Teachers and TAs!

[NeedYourOpinion]

Do you enjoy your job? Is it a massive mistake as a career move?

My point exactly. But there is always a friend or a friend of a friend that knows a teacher that only works office hours.

I do wonder why so many teachers are leaving AND why they are desperate to recruit more, given what a cushy little number it is! Because as the OP keeps saying, the pay is OK.

A was a TA before training for ordination. I did a lot of SEND stuff including the last 4 years doing 1:1 in a small mainstream primary school which I loved and after a bit of a rough ride in the job before that I absolutely flourished there. I do think a lot of it depends on the school, the leadership team and their culture and values.
As many have said the pay is not good.

No I'm not. I work in a small school where the SLT trust the professionals they have hired to their job without rigid policies about how often each book has to be seen or providing endless meaningless data. Kids come out of my class talking about what we covered. They have good recall and progress and my exam results are excellent. There is more than one right way to do it.

Oh she doesn’t lie - very honest friend. Also, absolutely no reason to lie! 😂Would be good to know the kind of ranges of what to expect. I know my son said her teacher was marking maths during geography so I guess there are ways to try and trim down time. I do really appreciate all the feedback though, positive and negative. I do wish there was a bit more positivity in here as that’s what’s making me nervous!

I love teaching. Every day is different. I’m secondary, couldn’t stomach one class for the whole year!! I love teaching most of my school, seeing them start as children & leave as young adults with an idea of who they are… it’s so rewarding. Been teaching 10 years, will quite happily stay in the career for a while longer yet. Need to move schools soon to experience other settings!
I couldn’t stand being in a job where every day is the same or where I’m stuck behind a PC all the time!

Who mentioned data?

Who mentioned policies or marking?
Not me.

You said you do little prep to teach lessons - photocopying…it gave a really false impression to someone considering joining.
Little to do in teaching but photocopying!

I work 4days as primary school teacher. It’s really hard. Behaviour management is becoming increasingly difficult. But the holidays are great. And the pension will be ok

Teacher 25 years in. Secondary. I’ve had a number of additional roles with responsibility but now in a full time just teaching role. 22 out of 25 periods a week. I like it because I like the school (area of high deprivation, lots of issues but fantastic staff and management). Yes teaching is hard and it’s certainly not the ‘family friendly’ role it can be made out to be but the key is I can’t stress enough how toxic some schools can be.

Anyone thinking of doing it needs to do work experience in a school - not just rely on comments from friends or strangers on the internet.
Some subjects have less planning and marking.
Some schools are easier than others.
When yiu have taught for many years, planning gets a lot easier.

Its been a long day, a very busy one. I've been doing lots of things simultaneously and haven't poured over posts forensically. Working out my lessons is actually the smallest part of my job these days. I've been doing it a long time, it is the same content most years with a minimum of tweaks and despite this, my classes are effective and the learning is great. I'm not going to get into an argument about it..I was offering my experience to the OP. Its fine if anyone else doesn't find it the same or doesn't think my teaching can possibly be good.

There’s a long answer but the short answer is, on balance, yes. I’m 15 years into a teaching career, secondary school, middle leader.

Is that a yes to enjoying your job, or to it being a career mistake for me? 😂

Started as a T.A.
Qualified to HLTA.
Did PGCE, Then English teacher at a huge high school for decades. Then Head of English. Loved it. Until I didn’t, due to new SLT imposing ridiculous targets. Working 10 hours a day, and most weekends. Realised that if you divided my working hours into my paid hours, I earned more previously as a T.A.

Good TAs are worth their weight in gold, undervalued and underpaid. There’s a reason newly qualified teachers are leaving in droves. Education in the UK is a shambles. I loved the kids, the teaching aspect. I hope I made a difference. It’s the hoops SLT set that breaks so many amazing teachers.

What do you mean by truly horrific? That’s extreme! You must have worked in the worst school in the country?

I was wondering how much tweaking needs to happen year on year. I mean my children are very different but if I were homeschooling them, I’d be repeating a lot of content for the younger one for example, even if tweaking or adapting pace? So would it be fair to say, you can repeat a lot year on year to become more efficient in time?

