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 must be resilient to be a teacher. Those with low self esteem, people-pleasing tendencies, poor organisation, lack of boundaries and mental health struggles get taken advantage of and burnt out. (hence the posts saying they work 70 hour weeks). It’s not their fault, they just aren’t suited to it
Utter, utter, offensive bollocks.
I burnt out. Great to know you think I have low self esteem, poor organisation, lack of boundaries and general weakness of moral fibre. What a horrible, horrible thing to say.
You keep telling yourself that, but it makes you seem un utterly unpleasant person who shouldn’t be let within 100 metres of vulnerable young people.

Ps I'm a speech therapist working in schools in very deprived areas and also work in the CJS.

I'm not sure if it's particularly helpful though, as clearly there are hundreds of thousands of teachers, and not all of them are desperate to leave the profession.

I think it's important to find a school that's a good fit for you. I left the first school I worked at because I didn't really fit in with the department. I'm much happier in my current school.

Many of them are. A third of trainees leave within 5 years. 55% of current teachers are looking to leave the profession. It’s dire.

Well, sorry I offended you, but I’m being honest and I really do speak from experience - I burnt out too! Twice, in fact.

I will hold my hands up - I am a people pleaser. My Headteacher said jump and I would ask how high. I’ve done the 70 hour weeks. And my mental health and work life boundaries etc were ground to nothing. So I left. I wasn’t the only one, the year I left, three other teachers did too.

But while I couldn’t hack it, many other teachers remained. Some of my friends have been there for 20+ years by now. I had a career break and had a long time to reflect on what made the difference between me and my colleagues who had breakdowns, and those who stayed and actually seemed to enjoy the job. The answer is: They said no! They were not perfectionistic, they didn’t care what SLT thought of them. They left school at 4pm and cared not one jot who noticed or bitched about it. They let the storms blow around them and just focused on the children. They were, and still are, damn good teachers. They are not at risk of being sacked because quite frankly the school would collapse without them.

Since becoming an advisory teacher and visiting other schools, I see the same thing over and over again. I know I couldn’t do it myself, and I am honest with teachers about that. It’s not for everyone. My specialism is now hearing impairments.
It’s TOUGH out there. All that stuff about “moral fibre” is rubbish you put into my mouth. I never said that. I said you need resilience, top notch mental health, good organisation, self esteem and boundaries. Show me somebody who ticks all those boxes and I guarantee you they will not be flogging themselves to work a 70 hour week for peanuts.

I hung on for 31 years before burnout. I wasn’t ok though.
Then I did a further 4 years supply. Still wasn’t ok.
It’s not the people it destroys, it’s the system that’s crap.
Oh, and I tick all your ‘boxes’. That’s irrelevant though. If you’re a teacher and care you will flog yourself. And you shouldn’t have to be superhuman to survive. I also have a problem with an advisory teacher who couldn’t do the job better than I can.

I completely agree with you that the system is shocking. This shouldn’t be the reality. I hope you are in a better place now.

I’m retired. I’m less well off than I should be as I had to take an actuarial reduction on my pension. It’s all bollocks.

We’re all idealistic to begin with- nobody goes into teaching for the fast cars and glamorous lifestyle . Everyone thinks they will make a difference, and we keeping working in the best interests of our children even as the job destroys our own health, family time and sleep.

I’ve been a teacher and TA, and can categorically say that if you have your own children then being a TA will give you far more flexibility to do that, even if the pay is shit. If you’ve been offered a paid TA job I would do that first- it’ll open your eyes to a lot more than volunteering will.

Being more mature doesn’t give any more credibility; the colleagues who are not outspoken have probably been around long enough to realise that being outspoken makes no difference other than marking your card.

You asked about specific things teachers have to do on top of teaching- to do things on the list you might get 2.5 hours weekly PPA , plus maybe an hour if meeting time is given over to one of these tasks 3 or 4 times per term. You might get perhaps @4 hours per year for managing your subject

Safeguarding- reporting and recording any concerns through appropriate channels
Responding to pastoral or behaviour concerns, recording on the school’s internal system, passing information when needed and communicating with parents- likely to be daily for multiple children

Responding to messages from parents and dealing with issues raised
Find lost, often unlabelled items. You may be blessed with a child in the class who can identify unnamed items by smell.
Curriculum plans, to ensure the full curriculum is taught across all years
Medium plans to outline lesson overviews in each termly unit for every lesson
Plans for each individual lesson, outlining differentiation/ support for children with additional needs.
If you’re lucky, schools buy in planned schemes for some subjects.
Weekly plans, which have to be changed at the drop of a hat when SLT change assemblies or ask all classes to find time to do xyz
Organiding interventions for TAs to deliver, and preparing resources
Marking- could be over 120 books per day.
Marking assessments
Ticking off statements achieved on multiple individual tick sheets
Inputting data in to the progress management system
Analysing data
Reporting to your line manager regarding data
Leading a subject for no pay
Subject long-term plans
Action plans for your subject plus updates
Analysing data for your subject
Ordering resources and managing budget for your subject
Sorting out equipment for your subjects and tracking down missing items
Completing SEN profiles/ forms for assessments and EHCp requests and communicating with parents about these
Communication between separated parents
Creating homework tasks and printing/ adding to online system
Creating bespoke homework for children whose parents have declared that their child cannot do the standard homework
Communication with parents of offtrack children
Preparing reports for governors
Scheduling and carrying out parents evenings , plus accompanying communication with parents
Weekly staff meetings
Weekly team meetings
Book scrutiny
pupil surveys
staff surveys
bulk printing/ photocopying
seating plans and adjustments following parent requests
mentoring documentation / planning alongside student teachers

