Would you train to be a teacher?

[Iwantacareerchange]

I'm currently working as a paediatric nurse (27yrs) but the NHS is now in such dire straights with serious lack of staff both nurses and doctors and equipment/medication that I and most of my colleagues now genuinely fear a child on our ward will die and we will loose our registration. Also the NHS is being broken down and privatised, lots of areas have been taken over by profit making companies this depresses me money is coming before the health needs of our children. I took a career break when my children were little and have a good class degree in area that apparently there is a serious significant teacher shortage and "Get into teaching" are always emailing me. Today I spoke to them and have arranged various visits to schools etc to see what I think.
So the 64 million $ question would you retrain as a secondary school teacher?

There is (understandably) a lot of negativity on here, but I know a lot of teachers who do actually enjoy their jobs. You sound passionate about it, so I think you should go for it.

First though, work out that you can afford to retrain and the drop in salary etc. Otherwise you be under even more pressure. Also, what if you don't like it? Say you manage your PGCE and start teaching, but drop out after a year or so. Would that be an option?

Obviously no one starts anything thinking they are going to drop out, but it's worth considering the implications. Would you be able to start over again or go back to the NHS?

Also, consider the schools in your area. The type of school you are at can make a massive difference to whether you like teaching or not. Consider whether you'd rather teach in a private or state school, a grammar school, middle school, sixth form college, large comp etc and check that there are actually several of that type in your vicinity!

Good luck with your decision.

Look, you're desperate and you DO need a change

but take a step back & think: to your patients parents, your workplace is the worst place on earth, they might think you do a great job, but your workplace is a horror to them, a nightmare, because their child is sick enough to be there, and the staff are doing unbareably horrific but necessary things to their child.. they cannot imagine anyone CHOSING to be there right now

Of course they'ld recommend teaching over that, they have a very different persective on it though

What is your subject? If you enjoy it is there another way you can use it if you don't want to look for a different nursing job?

Reading this thread I feel so sad for the teaching profession I am a qualified teacher but choose to work as a TA, it is crap money and I work hard when at school, but at the end of the day I walk away. No stress, no paperwork, no endless targets, no work in the holidays. I just couldn't go back to teaching and keep my sanity. Hats off to all of you still hanging on in there doing your very best amidst so much pressure.
And to answer your question OP, agree with everyone else. Don't do it.

I don't think my friends found the NVQ assessor/FE thing awful because it was hard work, I think it was more to do with the way the courses were organised and what they were teaching.
"Schools don't want teachers who busy themselves making it interesting"
Frankly this is what worries me the most and I think the main reason I have resisted teaching. A couple of years ago I discussed exactly this with a parent on my ward who was a head master and trying to persuade me to consider teaching as a career, he invited me to do a couple of days of observation at his school because he told me it wasn't like that. I never took him up on the offer as my own children were still at school, I'm interested that your saying that Yuck.

I'm a teacher. Yes, it is hard and stressful and all the things listed here but hand on heart I would not be being entirely honest if I claimed it is as hard and long as OP's job sounds! Yes I am stressed and tired all the time and never feel I have done enough, the targets are unreasonable and we buy a lot of our own resources because of huge cutbacks. But we do get generous holidays (I know we work through them but it's still more than nurses get) and I don't think I'm alone in saying I certainly DO get time to wee and eat lunch - and even make the odd cup of tea. And we're not with our clients for the whole time we are working like nurses are - and that's the exhausting part.

I have a close friend who is a doctor and honestly she sings the praises of nurses.

Teachers have a hard time, but OP has one of the few jobs that I do feel really IS harder than teaching and they get even less recognition!

OP go for it if you think you would love it. Good luck.

Some of my DDs most engaging interesting passionate teachers quit suddenly in the middle of terms sadly some of the duller ones are the ones who were heads of year in their school.. passion/enthusiams doesn't seem to be what succeeds. (not ALL heads of year were Dull, a couple stand out as really good.. but as a general observation of who has lasted and progressed..)

