Training to become a teacher primary

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Can anyone give me some honest opinions on what kind of struggles I might face becoming a primary teacher? I would like to teach smaller children (maybe reception age) however I am not so sure on a couple of things.

I originally wanted to become a midwife so I studied an access course and have applied to uni but I am going to defer so that I can see what other options there might be for me. The NHS staffing levels are getting worse and I don’t want a career where I am working at unsafe staff ratios and so much stress. I currently work in a maternity ward and I'm really not liking what I see day to day. I think midwifery or nursing is going to be the wrong choice for me.

I currently hold GCSE maths C and English B, I personally don’t use maths too much in real life and im worried that I might have to teach older children and not know the curriculum and maths equations of the top of my head. The older the class, the harder the work. Does that make sense?

Is there a choice in which age group you teach, for example would I be grouped into reception to year 6, or could I choose reception and only teach that year group if I wanted to?

Also I suffer with anxiety (social) I think back to my school days and I loved my primary learning experience and I would love to be able to do that for other children. Im worried about being confident in a room full of children, assessors and also parents. Also I am not very strict and I have no children myself yet, I don’t know what I would do if a child was naughty, I have no idea how to handle that situation.

Lastly, other teachers say that there is too much paperwork and marking etc. What can I expect from this aspect? I don’t know anything about teaching only my own experience as a student. I really want to choose a career that I will overall enjoy and I feel that teaching might be a good option.

Thanks

Why do you actually want to teach? You will be asked this at every step, so what is your reason?

Why only YR and not, eg Y1/2/3? If your answer to that is that you can only do maths for 4 year olds, you need to reconsider your chosen career.

Do you have a degree? If not, do a degree first and that will give you three years to decide what to do with it.

If your reason for teaching is that you want to work with young children but don’t want the stress, paperwork and academic pressure of teaching, work as a TA/nursery assistant and save yourself £50k in student fees.

I seriously looked into primary teaching for a better quality of life. I became a governor, volunteered in school to get to know it and am glad I did as discovered despite having children I didn't like teaching or the primary environment. Lots of benefits compared to my current work but not for me. I'm considering secondary but will probably leave it tbh as I don't really want to specialise in maths or sciences.

I hope this doesn’t sound unkind but nothing you have written makes me think that your reasons for wanting to be a teacher are good enough. You have to be interested, really interested, in education, in how children learn and develop - it’s not just babysitting! Teaching is a type of performance, so although you don’t need to be confident you need to be able to act it. I don’t think anxiety is going to help you.

OP, I'm a secondary teacher with 28 years' experience who has also done 2 afternoons per week in the last 3 years in a primary school. I can wing a lesson up to year 10 in almost anything (apart from Physics, Chemistry and Mandarin) but Reception are a breed apart! They are really needy and the whole "sit down and listen" doesn't cut it. I have the most enormous respect for my Reception/Y1 colleagues but it is really really hard work. An hour a week of it was more draining than a day of year 9.

I agree with other posters about volunteering in a primary school, ideally work across the age-range so you get lots of experience about what you really enjoy. I thought I would like y6 best as they are closest in age to my "normal" teaching. Actually I found them a pain but really enjoyed y5 and surprisingly y1. Yes the holidays are good but I spend part of all of mine working and this year has been a total nightmare in terms of workload so I'm shattered.

Also how do lunch breaks work, do you take the same break as the children do? Or is it more like just eating in the class while the children are out, do you have access to a microwave on your busy days? I know there is a staff room but I’ve heard stories of teachers not getting the time to go there.

I find this an odd thing to be asking really. I think if this is one of your concerns at this point then maybe teaching isn't really for you.
To answer your question more helpfully... it depends on the school you are in. I worked in one school where we got huffed and puffed at by senior staff if we spent more than 15 minutes in the staffroom at lunchtime eating. In another school people were able to take the full lunchbreak and everyone had a leisurely lunch of 1 hr in the staffroom. In an independent school we had to eat with the children in the dining hall and then either do playground duties or run or an extracurricular club or do work in our classrooms.

As nearly everyone has said, you need to get into schools regularly as a volunteer. You will need this for your application anyway. You should try to visit/volunteer at more than one school as everywhere is different.

