Becoming a primary school teacher

[ToysRus56]

Hiya, I'm considering becoming an early years/ primary school teacher. I have two children 6 and 8, so I'm conscious life is busy as it is. But I'm stuck in a corporate job I hate. Everyone seems to warn me off it.... What are people's views? Both good and bad welcome...

That makes all the difference.

I've been teaching for 26 years. Teaching has its pros and cons...
Cons-
It isn't easy. I work most nights, I work Sunday afternoon, I work before and after school, I work half my lunch break.

I've never been to my Y6 son's sports day, I missed his KS1 Nativity, I couldn't do drop off/pick up...

I go into school in the summer hols- my son dreaded it every year! But he got to know the care taker really well!

And obviously Ofsted!

Pros-
Holidays
Pay is good (although unions would disagree)
Incredibly rewarding
Two days are never the same

Only you can decide if it's for you. Go and volunteer in a school and see what you think.

If you want to prioritise your children over other people’s, don’t become a teacher. You’ll miss Christmas performances, sports day, anything lovely like waving your child off on a residential because you can’t take a days holiday / work flexitime.

You will spend more time with other people’s children than your own and no amount of holidays is worth that.

Teachers are their own worst enemy. Do not go along with ridiculous expectations and get your union involved if you are expected to work more than 40 hrs per week. I have worked as a teacher for many years and on the whole have loved most of it. It has enabled me to work abroad, work part time and do supply work to fit around having my family. Most of my headteachers have not been great but not too intrusive. I’m only now wanting to leave the profession and have 3 years to go. I can’t wait to have time to myself and my own interests in retirement. On the whole though it’s been a great job for me and can’t think of any other work I would have loved as much.

I was a marketing manager for 15 years before teaching, so I think I have seen both sides of the coin. Corporate jobs may not give you the same level of satisfaction, but they are a walk in the park in terms of workload, stress and stamina required.

Teaching has changed massively since Gove; congested curriculum, endless testing and budgets so tiny that even children with EHCPs often don't get additional support. It is brutal.

The advice given by several on here of getting a TA job first is excellent. You would learn so much. I did a PGCE and wished I had been a TA first as I would have been so much better prepared. So the benefit is two-fold; you have a good understanding of what happens in the classroom as well as getting more of a feel for if teaching is for you.

Although I am still teaching, I only do supply combined with my own tutoring clients. Supply is very poorly paid and you get so much disrespect from children, but it is extremely flexible and you don't have to get caught up in all the school politics and goverment hoops (as in jump through).

I moved from teaching (and school leadership) to the corporate world. My corporate job is vastly better, in every possible way.

If you have children, you will have NO time for them, you will be hugely underpaid, massively overworked and never feel like you are doing a good job.

I now do about 1/10 of what I used to in terms of workload, see my children, can go to performances and sports days, and never feel undervalued or overworked.

Don’t do it.

If you're happy to work 16 hour days, including weekends, yet your work still isn't done and you'll get grief for not doing it, even though you've prioritised everything that needed to be done first or you'd get grief from somewhere else, you're happy to deal with parents who are irate/disengaged/aggressive/precious, you are very good at behaviour management and differentiating, you don't mind potentially being kicked, punched, spat at, sworn at, tables thrown at you etc, and you don't mind working through your holidays because things need to be done and it's not just lesson prep, it's stuff like painting the classroom, repairing outdoor equipment, herding chickens, and much more, then sure! Go for it!

Very little of teaching now is actually teaching. It's mostly crowd control, paperwork, and keeping everyone safe, while being yelled at by SLT and the parents. Enjoy ☺️

Hi,

I was a primary teacher for 14 years but I left around 2015. I enjoyed it but I worked in SEND schools mostly and was a non classed based SENCO in mainstream. I think if you find a school where you are valued and an area of teaching you are passionate about it can work but I think things have got worse since I left!

I left due to my baby being diagnosed with a medical issue and I decided to start my own business teaching children's cooking classes. We now have franchises in different areas of the country and I absolutely love the freedom it gives me, being my own boss but still getting to work with children... all the good bits basically! You could perhaps look into doing something like this?

And being slated every time you turn the telly on/open a paper or look at the comments about teachers on social media.

According to a lot of people, we are all a bunch of part-time, lazy, Marxists who couldn't hack it in the real world, who are in it just to indoctrinate their kids (whilst in the same breath saying that schools should be open 10 hours a day to provide childcare for working parents!).

Stick to your corporate job and get a rewarding hobby or two instead!

Don't do it!

Teachers are leaving at alarming rates. Clue, it's not because they want a better paid job.

I was a primary sendco and retrained as a social worker and work with teens with additional needs now in preparation for adulthood.. still stressful but more flexible (do a 9 day fortnight can pick my kids up sometimes etc) been here 5 years wouldn't go back to school now x

Oh yes I forgot about all the hate. And the part where we're accused of being, "Woke", checking lunchboxes and throwing out anything unhealthy, teaching their children all about how to catch the gay, taking children to mosques but not to church, blah blah. Basically anything bigots can make up.

The pay is poor.

