Did anyone else regret training as a teacher?

[Wisdomtoothpain]

After my degree I did a PGCE, which i passed. In my first role I got put on an informal support plan so I quit before it was made formal.

Went to another school with horrendous expectations, an awful bully of a line manager who had several complaints made against her from other staff, very poor behaviour from pupils including threats and violence.

I put in all the hours as I was told it gets easier after the ECT, but I just couldn't pass it. So I left and now work in a low paid admin role, though I am applying for other things.

I regret ever becoming a teacher, I see my old schoolfriends and course mates and they're all doing really well, some people are head of department, some are band 7 or 8 NHS, basically all in senior roles.
I just feel like a joke, I wish id gone into another industry. Anyone else?

Look at the Life after teaching: Exit the classroom and thrive Facebook group. It now has 175000 members-things are very badly broken in education.

I went into teaching, wanting to do it from a very young age (lots of family members were teachers, I'd done work experience, volunteered etc etc). I loved it for the first 10/15 years-but around 2010 it started to get pretty awful. Since covid, it has become tenable. I am leaving now with nothing to go-I simply cannot do it to myself anymore.

Hi op - I totally empathise as you did not have the right schools to thrive. You could consider different types of schools eg special schools

The works not easy but it's meaningful and a new perspective for you to see if your skills match ? Smaller numbers with TA support.

I know what you mean, the outstanding school which was the HQ of the SCITT provider was where I took my second placement.

It was a passive aggressive hell. Thankfully the placement stopped after a month when my wife went into labour. Then, back to the original placement after paternity leave.

I don't know why nursing and teaching gets compared on MN. They aren't even similar in anyway. I think they are both tough fields.

I think nursing is worse and I would not recommend to train as a nurse. It's not in a good place it's short staffed as ever, more staff cutting and less agency available. The salary isn't exactly eye catching either. Its predominately 13 hour shifts.... don't do it.

There's plenty of other job sectors you could consider OP.

I was a teacher for nearly 30 years and loved it. I taught secondary in three major cities in the UK.

I think a lot depends on the school you are in as to how much you enjoy it and ‘fit in’ but also it can depend on your timetable that year or what your HoD is like or if someone leaves or is on the sick. I remember hating the first half term some years but then seemed to manage and find it fine again. I know a few people who had a dodgy first year or two finding their feet but then settled into the job. It’s not a job that suits everyone so if it’s not for you, I would accept it but don’t let it define you.

I don't know why nursing and teaching gets compared on MN. They aren't even similar in anyway.

On MN? Probably because they are the two most well-known and most highly populated public sector jobs dominated by women and are both known for being stressful, undervalued and underpaid. That's quite a few important similarities.

I went from failing in my first placement to outstanding. The only difference was I wasn’t being bullied horribly in the second placement(at least not during my placement)

In my first placement, my mentor was lovely- until I said I wouldn’t be staying in the area. They literally said they wouldn’t have bothered having me if they knew I wouldn’t stay. They would walk into my assessed lessons, ten minutes late, then fail me for not seeing a starter. I’d show them the lesson plan, tell them to talk to the TA/ other teacher. Nope: they didn’t see it so didn’t happen. How do you reason with that?

They once failed one lesson because I didn’t do group work with every table at the same time, with tables doing slightly different work for their levels, (this was after a previous lesson of being told by them to focus on one table each lesson). So, confused, I asked what would they do, and I was told it’s not their job to tell me that.

I nearly had a break down. I developed a horrendous UTI (literally peeing blood and still the school/ provider were unhappy I took a day off) because this manager refused to let me use the toilet during lessons (fair) but would have me on playground duty everyday. I don’t want to out myself too much- but due to the layout of the school, you couldn’t easily get the kids in and then run to the loo. I had a doctor in A and E tell me , after two lots of antibotics and still not fully better, that I needed to rest. They wanted me off for two weeks but I couldn’t. When I told my provider I was simply told “ another student has pneumonia and is still teaching. They haven’t asked for time off.” So I took one day.

The next placement I went to was brilliant. I got outstanding and I was offered a job there.
I was then bullied out by another teacher. After trying to do some supply, I just left.

i now have a chronic illness that means I can’t work and I seriously think the stress of those placements have added to it.

As you can see from what I’ve said, and others in this post, I wouldn’t be blaming the teachers in this situation.

I did supply for years (through choice cos I enjoyed being free from the toxic bullshit), that dried up with the rise of "cover supervisors" and then I had my own kids... and then I went back to uni, retrained and career switched and I do not regret getting the hell out at all.

You either suck it up, get your head down and do your damndest for those kids, or you make moves to get out cos the kids only get one run through the education system and a teacher who has decided they hate the job, hate the kids (notable mention for "not believing in SEN") and is doing as little as possible until retirement can seriously fuck up a LOT of futures. Yes I am still angry about DD2's essentially lost Y3 with one of those individuals.

No; I had a very wonderful 25 years with promotions, across 3 different institutions and only left due to redundancy. However, I did have a couple of staff that it didn’t work out for and no shame as long as everyone gave it their best. You’re well qualified; invest the time in seeing how to put them to good use. Good luck.

There's always something you could do better with everything though. You're never going to get anything perfect. I work in education in a senior role (not teaching) and have regular supervision. I'm constantly reflecting on what I could have done better. It doesn't mean you aren't doing a good job, just that you can always improve.

Yep. It was awful and never once regretted my decision to leave teaching. Think I did 5 years after training.

I am really sorry to hear you had this experience and it doesn’t sound like you were supported at all in your teacher training. From what you describe it sounds like your training was a while ago back when individual lesson gradings were a thing.

I was also suggesting the fault could lie with the training provider, not the OP. As I said all too often I have seen trainees given QTS who are not ready for a near full-time teaching timetable (it’s huge step up from PGCE) and passing them so soon just sets them up to fail the ECT years, when really they need longer than the year of training to gain QTS.

I trained nearly 17 years ago now (good god, that makes me feel old!) and I have no regrets. However, I have been lucky enough to only work in good, non toxic, supportive schools. This makes ALL the difference. I have two DC of my own now and think it would be a nightmare working full time (my kids would also be in wraparound care full time if this was the case), but I’m lucky enough to do 3 days. It’s an exhausting job, but I couldn’t imagine doing anything else!