Teacher training help please!!

[AllGoodDogs]

POSTED HERE FROM WORKFEST FORUM (thanks, appuskidu)

Im baffled, bamboozled and flummoxed with the online info about how to even start down this path.

I'm 32, educated to A level and have worked in customer service and admin roles up to now. DCs are in full time school now and my parents have suggested now may be the time to think long term- a career with progression, pension, security etc rather than middling along in admin jobs. I currently work part time for a preschool, was considering doing a TA course but would like to learn more about teaching.

Can someone explain to me in layman's terms what I need to do. How do I train - will I need to do a F/T uni course? Are there options to help with childcare before & after school etc? My DH works abroad so I don't have anyone on hand to rely on regularly for wraparound childcare.

Financially we could manage without my meagre earnings but couldn't afford for it to cost us to train so would need student loans or bursary to cover the costs of training.

Thanks very much in advance for any guidance!!

Would none of you recommend it? No. And I wanted to be nothing but a teacher since I was 12. Although I'm secondary, not primary, so the 'which age' thing isn't relevant to me.

There are umpteen MN threads where OPs have said "I want to retrain to become a teacher" and almost every response (from teachers) has been "You must be insane. Thousands of us are not quitting for no reason, you know."

Teaching is the one job I've told my dc not to do (unless things change radically by the time they leave university).

Hmm. Food for thought, thank you.

You're welcome. And yes, it's not just disheartening, it's devastating really. I loved teaching. It was who I was. These days I do bits of cover supervising, a.k.a. crowd control (in any subject where a teacher is absent, which many are, even in my local good school where my dd goes and my dh works). It's draining and low paid, but I get to walk out at the end with no preparation, no marking and no responsibility. I also do some adult teaching, which is an absolute joy. Successive governments (of both political parties) have utterly fucked up the education system.

I like it on the whole! Again not primary.

I don't like my career and the way I am treated by SLT but that's a whole other long story but , in general, I like teaching.

I have occasionally thought of leaving but I have Stockholm Syndrome and know no other life...

There are MANY things I would change about teaching. It was a better job in 1995 overall .

I might give a different answer tomorrow when year 10 have pissed me off.

I have been teaching (primary) for around 30 years. I really have enjoyed virtually all of it.
Would I be happy if either of my children said they wanted to train? No. Fucking. Way. Not nowadays and not the way it's all heading. I can't tell you how relieved I am that both mine have now finished with school and are at University, too. I'm afraid I'd have serious concerns if they were starting the school process now.

DS2 says he wants to be a teacher. He's 13 so may well change his mind several times. (DS1 used to want to but now he ahs no aspirations whatsoever). I have told him it's a good ambition!

As a long term option, you could get a job as a TA great experience etc and look at distance learning to get a degree (the OU has a degree in primary education www.open.ac.uk/courses/qualifications/q94) and you would need to get QTS (qualified teacher status) and there are a few different routes you could go down.

This might give you a longer term plan but do-able with young children and DH away a lot. And if it is not for you then you still have a degree in you pocket.

Have a look at my thread about seeing other people's kids more than my own...

6 years of teaching and I'm jacking it in. It is so family unfriendly

So what other career options are there for someone like me:

Degree in Art, 18 months experience working with children, desire to keep working with children.

I’ve thought about art therapy but it looks really risky in terms of job stability.

Are you interested in primary or secondary? I know a lot of quite content secondary art teachers, I must say.

Would none of you recommend it?

No, no and a million times no.

Most of the children are lovely. That part is great.

It's not worth the rest of it. Unless you enjoy working 16 hour days, giving up weekends, spending most of your wages on your class and having no friends or family, and that's without all the stress and pressure from above, I wouldn't recommend it.