Pros of teaching Primary please!

[Moomin]

Am currently secondary teacher so I know all the pros and cons but am seriously considering re-training. I've got some visits to my local primary in the offing and an informal talk with a primary teacher there who I know, but I'd like some views from other primary teachers too please.

sorry if these reasons are stupid but I've never considered primary before because of the following:

Long hours with same classes - no matter how crap a lesson/class is in secondary it is always over in an hour!
Needing to know far more than your specialist subject - how do you keep up?!
Literacy/numeracy hours - seems very prescriptive
Fussy little ones - I'm better since having kids myself but I reckon you need loads more patience in Primary compared with the relative independance of secondary kids
Being very accountable to parents - in secondary unless you have a pastoral role you are left pretty much to your own devices until the parents evening - I get the impression that in primary there is a lot of parental input, (the before and after school kind-of-thing).

Please don't judge me for any of the above, I'm just being honest! and do please feel free to contradict me, I'm very open to persuasion.

Hi Moomin as an x primary teacher I may not be the best person to answer but I think all your reasons for not doing primary are probably true and if any of them are real problems for you then it's worth bearing in mind.

Primary also has a great number of pluses - because you have the same kids day in day out you form very close bonds with them and if you are lucky the close links with parents is a plus. Also because there is a bit less timetable structure you are freer to continue activities for longer if they are going well or abandon them if they are disastrous and you have the chance to explore and discover things which catch the children's interest even if not prescribed by the NC.

Word of warning though - please do not teach primary because you think you will have more free time or less paperwork than secondary. It may be different sorts of paper work or stress but it is just as all-consuming and just as stressful as any secondary teacher's job!

no, was under no illusions that it would be 'easier'! the things that appeal are that i get the impression you can be a bit more creative in primary (maybe? but also aware of constraints of nat. curr.) and i think I'm getting a bit parochial and communal in my interests which seem to fit in more with working in a primary school.

bump for teachers now at home with glass of wine on the go

Hi Moomin, when I was at uni, I couldn't decide which PGCE to do. After spending time in both secondary and primary, I opted for primary.

The reasons you mention above do apply but these can also be seen as positives.

Having the same class means you get to see the whole child develop. If I had taught history or English at secondary I wouldn't get to see how amazing the SEN kid is art for example, I'd just see a kid who struggles with literacy. (this is an eg BTW)

You do need to know far more than your subject but IMO most of it is fun and good for your own general knowledge. It isn't that difficult and you'd be surprised how much you actually know about simple pneumatic systems and the everyday life of the Aztecs.
The literacy hour is very prescriptive and, IMHO, can be a little dull. If you're creative and try to bring in real life as much as possible (letter writing to actual people eg) then you can make it more interesting. The numeracy strat is less prescriptive and is really fab. Lots of games and board work and real interaction between the kids and their peers and with you.
The little ones are fussy. You get this more with the infants and it's for this reason that I teach juniors!
How involved the parents are really does depend on the school. You can use this to your advantage when you have school trips or need an extra pair of hands for something. I always make myself available after school as at primary age, things really need to be dealt with asap.

I have to say that if you don't enjoy the pastoral aspect of teaching then primary teaching isn't for you. For me, this is what it's all about. I love teaching them how to lead their own discussions, how to debate, how to research. Teaching Year3 children how to become more independent and seeing the difference between a Sept Y3 ask you if they can turn the page to a July Y3 taking themselves off to the library to find information from an encyclopaedia is great. Things like a school council is also so worthwhile. Also Christmas is an amazingly magical time in primary school.

I would say there is more room for creativity on the whole. If a lesson is going amazingly well and the kids are getting so much out of it then you can often just push things back or move them around. Also you can develop one theme in various lessons. For instance, if you're doing letter writing in literacy and tudors in history you could write letters between Elizabeth and Mary. Or bullet points in literacy could be put to use when recording in D&T.

Ok, I'm going to shut up now! Sorry this is so long and rambly
If you want to ask me anything else, feel free! (If I haven't put you off!)

gosh no homemama, this is exactly what i was after, thanks so much!

I think before I had kids the fussiness was a real issue - i remember complaining loudly to my head of year about my Y7 form when I first started teaching and she just laughed and said 'wait til you've got kids of your own, then you'll be a bit more patient with them'... and she was absolutely right! However, i do think that might be an issue with parents rather than the kids maybe - I'm a bit 'blokey' about problem-solving: a problem arises, i offer a solution and expect that to be the end of it! But i think that's got better too in the last few years. It's something I'll need to bear in mind.

