Career advice: education / psychology

[MyOneAndOnly]

Hello,

I would like to ask opinions and advice of MN'ers who are insiders in the world of education.

I have a young child in reception class and I work 3 days a week, in Central London, which is a reasonable commuting distance from where I live. I love my job, I have been doing it for ages and it suits my geeky personality. I am not a people person, not at my best if I have to deal with people. In my job I deal with facts and figures and I do not have much interaction from other people, mainly I know what I need to do and just get on with it on my own, within a team of other geeks. This is how it is in my job-front. I quite like it. But I equally love psychology and the workings of human brain / I am fascinated by how children learn / how different people get affected differently by the same thing... All fascinating to read. So psychology is also my interest.

And I am single parent too. My Ex-H, is compulsorily involved with baby sitting on a restricted basis but I'd rather not rely on him too much, as he is using it as if a favour to me and I do not like it to continue.

As for childcare, that means I rely on childminder to collect DD from school, then my ex-husband collects dd from childminder to bring her home, then I arrive home around 7:30-8pm'ish. Too late to do quality activities with dd. And I realise that she is suffering academically as a result of my not being closely involved. Her dad is not helping her with any school work / activities etc either. So dd is somehow neglected in that sense, it makes me feel very, very guilty, so much so that I want to quit the job I love & am so good at. Just to be with dd more, to take her to school and to pick her up myself every day...In many occasions she told me how much she wanted me to do the school run as well.

Sooo, I searched MN and found out that many other ladies had similar dilemma and that teaching assistant job is probably the most family friendly job for a mum with a young child, like me. So far so good...

My questions:
1-) I do not know anything about how schoos operate / how they teach etc... I am from another country, where the system is totally different. I have not been educated in the UK so I am learning the school world with my dd as we go along.

Can I find a path where I would be able to teach her / help her with her schooling whilst she is in primary school and then can I move up with her to the secondary school? If so how?

I am also strongly drawn to Special Needs area and I feel that I would be fine with that path, it is both a specialist position which i like to be, and also probably transferable from primary school to secondary? Am I right?

2-) I do not mind studying really hard to become an educational psychologist too but I have been told it takes 6-8 years to get there and I do not have the time at my age.

3-) Maybe I am repeating myself, because I do not know how to word it, but, if I decide initially to become a Teaching Assistant, can I again, move up schools with dd? Do they have Teaching assistants in secondary schools?

4-) Perhaps there is a third path like some kind of educational advisor, mentor etc (incorrect terminolgy???) which can work in any school? What is that post and how can I become one?

5-) I do not mind having a training to be a teacher either, but I do mind having to deal with teenagers and their parents! I would happily be a teacher to reception / year one class. Maybe because it is my dd's age range so I can relate to that age more. I don't know...
Long working hours aside, if I choose to be a teacher, can I choose which age group I want to teach? ie refusing a teaching post if it is for older kids, is it acceptable?

6-) In the light of all above, I mean: thinking of moving up the schools with my dd, and get a job in a secondary school when she moves to secondary school...should I go for a teaching assitant job or a teacher job?

Maybe silly questions for people who know what they are doing and how the system is.. But i have to ask, as I am clueless in this field.

Also I feel that I need to clarify: I mentioned I am a geeky person who is not at her best when having to deal with people... Yes, I am like this but especially if I go for SEN position or an educational advisor position, I guess, I will have to deal with a small group of people whom I will get to know well and it won't be bad.

Sorry for long post, I do hope some experienced wise MN'ers would take the time to reply with suggestions.

Thank you very much in advance.

I can't answer all your questions, but in general it is very hard to transfer from primary to secondary. Given that, it would be fine to choose to teach only younger children.

Is there a particular reason you want to move up schools with your DD? All my teachers were either encouraged, or decided for themselves, to avoid teaching their own children, so I think it would be considered unusual.

Hope that's some help, if not much.

Thanks LittleRedDragon, the only reason why I want to move up with dd is because I feel like an alien in this world of schooling / the schools culture, and by working in the school in that capacity I was hoping to be an insider. Just so I can understand what I am supposed to do to help her or to foresee problems before they become problems.

And generally I find teenagers even harder to understand and honestly, as a single parent who is from another country, with not any help / input from my English ex-husband, I am a bit intimidated by the thought of raising a girl in secondary school in a London borough with lots of undesirable people around. So in my mind, the way of tackling this, is to be with her in her current level of school whether it is primary or secondary... not necessarily to be her own teacher but somehow close enough within the world of education, to her level, so that I will feel in control of our destiny if I am making sense. I am not confident with the idea of raising a daughter as I mentioned.
Maybe strange, but that's how I feel.

I think you have two separate things here - one is your desire to help your DD by knowing about the education system and the other is your career aspirations. As a starting point could you volunteer to help at your DD's school on one of the days you don't work? School's usually have parents in to help with reading or just to help to put away the paint pots! That way you would get an idea whether you actually enjoy being in the classroom. There are lots of ways to find out about education without being a professional within it - I'm a primary school governor and I'm quite interested in education issues so I tend to pick up on stuff in the media (and in here).

