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Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

Original poster

To retrain or not

53 replies

welshmummyto2 · 03/10/2017 21:00

I am thinking about retraining to teach. I would be a secondary school History teacher. I am wondering what hours I can expect to work? I am also disabled with a chronic disability and quite a lot of pain most days, so I would be interested to hear from people with any disability that teach successfully.
Thanks

OP posts:
millimat · 04/10/2017 07:06

Isn't it a sad state of affairs? I came on here thinking that secondary teachers actually have a life unlike primary ones Confused
I too 'work' 3 days 8-5pm in school. Then at least 2 hours every night including the days I'm not in work. Plus one of my days off is spent doing school work.

Piggywaspushed · 04/10/2017 07:10

Did you really milli??? Goodness.

butterfly990 · 04/10/2017 08:56

Could the museum you work at do a summer school holiday programme or after school? This would potentially give you more from the job you love and promote the museum.

seven201 · 04/10/2017 09:07

Sorry, but with a chronic health condition I really wouldn't recommend it. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone healthy either. I regret changing career and wish I could go back.

wannabestressfree · 04/10/2017 09:27

I have a chronic disability and work full time as a teacher. They employed me knowing I had said condition and that I would need time off. I love my job but it is very tiring and I fall into the holidays by the skin of my teeth. I love teaching though :)

Changerofname987654321 · 04/10/2017 20:24

millimat I believe the average secondary teacher works something like 4 less hours a week than a primary teacher.

Changerofname987654321 · 04/10/2017 20:26

I would not retrain OP. Are you in Walls as your name suggests? It maybe different there.

Uokbing · 06/10/2017 20:55

Another who thinks you should really think it through. If you work in a museum and are passionate about education, please do bear in mind that being an actual teacher will be very different to what you imagine. The adverts where young teachers are having banter with well behaved, engaged, inspired students are total bullshit. The hours are ridiculous, even with the holidays, and is physically and mentally demanding as there is no downtime. The only perk for me now is that i dont have to find childcare in the holidays.

But i am cynical and jaded and at the end of the road as far as teaching goes Sad

millimat · 06/10/2017 22:44

But i am cynical and jaded and at the end of the road as far as teaching goes

I know the feeling well Sad

TheOnceAndFutureQueen · 08/10/2017 09:25

I'm a History teacher and love it (in a very good, over-subscribed school in the south east - I have had very different feelings about the job when working elsewhere). The hours are long though and the amount of marking is ridiculous at times.

I'm not disabled but currently 11 weeks pregnant and suffering from HG (I know it's not comparable but has really affected my ability to work) . I'm so exhausted by this that I've been in school from 8.15-5 and doing nothing at home at all. However, I can only get away with this because I've been teaching for 9 years so can get away with tweaking old lessons for now and my HOD is fine with the fact that I'm being a bit slower marking and returning work than usual. In my first 3 years of teaching, I wouldn't have been able to cope like this.

None of this means you wouldn't be able to do the job though. I'd second the suggestions above to spend as much time in different schools as you can and ask lots of questions. Research it really well. With the right school and SLT you could make it work.

greendale17 · 08/10/2017 09:28

"I am also disabled with a chronic disability and quite a lot of pain most days".

I don't see how you could be a teacher. Teachers I know work 7am-6:30pm, are permanently stressed and exhausted

mollifly · 08/10/2017 09:32

If this is what you want, don't let anyone stop you. Flowers

MummySparkle · 08/10/2017 09:44

Regarding the lack of tolerance for absences within schools: one of my colleagues (HOD) had a major stroke just before Easter. She had 2 weeks off, then the holidays & came back on a phased return. In total she has had 17 days off.

She had a day off work for a migraine last week. Had to have a return to work interview. Her SLT line manager told her that ‘if your department wasn’t performing so well then I would be very concerned about your attendance if I were you’ Shock Colleague was flabbergasted. There is no compassion for illness & it’s just hideous. Colleague was really really ill and has made an amazing recovery & surprised doctors, but her brain is very different now to what it was. Anyone that knows her well would see that.

I’m not a teacher, but student-facing support staff. I am contracted for 15hrs a week, I probably work nearer 18most weeks. SLT have discovered that I’m a good teacher (although not qualified) and now take advantage of this at every available opportunity

Uokbing · 08/10/2017 11:26

If this is what you want, don't let anyone stop you

No one is stopping the OP, but given that currently a third of NQTs are leaving within 5 years, and more experienced teachers are also leaving in droves, I think it's sensible to tell the OP to think it through and to also say that for most people the job is absolutely nothing like what it looks like.from the outside. And I would say that to anyone with or without a disability.

OP I think it's best to try and get some work experience in a.school if you can, for a good length of time. That would give you an idea of the sorts of hours, daily tasks etc that would be expected. And is also probably better than asking on here where most of the teachers are pissed off and fed up and probably aren't all the helpful (myself included!)

