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!

Average. So half of them work more than that. I have been a TA for 14 years and iwould not teach for double the money. Even though I started this job with a view to finishing my OU degree and doing a pgce

Well I tend to work 7:45-5:30 so we'll say 8-530. 9.5 hours a day. Some days more. Other days I leave on the bell to have a life.

I average between 45-50 hours a week and that includes leadership stuff. I work in a good school and find it manageable.

In a previous school I was working a 60-70h working week. It nearly drove me from teaching.

So much is school dependent.

How does supply teaching work?... in terms of hours etc

Go for it OP you have enthusiasm and the sort of attitude I would love to see in teaching, I have 2 DC and I can't speak highly enough of my DS teacher he is amazing and so dedicated. I work as a ward sister in the NHS so know about working unpaid hours weekends etc, all jobs have there bad points but often the good bits outweigh the bad.

I don't think my job is a million miles removed from a teacher In terms of pay, excess hours and public perception, sometimes you just have to do what you want to do, I love being a nurse but it's bloody hard and not family friendly but we make it work. Go for it.

Head teacher, primary. In school for 7.30am, leave at 6.30pm. An hours drive each way so a 6.30am - 7.30pm day every day. I don't stop for lunch but eat as I work.
Often have governors meetings, parents evenings, concerts to attend during the evening.
School work most evenings, though not a Friday if I can help it. Usually school work Saturday until about 2.00pm. Try not to work on a Sunday but do catch up with emails Sunday night before the week starts.

I hate not having a home life, I hate living on meals of toast because I am too tired/not planned food. I hate the Winter when I don't see home in daylight. I haven't had one full nights sleep in 5 years.

Saying all of that the biggest shock for me is having to plan time to relax; what is that about? Planning to relax knowing if I don't I will go under.

The expectations are just about unmanageable.

@Brighteststars I'm a full time primary teacher, and 54 hours a week is about right. It's exhausting! I have been teaching for 9 years. I love actual teaching, but the paperwork and expectations (e.g. marking) are so so time consuming.

It depends what type of supply.

You generally want to get through your NQT year first.

Then it depends if you do day ti day supply or long term supply.

When we take long term supply we want someone to do the job of a member of staff.
On day to day supply you turn up, essentially babysit and go home.
Day to day sounds more exhausting to me.

I work part time. I don’t know how likely it is to get a part time post in primary (I’m secondary) but it makes the job manageable. It’s really dependent on the school and how supportive the atmosphere is. I think it’s a great job but I would never, ever do it full time again.

I work 7.30 till 6pm and when you add travel my working day is 6.30 till 7pm if no problems with travel. I love teaching, I love spending time with my class and talking through stuff with them like why 9.15 is quarter past nine and fifteen minutes past nine but for evidence can they just do quarter past for now! I love being made cards and finding messages in books saying Mrs Jones is the best teacher in the world. The rest of it I struggle with. Paperwork, unfair and inappropriate testing, not having space in the timetable for random discovery and exploration, having a worry doll in my classroom because it is needed and being asked how I am going to get my results up when all of my group support in interventions have gone for cover so we don't have to spend money on supply.
It really is the best and worst of jobs and could so easily just be the best again.

Mate.

I am 47 years old & have been teaching for nearly 20 years.

I left the UK 3 years ago for a lovely, cushy, tax free well paid job at a private international school. I am very happy.

My dc are at the school at which I teach, which makes a massive difference, & I still don't get to see anything fun they do because I'm at the other end of the campus teaching.

I work after school whilst my kids get the bus home to the housekeeper. I'm in most weekends. I work through the holidays & arrange childcare.

Teaching in the UK is a bit like this, but as Ginger said of Fred, 'I do everything he does, only backwards & in high heels'.

Seriously, a) approach with caution & b) dis abuse yourself of any notion that anything about the job is 'a lovely job for mums'!

