Should I come back to school teaching?

[IHeartKingThistle]

I know, I know...but I'm really thinking about it.

I used to be a secondary teacher and I left 6 years ago. I currently teach in Adult Learning. I work 2 full days and 2 half days for 3 different bosses. The learners are amazing. The paperwork and the planning are horrendous and I work a lot at home, just as I used to as a school teacher. There is a huge amount of driving and ferrying equipment around. It's kind of a chaotic way to work. I can do most of my school runs due to class times, which is amazing. But the pay is abysmal. With all 3 jobs together I don't even manage to scrape 10k a year.

I've seen a job advertised in a local secondary school in my subject for 2 days a week. If I got it I'd be on more money than I am now. I could spend a whole day at home marking and planning and still have 2 days off. It just seems to make sense.

I've never stopped missing teaching teenagers, but all the rubbish stuff about school teaching hasn't gone away, has it? And what if I've forgotten everything? And what if 4 years of teaching 1 or 2 sessions a day means I can't cope with 4 or 5?

I'm so tempted to apply though. Has anyone come back after a break and not regretted it?

I forgot to say I'm on the UPS so a MPS job would be great!

Does it say 2 days a week or .4?

Actually two days a week- great. .4 over most of the week.. less good.

Damien Hinds is going fix it for us all anyway.

Hi, sorry i know v little about teaching other than DH wants to go into teaching IT at secondary. He has a degree and has re-taken GCSE Maths and English and got B's. He hasn't done his teacher training yet though as it would mean leaving a full-time perm job as postman. He hates it but at least it's sort of secure and i'm terrified if he leaves it he won't be able to find a teaching job esp around where we are out in the sticks. We can't relocate as we're in a shared ownership house we've only just bought. My gut feeling is don't risk it but he's come this far and he can't be a postie forever as it's doing him in physically. They're offering a bursary for IT teaching at secondary level at the moment but should that ring alarm bells as they obviously can't get anyone to do it?! Should he bother going into it? I'm sorry to hijack this thread but if anyone has experience of teaching i would love to hear what their views are. Thanks xx

It says Thursday and Friday.

I've done 0.6 over 4 days before and it sucked!

OP, you could come back to teaching and see how you get on with it. Nothing has to be forever. If you don't like it, how easy would it be to get back into doing what you're currently doing?

That's what I'm thinking. It wouldn't be difficult to get back in. The advertised post is actually a maternity cover anyway so if I hated it it would only be temporary. My boss would do her nut though - it's really hard to recruit because of the low pay.

Check it is 2 days a week.

Things I would want to know are:_

When are the department meetings?
How any parents evenings will you have to cover?
How many open days and meet and greets will you have to do?
Will the twilight meetings be on your work days?
What do they want you to do re inset days?
Will you share your groups with other teachers - when are the planning times for this?
How many students will you be responsible for report writing - you could have a few groups or a large number in two days?
How many different age groups /levels will you be teaching?
I doubt you will do all your pre pand marking for 2 days teaching in a day so are you prepared for there to more than this?

(Not a disgruntled part time teacher at all!)

I love your list! I think I'd blanked out many of those things from last time I was a disgruntled part time teacher!

Your current job sounds logistically horrendous.

You'd probably be swapping logistical horror for worse students but better pay and less rushing around like a blue-arsed fly.

I'd give the classroom another go, tbh.

Noble I always think you give good advice on this board so thank you!

Yes logistically my job doesn't really work. I'm trying hard not to think about the grass being greener but surely this could be a good option? It's true that for 4 years I haven't taught a single person who didn't want to be in the classroom - going back to teenagers could be a shock to the system. Still, I really think it's worth a shot.

I'm expensive, though, compared to an NQT. That'll go against me, right?

You will be expensive but not many NQTs will be looking for a 0.4 post because it would drag the NQT year past two years, I’d have thought (plus it wouldn’t really give them scope to meet the standards).

I think a maternity cover would be good to dip your toe back in the water but you’d also need to have some plan for when it ends.

Teaching a full day is hard, but on a two day week, it would be manageable. I’m 0.6 and a bit and two days a week are 4/5 lessons, the rest 3 or fewer. It does make a difference, I’m wiped out in the evening but it’s not like full time, you have time to recover.