@Jk987 Not at all. It really is horrific for so many. Totally different now to when I started out 22 years ago - very often no respect from parents and relentless work loads. Huge demands from SEND pressures too which is forever increasing.
It may sound "minor", but things were often particularly bad when I was on my period because I was unable to visit the bathroom when I need to and would bleed through. That's not unusual.
Experienced teachers are frequently being
"managed out" simply because they are too expensive. I was regularly doing 12 hr plus days which was unsustainable with a young child of my own. The demands of the job now is breaking so many incredibly talented teachers - just look at the recruitment and retention crisis.
What is your experience in education?

TA is not good pay due to the pro-rata thing. All of our TAs also do lunchtime duties and before and after-school club too to boost their pay. And holiday clubs too.

I've been a teacher for nearly 30 years. It's a lot harder and more involved a job now than it was when I started. And lots of things determine how long you'll have to spend doing the job.

I've been at my school a long time, so know all the systems. And we have worked hard to lighten the load for things like marking and other paperwork.

I'm new to my yeargroup this year and teaching everything for the first time so often it's taking a lot longer to plan and prep resources. Next year will be quicker. We never teach everything one year the very same as the previous year, but a lot of things can be re-used.

Behaviour isn't horrific in my school, although occasionally we can have some very challenging pupils.

Tweaking from year to year really isn't the case, every child and every year group is different. Nevertheless, it is all the extras that take up the time, just planning and traching would be just about doable. Leading a subject (no extra pay), data collecting, inputting and analysing, marking, SEND MyPlans, Early Intervention Plans, Behaviour Plans, extra curricular 'voluntary' clubs after school, pupil progress reporting and monitoring, adapted materials for SEN/D children.

Also the meetings - termly meetings with all the MyPlan parents, parents evening, behaviour meetings, subject monitoring, cpd, safeguarding training, reporting and follow-up, ATS meetings, S&L meetings, social worker meetings...never ending!

Yesterday I was in school from 7:20 until 5:45, when the school closed. I did another hour in the evening and will then need to do a little over the weekend. In the holidays I always spend at least one day per week reviewing MyPlans, planning the next half term, timetabling etc.

Then there's the things TA's used to have time to help with, but now can't as they are so overloaded themselves with preparation and implementation of interventions and in class support for those with SEND. So printing, chopping up, photocopying, displays, laminating, certificates etc also all need to be done.

I actually do love it, I'm in the second ECT year and being with the children is amazing, but my pay is at the very lower end of your estimate and per hour is way less than I got previously as an HLTA because of the hours needed. Other, more experienced, teachers at my school work just as many hours, though obviously they do earn more.

It's a fantastic job and has been a really positive experience, but it is exhausting and takes over your life!

Forgot to mention parents, some are absolutely lovely, others make you want to quit on the spot and seem to relish doing so.

@Showmetomyslippers May I ask how old you are and if you have children of your own? I was once a keen 20-something new teacher but things naturally change, one has a family of their own etc.
How long do you feel working as much as you are is going to be sustainable for?

Yes I'm a mum in my thirties. I have to be honest I'm not sure, I love it but it's a lot.

@Showmetomyslippers I take my hat off to you! How on earth do you manage those hours with children of your own?
My eldest kids are now 18 and 16 and one of my biggest regrets is I was never the."present" mum I wish I could have been due to the hours I worked.
My youngest is 5 and now I'm not a teacher I get to enjoy her so much more (I'm a tutor now).

Don’t be a TA unless it suits your purposes for some particular reason. It is extremely low-paid, and extremely disrespected (not by teachers, but by the administration). You’re just exploited and squeezed more and more and more.
That’s my experience anyway.

I found teaching nigh on impossible with young children. I managed just about, on a .6 timetable and working in a PRU that taught academic subjects only in the mornings so I could spread the hours across the week and manage drop off/pick up around it. Went to .8 once they were early secondary and then ft once youngest was Y8. I’m 25 years in.
It’s safe money and pension but barely worth it. I had a serious kidney infection last term that resulted in hospitalisation as I wasn’t going to the loo enough. Behaviour is getting worse. Kids could not care less about school sanctions. Parents are often unsupportive. Huge rise in formal complaints since ChatGPT/Gemini can write the letters. I can manage (generally) but I don’t like seeing my colleagues struggling and it makes me so sad to see young staff who show huge promise and who I have helped train, leave.

I love teaching but must admit you have to find the right setting for you. I've worked in some shocking schools with poor senior leaders and ended up going off sick. Fortunately now I'm at an amazing setting and feel totally valued- good luck
I also trained whilst 3 dds were 6, 8 and 11 to no ill consequences.