54 hours is a standard week, but NQT year will require more as you're not used to the lessons. Think I did 60 most weeks. I now do about 40 but am only paid 80% and have arranged 2 full days of childcare over Easter for marking

Oh my goodness!!... I've truly had my eyes opened here, to the reality of the hours!
Thank you for being so honest about what does appear to be a job to fit in with family life!... maybe not?!

That's what everyone said on the first page!! I'm not sure why people don't believe us...

I guess all the extra hours term time even out a bit with the holidays but I found term time crippling and I don't know many with children that manage it. Most leave....

@StickStickStickStick I'm expecting my first child in July, and I highly doubt I'll go back full time. I only know one mum who is a full time primary teacher.

It is still a job (vocation?) I would definitely hope to do. I will press on with my plans and hopes to get into teaching (primary)
I doubt leaving work at 6pm instead of 5pm would bother me, if it was a role I enjoyed. I guess personality and how you view situations comes into it. Definitely NOT afraid of hard work. I can see it's not 'family friendly' as I first thought, but kids are getting older. And if I let these factors stop me then NO job would suit!... best to aim to do something I hope to love & enjoy, that is to be a teacher.
If one can find a job one loves, then one never has to work a day in their life!!... that's my hope!

54 hours is the absolute minimum of the hours I work a week. Most weeks it is a lot more than that. I have no children, and the number one complaint I hear from my colleagues who do, is that they never have enough time to see their kids. As pp have said, you will never be able to go to any of their assemblies/presentations/plays etc.

I still (at the moment) enjoy my job, but you do need to be aware that it is brutal. I have no idea how people with families do it.

Definitely NOT afraid of hard work

It's not that it is hard work, no-one minds that, it is the fact that a lot of the time-consuming work you will have to do is pointless, will be duplicating stuff that already exists, and will have no impact whatsoever on the students. What really makes me angry is the amount of time I have to spend on meaningless data tasks. We are weighing the pig so much we have forgotten to feed it at all.

Can you tell I've had a bad day??!

I'm a TA and I would definitely not recommend teaching to my dd as a family friendly career. Do it if you feel passionate about it but not because it's family friendly.

@Brighteststars I admire your determination. Here's what I think

You can never be prepared for the exhaustion you will feel at the end of term

You will never have been as mentally drained

You will realise what sleepless nights are as you are lying awake over a pupil who has gone home to an unsafe environment and you can't stop worrying

You will be responsible for the progress of all your classmates regardless of what happens to prevent them progressing. You will be made to feel a failure because these children have not made adequate progress.

You will forget what it feels like to not feel stressed until week 4 of the summer holidays - a few days before the back to school dreams start

Your family will learn to exist without you. And get to tell you to stop using your teacher voice at them!

It is never ending OP. I love parts of my job - the kids, the lessons, the breakthroughs .... everything else is pretty crap - especially never being good enough.

Appuskidu Mon 19-Mar-18 08:17:03
The bits I don’t like are:-

-being held personally responsible for the data of the children in your class and losing out on pay rises when eg the child in your class has cancer and has 6 months in GOSH, or another child’s parent dies.

@Appuskidu Please please explain this ?? As it sounds bloody heartless.

Thing is OP, as shit as teaching can sometimes be, I never lose sight of the fact that I am making a difference. Some of the kids I work with really need me. It’s worth it for them.

Belle
PP probably means that she is being held responsible for lack of those children’s progress which is really due to these horrible life events.
Then her managers are using this as an excuse for her not progressing up the pay scale. Because she has ‘failed’.

Yep, nuffaluff. That’s it. Percentages were set (by them) at the start of the year. Mine weren’t hit because of those two situations.

I doubt leaving work at 6pm instead of 5pm would bother me, if it was a role I enjoyed.

That really is missing the point of the workload. If I left at 6 instead of 5 (which I do anyway) and it made all the difference in the world to the workload, it wouldn’t be much of a problem.

APPUSKIDU....would you continue to work in teaching if you did not need to work financially??