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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Teaching OMG!

422 replies

LucilleBluth · 17/06/2025 07:46

I have been training to teach this year. I started my PGCE as a 43 year old in September 2024. I’m about to finish it-well I say that. I’m feel like I’m hitting rock bottom with two weeks to go. I have worked in schools as support staff before so I wasn’t totally blind and I have good friends who are teachers, but oh my god, it is such hard work. The workload is insane-the kids are lovely but I’m dealing with so much extra stuff like SEN, EAL is off the charts, behaviour, kids without equipment and who can’t cope unless a lesson is chunked and scaffolded so much I may as well spoon feed it.

I don’t feel I can do it full time so I applied for a Cover Supervisor role-15 qualified teachers applied for a £21000 year job, I,didn't get it. What’s the point

Teacher pay needs doubling. I’ve been awake since 1am.

OP posts:
TheCurious0range · 17/06/2025 07:49

How did you not know this before retraining as a teacher in your 40s?! It's not a secret. I get new graduates begging either naive or just so optimistic they have the energy to do it. I work in criminal justice and we get trainees like you, how in a million years do you think these jobs are not hard work and massively stressful?!

birdling · 17/06/2025 07:51

I have said Yanbu, but not because I think we need more pay. It's the workload and the lack of support staff that is the issue.

GoBetween · 17/06/2025 07:55

It's not the pay. I wouldn't go back to teaching for any money.

tuffinmops · 17/06/2025 08:00

Teacher pay is fine. I took a paycut to switch careers and start at the bottom in a new field. The workload is the issue and the behaviour. That’s why I left.

Falingoth · 17/06/2025 08:01

I managed 12 years somehow, even though towards the end of my PGCE I wondered what the fuck I was doing.

It wrecked my mental health though. I'm in a much better place now I've left.

healthybychristmas · 17/06/2025 08:02

I agree with the previous poster. How did you not think of this beforehand!

xxxwd · 17/06/2025 08:03

I left after 15 years and think anyone going into the profession is mad. Things have changed hugely over the last decade.

aussiechick01 · 17/06/2025 08:07

This is the reason why I only teach PT - earn similar to cover supervisors but still able to continue to teach and feel like I’m contributing but have enough time at home to complete workload and spend time with family.

Dangermoo · 17/06/2025 08:08

There is plenty of cover teaching work going, through agencies. They are crying out for teachers.

User415373 · 17/06/2025 08:09

How did you not know this OP? So many people don't believe teachers when they say it's bloody awful.
To the posters saying the pay is fine, well technically it is but you have to account for the fact that many teachers are forced to work part time just so that they can manage their work load. In that sense their getting paid say two thirds of their salary for still working effectively full time.
This pisses me off so much in terms of new mothers and parents. Teachers are predominantly women of child bearing age and their careers (and bank balance) suffer because of this. I was a teacher for 10 years and after my first baby I could only manage 3 days a week. Now I'm in the civil service and had 2 kids under 3 when I started. I am able to work full time (because I need the money) and I still feel like I work less than when I taught 3 days, I see my kids more, I'm present with them when I'm off and I earn more than I would have done if I stayed in teaching even though I took a 10k pay cut.
Get out OP!

Zippidydoodah · 17/06/2025 08:10

Bless you. I think many people look at others teaching and think they could do it, but then they start training, and reality bites.

i am a new person since leaving teaching, and I don’t recommend it to ANYONE.

Dangermoo · 17/06/2025 08:13

The fact that I'm still inundated with jobs, even though I retired early, tells me that the profession is struggling to recruit. I bet it's the same for other retired teachers. There is a reason for that.
You will get some good stories, to counter the negative ones, I'm sure.

Zonder · 17/06/2025 08:16

How did you not know this OP? So many people don't believe teachers when they say it's bloody awful.

To pp asking the first sentence here, the second sentence nails it. Any thread on here about how hard teachers work is usually bombarded by people saying teachers think they're hard done by but everyone else works just as hard.

Whatwouldnanado · 17/06/2025 08:19

Dn has done primary Ed degree. PGCE colleagues do have extra struggles with not having experience in all the ‘other stuff’. The system needs a complete overhaul.

Cillaere · 17/06/2025 08:26

I was a teacher for 30 years, now in a different field. It wasn't a bad job years ago but, for various reasons, it is not a job I would want now. Good luck to anyone teaching now.

screwyou · 17/06/2025 08:39

Surely this isn't new is it? We see at least ten threads a week moaning about how hard teaching is and i am sure it is but blimey the level of moaning that goes on is something else.

awaynboilyurheid · 17/06/2025 08:40

Look at going in to further education look at teaching supported learning , or other areas . I found primary teaching so rigid and like you once I completed my PGCE it was not for me I had children, no support , and found further education a much better fit.

Pricelessadvice · 17/06/2025 08:43

Never in a million years would I step back in a classroom. I’m so glad I left when I did.

Beachcomber74 · 17/06/2025 08:43

Hang in there. PGCE is the worst pressure.
Once you get a job you’ll see it’s ok and really empowering being with teens. What subject?

Mumblechum0 · 17/06/2025 08:45

My DS is 30 now so I am decades out of date with what's happening in schools these days; what do teachers think is the reason it's so hard now?

I can understand why Covid massively affected the very youngest pupils who didn't get to go through the usual Reception/Year1 stuff, but this sounds much, much more widespread than that.

Is it that parents just don't get that involved with their kids, or are too involved, are there differences in age groups or social levels, what do ppl in the know think is the reason that a career in teaching sounds so bloody awful these days?

Miley23 · 17/06/2025 08:46

screwyou · 17/06/2025 08:39

Surely this isn't new is it? We see at least ten threads a week moaning about how hard teaching is and i am sure it is but blimey the level of moaning that goes on is something else.

Op mentions the SEN crisis. that is clearly something which has just got worse and worse over the past few years.

Sugargliderwombat · 17/06/2025 08:47

TheCurious0range · 17/06/2025 07:49

How did you not know this before retraining as a teacher in your 40s?! It's not a secret. I get new graduates begging either naive or just so optimistic they have the energy to do it. I work in criminal justice and we get trainees like you, how in a million years do you think these jobs are not hard work and massively stressful?!

What a kind, helpful, joy of a person you must be!

Solidarity, OP. It's hard but it does get easier as time goes on things do become second nature and things like SEN paperwork become much quicker for you to complete.

A preemptive well done to you!

QuantumLevelActions · 17/06/2025 08:47

It's not about pay.

I wouldn't go back to teaching for any salary.

It's the workload, behaviour, SEN, expectations, all the extras required etc etc.

CantStopMoving · 17/06/2025 08:47

Zonder · 17/06/2025 08:16

How did you not know this OP? So many people don't believe teachers when they say it's bloody awful.

To pp asking the first sentence here, the second sentence nails it. Any thread on here about how hard teachers work is usually bombarded by people saying teachers think they're hard done by but everyone else works just as hard.

I 100% believe it! I’m a perfect candidate for retraining at this point and I think I’d enjoy the day to day teaching element. I don’t want to do long hours though and deal with the behaviour and stress. So I wouldn’t even consider it. There are probably loads of people like me who would make good teachers but who don't want the other elements around it

HairyToity · 17/06/2025 08:49

Curious - why has it got so much worse in the last decade? What has been the shift?