Leaving a professional job to start a career in teaching? is it worth it?

[Squidge2015]

Hello I am after honest opinion please on my situation.

I currently work as a professional (in nhs healthcare). I graduated in 2011. I work in my role's capacity for 3 days a week and 2 days a week I lecture at undergraduate level in the job in which I graduated.

Over time I have become very disillusioned with the job I originally graduated from. We are self employed and the government has refused to renegotiate our contract since 2006; this has resulted in a real pay cut of almost 25% for the last 10 years (professional fees, indemnity etc are around £7000 a year, fees for practicing around £7000 a year as well so I automatically lose £14,000 before I even begin)
The amount of professionals leaving the career is at an all time high, there are rising law suits due to the ease I suppose in which indemnity is settled and it is becoming very difficult to have any enthusiasm to work in this area. With being in the NHS, there are less of us year on year, putting huge pressures on those that remain. Patients are putting huge pressures on very little numbers of staff (a local NHS run area just got bought out privately last month and now 17,000 patients need to find a new NHS provider in an already understaffed area)

With that being said, I chose my hours. Part of the year I am term time only but have no marking or lesson planning at all. With regards to my daily job in community other than maintaining CPD I have no other commitments. Current hours are 10am-6:30pm Monday and Tuesday, 2pm-5pm thursday, 9am-5pm friday and 9am-1pm saturday.
However I am terribly bored. There is no career progression (we are all self employed) and I can't see myself doing this long term physically.

Since I teach at university level I was interested in looking into moving into teaching as a career - it would be biology. I started researching last year and I put some feelers out to the local schools and attended a few. A friend heads the science department in a secondary school and said it was hard but rewarding and having 5 years of teaching undergraduates advised I would probably be snapped up.

I applied for SCITT through UCAS and was offered a position immediately during interview at my first interview - all 3 places offered me interview. Teaching at the university has always been my favourite part of the week and I thoroughly the two days I have with my students and I suppose have a lot of enthusiasm to move

However, what concerns me is that I may be leaving one profession which has been eroded by governmental policies, leaving me unable to do my job adequately, to another in the same position. I would probably be leaving a higher wage (currently approximately £33,000 after tax and deductions etc) which doesn't concern me but would I have the same work life balance for my LO? Would the work load mean I see less of her?

I would like honest opinion for current science teachers at secondary level and if they would recommend entering this career.
(I am 30 now if that would make a difference?)

Thanks

Imo you'd be leaving one profession where salary and conditions have been eroded by the government, and entering another that's potentially worse. Education institutions are cutting salaries and having redundancies too, your workload would be significantly heavier and imo you'd barely see your LO. Also teaching at university (adult students with self responsibility) is different to school (teaching badly behaved children and the teacher is held responsible for learning or lack of).

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. You wouldn't work those hours, but considerably more and you would have no control over you schedule. No work life balance.

I entered teaching in 2011 and have just got out. Poor behaviour and no life. I've even forgotten what hobbies I loved before teaching. I won't miss working M-F from 8am- 530pm and then again 8-10pm. Then also working Sunday 12-6ish. Sometimes Saturday too.

And you'd take a pay cut down to 22k for the privilege.

No. No no no. No.

There are about a thousand threads in the staff room topic on moving into teaching. Have a read through those. I'm on a fair few of them. I would not recommend anyone becoming a teacher now. I really struggle when we have pgce students in as I just want to grab them and scream "get out now!" while shaking them. I've been at it ten years. It's become increasingly miserable in that time.

People at University usually have some kind of enthusiasm for their subject. This is most definitely not the case in secondary school!

Our science department has a mad turnover rate as behaviour is appalling and nobody in their right mind wants to deal with the zoo that is KS3/4 science.
Two career changers with PhDs and huge motivation have quit within a term. One simply walked out and never came back, and I don’t blame them!

If you do want to do this you have to walk in with your eyes wide open. Ask why people have quit. Go in and observe.

This probably sounds really obvious, but you mention biology. Can you teach other sciences? It tends to be physicists who have their hands bitten off!

The science department at my school is actually one of he most stable departments : and all but three of our (large) senior team is a science or maths teacher!

You do need to go in with your eyes open : quite a lot of the gripes you have about your current role apply to teaching,too. And it does sound like potentially , you could be more respected by colleagues, peers and those you help in your current job that you would be in teaching. The put up and shut up culture in teaching is appalling.

The hours do not need to be as extreme as some on here suggest : but don't forget to factor in meetings outside of the standard working day and all those parents' evenings! (especially if you have childcare commitments)

ps 30 not old to enter teaching at all.