Generally you are not able to choose your year group. A head can assign you to any class they choose depending on what they think is in the best interests of the school. If you have specialized in early years this does not mean you would be able to choose to stay in reception forever. You could still be moved.
However, most heads (who care about their staff) take their teachers' wishes and experience into account. I would say it is unlikely that an early years' specialist would be sent into Year 6, however I do know of cases where that has happened.

Why do you want to become a primary school teacher? It is not clear in your post... You need to have that clear in your head first before you proceed.

I do not think that primary teaching is "easier" than nursing or midwifery. The understaffing and stress you are talking about is the same in schools.
I worked with a woman who had been a nurse, retrained, came into primary school teaching, hated it, said it was far worse than nursing despite all the associated stress in a busy NHS ward, was back in nursing within 3 years.

You've had so many excellent answers on this thread.
Definitely - if you are still even thinking about it - go and get some experience. Yes, volunteer in schools, but also go and start coaching a sports team or running a cub pack and see how you get on dealing with challenging dc for just 1.25 hours a week. You will either pick up skills and experience, or realise this isn't for you.
However, as pps have said, some of the questions you have asked (like if you have access to a microwave ) are really strange. If that is a big concern to you, I'm not sure you are going to be quite robust enough to go into teaching. In the nicest possible way, if you start off by explaining you suffer from anxiety, then, once again, I'm not sure teaching is for you.
Re hours, it does depend a LOT on the school and the management team as to what the expectations are, and to some extent it depends on the person you are (how well you can 'switch off' / how much of a perfectionist you are) but, over 30+ years, in different schools and working under different heads, I've generally averaged 11 hours per day worked. So, working FT, doing about 55 hours a week has always been the norm.

If you work in a Primary, the HT can ask you to move into any year group.
I don't think starting off by saying you don't want a career with so much stress is a good opener for thinking about being a teacher.
Teaching itself can be fantastic, but no-one will tell you it is without stress.

I don't think starting off by saying you don't want a career with so much stress is a good opener for thinking about being a teacher

A very important point, and one worth saying twice.

Also, of all the questions I had when I thought about going into teaching, how much of a lunchbreak I’d have, if there was likely to be a microwave or was the HT likely to put me in another of the 7 possible year groups were not even on my radar. I wonder if you’re going into this as you like the idea of being with small children? I wouldn’t recommend a career in teaching if that’s your aim.

Hi I’m an NQT and did a PGCE straight after my degree. I don’t have kids btw. Obviously this year hasn’t been ideal to start and has been more intense for everyone. You definitely find teaching can really take over your life and brain if you let it as there’s always more to do.
Re year groups we had to do one placement in KS1 and one in KS2 to give us the breadth of experience as well as observations in nursery, high school, special school and EAL majority schools. This obviously depends on provider.
My Y2 routine with no TA is
7.30 into school, photocopy, tidy (never ending job btw) sort out morning activity
8.45 greet at door get them settled and register/prayer (catholic school) hopefully listen to child read
9-10 maths differentiated at least 3 ways
10-10.10 handwashing
10.10-10.25 break
10.25-11.45 sort out playground issues spelling and English again differentiated 3 ways
11.45-12.45 technically lunchtime but will listen to child read, tidy, prepare for afternoon, lunch on average 15 mins but has been as little as 3 mins waiting for the photocopier or walking down a corridor
12.45-2.10 sort out lunch issues, daily handwriting and foundation subject
2.10-2.25 break time only for KS1
2.25-3 second foundation subject
3.00 children leave. Tidy, plan, paperwork, data, mark, sort out SEN stuff, ring parents etc. Displays take ages and get changed a lot.
Wednesday we have staff meeting till 5.30-6
Usually leave 6.30ish, latest I’ve left has been 8.30. We can leave at 4 though but I don’t want to work much at home.
Sunday I’ll do about 3 hrs work
I love it but you really have to enjoy the bit with the children to get through all the boring bits. As an NQT you get nearly a whole day off as PPA (20% week) our supply isn’t great so I have to plan for her in depth and give her my straight forward lessons (no Art/DT, computing, RE, PE)