I think you should arrange some shadowing or volunteering before you dive in.. and then if you DO decide to still go for it, your shadowing will look good on your CV.. there's no rush to "get in" on the latest deadline - they're constantly recruiting for teachersa at the moment and that isn't going to change any time soon.

The fun, innovation and spontaneity has all but gone from teaching, there is no time for that nonsense!! there are targets to be met and progress to be made!!

Im afraid I think being an NQT in your 50s is a bonkers idea too.

I was a lawyer for 6 years and left to teach. I feel like many of these comments give you an extreme view of teaching. However, I work in a good comp with supportive SLT and each school's culture is totally different. I get in for work for 7.15 but leave at 4.30 most nights and don't do much more on weekends and evenings. It is utterly exhausting but fun and varied. ThAt said, I am looking to leave profession as the pay is totally demoralising and the job is so physically demanding that I would not want to be teaching in my 50's. If I remain in teaching though, so be it, as on the whole, I really enjoy it. I never clock watch and no day is ever the same. Comments about work load are true, I feel lucky in the school I am at.

I should add that the reason I still do it is the kids. I'm sure all teachers can relate to that. OP you clearly love kids too because you already chose to work with them.

im thinking of it, but only as a leg up into another career. no way would i want to be a teacher for more than a couple of years after all the stuff i hear here!!

Today I had a meeting with the family support worker at my dd's school as she is having some problems. These roles are not well paid but this could possibly be a good fit for you combining your nursing/NHS experitise but working in a school.

The woman I saw today works 2 days in one primary school and the other 3 in dd's school. She deals with social issues/SEN or disibilities/families in crisis/language support just to mention a few. So it is a very varied job where you can make a difference in children's and family life. Would this be something you'd consider?

I know a nurse who retrained as a teacher, she's now a nurse again :D

Lapin thank you for a different point of view. My intention would be to maintain my registration in the short term. I can afford the drop in salary, I live in a very affluent MC area, although up until 15 years ago I worked in the most deprived borough in London (I loved it). My children were privately educated, we have 6th form colleges, comps and SS grammars here, I currently have no strong views on any of this apart from, I know I don't want to do primary.
Youre partly right Yuck parents who are teachers suggest teaching to me as an alternative career because they are stressed and can't comprehend why anyone would want to work in such a stressful setting with such acutely unwell children. But they also comment on the ridulous way we're now being expected to work, they can see that so much of what we are trying to do has become so difficult, due to lack of staff/resources. They are the one who comment on our working patterns, ridiculously long shifts, erratic hours, lack of break etc. I guess they know we're making big decisions about their child with no food/drink on board.
Everything that's been written has been very helpful. I wonder what nurses would say if a teacher said they wanted to retrain as a nurse?

I'm glad I have QTS and teaching experience behind me. It means I can always get work above the minimum wage. However I burnt out after 12 years of teaching secondary English- I still teach but I teach adults part time and that is more than enough. I hope I will never have to go back to full time school teaching, but if I had to I could and it's good to know I can always get work. I loved the kids too and I miss it. But it's not enough.

Another teacher here.

Please, please go and get some experience before you retrain.
I love it and hate it in equal measure. If your not a sensitive soul, and you thrive under pressure than maybe teaching is for you. You will only know once you experience the reality of teaching now.
As someone else pointed out, the main problem with teaching is that you are constantly observed, scrutinised and often found to be lacking (even if your teaching is judged to be good or better). There is always an immense amount of pressure to hit unrealistic targets and the workload is phenomenal. Yes, you can take pee breaks but the work continues into your nights, through holidays. You constantly think about School; the next target you have to meet, the next box you have to tick.
So many of my teacher friends are having serious issues with their mental health at the moment.
Please go spend some time in a School OP xx

I'm doing a secondary pgce at the moment, I'm late 30s, a career changer and a single parent. There are people on my course in their 50s! It's hard work but I'm enjoying it. The school I'm at at the moment is lovely, just a normal mainstream secondary. People definitely have time to eat and pee! I stay til 5 most days so that I get as much done as I can before getting the DC and I'm usually the last one there in my department, though I'm sure people do take work home. The one thing I'd say is it's all consuming, so you have to love your subject and really want to be a teacher. But I enjoy it and I have met plenty of teachers who enjoy it too.