A colleague in a team I used to work in left his professional job to train as a secondary school science teacher. He lasted a few years and is now back in the exact same department he was in before training as a teacher, albeit having had a promotion to a higher grade and doing more of a training and QA role.

All I would say is go into the toughest schools in your area and watch some KS3 science lessons. Spend a full day shadowing a teacher on a 5 period day with 3 duties and a meeting after school.

No.

I think you’d be crazy to give up the work life balance you have now and that mix of university teaching & a specialist career to teach in a secondary school.

You’d basically be signing up to a low pay, low morale, high pressure and full on full time situation (+ the extra work at weekends/evenings).

I’m sorry if that sounds bleak, but just NO. I did 6 months as a TA in a good secondary school in London and it was enough for me to make up my mind that teaching wasn’t for me...

I wouldnt. Teaching especially for new entrants is v v hard and the work life balance would be much harder. Most people I have met like you end up givibg it up and going back to their original career not because they hated the job but because the hours and pay did not compensate for the work done. Put simply they realised their old career was not as bad as they had thought.

No. Hours will be at least 8-6 every day and more at home and most of your weekend. For less money.

And university students have chosen science, they want to be there, mostly. Try it with a class of 30 hormonal teenagers, 20 of whom don't want to be there. With the head of science watching and judging you on every word.

There are much better ways to overcome boredom than to go into teaching.

I love teaching. But not in school.

I'm afraid that you would be working longer hours for less money (at least for the first 5 years).

The starting salary would be less and hours are similar to 7:30-6 (5days per week) + you would probably take work home in the evenings.

May I ask what profession in the NHS you work?

No.

No. You'd be working for half your salary doing more hours.
Again. No.

No. Just don't.

I'm a secondary science teacher and I would never encourage anyone to enter the profession. I've been doing it for 15 yrs and I'm out as soon as I can find something with part-time, term-time only working.

It takes over your whole life and even when you're not at work you have work to do and it's never enough.

Is there any scope to increase your university role? I absolutely wouldn't go into secondary school teaching the ways things currently are.

Could you loosing stay in your current field but move to a private clinic/hospital?

Has anyone ever given you the impression that it is worth it to go into teaching? I'll admit, i'm surprised you're even asking the question. I only hear negative comments about teaching.

I genuinely love teaching (not all the crappy bits obviously) and usually say 'if you go in with your eyes open and are willing to accept some of the crappy stuff before you find a good school then go for it', but think you'd be mad trading your current set up for secondary teaching.

As someone said on a previous thread teaching is like being in an emotionally abusive relationship. Yes, it really is that bad. Abused by the kids (ok that's maybe predictable) but also abused by senior teachers! The system means senior teachers can only survive by doing this. Everyone is just trying to survive. Time is so precious because of the massive workload that no one has time to help anyone else.

Thanks everyone.

I have worked both private and nhs in my field. Privately I have issues denying patients treatment due to costs - people delaying things as they can't afford it. It plays on my mind a lot and I find I struggle with it. When I worked as a SHO I never had this issue, however NHS in my current role I find the underfunding of the system means we aren't providing the best care we know the patients need due to time and budget and restraints. Its a rock and a hard place. The job itself is fine, but the toll it places emotionally and physically is difficult; breaking bad news, people in pain etc it takes its toll.

To answer an earlier question I have two undergraduate degrees - one through university which was for my current job and a maths degrees with open university when it was a cheap system to learn with. I can teach biology, chemistry, maths to A-level and all sciences and maths to GCSE. As a side I can also teach music to GCSE due to previous music qualifications I did over time from childhood.
Biology is the area I would be most interested in followed closely by maths. I did maths with mechanics at a-level followed by further maths and advanced maths then maths with statistics at university (it helped a research post I was in at that time)

I really wanted to move into teaching as I feel I have a lot to offer. I enjoy teaching my students at university, have taught previous sixth form and currently oversee apprentices (16-18). However I don't want to do this at the expense of my LO. My LG is my priority always and just because I want this change and new challenge, if it puts me in a worse position for my LG its not worth it to me.
I have a feeling I am going to withdraw from SCITT as from the sounds of it I would see my LG less and although the job is rewarding and a challenge I would lose so much time with her.

I would say wait until you are finished with children, sorry I don't know if you have or even desire any, or wait about five years from now. About then I think things may be improving, and teaching is too time consuming to be compatible with family. Teaching is great but remember the job as it is at the moment is very minimal teaching and maximum babysitting and paperwork

Don't do it. You will never get to attend your LOs sports days, assemblies, nativity plays etc. as you will be stuck teaching other people's children (unless you work part time and have an accommodating SLT, which is getting rarer).
Can you move sideways? Increase the University teaching? Move abroad? (That's what I have done and am now that rare example - a happy teacher with good work-related balance!)