Training as a primary school teacher

[MillieMoodle]

I'm hoping for some advice please

DH has decided he wants a career change from management accountant to primary school teacher. We've established that he'll need to do science GCSE as he only got a grade D when he took it first time around (many moons ago and before he realised he actually needed to work at school!). He doesn't have any A-levels or a degree. He's got an advanced GNVQ in business studies and AAT which is equivalent to NVQ level 4. He wants to do a B.Ed at our local university, starting in September. Does he need to get A-levels as well, or can he do an undergraduate degree with just the GCSEs?

Also, what's the best way to go about getting work experience?

Thanks in advance!

I left a career as a health professional and educator after a spell of poor health and ended up as a TA a few years later, initially supposed to be for a year to ease me back into work. Five years later and I'm still doing because I enjoy it and I can leave the job behind when the bell rings. I have seriously considered doing the post-grad teacher training but now that I've seen the work that teachers do I have no desire to become one. I take home half the money, but way less than half the stress!

That's why I'm saying "I appreciate it would be different with children". Personally I don't want children, I am more than happy to teach them and hand them back, but I know that having children whilst teaching can be a complete game changer.

I know that all those things happen with children, which is why I stressed that I don't have children - it is very different.. But there are a lot of different voices on this thread.

From my (very limited) experience, I've seen teachers who already had kids when they trained cope better (I don't mean in terms of capability, I mean in managing to find a balance where they can enjoy what they do) than those who had kids whilst teaching - that complete and utter mindset change (which you would expect to happen!) has made it very hard for friends of mine to return to such a vocation when their priorities become very different.

I enjoy teaching (secondary) , but I trained when my DC were already older teenagers - could not have done it while they were young.
Because I already was used to prioritising, cutting out pointless timewasting, bullshit from managers etc from juggling previous high -pressure career and children, it has not been onerous.
Would not recommend anyone with primary DC, or planning kids, or timorous with management to embark on it.

I've been following this thread as I'm interested in teacher training. I plan to try work as a ta to see if it's for me, and my interest was more early childhood but perhaps Senco training st some point.

I have 4 dcs but thought I could start as a ta and if I like it when the oldest 2 are at secondary start then? I have a dc with ASD, another on SEN support. I'm aware TA's can train to implement specific interventions also. Presumably better paid, but not by much! Just wondering if this seems a good way to get a good idea.

I have children. I'm head of department in a core subject. I still bloody love it

@imip in ten years of teaching I've only ever seen one person successfully make the transition from ta to teacher. If you're sure it's teaching you want to do, then I'd just go for it.

I'm a teacher. I think the important thing to remember is it is absolutely not family friendly - there are long hours. If you want to get off at 4.30 to see your own kids then that will impact on the work you have to do at home. In barely any full time profession can you just leave at 4.30 and not make up the time elsewhere. My OH works full time and starts at 8 and finishes at 5.30/6 daily with absolutely no flexibility.

I've found it manageable if I constantly remember this. The good thing about teaching is that if I do need to leave at 4.30 to get my kids, then I can, but then I see it as I will need to make up that extra hour and a half that night, or at the weekend. I can't just not work it - I think some expect to teach full time and finish at 4.30, then moan about working at night but that's the choice we make.

The holidays are great, the pay is decent, yes it's incredibly hard work and please don't believe it's family friendly - it's not, no more than any full time job. I think if you remember that and don't fall into the trap of expecting it to be early finishes then it's manageable.

^^ this

But, it IS family friendly in so much as you can manage your own time. There aren't many jobs where you can leave at 3.30 and make up that time later.

Blooming crap if you ever want to go to nativity plays / first day at school / sports day etc though.

reveal oops I missed that sentence...

The op's husband I think does have kids (I'm on my phone so it's hard to scroll back), so how teaching works with children does need to be considered.

Thanks atruth. Interesting about such a low conversion from ta to teacher. There are a handful at the dc school, but I wouldn't want to work at the dc school (despite how easy that would make life). Secondary school around here goes til 5pm, but our primary teachers stay later than that. It's hard to see how it will work with family life, I guess that's the ta angle for me.

That's just my experience @imip - in secondary. It might be very different in different schools or in primary.

We started with around 20 ex ta staff on our PGCE. Half were gone before Christmas. I can think of two that finished the course. One of them didn't go into teaching.

I was a TA and trained to be a teacher as did 5 other people that I know personally, plus several others that were on my course. We are all primary and I have now been teaching for 10 years.

Thanks again for all your replies. It's interesting to see how opinions differ.

Yes we do have kids to consider, DS1 is almost 6 and DS2 is 5 months. Ideally DH either needs to work at DS1s school, or needs to do something which can fit around school hours, so it's becoming pretty clear that teaching is unlikely to be his future career, at least not until DS2 starts school.

He's still considering trying to be a TA in a few years time, but also considering doing his football coaching badges in the meantime so that he can get more involved in youth football at our local club. Slightly scared that there isn't really a plan at the moment but hopefully it will all fall into place in due course!