision on which to lead… the amount of ageism and sexism she faced was crushing. On top of that the number of children with additional and very challenging needs makes the job difficult and wearing - I would think twice in your position.

If you're prone to burnout it's not the right career.

I'm not in education but the demands for the salary are ridiculous. There's a good reason there's a massive recruitment crisis despite the massive benefit of the annual summer holiday

Controversial, but I think the workload varies with your subject too.

For an example, an English teacher (not my subject, but I've seen what colleagues dealt with), has to teach full class sizes throughout - all abilities and SEND; two GCSEs; very heavy marking-load.

Other options subjects have smaller classes, only one GCSE, students who've opted-in to take it, significantly less marking-load. Their results are also not held up to the same scrutiny.

Really not sure if that in any way applies to primary though.

@MyPearlCrow You do seem to want to do it, which is a good starting point. I was a teacher for ten years, including SLT roles. I am glad that I did it, but I don’t regret giving up and wish that I had left a few years sooner, to actually have had some weekends before I had DC! I never, ever got the work done and only really felt ‘myself’ during the holidays.

Being a TA is a great way of getting familiar with working in schools but gives only a surface level insight into teaching. You are on the inside of the school, but also not on the inside of the teaching process, if you see what I mean.

I was a TA for a year before doing my PCGE and loved the role but, to be honest, it was a completely different job.

I suspect that your perceptions are skewed by working in your current school, which sounds very well organised and well resourced. Although many schools would frown upon using previous years’ plans to that degree, as it is supposed to be tailored to each cohort. But that’s by the by…

My two suggestions would be:

1. Arrange some shadowing at a different, socially contrasting school. But shadow the teacher’s entire day. Arrive at school as she arrives. Do break duty with her. Sit at the front of the class, not the back or the side of the room. Don’t go home until she goes home. Get the fullest possible picture of what her day’s work entails.

2. Make your way to your local FE college and register for City and Guilds Award in Education and Training (AET). This is a ten-session course that is Teaching 101 for people wanting to teach in FE. It takes you through the basics of pedagogy, culminates in you planning and teaching a session and is a great way to find out if you actually enjoy teaching.

It depends how good you would be as a newly qualified teacher at just saying NO! No, I can’t do that as I’ve just worked a 9 hour day without a break. No, I won’t do that as it is of no benefit whatsoever to the kids. No, I’m not doing that as it makes no sense.
I find it way easier to do the above and to justify my reasons, but struggled when I was younger/newer to teaching.

I did aged 52 -10 years ago. The training is rubbish if you are used to a professional environment but I did the PGCE and after a couple of years fully teaching ins variety of state schools then taught in an indie secondary until December. Really enjoyed the classroom and planning but the bureaucracy is ridiculous and people in education management are very amateurish.
I’m glad I did it -as an older person you don’t sweat the small stuff as much and behaviour management is much more effective if you have had your own children. I so loved being around young people -laughed more in that job than any other.

You'll never see them(?).... apart from during the many and lengthy school holidays!

I do appreciate it's hard missing sports day etc but many working parents can't attend these events

Sorry should say though that I wouldn’t do primary as the marking demands are ridiculous.

A lot of the negative comments you see on here are from people who did it straight from uni and have never done another job. If you have been in a high pressure career before it is much easier to manage the workload and to recognise and push back on poor management

A lot of teachers on here have had previous careers, so this isn't entirely correct.

I was in banking before becoming a teacher. Went on maternity leave and realised that it wasn't conducive to being a parent.

I know what a high pressured job is and teaching is one with relatively low financial reward. Most state teachers earn below minimum wage, if they totted up the real hours worked.

Former teacher who is now a TA here.
It is the work load and expectations for why I left. As others have mentioned, you are often expected to have long term, mid term and short term plans. This may need to be in a parent friendly format in addition to your own detailed planning so the school can share the curriculum on their website. You then have meetings. These often tell you all what you do wrong, what needs changing (often the lessons and planning) so more time is then spent updating plans, redoing lessons and reinventing the wheel as teaching buzz words come back into fashion.
You also have regular break duties and might be unfortunate to have to deal with detentions for your faculty or class, so again lose out on more of your break. Following things up also takes time, behaviour has to be logged and recorded. You may have to organise the detention and/or phone home about this.
In secondary you have the pressure of exams. A lot of children no longer care, especially if not teaching a core subject, so they don't work hard and don't revise. This is obviously your fault though as a teacher. Expectations have changed from when I first started teaching and parents would be asking me what could they do to help their child, should they buy any particular revision book etc to parents blaming the teaching and asking how you are going to help little Johnny pass (as if you are able to sit the exam for them).

I now work as a primary TA. I can see the teachers have it tough. There are no longer TAs in every classroom for the whole day, and I can't imagine the responsibility of 30 or more children (lack of funds means many schools are going over this, my daughter's class has 33 in it) all with varying needs. This can be sen needs with EHCPs in place, to trying to actually get evidence to get EHCPs. You will also have children with individual education plans, safeguarding issues (as a TA you often record this but most is passed on then to the teacher). Primary parents are very demanding. Child might lose a jumper and parents will want them to find it that day. Jumper might not be named, but that's still the teachers problem. Parents message via different platforms.

Being a TA is like being a teacher without the negatives as you get to support the children without all the paperwork. If that is what you like doing then stuck with that. I do love working with children, hence still doing this role and being underpaid.