Can teaching ever be 9-5?

[nappyrat]

Is it a good option for fitting work around having a family like a lot of people think...or is that just not the case anymore? I hear of teachers doing such long days and so many extra duties. Just wondering if it can really work as well as people say if you have children?

Bloodyteenagers that last paragraph. Spot on.

Lessons start before that and you'd need to be in school
Even earlier.
Then there's the work to be done after school has finished.

That's my experience, anyway.

i have days where i mourn leaving teaching but threads like this give me the shivers

sorry should say holidays are last saving grace

No, not if you want to do it well. You're there to provide other peopke's children with an excellent education, you're not there to suit your family. I'm sorry if that sounds blunt, but I don't know how else to put it.

I work very similar hours to those detailed by eviltwins upthread.

(Cries and falls down.)

yes and if you not - oh the guilt

people's not peopke's.

Cries some more, this time with snot.

thinking - what did you escape to?

From what you are saying you want I think you might be better as a private tutor rather than being tied to a school.

well goodness i'm still kinda getting there but at first I flirted with working form home - this wasnt viable. At the same time I also started studying for and OU degree to retrain.

In the last 2 years I've completed my second year (all level 2's) and had a baby. I have just delayed my final year as have toddler at home and I'm really gunning for the 2nd career i want to get the right job this time.

I am pushing 40. But I hope to be doing my Msc/Phd route byt then and stay in academia. Oh and i can talk, love to socialise but the thought of being stuck in a musty office with reading and papers...oh the peace and stimulation in equal measure.

I am currently inbetween modules

OOoh exciting! I did an OU degree overlapping with my first baby. Nuts but brilliant. I'd thought of retraining but the route I wanted needed a phd which sadly I can't make work.

Hope it goes well for you - well done!

thanks goodness - but sometimes I feel I'll never get back to work.

Im struggling to get relevant work experience, need to wait unti llittie at school.

I understand. Thought about supply teaching? You could apply speculatively for this too and see your luck. I did so and was offered part time job! Didn't take it as don't think possible for ME to fit it in around being mummy and chose to b a tutor and train to b a dyslexia assessor
But supply teaching is closer to those hours. Maybe 8ish to 5ish or earlier
Better pay
Actually enjoyed it. But not in dodgy schools

I did the baby while retraining (adding additional skills to my teaching ones)
Three weeks before giving birth to my DD, I began an incredibly challenging course to become a dyslexia assessor. Was hardest thing of ever done. Up until 2.30am some nights studying and writing up- then baby waking at 5.30 and 3 y old being 'interesting'.
But so glad I've done it.
Highly recommend tutoring. I put my all into it.

Goodness its good to know I am not alone. I left teaching before the baby came along. I didnt do well in my last school and it really knocked my confidence. I really dont think I could go back into a secondary school classroom. I dont know about tutoring - I dont think I have any time when I could do it except weekends and then I wouldnt see DH. I think I have to wait.

I am enjoying studying so much but my last module was so very hard with the late nights as you describe getting DS to school on 4 hours sleep and trying to look after DD without relying on cbeebies and biscuits! I was so grumpy, tired and unavailable to my family last summer I always felt guilty. Least I will have a new career to embark upon (she hopes) when little one is at school. I would love to get a research position/MSc place starting 2016/17 and ultimately my Phd. If I could lecture part time in HE or some exciting research programme...I just hope my age doesnt go against me.

I am waiting for an easy 'top up' module to start in March. Im cocooned in domestic drudge at the moment.

I've PMed you

In my experience it's far from 9-5 and that won't change. The workload is immense that I struggle to keep on top of it working evenings and at weekends. Sometimes I'm too tired after being in school all day to get everything done that evening, but then it quickly builds up so you have more to catch up on the next day or at the weekend. The holidays are lovely, but I'd rather have my evenings and weekends free when my DH, family and friends are around. Its a fast paced job, the days never drag and no two days are the same, but it's not something I want to do forever.

Are these long hours particularly long in England? I have taught in England and now in Ireland no comparison in hours.
I worked in similar schools in both countries,demanding sen teaching jobs,however in Ireland I allowed to get on with it,am not constantly monitored and always gathering data.I go in at 9 school starts at 9.30 and then leave at 4 .I do s bit at home,usually in big chunks throughout holidays,we get 10 weeks summer holidays here.
In England I worked in a number of schools and the unnecessary pressure was huge.
I work hard,get good results without the monitoring I do it because its my job,and I care.

hello Kingrollo I reme,ber you from our very honest thread about being a parent

feelingdizzy I think Ireland and Scotland must be quite similar. We don't have the pressure that schools in England seem to be under. Most of my colleagues are in school by 8.30 and leave between 4/4.30.

Also it can depend on the HT. In a local school, teachers are heard to say "She makes us come in at evenings and weekends." Unfortunately this HT has no life outwith school and thinks her staff are the same. My HT on the other hand is very understanding and appreciated the hours her staff put in.

I work rather odd hours - which is one of the beauties of teaching.

I get to school around 7.45ish, and leave sometime between 4.15 and 5.30, depending on family demands in the evening [DS is 13, DD is 11, both are very active in extra-curricular activities]. Once the family taxi is parked, I sit down to work again and do 2-3 hours of work then - so 8-10 on a good night, 9-midnight on a bad one.

At the moment - FT, relatively new to the school, lots of changes of curriculum underway in primary - I also work all day Sunday catching up with marking (I mark 30+ English and Maths books every night during the week, but other subjects tend to get done at the weekend) assessment and planning for the week ahead. Lunchtimes and breaktimes are taken up with resources, displays, immediate paperwork and issues, staff meeting once a week and I run an after school club one night a week.

Holidays are fab, though. In the short holidays it's a week off and a week of half-time working, plus a full day or so in school doing displays, sorting etc, half terms are similarly half and half [or full time report writing in the summer half term], but the summer holiday is LOVELY!

My husband calls teaching 'the ultimate compressed hours contract' - silly hours all term time, longer holidays than most people get.

wow. It sounds like teaching in England might be more demanding than here in Australia. I have a faculty meeting once a week but we do it during lunch. we have to do five hours a term (we have four terms a year) of after hours meetings. two hours whole school meetingsand three in faculties. Once a week seems a bit excessive. Although accountability requirements are high here I do not feel we have endless marking and paperwork. I do two parent's nights per year and four reports per year.

My DH and I have been thinking of doing a teacher exchange to the UK but I am concerned about your workload. Sounds like Ireland or Scotland might be an idea.