Thinking of doing pgce

[Treegarden]

Thinking of doing a primary PGCE (part time). The plan is to work 2-3 days a week with a job share when qualified. Please can I get the pros and cons from teachers? I want a job that works around the school holidays with the children that is part time.

I was in a very similar position to you about 15 years ago - single with two primary aged children. My parents were both teachers, so I thought it would be ok.
I did a part-time pace and was lucky enough to get enough grant money topped up with student loans to fund it.

I found the college learning parts ok, but the teaching practices were mostly awful. Unhelpful teachers, and huge amounts of preparation work. Think 2 to 3 hours prep for every hour of teaching. I barely saw my kids other than to pick them up from after school club, shovel some food into them and shout at them to go to bed.

I got an NQT job after finishing the course and stuck it for one term before realising teaching was not for me. The behaviour of the children was a big factor but it didn’t help that they really needed someone with a lot more experience but weren’t prepared to give extra support - this seemed to be common among the group of us that did the pgce together. Again, long, long hours of lesson planning which I think you can expect to be a constant for at least a year until you have a stock of material. You are also constantly having to self reflect and always be striving to improve which just left me feeling that I would never be good enough.

I went back part time to my previous career and juggled before and after school care and holiday clubs. It wasn’t half as stressful as teaching!

Agree, I found teacher-training very hard with a young child. Ironically, I think it's one of the least family-friendly jobs you can do, with so much work to do at home, long hours, working on Sundays ready for the week.

It's not family friendly in the way you imagine.

I suggest accountancy!

While it is amazing to be off in school holidays with school-age children (especially when they are getting a bit old for out of school care but perhaps a bit young to be on their own all day, day after day - I am thinking ages 8-9-10-11-12), other aspects of teaching are deffo not family friendly.

I trained when my DC were junior school age and I have no idea how anyone does it with very young DC. How old are your DC @Treegarden ? Are you aware that the term-time will be very full n for PGCSE and certainly the first few years teaching, and you will have to use a lot of out of school care, or just not have much to do with your DC?

Tbh that was one of the big reasons I stopped teaching - I wanted to be able to see a bit more of my DC and do stuff with them in term time.

Thanks for all the feedback. It's really appreciated. My husband's job is flexible and from home and I have grandparents support so that would help. You have certainly given me a lot to think about and opened my eyes of the reality of it though. Children are ks1 ks3 and ks4.