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'd say go for it, and seriously consider doing supply when you're qualified. It can lead to regular work in the same school/schools, so you get that feeling of knowing children and families well, but you can go home at the end of the day without the hours of planning and prep ahead of you. Also, early years education has a bit more freedom in my opinion, so do give that some thought as well. I taught full time for 15 years, part-time with a young family, few years out with moving and more babies, and am now doing supply and loving it. Good luck with whatever you choose!

I went into teaching with a similar mindset. The reality is very very different. You’re battling against very poor behaviour, disengagement, under staffed schools, increased demands, unrealistic parental expectations. Nothing ever feels good enough and it honestly does not feel like you’re making a difference. Whether we are or not, who knows! We only seem to find out bad feedback.

I would honestly think really really carefully about doing it. Schools are very difficult places to work at the moment. Let’s hope it improves but the current doom and gloom government are not filling me with much hope either!

You sound lovely and have great intentions but this side of it really wears you down and I wouldn't go into teaching with this as one of my main reasons. There is only so much we can do and what needs done is endless and relentless with new needy pupils every year and you can control nothing about their home environment. Have you considered social work ?

We all dreamed of revolutionising our classrooms, but then we were overworked, overburdened and even if we did have the energy, we were told by the old guard that this is the way it's always been done and newly qualified upstarts had no right to try to change it. And we'll be dropping in to do surprise observations more often now and nitpick until your lessons look identical to the one going in in the next classroom.

I retrained at 50 - 7 years ago. I was a IT manager then self employed project management consultant. I trained as a secondary school Computing/IT teacher.
To be honest it’s a rollercoaster. During my training on of my mentors was awful, at one point she stopped talking to me 🥴but I was fully supported by my training provider- I think being older helped me cope with that. The next placement was fantastic and was back on a high. My NQT year was bad, I couldn’t manage the workload, bad behaviour and everything else that’s goes with teaching so I nearly threw the towel in. I then had 4 years of really enjoying teaching- these are the times when I know I’ve made the right decision to change career.
Last year l had to implement a new course and behaviour throughout the school was extremely bad. I’m the only IT/Computing teacher so I felt overwhelmed and had a bit of breakdown. The school really supported me & I survived.
A year on I’m really enjoying it again, although I’m planning on retiring in 3 1/2 years.
I think older teachers with experience outside the classroom can provide a different perspective to students- go for it. What have you got to lose.

I loved teaching (Primary ), but I left because I calculated that I was earning less than £10 an hour , working on average 60 hours in a week. Furthermore, I would have barely spent any time with my own child if I had continued.
And yes, I became a teacher because I wanted to make a difference, however, all the paperwork and meetings etc meant that I barely had any real contact time with the 30 children in my class.

No, sorry, of course it wouldn't. There is no staving off of expectations. You have no control of the expectations. It is a job where it is literally impossible to do everything you're supposed to do, and to live up to the expectations. Part-time is more manageable, of course. But essentially part-timers usually go part time in order to only do what should be a full time workload instead of a way, way more than full time workload.

I've been a teacher for 30 years, but for over a decade when my kids were younger I did supply and bits of very part time teaching. I went back full time 3 years ago, age 50. The workload is brutal. I can only cope because my school is lovely with virtually no behaviour problems. Going back ft age 50 to a school with anything less than good behaviour would have definitely broken me.

I did it straight from university. I loved the first half of the 23 years I spent teaching. I then did another job for 15 years after I left teaching and I'm now self employed. I wouldn't advise people to go into teaching now and I wouldn't set foot in a classroom again.

It sounds like you have found a vocation, so no I don't think you'd be mad at all. Teaching really needs people who feel the way you do.

My friend was a teacher for 15 years, she was 42 when she started. She found it very stressful but found it much easier when she went part time as that meant she only worked full time hours rather than the 70 hours she was doing as a full timer.

Some really interesting pros and cons tabled here. I’m digesting it all.

i am concerned at the level of stress that might come with formal retraining. I left law to escape that. It would feel counterintuitive to plough back into another stressful career. I currently have part time hours of a handful of admittedly very challenging children. But I don’t have 25 others to think of or any of the other responsibilities so it might be easy to feel idealistic right now.

I think maybe I’ll take up the TA job for now, and see how that goes.

really appreciate all the honest responses, thank you.

Having to teach different abilities in the class
Parents thinking you are only teaching their child
Constant lesson observations where you feel so judged and pressurised because you cannot make single mistake

Behavioural issues
Large workloads with limited time
Constant assessments
Marking and planning that takes FOREVER
Very noisy and exhausting
Lots of admin
Managing student emotional issues (you end up really caring about the children and worry about them)
Keeping them motivated in challenging environments
Taking a lot of work home with you and working through the holidays

and all for a measly salary at the end of it.

These are just some I can remember at the top of my head.

Sorry this is a bit rushed but you get the jist...

