To retrain as a teacher - completely mad? Answers on a postcard please...

[georgiemum]

Considering doing Montessori teacher training for littlies. Is it a waste of money (about £2.5k) and will I get a job anyway (with a living wage)?

This was something I considered a while back.

If you are living in London I would say go for it as there are plenty of Montessori Nurseries and you should not have problems finding work. Outside of London there are fewer nurseries and in our area two have closed in recent years because people tend to transfer their children to state/independant schools at age 4.

If you are planning on moving abroad it is a great qualification to have as there are Montessori Nurseries all over the world.

Before you are a fully fledged Montessori Teacher you need around 450 hours experience and can only apply for assistant jobs until you have this. The money isn't great I think even qualified nursery teachers only earn around £16k but then pay for all nursery teachers is notoriously bad.

Are there many Montessori nurseries in your area?

There are stacks of nurseries and schools around here. I dodn't realise pay was soooooo bad. That explains why all the teachers I know moonlight!

450 hours - that's quite long. I am assuming this is unpaid? Ho hum. Back to the drawing board I think!

The 450 hours is unpaid unless you can secure a job as a Montessori Assistant.

Georgiemum, I retrained as a Montessori Teacher, and I would love to earn as much as £16000!!! I think that you would have to work at a full daycare place to earn anything like that, in my experience, unless you are in London then the pay is much, much lower at a term time only nursery

trained nursery staff earn about £12,000

Thump. That was me fainting on the floor. How can teachers in London live on that wage?