SquashedInTight · 08/10/2017 11:51

You risk your mental health and the physical health that you do have.

It's like going back to feudal Britain, where the Head has almost total power. If the Head so chooses, with a few fawning SLT to back them up, they can make up anything they like about anyone - or just pile on the work and stress until their chosen target is broken and either capabilitied out or resigns. Or they can implement policies that harm learning and insist (with observations, book scrutinise etc) that they are followed, then have a go when results fall. Or just ask for the impossible and berate staff for not achieving this, year on year. Most schools do that one. And of course pay is performance related, so if you don't meet those impossible targets, you won't go up a grade!

Then there is being on your feet all day, carrying huge piles of books to mark, being bent over a desk marking all evening, every evening. If you are sick? Tough. Medicate up and come in.

I have met so many ex teachers since I left. Most had nightmares for 6 months or more after quitting. Some had PTSD, and many ex teachers now Home Educate their own children. That is telling.

Some schools are good. Yet they are dependent on that one Headteacher, who could leave, or become sick...

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 08/10/2017 11:54

is also probably better than asking on here where most of the teachers are pissed off and fed up and probably aren't all the helpful

I really am pissed off. The whole thing makes me pissed off.

I did three years at uni and had four placement schools during my time there. Of those four, I hated three of them to the point of nearly giving up.

Now I’m trained, completed my NQT year (which everyone tells you is the hardest year) and at the beginning of NQT+1. I am more stressed now than at any point last year and it is only October.

I have been in the world of teaching for six years and my mental health has never been as poor as it is right now. I have applied for a different public sector job that is also hard work but I feel it can’t be any worse than teaching so I will give it a go.

SquashedInTight · 08/10/2017 12:05

I think it is fairly realistic on here tbh! 14/15 years ago teaching was such an amazing, rewarding career. Even the HTs were less stressed and more pleasant to work with! Such a shame that education is in such a state now.

BumWad · 08/10/2017 12:33

Return to work interviews are common everywhere. We have had them for quite a while in the NHS

AccrualIntentions · 08/10/2017 12:40

Return to work interviews are common everywhere. We have had them for quite a while in the NHS

And local government. We have one after each absence. I thought this was the norm?

DH is SLT in a secondary, and they do have teachers with disabilities at the school so presumably it can be done. No idea how difficult it is for those individuals to manage though, I'd imagine extremely difficult if they work anywhere near the number of hours he does.

Fffion · 08/10/2017 17:05

Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this, but see if you can spend a few days in two or three secondary schools, shadowing teachers/students. You will get a good insight into the day to day activities of a teacher.

Only you know how your disability will be affected. If you need help with mobility, there are schools that have provision for disabled students, so will have lifts etc.

thecatfromjapan · 08/10/2017 17:25

This thread has infuriated me. If the education profession has become one that is not suited to applicants with a disability, surely that is an issue of structural discrimination . I'm not naive, I've come across instances of people being eased out of employment in education due to their disablilities, and even out of PGCE courses.

But it's not acceptable!

How have we reached this point? It's not OK. And it is even more amazing when you think of who it is who is attracted to work in teaching. Most of us enter the profession because we care about opportunities for people generally (and young people in particular).

Teachers are those people who really care about things like equality and opportunity. SMT is drawn from those people - they're not a separate species.

What on earth is going on? Sad

What sort of message does it send to children when they see so few teachers with a disability in schools? Sad

Piggywaspushed · 08/10/2017 17:42

Whilst I absolutely agree with you in principle cat, the OP has a disability which she cites causes exhaustion. With the best will in the world, teaching is not going to help. I think people are trying to be realistic.

I think there is structural discrimination in teaching, definitely.

There is no reason whatsoever why a disabled person could not be an exceptional teacher but, human as they might be, I haven't found SMTs terribly good at making any allowances even for people with something as commonplace as pregnancy!

Piggywaspushed · 08/10/2017 17:45

On the lifts subject ,w e have some at out school : stair lifts. On Open Evening, not one member of staff had a key to operate the lift to enable a disabled student to access LS of all places, or the library. Most of the departments used upstairs rooms and the tour was set up to involve lots of walking and huge numbers of steps. It's unbelievable really.

thecatfromjapan · 08/10/2017 18:20

I'm sorry if my post came across badly, Piggy; I'm really , really not blaming anyone on this thread. I know they're being realistic.

I think my problem is that there is something wrong with the profession, as it now is, that this is the case. It really oughtn't be. It needs to change because it is essentially discriminating against a whole group of entrants to the profession, despite the abilities they could bring.

Rachie1986 · 08/10/2017 18:24

I have m.e. it's actually pretty good currently and has been for a number of years but I have my bad days and can't imagine how I'd cope if I wasn't as well as I am.

Long hours.

Museum sounds lovely :-)

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