Teacher training with young DC - realistic?

[fatterface]

I'm looking at applying for teacher training next year, possibly through a salaried school direct position. My children will be 2.5, 6 and 9 then. Has anyone done similar? Any comments on whether it is realistic?

oops c) includes the job!

'Would work just fine with older DC away at boarding school..'

Not unles you are either without a partner, or with someone who will cope well with all the extra work you'll have to do in the evenings and weekends.
You'll have to be very good at time management if you have a hobby, or enjoy time together going out or sharing an activity. Otherwise your out of school time will be eaten up.

I'm a TA at the moment and at the top of my pay grade (FTE is the same as a Nqt salary) so I don't really have anywhere to go career-wise without qualifying as a teacher.

DH is a postman so has school-friendly hours (finished by 3pm) but does work Saturdays.

By the sounds of it teachers at my school are particularly lucky in terms of workload though!

I have a friend who is a qualified teacher with 2 kids aged 12 and 8. She has chosen to work as a ta for the last 3 years and has no interest in working as a teacher because the extra stress is not worth the sacrifice her family would make. And this is someone whose parents already do all the pickups and dropoffs.

Student teachers have a way heavier workload than experienced teachers. Everything takes so much longer, you have more paperwork to do and holidays are spent writing essays.

I would wait until the youngest is at school. I did the part-time PGCE Primary it was fine yes the workload was a lot but I had a nice second placement school and a lovely mentor. Dh did all the morning drop-offs and dc went to CM after school. I did my NQT year in two different schools where tbh no-one was bothered about what I did. In the whole time I had about three formal observations. Am now working in a lovely school. Dh is doing all the school and home stuff but even if he wasn't it would be ok.

Looking back I have learned that getting too stressed is pointless and doesn't result in good teaching. I do a lot of work at home but am in Early Years and actually it's all related to the actual teaching, which benefits the class so I don't mind (too much). The key is to ultimately find a nice school.

I am a teacher - currently37 weeks pregnant andabout to start maternity leave next week. My DH is one too.

We are at work between 7 and 7.30am every morning andneither of us get home before 6 pm - perhaps once a fortnight before then. A typical day for me would be:
7.15-8.15 am marking
8.15-8.45 am dealing with staff/ sorting classroom out ready for the day
8.45- 9.15 am duty outside, assembly, tutor time withmy form group (28 students in Y11)
9.15 -10.15 Teach Y10 Set 5 ( 25 students)
10.15-11.15 Teach Y12 AS level (22 students)
11.15 -11.30 Break- I do Duty outside 2 days a week, the other three I get ready for the next lesson
11.30-12.30 Teach Y11 Set 1 (30 students all predicated A grades at GCSE)
12.30- 1.15 Lunch. I have 15 mins then do an extra class most days or have a meeting.
1.15-2.15 Teach Y7 Set 3 (27 students)
2.15-3.15 Teach Y9 Set 3 (28 students)
3.15 - 3.25 Outside duty 2 days a week.
3.30-4.30 Monday, dept. meeting, Tuesday Staff training, Wednesday Y11 catch- up class, Thursday support meeting with NQT.
4.30-6.00pm In dept, seeing staff, marking, preparing lessons or resources. Or helping with Chrismas/ Easter show rehearsals, ringing parents, writing letters, doing admin.
If there is a Parents' Evening it starts at 6 and goes on until 8pm.
I go home at 6 and usually start work about 7 and work for at least 2 hours. I work at least 6 hours at weekends and at least half of every holiday. I am never on top of my work.

I would not grumble about my pay but young teachers are badly pad. Some work 70-80 hour weeks and earn 21,000 and the pressure on teachers to make sure 100% of students achieve target grades and a decent percentage do better than that is huge.

My advice would be that NQTs and ITTs and teachers in their first couple of years work much longer hours than me and find it very stressful. Nothing prepares them for it. Don't do it unless you have the skill, energy, commitment and resilience. Children do not deserve teachers who can't hack it.

That is how it is if you are a good or better teacher. Children should never have to settle for less in terms of quality of teachers. The conditions should be different but they are not so you need to be aware.

Sorry, meant to say I have 5 non- teaching lessons a week out of 25 and I run a large department, core subject and have a pastoral role with responsibility for the behaviour and welfare of 100 children.

Love my job.

LuluJakey - how are you able to be head of Eng/Maths/Science and have a pastoral role? Do you have two TLRs?

No just one. I get an extra non- teaching period(!) and an honorarium to do the pastoral role . I used to do it and went back to a dept role on a promotion. Then the person left and they could not replace her with anyone they thought was right so asked me and anothe HOD to split the Yr group between us for a year. That should have ended in Sept but they still hadnoone. They have got a non- teaching HOY starting in Januray- I am on maternity leave from the end of next week and the other CL has had enough.

Oh dear OP, I don't know about you but I am getting tad scared now by these responses! I have accepted (pending passing the dreaded literacy test) a non salaried SCITT place for primary next year. I actually turned down a salaried school direct offer as I heard it was more work, and SCITT alone was more than enough.

I have one child due to start reception at the same time I start the course. I have waited until this point in the hope it would be more manageable.

