becoming a teacher - your views please

[TheWheelsOnTheBusHaveFallenOff]

hoping there are some teachers out there who can help - or who can direct me to other sources of info please!

I am thinking about retraining to become a teacher (secondary level). I have literally just starting thinking about it so have done NO research, and am about to scuttle off to further reaches of the internet but wanted to ask here first for advice on

a) is this a good idea? I love the principle, I think I'd be good at it - but am scared by thoughts of tough inner-city sink schoolkids gobbling up the likes of me for breakfast

b) is it possible to train whilst being a lone parent to an under-2 ds and working p/t in a completely unrelated job too? and how long might it take me to train?

Really grateful for your experience. I will be back later to check in as I'm off to get on with the research right now.

Thank you.

There is another route: gtp - which pays a salary of 14-19k, teaching a 70% timetable - a kind on the job training. The more straight-forward path is PGCE which can be done f/t or p/t through the OU.

What do you want to teach: history & politics?

I never brought (or rarely) work home when I worked in industry, nor did I work past 6pm (unless away from home). I learnt good time management (basically Total Quality), which I took with me into teaching.

I remember in my PGCE having a session on time management, and that I basically run the course (ie the tutors asked questions of the hundred of us and I single handedly answered them all).

We had a lady some talk to us abut time management an she was late.

That kind of uninspired me

As part of your research please o and do some voluntary shadowing of teachers in local schools. Try to get into 3 or 4 different types of schools, in different types of areas, and go into each for more tha just 1 or 2 days if you can. Before comiting do hav soem hands on experience of the classroom.

Wheels- I have a social science degree and am in the process of applying for a PGCE in Social sciences, PSHE and Citizenship. I know you can do this in London.

Just found the course at London Metropolitan University wherever that is. I googled London, PGCE, Citizenship. If I could do MN links would do so for you, but I can't.

you are all amazing, thank you - so many great ideas and things for me to look into.

thank you again

I find time management fascinating.

At my previous school so many of us were working ridiculous hours we called some one in. She looked at me in particular and publically said what I needed to do to reduce my hours and then privately said I don;t see how you in this school can reduce your hours. I started looking for another job.

The NQTs/ PGCE students that don;t work long hours are rare and either extraordinarily gifted or crap.

I would probably worl quicker if I didn;t mumsnet at the same time!

I trained at the Institute London and it I found it to be inspirational - I owe them an awful lot.

I am starting teacher training after Christmas. It is a two year part time course, with lots of work experience and practical training. I will combine it with a 1 year full time course in English which forms part of a ba in languages during the first year and Religious science in the second year. I have a BA Ancient World Degree and a MA Classics, plus a 1 year full time course in Literary Science. I work part time, I have two children, and a dh who travels frequently with work. I think it will be doable.

I should be able to teach History, English, Religion and also smaller subjects such as history of political ideas and philosophy (small subjects in school here, as opposed to core subject) at secondary/high school level. The career consultant said I might be able to teach at University level, as there is not a lot of people around here with such a high emphasis on the Classics. (Old Norse and Nordic is the most common flavour around here)

I trained at Kings London and did my MA at the Institute - both great places (though this was many many moons ago). Did my teaching practice at quite a tough school, moved to a slightly less tough but still challenging Outer London school and ended up in a rural comprehensive. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the 'tougher' schools more - everyone was in the same boat, there were procedures and strategies in place to deal with bad behaviour and the children, though hard to handle at times, were very rewarding to teach.

I did my degree at Kings had an interview for PGCE and was told I was too airy fairy and needed to get down to the Institute as they would love me.I did and we loved each other.

I know what you mean. My PGCE at Kings was great but very 'straight'. The Institute (when I was there anyway) was VERY political and was always ruffling feathers. Not sure how this equates with 'airy fairy' - maybe they thought you were very open to new ideas!

Hello again all ... well I have been doing some research but seem to be coming up against a brick wall...

As I understand it to get QTS I need to either do a PGCE or GTP. Because I will need to work I am thinking that a p/t PGCE is the way forward. However, it seems that core subjects are the only way to get funded. Politics is not a core subject. So to get onto a core subject PGCE course I would first need to take another degree or masters in a core subject.

Is this right? I am just wondering who teaches all the non-core subjects in schools? I can't see any mention of politics, social sciences or even history on any of the PGCE courses.

So would I have for example to take an English degree, then move onto an English PGCE and then because of my degree in Politics be able to slide into teaching politics as well (or instead of) English once I actually had a teaching job? I appreciate that there are a lot more English classes taught than Politics so there is less demand for the latter but find it odd that I can't use the degree that I have to take this further.

Please let me know if I have got this totally wrong!

There are PGCEs you have to have a social science degree for. The government are pushing vocational learning for the 14-19 age, and PGCE and GTPs are developing to meet this new demand. Citizenship is growth area of the curriculum, and a degree in politics would be a perfect background for this.

MMU have two courses you could apply for with a politics degree.

