I'm thinking of training as a teacher... please help me with the age group choice.

[elfycat]

Hi.

I have a 2:1 degree in English Literature (and will be taking my masters with the OU this September - but let's consider that my hobby). My youngest DC is in reception and finally I feel like I can think about my ongoing career.

In my previous working incarnation I have been a nurse - operating theatre speciality. I don't want to do the shifts and the commute to hospitals, and my nursing friends are all saying 'hell no'. I want reasonably family friendly hours (my sister is a teacher - I know that there's more to it than just classroom time) and I like 'teaching', though recently this had mainly been teaching my hobbies to adults. I liked teaching when it was part of my nursing role too.

I'm trying to decide if I would prefer to teach primary school (?KS2) and teach the full array of the curriculum to a single class. I like a multitude of subjects from sciences to history to art (more the history than any skill at painting myself), ICT, geography etc.

Or secondary school where I can focus on the subject I am passionate about. My reservations are based on my own school experience where the students really tested the boundaries on discipline. particularly in this subject (and Music).

I've been close to filling out the application form for the whole of last term. But I know I'll have to pick where I want to have my placements. I just need to think through my options on this, if anyone wants to share what they like (and find challenging/difficult) about their KS teaching, with me.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

Why not do agency nursing, picking day shifts?

[elfycat]

I'd have to do the full return to nursing course MrsGuy and I did nursing for nearly 20 years and I'm not all that enthusiastic about going back. I was agency for years but 9-5 jobs are not the most common and are not in my area of interest. Yes I can do shifts in care homes, or work in the community - but that's not MY job in nursing. I only completed my training because of the theatre placement. I hate ward work (except orthopaedic rehab).

I did try day surgery units between DDs but the amount of times it ran over time was ridiculous. And you can't leave a patient mid operation or recovery period because your nursery was closing for the day.

I think I'll put the teacher bit on hold for a year, and get some experience - of primary schools at least.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

Just beware that when you go into schools you will only seen the best parts the nicer classes etc. I asked to see tough classes, but teachers would not accept visitors in those...
Also, you will only see the classroom side - what you really need to see the time-consuming things like meetings, marking, parents calls, detentions at break, lunch , after school. Chasing students for incomplete course work, pouting action plans and intervention plans in place for kids not o n track for target grades, moderating course work, moderation meetings.
I think primary teachers work harder ( ie have more to do than time for) than secondary, and English/Dram/Music secondary workload the most time consuming.
I would only take on permanent teaching job part time in an indie school.

[MuddhaOfSuburbia]

This might be way off the mark, but have you thought of school nursing? I know someone who went from icu to school nursing after dcs

(just thought of this thread as found dd doing a little dance in the living room. When I asked what her dance was for, she said 'NO ENGLISH TODAY, I'M DOING THE NO ENGLISH DANCE' )

[FinallyHere]

I have friends who are teachers and friends who are nurses, no experience of either myself.

Just from what we hear about what is happening in both professions, I would strongly encourage you to look outside both areas for opportunities which are funded well, where daily working is well funded and appreciated by those paying your salary. The school nurse suggestions from PPs is just one example of the whole world of opportunities available to you.

[shouldwestayorshouldwego]

Have you considered teaching nurses or HCA. Pay not much better but at least generally they have chosen to be there.

[elfycat]

Muddha LOL at the 'NO ENGLISH TODAY' dance. I might love English but I appreciate that everyone had that subject or teacher.

School nursing - just no. Too much emphasis on tick boxing, labelling, and handing over leaflets faster than a Jehovah's Witness on speed. The least 'nursing' form of nursing I could think of (I briefly looked into it before I let my registration lapse a couple of years ago).

I want out of nursing altogether I think. It's not what it was (I'm old school trained).

I think I've just reached the point where the SAHM phase feels done with and I'm rushing to get on with the next phase while in possession of my new degree . Extra income earning will need to feature in my life at some point as we're ticking by on one income (DH works at sea 50% of the time, not the best seafaring income but there's still an uplift) but there are house renovations that need doing and other extra expenses coming up which would be very much more possible if I work.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

Also, if you really love your subject ( I love mine)) can be depressing seeing it reduced to tick boxes/key words/formula to pass exams.
My own DC read voraciously and enthusiastically in pre-school and primary - hoovered up books and I am still clearing out roomfuls of them. And the loved writing stories 9 hilarious, will always keep those)
But when they hit secondary and it became 'English' they lost interest, to the point that they both loathed it, and gave up after GCSE
Not trying to be negative but the reality may be some way off the expectation.

[mercifulTehlu]

True, MrsGuy. Also, it would be nice to think that kids only behave badly or are uninterested when they are in lessons taught by bad teachers, or in just a couple of subjects that don't appeal to them. The reality is that good teachers up and down the country slog their guts out every day to make their lessons appealing and fun for kids (while also ensuring they fulfil OFSTED's criteria, obvs), only to be greeted by utter indifference and insolence in some or many of their classes.

I covered a lesson this morning where quite a few of the kids wrote no more than two lines of work in an hour. Not because they are not able to. They just couldn't give a monkey's even though they chose the subject for GCSE. All they wanted to do was talk about make-up and which parties they were going to get drunk at (underage) this weekend. I confiscated two phones whose owners were trying to take selfies and had to stop two from re-doing their HD brows in class.

Maybe I'm just jaded after 20 years, but I get to the point where I think "You know what, if they don't give a shit about their results, why the hell should their teachers?"

[MuddhaOfSuburbia]

School nursing is no longer about tick boxes and leaflets, more child protection/plugging the gaps of an understaffed and underfunded social services round our way

(which is of course shit, but a different sort of shit iykwim)

[breward]

I was on a PSHEE course today and so many coordinators said staff in their schools hate teaching the sex and relationship education part of the subject.

They would love a good outside provide like a nurse/specialist teacher to deliver those lessons... Someone not familiar to the children so neither party feels embarrassed. This could be a great self employed job opportunity for someone who wants to leave teaching but still wants to teach IYSWIM and is comfortable talking sex all day !

[YvaineStormhold]

God, I would love to do that.

Be a sex and relationships teacher in secondary schools.

Just think of the genuine difference you could make to lives, but no marking.

It's such an important role.

[breward]

The course was for primary teachers, so the need is in both the primary and secondary sectors.

The worry in primary schools is what age to talk about sex and whether the parents will be onboard. My children had sex ed in Yr 4 as part of a topic on the body. It was just another system...respiratory system, digestive system and reproductive system. Then puberty talk in Yr 5 and relationship ed (consent, contraception, same sex relationships) in Yr 6.

Other teachers were horrified Sex ed and the ins and outs (!!) were done in Yr 4.