Thank you Marriageoftrueminds nurses do get little recognition, not that that bothers me that much. I can't really put into words what's wrong with our profession any more, but I do know something is very wrong. We feel we are increasingly the scapegoats when things go wrong, and we are having more and more "near misses". All the other professions I work with defend each other and ultimately cover for each other if mistakes are made but nurses don't this and then when an incident occurs those nurses involved take the blame. It's always been this way but now because of the huge pressures we're working under, lack of staff, lack of equipment, even lack of medication, lack of break time, etc this situation is becoming more acute significant and serious. We just feel like we're fire fighting all the time now. There are 25 000 nursing vacancies across the NHS and the prediction is that it will get worse.
great it's funny a few years ago I met a teacher who'd become a nurse and now has gone back to teaching. Sadly it appears the pasture is not greener elsewhere.
I have booked to do some observation days at a couple of local schools. I'm also attending a couple of career open mornings at two schools. Maybe I'll come back to my own job and think it's not that bad after all!

Thank you Thetruthfairy I don't think I'm a sensitive soul, although I care passionately about the children and families I look after and even after all this time it hits me hard when children die. I too think about work when I'm not there as do most of my colleagues (well the conscientious ones), but in our cases it's mainly nightmares that we might have missed something, causing a child to deteriorate and we could have prevented it or we've made a serious drug error. I don't ring the ward on my day off to check that I've not made a mistake but sadly many do, some even ring in the middle of the night because they can't sleep they are so worried.
mushroom thank you for your view on teaching its very interesting to read a different opinion.
I'll go to my observation days etc with lots to watch and ask about.

Hi, teaching is stressful but I have not found it to be as bad as yours (13 hr days 5x a week without time to use the toilet) since I left my first school, which was failing. I don't do as much work as the other people in this thread. Usually I do a 10 or 11 hour day and about 5 or 6 hrs work on the weekends. I am very behind in everything though, but at least I can decide enough is enough and stop, knowing that it's not a life or death matter. There are lots of things that the teachers on this thread probably do that i don't, which makes then better teachers though... I always mean to get ahead of myself in the hols but instead just barely get caught up!!

Oh I just wanted to say that it took me 3 full days of work to get caught up this hols- you can only do this if you are somewhere where SLT don't check up on you much, enabling you to leave jobs like ticking and dating targets, updating displays and marking things like topic work until the holidays. If you have an active SLT then you might not get away with being like me!! Pick your school wisely and try to pick a 2 form entry. 3 form tends to have middle managers who check up on you, and 1 form had a higher workload. 2 form with the right partner means that you can share the workload.

You need to work out what you want first. I have relativs who are NHS consultants and also teachers (state and now private schools) and I know all that. For me law is the wonderful thing - have adored it for 30 years and want to do 30 more which is no help to you. i was very lucky to choose a career at 15 and it worked. Most women don't manage that (I've always worked full time).

It sounds ilke money is not an issue for you so that gets rids of one of the biggest problems for many women who have a lot of bills to pay and children to keep and high rent or motgage.

So perhaps have a think about how you would like to spend your days - how many hours a week, what sort of work etc. As I do a lot of work in areas like patents I have worked with plenty of people who left the NHS and set up medical businesses of all kinds. You might want to do something similar or your political views might put you off anything that involves profit.

It sounds like easier bits of nursing are not for you and you like the acute work. Could you do that in a private hospital (probably not as they don't do acute I think in the same way) or volunteer in a war zone for a year if your children are off your hands? Could you just go into a nurse bank and do say 2 days a week whilst say tutoring in your degree subject - sorry cannot remember if you said you did a nursing degree or something else? and whilst also setting up an on line business selling medical supplies.

Nearly half of England's state school teachers plan to leave within the next five years. 82 per cent describe their workload as "unmanageable", 73 per cent say it is having a serious impact on their physical health and 75% on their mental health.

here

Mind you can any of think of a time in the last 50 years when teachers have been happy with their lot and their pay?

..of us...