Am I too old??... 49!

[Brighteststars]

Am I wasting my time / too old to start a degree at 49 years of age to become a primary teacher (qts)... 53 when qualified!!!... help!!... your thoughts please!

I took a degree in my early 40s and have worked over the past 10 years as a class and 1:1 support, and most recently as a HLTA throughout Primary stages. As a HLTA I cover short absences. This has made me aware of the demands of teaching and at no time have I considered taking my PGCE.

@WipedOutDaze It might be possible to gain a space with a late application now, which would be a better option than waiting for clearing. I think it would be possible to find a space somewhere in the country with a late application. However, as the OP has children, I doubt she wants to move, so she is probably limited to 1 or 2 universities where doing a B.Ed would be viable and those universities might not have spaces.

It might also depend on which specialism, if any, she wanted to pursue.

Primary teaching is still more popular than secondary teaching in terms of applicants and the B.Ed is quite an attractive route as you don't need a prior degree, so it will be more competitive to get a place than most secondary subjects.

Scabetty- our hlta cover a day a week actual teaching. Or all afternoons actual teaching etc. It's nuts.

Yes I am due to cover a whole day in yr5 tomorrow as teacher is on training. I have lesson plan and powerpoint for lessons BUT down to me to deliver it and mark.

Our HLTA teaches virtually full time now! She does sickness absence cover, PPA, courses. She’s brilliant but is paid a pittance :(

Please would someone explain what a HLTA is?

Higher level teaching assistant.

Thank you, Boss.

Honestly, don't do it to yourself. I loved it for years but I'm pretty much done now. Teaching has changed beyond all recognition. I would tell you all the ways but I'm too tired. Roll on Easter.

I'm a Cover Supervisor and love my job, which is mostly behaviour management is seems.

I would never in a million years consider training to be a teacher. So bloody hard and, unfortunately, so many fantastic teachers spend their time doing useless paperwork and jumping through various hoops, rather than doing what they went into it for in the first place and teaching.

The teaching assistant role is sounding more appealing, based on the opinions. Maybe I'm looking at teaching through rose -coloured glasses?!

I have a part time contract with 1/2 day pay......I can assure you I work 40 hours plus a week

The holidays are great. The children are great.
It is not very family friendly in term time though- my parents eves have clashed with my children’s, I’ve missed countless sports days, plays etc. My husband always had to stay home when they were ill.
A lot depends on your school. If you have a good head and SLT then it’s a good job. But a nit picking, data driven SLT can make life very miserable. I’ve had both.

The teaching assistant role is sounding more appealing, based on the opinions. Maybe I'm looking at teaching through rose -coloured glasses?!
I think you're looking at it with the optimism of someone considering a career change, which is no bad thing.
On some things I do think you're maybe a little naive about what it'll be actually like.

There's a retention issue. How the retention goes depends on area, age, subject etc. Core subjects and MFL are bloody difficult to find anyone decent in my area.

How good your career goes depends on getting inti a good school. I've worked places that nearly broke me, were terrible for my mental health and could have seen me leave the profession. My current place is great and I love it.

The more you can get an idea of why you'd like to do it and some voluntary experience, the more you can make an informed decision

DB and SiL (as well as several friends) are teachers. On top of everything that has been mentioned upthread one of the saddest things I ever heard was SiL saying that she’d never been to one of her own children’s assemblies, nativities, concerts, open days.... that she used to use a childminder in the school holidays anyway to get through all her prep, marking etc.

I wouldn’t say that 49 is too old to retrain, but maybe reconsider your outcome.

Many members of my family are teachers and seeing the stress and pressure they are under put me off ever following them into the profession. I do work with children in a far lower paid, but I believe more rewarding, role. Teaching seems to be an underpaid, thankless and stressful task these days. Every teacher I know is either counting down the days to retirement as they are of an age where it’s not worth them retraining for something else, or they are younger and planning their escape. From what I am told it is definitely not just a nice little job for mums and it’s not like the lovely little government TV adverts either!

From what I am told it is definitely not just a nice little job for mums and it’s not like the lovely little government TV adverts either!

Ha ha-no!