’Voluntary’PRA activities
’voluntary’ after school clubs

I'd wonder that you might be able to make more of a real difference for the small group you work with as a TA, even though the pay is obviously less

It depends. If you need to earn a certain wage then yes. If you don't then I wouldn't. I would carry on making a difference without taking on a stressful job where you have little time to work with children on an individual basis and where your hone life will be impacted.
I think if I was comfortably off I would work as a part time ta. It is v poorly paid but could be very rewarding in the right school. I understand what you mean about being in charge but in reality your decisions are very much driven by the school's policies and by the need to get through the curriculum.

I wouldn't recommend primary teaching to anyone at the moment which is sad as it used to be a fabulous job. I definitely wouldn't recommend it to someone who has already left one job due to burnout.

What finished me was not the actual 11-19 teaching - I remember some lovely lessons, and some lovely students too! - but the sheer unending grind of dealing with intransigent adolescents, angry with their mothers/boyfriends/the school/whatever, and just looking for any chance to be obnoxious and wreck a lesson. Most of these girls (aged 14-16) had realised that they weren't all that academically bright, and GCSEs were quite hard: so, sadly, they weren't going to get top grades however hard they worked. They were at that stage of adolescence where getting pregnant and having a dear little baybee of their own seemed like a splendid idea. If they survived till sixth form, which some did, they became nice civilised young women again. One or two even apologised for being such hard work in year 11!

Why not if you think you'll enjoy it and will find a job easily.

Assuming you would be doing a PGCE it's only a 9 month course and you could be working for at least another 10 years

TAs here are essentially teachers without all the planning/prep/responsibility

BUT that planning/prep and overall responsibility makes being a teacher a completely different role.

It's certainly not a job for perfectionists. It's a job that's never finished. Every lesson plan could be better. Every lesson more exciting. Every resource even better. There's never a point where you can say 'today's task is finished'. Work never closes.

I really wish I'd diverted my DD from going into teaching. She's incredibly hard working with perfectionist tendencies. And I just know she could be days away from burnout. Trying to persuade her to come out or do something on the evening or weekend, when she's planning, or planning to plan, is really hard. She always has something to do/improve..

Her sister also has a stressful job. But it ends when her shift does, and she doesn't need to think about it until the next one starts. I think that makes a massive difference, and that's another reason I'd recommend being a TA if money isn't a problem.

i have 2 friends who have gone from barrister/ lawyer to school teacher- not directly from one role to the other but I think it’s a fairly well trodden path for SAHM with high earning legal husbands they’d met at work in a previous life 😂

They like it, it’s hard work but nothing like law. Schools are mad and inefficient places which annoys them but they just sound it out I think

It’s incredibly family unfriendly in sone ways though. I doubt it’s that common despite your personal experience

Well probably not that common to have the dynamic of 2 legal professionals in the first place. They found it fine though they only wanted the holidays off, family wise.

Absolutely . Children need teachers who are in the job because they want to make a difference. Just make sure you aren't going into it completely unaware of what schools are like these days, @MyPearlCrow . I don't mean in any way to sound patronising,I hope I don't come across that way, apologies if I do. FWIW, you don't sound as if you are naive of the issues at all. Go for it! 50 is no age these days.

Not the point of thd thread - but can I ask if you were interviewed for the TA role at the school or were you just giveb the job on the basis of your volunteering?

I re-trained (not teaching though) and qualified in a new career at 40. It’s doable but at 50 would have no headspace or patience for re training into a new career - being in perimenopause has been challenging. I have some family members in teaching. Some are still teaching but one has recently left and said she will never go back to teaching as she found it so awful (she was a secondary school teacher) she said the extra hours expected of you for meetings, parents evenings then all the marking and lesson planning meant you in reality were working for a much lower rate of pay.
However you’ll never know if you don’t try it - good luck whatever you decide

I felt like you OP many years ago. I was a TA for ten years before training as a teacher. It broke my soul, it slowly wore me down until I cracked like so many others.
Teaching is nothing like being a TA. The pressure and responsibility are insane. Constantly being told your lessons aren’t good enough because they’re not ticking the stupid boxes. I missed out on so many things with my own kids because I couldn’t get the time off work. I would get ill regularly because they wouldn’t send sick kids home and then get punished for taking sick time. You also have no autonomy; you are told what to teach and how. They are a few of the reasons I left.
Teaching is a horrible job because the actual teaching is such a small part of the job.
I now tutor SEN kids and I love it.
Our system is broken and teachers are leaving in droves.

Go for it.

You have what it takes.

I have been in your shoes.... Didn't want a career after kids, I was a sahm for a long time, I don't need to work. I volunteered as a helper, then applied for a job as a TA. Having been a TA I LOVE not having the responsibility that a teacher does. Yes, I am paid pennies, but I did it for free before! People aren't TA's because of the money, so don't do it for the money. Being a teacher won't be worth the salary. And trust me, you will LOVE not having the pressure of monitoring pupil progress, being responsible for planning, liaising with unreasonable parents, marking, the list goes on... Being an LSA is great. You are your teachers helper as well as the children's helper, and it's so rewarding!