You won’t be given nice top sets, but the pay off is time and money.

Nothing ventured, eh?

Full time would kill me I think!

No I would anticipate a lot of KS3 and lower sets. Also as I teach English it would be all split classes, which isn't great but is unavoidable when part time really. But I assume there's precedent for part time in the department if they're advertising for 2 days, so hopefully they're used to working like that. In my last school I was the only part timer and the only one with DC and that made it very difficult.

I'm returning to teaching after 20 years I kid you not..... so you should be fine!! Thing is, no job is perfect, I've worked horrendous hours for horrendous bosses and through horrendous times in several businesses. What's special about teaching is the kids, try and focus on that. The moment when you see the penny drop and they go 'aha' is priceless.
Good luck OP.

Can I just add a caveat; you're not necessarily expensive compared to NQTs. Payscales were scrapped quite some years ago and schools may offer you what they like. Most non-MAT schools do roughly adhere to the old payscales guidelines but its up to you to negotiate.

Go for it - it sounds like a no-brainer to me, if you can work 2 days a week for more money that you're getting now. Once you've settled back in, I think you'll find yourself only needing half a day for planning/marking etc.

I've worked 2 days a week before and it was easy. In fact, by the end of my contract (it was temporary), I didn't do any work outside my 2 days in school. I had 1 PPA, and one A-level applied science lesson, which was mostly them doing project work, so I got work done in both of those and I did the rest during lunchtime and before/after school.

I find teacher workloads with respect to hours of teaching seems to be more exponential than linear, so going from 2 days a week to 4 days a week, doesn't seem to double the work load, it seems to quadruple it!

@booseysmom has your DH got a degree in IT or Computer Science? There's been a huge over hall in IT teaching so there's now a massive shortage of IT teachers who are actually qualified to teach the new syllabus - hence the huge bursary. If my DH has trained a year later he would have got a 20k bursary rather than 4k. I know you say that you live rurally but as long as your DH is willing to travel I can't imagine he would have any trouble getting a job. Just to put that in perspective, my DH's department should have 4 teachers - 2 of them are currently off sick, the other teacher is v experienced but not a programmer so struggles with the new GCSE a A Level, and my DH is the only one with a Comp Sci degree. Because of that, he has something ridiculous like 6 exam classes this year.

This is all very encouraging - thank you so much!

English has such a heavy markload but even with a full day set aside I'd still have more time off than I do now.

What I do know is that the department can make or break a job. A lovely department makes all the difference. I've worked in great ones and awful ones but I have no idea how to spot an awful one. Need to develop a spidey-sense!

Interesting about the pay scale. The ad does say MPS so you never know.

Good luck Mini!

On interview day, ask any English staff if they enjoy working in the department and observe if they take a deep breath before answering or look around to see who’s listening!

Good luck! Schools can always do with more good teachers. It would be a shame for Adult Learning to lose you, but at under £10k, what can you do?

Ooh good tip!

Yeah the pay in AL is so so bad. It's such a rewarding job in other ways, particularly the GCSE groups, but I do want my pay to reflect my skills and experience and it just doesn't.

peaches1991...thanks for your msg. Kind of you to reply. My DH doesn't have an actual IT degree but has worked in programming and has been doing coding clubs at schools so he's getting good experience. I've just read your msg out to him and he says the problem is teachers are working 70 hours p/w and leaving the profession in droves and its just the whole risk thing..does he give up his current job to do the training? Crystal ball and all that!
Thanks x

70 hour weeks is about right, Boosey. There is no point in pretending - the basic reason they are currently dangling great carrots out in front of people to train to teach is because of huge problems in recruitment and retention. Perhaps read this article?

www.teachers.org.uk/edufacts/teacher-recruitment-and-retention

BlessYourCottonSocks: thanks for your msg and link. I'll get DH to have a read. I must admit i know little about it but warning bells are ringing in my ears at this moment! It reminds me of the time i went for a careers interview and they kept plugging the whole 'become a probation officer' thing saying it was a great career, blah blah!! The reality is no-one wants to do it!😕

Disappointing update: they filled the vacancy on the first day it was advertised (I'm guessing internally). Not sure why they bothered advertising really.

Sigh. So wanted to hand my notice in.

Oh, that’s a shame! Still, now the thought is in your head you can actively start looking for something?