The hours are terrible, 7am-5pm and 8pm-10pm is a standard day, probably longer if you have meetings, and often at least one full day of work on the weekends.
The holidays are unpaid, but you're expected to use them for work.
There is no flexibility. You will not be permitted to have time off for your children's school events or sports days. You will not be permitted to take a day off for a family member's wedding. You might get a day off for a funeral, if it's a very close relative, but no guarantees.
You will be expected to put the wellbeing of other people's children before your own.
You will be expected to deal with the results of poor parenting, poverty and lack of SEN provision.
You will not get any thanks and will be blamed if you fail to solve the above problems.

Yes. But I am secondary trained and work in an independent through school. Small class sizes, kids who want to learn. My work at the primary end exempts me from exam work on the whole which makes life easier.

but…it is a thankless, difficult job with increasingly complex children who think they are owed your head on a stick. I wouldn’t advise doing it.

I’m an early years teacher in a school. I teach full time and I lead the department. I also trained late with 3 children - they were 2, 5 and 8 when I started training. Training was hard with kids but not impossible. Especially if you have a good support network.

I love my job. Genuinely.
It’s far harder than it should be due to budget constraints and a constantly changing political agenda. Workload is high and I do work far too many hours, but I’m happy with my salary, however, Mumsnet wouldn’t consider it high. Especially if you break it down hourly (which I don’t because it’s too depressing).

The rumours are true… your school holidays are generally commandeered by school work (even in Early Years) and when you aren’t working, you’ll generally feel guilty about not working. When you are, you’ll feel guilty about neglecting your own children during the holidays 😂. There’s a never ending todo list, and imposter syndrome is high.

But there are moments of joy every single day and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

If you go into it, do it with your eyes open. Volunteer in the type of setting you could see yourself working in, and research the right training course for you. I don’t regret doing it at all.

Haven't read the whole thread (sorry)

Secondary teacher here - I love teaching, being in the classroom, doing the teaching.

I think as a job it certainly has some huge challenges, including challenging students (and worse - parents!). There's a lot of work outside of actually teaching - prep, marking and admin. Some if this gets easier the more years you teach for (including dealing with both students and parents)

School holidays are a plus but the school day for teachers is obviously longer than for students so this means that managing school run for your own child is tricky, and having all annual leave set means no popping to sports day or school play for your child. But these are part of the nature of the job.

I think happiness in school depends largely on your team and senior leaders. My school has great management and I am part of a lovely team. Overall I enjoy teaching as a job very much

I'm an early years teacher and I absolutely love it. I'm tired and I work long days, but I properly love my job. My own kids have to go to breakfast club and after school club, which feels rough at times but we do get the majority of school holidays together. It's deffo not an easy job. You get paid basic hours eg. 8:30-3:30 but obviously planning, assessment, reports, setting up classroom and resources etc are usually mostly outside of this time.
I worked as TA first and loved that as well.
Fingers crossed you find your path! X

I enjoy it!
I retrained at 38 after running my own business. That was ten years ago. It’s had its up and downs. It was definitely hard hard work to start with but has eased as the years go by and my own children are a bit older. My youngest (of 5) is just about to finish year 6 and my 3 youngest all went to my own school. This meant I have never missed any of their school activities.
I know I’m lucky with my school though and I do hear a lot of horror stories. I work in a small rural school for context.

Absolute nightmare of a job full time with children. Lovely job (in the right school) part time. Wouldn’t go back to FT in a million years.

I was a secondary teacher but now a primary TA.
The stress of being the class teacher is immense, in secondary the focus was on exam grades; I taught for over 15 years and the first few years were fine, students underperforming were spoken to, asked what they were going to do to improve, parents supportive (generally). That changed over the years to what are you doing as a teacher. Kids wanting it handed to them on a plate. Parents complaining their child wasn't getting top marks, but blaming teachers rather than looking at their child's work and helping support them.

Being a TA is fab as you (sometimes) get the better parts of the job such as interacting with children. You also don't generally deal with the parents or have the admin to do.

I would note that TA roles are being cut however, and that some of the posters who have said they do enjoy teaching and are able to balance the job within reasonable hours are people who mention things like giving photocopying to TAs to do which not every one has (e.g. general TA roles have been cut and are therefore shared across a key stage and only in mornings where I work, therefore some classes have no one to help support with any jobs or with any children on certain days, so you couldn't necessarily rely on a TA doing tasks for you if they were urgent in case they were placed elsewhere that day).

Avoid avoid avoid. I’ll never get the time back with my own children that I spent doing ridiculous things because the senior leadership team said they needed to be done. ‘Interactive’ display boards. Lesson plans to the nearest five minutes. Stupid unattainable targets.

How about training in speech therapy?

It can be good but how much you enjoy the job and how much you can make it fit in with your family life depends hugely on who you work for. I’ve worked for. It can be an incredibly rewarding job and it can also be a stressful and unsupported job.

Long hours
you can have any time off term time no week day weddings, Christmas concert, sports day
you will spend your evenings and weekends marking/planing
lot of pressure

What about childminding?

DP was a primary school teacher for five years. He ended up hating it due to the many pressures and quit. He works on the railway now and is much happier.