If you are interested in Psychology the Open University does a named degree which is accredited by the British Psychological Society.

I never thought of school governor role before, thank you for that webwiz. On the days I do not work, I already help a bit with dd's school when I can, such as when teacher and TA take the kids to library or farm etc, i accompany them as parent helper, as an additional grown up, things like that. But I have not helped when they are doing the actual teaching of the academic stuff which interests me the most. The rest of the time when I do not go to work, i go to all the classes i can find, from first aid to parenting to painting. The more I read about child psychology, the more I get passionate about learning it to affect my own life. I need to go now as I have been called for an emergency . but i will be back.

many thanks again...

A quick addition, my main motivation for trying to be a teaching assistant, is to be with dd more than i can do currently. She is not happy with the current arrangements,she is not thriving and I am feeling guilty all the time. If I had the luxury of choosing whatever i really wanted, then I would not mind spending 6+ years of my life and would rather read psychology from the scratch and work purely in this field... maybe... but I am in my mid fourties and cannot do that without any other back up options for dd and for myself. Thanks for suggesting OU course, again it is a convenient option which I need to look into. Perhaps I can start as a Teaching Assistant whilst still doung OU study at the same time.
Thanks for the contributions.

That's exactly what OU is designed for - you're meant to be able to do the degrees alongside other work. So it could be a really good option.

Short term, can you talk to school about your DD? I don't see that having you there in class is a long-term solution to her not being happy and not thriving, so ultimately you'll need to talk to the school and see if they can do better for her in some way.

It is true LittleRedDragon, my guilt is making me want to drop everything and go straight to her, be with her at the beginnining and end of her school day, after bringing her home each day, to be involved whatever revision she needs to do for the academic work... All of which, I have not been doing up until now and it became very clear to me that because of my work patterns, I have not been doing enough repetition etc with her for the academic stuff. Perhaps some other children can learn their phonics without any support from their parents, but my dd is not one of them, something is lacking and I blame my lack of time for her in the evenings for that.
The teacher thinks I should give her some support at home too, in the form of repeating the phonics on a daily basis, making 3d letter shapes board with her etc to make it stuck in her mind and I took all these on board and will do all I can but at the same time I worry that if we have such problems at the just beginning of our school life, God knows what's going to happen when she has lots more stuff to learn/digest/memorise...in the coming years.

I feel out of my depth already, at reception class. And this is just the academic work. I am thinking "what about problems she might have in the future, socially / with friends' influences... And as she grows up, it'll be more and more. That is why I want to know what I am supposed to do in terms of academic work and tips & tricks of the system. I want to be proactive, if I can put it differently.

Don't get so worried, you sound as if you are doing great!

I had real problems with learning to read, by the way, as did my brother - we are both fine now. Lots of children are like that.

Do you mind me asking, you've not actually said that your DD has a learning disability although I understand that's what you're thinking. Does she? Or is there a more general disability? You're mentioning problems with socializing etc. - unless there are real warning signs, I don't see why should would have problems.

I guess what I'm saying is, I'm a bit confused about why you think she'll have all these problems?

Btw, I will keep on replying here but there are lots of mums with children at primary, or children who have various difficulties - they would probably have better advice than me.

Hi LittleRedDragon, as far as I know, she does not have a learning disability, or maybe I am wearing blinkers .

I always thought, her problems are to do with lack of support from me and also due to her not being really ready. To me she is an innocent, sensitive, quiet, shy little thing and immature too. She is summer born (Jul) and she is small in my eyes. I really wanted to delay her entry to reception class by one year but found out that it is not possible. So we went along with it. In a completely different note, I strongly believe age 4 - 4,5 is too young to start formal schooling, where I came from, it used to be age 7 when children start to learn to read and write, now it is 6. But I will not even start it, this is subject of another topic.

I believe she'll come along in her own time but it may make her get used to "failure" of some sort because she is coming along after some others.

Thank you very much LittleRedDragon for your time and kind input. I really do appreciate it.

I agree with you that 4 is too young. DP didn't go to school until he was 7 and that seems much better to me.

I asked about the learning difficulty, not because it sounds as if your daughter has one, but because you seem so concerned. Didn't mean to worry you!

To be honest, I would have thought she would be fine, and your idea of following her up in classes is ringing warning bells in my head. I can't see that a child (unless they did have a severe disability only mum could cope with) would benefit from that.

I wonder if you should maybe post something in the Chat section? This topic doesn't seem to be getting many hits and I think you could do with responses from lots of people who know what they're talking about: ie., not me.

Anyway, good luck.

MyOneAndOnly I don't want to appear negative but I feel I must be honest. The chances of you gaining the necessary qualifications and there being a vacancy in your daughter's school for you is extremely remote.
If you want to become a TA, teacher or Educational psychologist for yourself I would say go ahead and wish you good luck but if you see this as route to being close to your child throughout their school career it isn't realistic I'm sorry

Thank you LittleRedDragon and mrz. I can see how remote to get job/s in dd's school.

Maybe I can be a Teaching assistant now and also try to be a governor in her school, again not sure how it works out or whether it does work out... and take it from there. Anyway, thanks again for your time.

Best wishes from me.