Wonderful GP and DH who likes the idea of bring left alone to watch Dave in the evenings whilst I work lol! I went back to work full time to a managerial position when my son was 3 months old and work 7-5.30 most days, sometimes longer. During project times I also put in a couple of evenings and get up on a Sunday and work 6-12. I cope ok on this, with lots of yoga and bit of wine on the other nights! I was hoping next year wouldn't mean increasing this too much.

Am still going to do it anyway ha, but any tips from those who have been through it? (I already don't really cook apart from ready made pasta sauce and a full on roast for DH birthday!)

I did it. Mine were two and three when I started. But I took six months off in the middle and decided I couldn't in all consciousness continue onto get a job. But my situation was a bit different in my youngest was identified with special needs midway through my first placements, I took the six months off because he needed my input and diagnosed in my second.

The workload was bad but manageable. I was in school by 8 and started work then. I had between school hometime and bedtime off, then I worked 7-12pm most nights. Saturday I had off with my kids. Sunday afternoon through evening I worked. But I will caveat this with in the first placement I was only an average teacher, I couldn't put in the time needed to get ahead and I was always behind bookmarking. (Some of the behind could have been avoided with some decent teaching at the start about how to keep a simple marksheet)

By the second placement I was at serious risk of failing the whole thing (but I was also doing a 2-5am shift with dc with sn). All my assignments were delayed until after the end of my placement, and I was counting down the days until the end.
I was exhausted and no one got anything near satisfactory from me

My mum and dad and then dp were doing drop offs and pick ups from nursery and school. Mum and dad were covering my childrens illness (not possible by second placement) and doing my housework

I do think how much easier I would have found it before I had children

In your position I wouldn't even consider it until the youngest is at school. There is absolutely no slack for anything to go wrong and lots can go wrong between 2.5 and 5. Get your youngest at school give it a year. If all is well do it then.

What Inertia said.

You won't see your children for two years. If there is someone else who can parent them for that time, then it is possible.

I say this as someone who has done teacher training.

I love teaching but I hate what it has done to my life.

I have 2 young DC (1 and 4) who I don't see during the week, unless it is for half an hour at bedtime. I spend a lot of my weekend working. I am extremely time-efficient; don't sit in the staffroom, get in early, yet I find I am bringing more and more work home every day.

I am an experienced, consistently 'outstanding' teacher and I think that this will be my last year in the profession. It is just not worth it.

If I had my time again, I wouldn't have trained to be a teacher. That makes me sad to say but it is true.

adora can you go part-time as opposed to giving up. Finding part time seems so much harder than asking for family friendly hours

I managed as a single parent with no support but my son was starting secondary school.

He spent hours each evening at my school (had 2 other single mums in the dept with kids similar age so became a crèche) and at weekends and during holidays. He also came into work with me sick when really he should have been curled up at home in bed.
He is now 22 and survived (and I am still teaching) but he is resentful of the time taken away from him due to my job.
Training was hell, as was the first couple of years. I only stuck it because I needed a way to pay the rent and pay the bills and get us out of the area of social deprivation we had been landed in after divorce and getting a degree. Failure was not an option.

So what I am saying is depends on your motivation and determination and what you are willing to put your family through

only stuck it because I needed a way to pay the rent and pay the bills
Very similar to me. Single parent, no other way to pay the mortgage and school fees.

I've been a TA too. The step-up in workload from being a TA to teaching is enormous.

Hand on heart, if you are a TA at the top of your pay grade (and especially if you have a permanent contract) - stick with it for a few years. Teaching will still be there when your children are a bit older and more self-sufficient.

It is doable but if you enjoy family time and are prone to feeling guilty, I would wait. OTOH, if you feel totally content with whoever will be looking after your children and won't feel guilty, then it is fine.

Ultimately I need to earn more money than I am at the moment and can't really see how else to do that but by teaching.

what will the difference in pay be after tax? (possibly also after pension contribs but i can see that as an investment)
will it cost you anything to retrain?(including any loss of salary)
will you have to pay higher childcare costs than in your current job?
how many years will you have to teach before the pay difference after tax and childcare costs?
how many years do you see yourself teaching?
imho it is going to become a short term profession that people do.for maybe 5 years before moving on. the stress is unsustainable longer term

Salaried training year will be roughly the same as I earn now I think, NQT year the pay difference will be £400-£500ish after tax. Childcare costs will remain the same.

No one ever sits in our staffroom. It is unused apart from themorning walk through to check pigeonholes. We are thinking of turning it into a large learning space. It is empty all the time. Everyone works through lunchtime and non contact periods in their departments.

I can't believe OPs reason for teaching is a need to earn more money. If the driver isn't to give children the very best start in life you won't be an outstanding teacher.

Anyway, if you work out what young teachers earn and divide it by the hours they work it is somewhere between £7-9 an hour.

There is no automatic progression now - the government changed the rules last year. Unless you perform, the school does not have to increase your pay at all.

I'm afraid lots of people work, and seek career progression, to earn money Lulu!

What a shame about your staffroom, ours is very well used.

Your pay might be £500 greater, but your quality of life much worse.