PGCE in Scotland

[Scottishmumofgirls]

I'm beginning to consider leaving my part time NHS role to move into teaching. What do teachers in Scotland think about teaching at the present time? Are there jobs? Is the work load as bad as it is made out?

I can do either primary or English at secondary level and would be happy to work full time.

Oops, I was reading up on PGDE last night, didn't notice my c/d error.

Thank you for replying. If I do decide to go down this route I will want to do plenty of work experience; the last thing I want is to hate a second career.

Do you enjoy your job?

Fun! That's something I haven't associated with work for a long time.

What do you teach?

If you are willing to work outside the central belt there are LOTS of jobs. My PGDE was only two days a week in university aside from placements. Workload will depend where you end up and how good you are at cutting out the crap. I work about 40-45 hours a week but I have colleagues who seem to do twice that as they won't set classes work and then mark/plan for the next lesson while the kids are busy and insist on having their classrooms decorated, mounted and laminated so that you can barely see the desks.
I love teaching (secondary English) and enjoy going to work most days. You can get a bit swamped at peak times during the year and it can be emotionally demanding at times but I would heartily recommend it.

When you're at uni, secondary PGDE students have less hours because they only have to go to their subject specialism plus the educational theory ones, whereas the primary students are going to Maths, English, Modern Languages, Spanish, Art, Science, PE etc.

The first few years are hard as you find your feet and work out what the hell you're doing but it is immensely rewarding if it is what you want to do. Big dropout on the PGDE courses though.

I would recommend it too. I teach secondary. The PGDE placements and probationary year are exhausting but then it gets easier. I would recommend doing work experience in primary and secondary to see which you prefer. If you might want to go part-time, primary is probably better as there always seem to be more pt jobs advertised, including some Principal Teacher posts. Apparently there is a massive teacher shortage in Aberdeenshire/Moray at the moment.

Hi Scottishmumofgirls,

I am hoping to do a flexible PGCE this September (interview is tomorrow). I also work PT in the NHS (and I am over 40). I had a place for primary but I had a 'gut feeling' I should stick to science and secondary.
I have experience in primary and secondary.
What NHS career are you leaving?

I am in England by the way :-)

I'm a speech therapist. Lots of reasons I'm considering leaving, ultimately I still love the core job but my department is a very unhappy place to work and there is nowhere else I can transfer or other jobs to apply to. Change is very appealing at the moment. I've always considered teaching, but was put off by teachers ie. They told me not to, when I was younger. Glad to hear all of your positive opinions. I think I will probably make a better teacher now than I would have done straight out of university.

I'm about to start a course for work with the local university which will give me an idea if my brain still functions. We are about to embark on a restructure at work which should be our structure for the next 5 years or so, this will give me some idea if there is a worthwhile future for me in my current department. I think I'll start enquiring about work experience over the near future too.

Thank you for your thoughts. They have been good to hear.

I think this thread has been fascinating! Normally these threads are full of teachers from England saying they wouldn't choose teaching again for a million pounds. How nice to read the opposite here!

I'd love to retrain as a teacher now but my local uni (Dundee) has only done Physics or Home Ec for the last few years.

Marking place. Been thinking about this for a while op.

Loved reading this, has summed up how I feel about my job really! I love it but lots of frustrations.

Amazed it has taken this long to reintroduce national tests.

You will get work eventually OP, it might just take time. I got my permanent job through long term supply, which is how most recently appointed teachers in my LA got their jobs as they don't really advertise!

Hey, they get to secondary and pretend no teacher even said the word "verb" in their presence!