Sphil The man that interviewed me at Kings said he just didn;t get me, but he knew that his sister who ran the RE PGCE course would love me. I always have been very political so maybe that came across. A few times in my career more orthodox teachers have said they just don't get me so it has been a theme

I think at present many teachers have things like psychology, sociology as their second subject and then later specialise. They may train as a humanities teacher - His Geog RE and then offer the other subjects.

I would like to teach Psychology or Sociology for example but am an RE specialist - although I also teach Philosophy and Humanities.

If you want to teach your subject, then you could look at doing a QTLS or a PGCFE (basically teacher training in post compulsory education). Then you could specialise in teaching government and politics 'A' level at a college somewhere. That said, the pay tends to be lower and jobs are much harder to find. Also with a PGCFE you can't then go and teach in a school - whereas you can if you have the PGCE first, and then go into FE / 6th form college. So it might be the safer option training to be a secondary school teacher, with a view to going into FE once you have qualified - if you want to stick with your subject. FE / 6th form jobs are so hard to find (comparatively speaking) that I like just knowing if I ever needed to, I could go back into teaching in schools. HTH

dont do it, unless youare truly passionate about teaching.

Forgot to say, that it is really hard work... but worth every minute. I frequently work late nights, but the flip side is that as soon as I finish teaching, I take my work home and look after my daughters and then plan at home when they are in bed, so I can maximise the time I spend with my daughters. Bad side of that, is that I have been known to wake at 3am with an idea for class, that I just have to write down! There is always something else you could do better, or improve upon that if you are a perfectionist in your work, the hours you spend can be a nightmare! That said, I have been teaching now for 10/11 years and still love my job!

Ah, this is very interesting (said in dodgy german accent) I am wanting to do my PGCE next year. I am still very much undecided whether to do secondary or primary. There are two reasons for this. One, i love my subject which is biology - i have a first degree in biochemistry, and phd in developmental biology. That does steer me more towards secondary as i think that jobs will be easier to come by. But i am also attracted to primary, partly because im not sure i could do a class full of unruly teenagers - i might want to bash their heads together. I have spoken to a friend who said that she has a friend who teaches in quite a rough school and that i can shadow her - scary. Am going to do that. I am also going to shadow a primary teacher too. Another reason for teaching primary is that i feel i can really influence the childrens lives, i mean, how cool is that, teaching children to READ! Less frustrating that spouting science to a room full of teenagers who would rather blow up the lab than listen to me go on about DNA. Saying that, the ones who WANT to learn and love the subject will be inspiring.

The only real experience i have is, helping out with reading at DDs school, presenting some school assemblies on pets when i was a vet nurse and i did a "science day" presentation about acids and ants at a very twee private school where the children were all little angels, if not a bit cheeky and precocious.

My DP thinks i should teach private, but i really don't want to, but i am a bit scared of the classroom thugs i might encounter at the local comprehensive (um, that would have been me then!)

Just pick your school carefully, they're not all that bad honest! I trained in quite a rural school, but it was full of predominantly RAF kids, high influx and they were hard work. The two state schools I taught in were very middle class and lovely. One was a mixed comp - students were on the whole well behaved, keen to learn and on the whole, very nice to teach. Other state school was a girls comp. The girls were a mix of middle and working class, but again, behaviour could be tricky at times, but it is a minority. I also taught in one private school and that was lovely.

I wasn't particularly good at the tough school - I don't think I'm cut out to do all that discipline... and at the end of the day, I want to teach students, not babysit them. I think I would probably be awful in a tough school - and so I have avoided them. I tend to go for schools where the students tend to be more academic and that has suited me well. Yet, I know of other teachers who are amazing at engaging with the tougher students and who are dead hot on their classroom discipline - but perhaps wouldn't want to spend so much time on 'A' level teaching for example (I have one friend who positively avoids it - but she is a fab teacher and great with the students). I think half the battle is knowing where your strengths lie and finding the school that is right for you. I found that one out the hard way in my training year, but gritted my teeth and got through it - it was a valuable lesson! I know to pick my schools carefully when I'm looking for jobs, I know the sort of school that I thrive in, and where I am a good teacher. I'd be hopeless in a tough school environment, so I avoid them... yet I have friends who absolutely love it. You just need to find the school that is right for you.

WheelsontheBus

"You must have a UK undergraduate degree or a recognised equivalent qualification. If your degree subject does not link closely to the subject you intend to teach, you may improve your ability to gain a place on an ITT programme by following a pre-training course to boost your subject knowledge.

You also need a standard equivalent to at least a grade C in GCSE English language and mathematics. If you want to teach primary or key stage 2/3 (ages 7-14), you must also have achieved a standard equivalent to a grade C in a GCSE science subject."

Politics naturally combines with History but if it helps, although most English teachers have English degrees, certainly not all of them do. Drama, RE, Media, Communication Studies, History are the backgrounds of ppl in my current and previous depts.

I teach secondary, there are nice schools out there, with nice kids in them. Which part of London, roughly, do you live in? I went to a good London secondary, and know of a fair few more.