Undergrad Teacher training and child education/development careers

[NotDonna]

Yr12 DD wants to work with children and is interested in teaching particularly (she thinks) primary or early years but hasn’t ruled out secondary.

1. I know lots of teachers are v unhappy and are leaving so I’m a bit concerned that it’s not a great career choice. Is it really that bad?

2. other ideas? She’s 10 GCSEs 7-9 & doing History, Psychology, Economics A levels and A/S level core maths. No predictions as yet but maybe AAA/AAB. She doesn’t fancy having to do masters phds etc. to get started (Eg child psychologist) although she may wish to study further as career progresses. What else is ‘out there’ along the lines of child development / education?

3. It seems primary / early years teaching she can do a BEd with QTS included.
   a) Are some courses/universities better than others for undergrad teaching?
   b) how do placements work if she chooses a university away from home?
   c) what is career progression like as a primary teacher?
   d) what does she need to consider when choosing between early years teaching or primary?
   e) are there any courses that cover teaching ages 3-11?
   Huge thanks

@clary

I must say, when I trained, you could train for secondary and then teach primary, but not the other way round (don't really know why not, except perhaps that a primary teacher may not have a specialist degree subject).

That may have changed of course as this was about 14 yrs ago.

Interesting. I trained in primary 23 years ago and we were told our QTS meant you could teach secondary as well. This was a PGCE so we all had undergraduate degrees-perhaps it was different with a BEd?

@Appuskidu yes that may be it. I trained secondary in the end but looked at prinary PGCE at one point. Tho all of us on that course would have had a subject-based degree. Anyway, maybe we were misadvised.

@misselphaba

Speech and language therapist.

3 year undergrad or a 2 year masters to qualify. Some courses now offer a 4 year integrated BSc and Masters.

Speech and Language Therapists work across the lifespan from neonates to end of life. The majority work with children, in some capacity.

I'd second this. I'm an ex primary teacher (I did mainly early years/infants), in the middle of my SALT degree and bloody loving it. Psychology is an excellent interest to have - a LOT of my first year was psychology.

Ironically - I don't actually want to go into working with children - I'm interested in mental health, forensics or ID when I qualify - but there's soooooo much you can do with it. It's a bloody fantastic course.

@CoffeeWithCheese are you doing a 2 year Masters with this? I presume it needs student loans?

I'm doing the three year BSc - the Masters was at a uni just a smidge too far to commute sanely for me and when the pandemic hit I was glad I'd picked that option because the way our placements are organised meant we had them out of the way for the year when everything closed.

Yes I have the standard student finance, and it's allowed for a second degree with it being an allied healthcare profession, plus the NHS training grant.

Is it very full time?

Im an ex teacher and had to put off ed Psych dreams as the unis were just too far away. I wish we had a graduate route OT or SaLT nearby!

Coffee can I ask how old you are?

I hadnt seriously considered a (third) undergrad route but now my kids are a bit older I guess it's not impossible!

I'm 42

I qualified 27 years ago the old fashioned route, 4 year degree in a teacher training college with the 2nd year spent at a university studying my main subject. I got a BSc Maths with Primary Education with QTS. The entry requirements back in my day were two grade Es!

Nowadays, it is a three year degree BA Primary Education with QTS and entry requirements of 112 Ucas poins or BBC. In places like Christ Church Canterbury, you can even do one of your teaching placements in Ghana.

During my time in 6th Form, I used to help at Brownies and in a primary school on Wednesday afternoons. We also had students from our local Grammar doing this at my school. Quite a few would go on to teach. I actually teach with two of my ex pupils who I taught in the Infants then came back for work experience at 16 years old. One went the BA primary route, the other the Degree then PGCE route.

As someone previously said, if you find the right schools it is a great and rewarding career. If you have a bad head, difficult colleagues etc everyday will be an effort. I have loved every minute of being a teacher and being in the classroom. I have never sought leadership roles, however due to experience I have ended up being part of the SLT, but my heart lies in the classroom.

Doing a degree and PGCE gives you more options, doing a Primary Ed degree probably prepares you better for the classroom.

All really helpful thank you. I found your last line interesting @Diian. I doubt she’d considered the BEd v PGCE in terms of preparedness. Thank you