In your situation go for it, you have your eyes open.
I did a part-time pgce when my DS was young, it was fine. You'll find the assignments easy. See if any local colleges or universities offer the course. I think you could manage a full time pgce if you have a supportive DP. It's full on but done in 1 year.

Just a thought, but you could do teach first or similar.
I know that it is not particularly well liked but you would get paid and you would get on the job training so would see early on as to whether it is for you.

There is a radio 4 series exactly on this topic.

Let me see if I can find it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04h53sc

I think you sound great OP and I can sense your frustration that nobody can make you understand why it'll be unimaginably hard ESPECIALLY for someone with such high aspirations for every pupil and for changing the system in your school as well.

Before you had children, did anyone try and explain what childbirth/newborns/never being truly free of worry as a parent ever again would be like? If so, did it make you understand? Or did you have to learn from experience? That's the closest analogy I can give.

I love my job (primary) but I've been in management and out of class for a good few years now. Still enjoy the times I spend with children the most though.

Our school is very well run and staff stay a long time because they're happy, so probably not the typical school these days. Increasing SEN children is a big issue (more of them and more severe SEN, with less and less funding to give them the support they need). Behaviour is mostly fine at my school but there are a few who take up a disproportionate amount of time - much as it ever was though, I'd say, and it goes in waves.

If you love teaching, it really helps deal with the pressure and stresses of the job, I've always thought that, and it's important too, to believe you can make a difference.

Sounds to me like it could work for you though I don't know how easy it is to get a job working part time. We have quite a few part timers but they are all people who have originally worked full time at the school, me included.

I taught for 15 years, consistently judged Outstanding by Ofsted amd wouldn't go back now if you paid me 10 times the salary.

I loved it, burnt out then hated it.

I started in primary and moved to secondary SEN seven years later. Primary is definitely higher workload in my experience. I only ever went back to do supply.

Don't. Not if you place any value on your mental health

My DH did it at 50 years old, 2 years ago after 25+ years in the city . PGCE and now nearly finished his ECT2. He is teaching secondary.

He loves it though says it is the hardest thing he has ever done.
Pros
He is putting something back/some value in what he does rather than chasing the money and making fat bonuses for bankers.
The kids - they are fabulous. Even the tough ones - they have a story.
The challenge, the buzz, the joy of teaching - of a kid getting it.

Cons
He is at a school where the dept head left suddenly just as he started - so he ended up resource-less. Or the resources available were not great/out of date. So he has spent hours/days/weeks/months/the last 18 months writing resources /planning for his subject Y7-13. This is a lot of work!
Marking at pinch points is hell. NEAs & Mocks
SLT - most at his school are a bit hit and miss. Interfere in some stuff, of totally invisible in others.

He is frequently exhausted. Frequently frustrated at the bureaucracy, annoyed at SLT, bangs his head in disbelief at some parents. Oh and earning about 20% of his old salary.... Rolled his eyes during the Uni sessions of his PGCE when the lecturers broke all the "teaching rules" whilst trying to teach them the "teaching rules".

But I have never seen him so fulfilled. So passionate. So engaged in what he spends his hours doing.

And yes, his industry experience is valuable.

He went through https://nowteach.org.uk/ and found them very supportive throughout the

@MyPearlCrow why don't you speak to them?

I think the worst thing was working yourself into the ground and never feeling appreciated by anyone!

Although it might be easier for the teachers this is actually poor practice and fortunately rarely done. A teacher should be teaching to meet the needs of the pupils in their class, another teacher can't do that. One needs to assess the pupils' understanding and then plan around that. You are teaching 30 individuals so at least should be trying to group their needs,it takes a lot of marking / assessment, data crunching, planning, delivering and then repeating the process. Then you have the constant demands from SLT, observations, Ofsted, learning walks, putting up displays, emails from parents, behaviour issues, possible safeguarding concerns and the associated paperwork, parent consultations, class assemblies to plan and deliver, possible after school clubs to run, evening performances/plays, The list goes on.
In your position and if money is not an issue, I'd train to be a TA and then spend the spare time with your family.

Advisory teacher here, left the primary classroom 5 years ago. My gut instinct reading your title was ‘don’t do it’ but now I have read your post I think ‘go for it’.

• You know what you’re letting yourself in for.
• You know what burnout is like and will spot the signs early.
• You’re intelligent and experienced and have a vision and ideas. The children need people like you. You sound like you won’t take any silly crap.
• You will probably cope better with any stress / silliness knowing the countdown clock to retirement has begun.

Good luck @MyPearlCrow I think you will be great.

It sounds like you are going into it with your eyes wide open as you have experience working in schools. You could always do your PGCE and if you found it too stressful teaching you could try day to day subbing or go back to being a TA (since you can afford these options). So much of it depends on the school you are in and the support you are given. I work in a lovely school in NI and enjoy my job. It can be very stressful & obviously hard work but I think we have a better work/life balance here from what I've read about teaching in England.