My mum friends who work ‘normal’ 9-5 office job hours have far more child-friendly jobs, to be honest! They drop off at breakfast club, then go to work, then leave and collect from after school club, do dinner etc and don’t work in the evenings. If there is an assembly or show or meeting at 2pm-they book annual leave. They use kids club weeks in the holidays if they haven’t taken holiday.

If you’re happy to work 7/7.30-4/6 at school and then a few hours in the evenings, and more on sundays/in the holidays, then go for it. We certainly always need more fresh-faced enthusiasts. It’s funny that many just don’t stay though!

Don’t train to b a TA unless u have a fallback plan. 5 yrs ago our school halved the number of TA’s in school. They r halving again next month. Schools r crying out for teachers though!!!

Yes like Appuski says they are always looking for fresh faced enthusiasts and we all used to be that soldier. My posts on here may not convince you but I have loved, lived and breathed the job for years of my life.

But just in the last few years they are asking too much even for me. I feel tired all the time and the much celebrated holidays are increasingly spent either recovering from the brink of collapse or working, especially at Easter. My own family is suffering because of it.

The biggest change and challenge is the sheer pressure and accountability to get results for pupils who are incapable or undeserving. Having to somehow get good results for pupils who literally never attended school or never did any work at home. Teachers feeling under pressure to cheat on coursework because all the other local schools are cheating and you're supposed to do better than them. And if people refuse they are pariahs.

And parents are changing too. The sheer entitlement of some parents is astonishing. We are seeing more and more parents who don't know how to be parents or they're too tired to discipline their kids. So when little Jimmy is failing the first thing parents want to know is what YOU are doing about it. You laugh because if you didn't you would cry.

You are never, ever too old to embark on a new journey.

This is true in one sense, but the problem with career changing, is the cost. So with every year older, there is a diminishing return on the investment from the retraining. Teaching is just a job like any other job - you are dong it to earn money and there needs to be a good return on the investment.

4 years of living on student loans, 4 years of not climbing the career ladder in a different job, then having to start near the bottom on £25000 ish or less. It's not worth it. And if you're not doing it for the money, then you might as well be a TA instead.

Also, you say your youngest child is already 9. They will be 13 by the time you finish - you must know from your older children that at 13, they pretty much look after themselves - no childcare required anyway, so even if teaching was a good job to fit around kids (it isn't!), you won't have any young kids by the time you've retrained anyway.

Also, you say your youngest child is already 9. They will be 13 by the time you finish - you must know from your older children that at 13, they pretty much look after themselves - no childcare required anyway, so even if teaching was a good
Thanks - I still feel at teenage years, they need a certain degree of 'childcare' though equally if they need to be left, they can certainly look after themselves. My personal choice would be to still be around during school holidays during these formative years, to give structure to the day.
If I had uni debt of £27000, I could potentially pay nosy of that off during first year... assuming salary is £22000 ish??
Then whatever I earn would be a bonus, although my desire to embark on this, is not financially driven. I am hoping a primary qts degree would, I assume fit in with my 9 year old for next few years. I just hope my enthusiasm doesn't fade!!

Can you be a teacher assistant?

It is good to keep yourself and your brain active; it will keep you younger longer

What do you mean fit with your 9 year old? Although you'd have holidays youd be working tons more than full time during term time and lose weekends. If you thinking of something that fits with family training to be a teacher isn't it.... people struggle to fit it all in when they don't have kids. I just didn't see friends at all in term time and hardly saw my partner...

Wow!!! Just read this on the TES website!!... a recent news article

The working hours quoted in the report are shorter than those in the Department for Education’s more recent workload survey, which shows teachers in England work an average of 54 hours a week and school leaders work in excess of 60, said Mr Courtney.

54 HOURS A WEEK??!!!! True or false?!!

I used to be at school working 8-4.30 (secondary, already trained. Unusual to be that short now). Then about 2 hours evenings. Then I'd procrastinate most of the weekend but do 3 hours ish.

Wow that's 53 allowing half hour for lunch which never really happened due to work. It would of course be more around reports time and parents evening.

I could well believe primary teachers are doing more.