I actually quite enjoy all the things you described about the social side of the pupils' learning and I love integrating a range of skills into my english lesson and schemes of work so that bit would be ok i think. I love the idea of the primary school being more about a little community - the christmas thing really got to me this year when i went to see dd1's nursery class in their joint production with the reception class [gulp back tears emoticon]

Do you know what I'd have to do to retrain? I've been told I can do primary supply with a secondary qualification so that's an opportunity to get some more experience which would be useful. My skills are in English, drama, media and i've also done ICT. I did theatre design at A level as well and I do a lot of the design & writing of our depts handbooks and guides. A colleague recently started in our dept staright from teaching primary and didn't have to retrain as such, she just did a lot of work herself and has done very well. I wonder how it works the other way round?

I don't think you technically need to retrain though I think doing some supply would help your cause.
You sound like you've got a good range of subjects and your ICT in particular will be popular. I have to say though that when supplying you don't get that sense of community in the same way you do with your own class. Don't let supply teaching put you off. Even if you've made a mistake, you can always go back.
You sound like you have really thought it through and that's good. If there's anything else I can help with, feel free to CAT me.
Let us know how you get on!

You don't need to retrain. I work at a primary school and one of the teachers trained in secondry, completed his NQT year and then went straight into Primary with no primary experience! It obviously depends on the Headteacher, who else applies for the job etc, but just thought I'd let you know that it's not always neccessary

thanks for that - that's v.interesting. application form for supply arrived this morning! Am leaning more and more to doing a term of supply in the autumn and seeing how that goes then maybe applying for a more permanent post this time next year. I think I've made my mind up that I won't go back to my current school next sept, which is a big step for me as i've worked there 9 years this year, but it's just too far away now - I need a change as well.

Now i just need to work out when to hand my notice in. School could do with it asap so they can recruit for sept, but I also think maybe i should keep my options open? not sure what to do just yet so i'll perhaps sit tight.

Moomin,

Can you apply for a term's sabbatical (sp?) from your school and then maybe use that to try supply at primary level? Keeps your options open and may (should) be seen as a positive extra experience by the secondary school if you do decide to stick with them after trying primary.

like your name slackpuppy!

staying at my present school isn't much of an option for me at the moment. I work 20 miles away via the motorway and now I have 2 children I don't want to be dropping them at childminders' at the crack of dawn just so that I can sit on the bypass for 20 mins before I even get on the motorway! It used to be not so much of an issue but I really want to work closer to home. Dh has also started a new job 20 miles in the other direction after a job which was in our homw town and it just doesn't seem right for us both to be so far away from them on the days we work.

It seems like a big leap to hand in my notice without an actual job to go to, but I'm figuring that if I can do primary and secondary supply I'll be kept in fairly regular work(?) I think I need to maybe talk to the county council office that runs supply and suss out what it's like in our town. The supply is only a temporary measure, maybe one or two terms. I hope that once I've got some more primary experience I'll be able to make up my mind what sort of job to apply for permanently and then just start keeping my eyes open for opportunities. Am I being naive? I've always feared situations like this but I feel strangely enthused and excited about a possible change of direction Maybe I've still got to many pregnancy hormones floating round. They can send you into a bit of lunacy ime!

too not to you illiterate woman

Hi Moomin
I retrained in primary a couple of years ago after a decade or so as a secondary teacher. I did a locally run Return to Teaching course.
I felt thrown in at the deep end - as a secondary specialist I was teaching my degree subject and was very good at it and had grave doubts about my ability to teach across the curriculum (science is my non-area). The best thing I did was sit in with a fantastic classroom teacher - I gained confidence in my own ability and saw how important a great primary teacher can be.
I'm on yet another course right now - dyslexia specialism - due to surprise baby. My "yes" moment was on my course when I did supply at very short notice - I suddenly felt "I'm back - I can do this".
Down side? Makes me realise there are some poor teachers out there.

that's interesting swedishmum. another thing that encourages me is that my degree subject isn't actually in English - it's creative arts, so I have experience in drama, writing, literature, design, etc. After what homemam said earlier, it doesn't really worry me too much teaching outside of my 'confort zone' . I figure English is so creative anyway it gives me a head start.

homemama even! makes you sound like you're from ooop north

As indeed I am, Moomin!

Just had another thought. I'm not sure whereabouts in the country you are but if you're in an urban area with lots of LEAs close together you may find their half terms differ slightly in which case you could go in and observe whilst your on half term.

Have enjoyed reading this thread as I too have often wondered if I would like to teach Primary & have always enjoyed visiting Yr 6 pupils at our feeder Primary schools. But I do think I'd miss the banter that you get with teenagers. I'd miss their witticisms - or am I remembering too fondly not having been there since May!!!! Remind me of this when I go back!

biggest witticisms of the day for the pupils i teach would be
"and yer mom"
and
"that's so GAY that is"

ahh, fond memories....

Dontcha just love 'em!