Anyone not regret going into teaching?

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Ok so I did my nursing back in 2009 and completed the first year. At the time, I asked/begged to be transferred from adults to children’s nursing but a place would only become available if somebody had left and they didn’t so I did as I really wasn’t enjoying it. Fast forward to now and I’m married with 2 children (7&4 almost) and I have been going backwards and forwards with pursuing primary teaching. However, I am yet to meet anyone that hasn’t regret their career choice. I’ve spoken to two that I know in rl and both hate it and I’m reading various forums and everyone seems to hate it, I think this maybe what has put me off over the years but I can’t squash the idea completely for some reason. So do you regret it? I understand the day of a teacher will have changed a lot if you have been doing it for many years. Anyone want to share their honest feelings?

I love teaching, been doing it about 15 years. I work hard but you work hard in lots of jobs. It is a big part of my life but not my total life. I teach in a secondary and don’t find the kids to be a nightmare. The job has huge highs and a few brief low points

Thanks for the honest feedback, i have so much to consider. It feels like such a bigger leap than the first time when i was 19 and had no one else to consider! Im 29 now and hope I've not left it too late..the University i attended suggested the Early years course with the scope of completing the extra top up QTS, maybe this qualification would be a good fall back. I help out with trips and extra reading at my childs school at the moment and after christmas i am going to have a set day volunteering there as well as helping with rainbows each week. I know this is far from what a teacher does but its all experience at the moment plus i know i won't get a real feel for what the teacher is dealing with as ultimately I'm still a parent helper but hopefully it will be beneficial in the long run. My other consideration is social work, maybe I'm a sucker for stressful jobs!

That’s definitely good experience but you’re right, as a parent-helper you’re protected from the bad bits. If you were TA, you’d see the full job, warts and all. Saying that, it’s now much harder to get a TA post due to finding cuts.

You’re in no way too old. When I trained (at 30) I wasn’t anywhere near the oldest.

I would also be wary of the early years specific course unless you’re absolutely sure you want to teach early years.

I love it. I’m secondary and I think it’s easier than primary to be honest.

Im certain on early years, that i am sure of but unsure on which is the best route in. My youngest starts school next year so it will free up more time as he does 3 hours a day at the minute at pre school. More qualified TAs than jobs available where i live sadly. Seems a shortage on SEN TAs though.

An SEN TA job is a fantastic way to get experience. I’m totally biased because that’s what I did to make sure I wanted to teach and I actually ended up loving it so much that I ended up in specialist provision.

There are loads of things I miss about that role. Such a rewarding (but awfully paid!) job.

There’ll be lots of children with SEN in most reception classrooms and they’ll usually be too early in their school career to have attracted any funding/specialist help. It would be great experience.

Sorry, I think I said it would be great experience so many times it got a bit weird.

Feel free to pm me if there’s anything you want help withz

What is the job market like near you? It would be worth finding that out before you train. In my area (big city) there has been a major reorganisation and lots of redundancies. It is much easier to get a job in a shortage subject like maths and physics than in primary for example. I know some primary teachers have been struggling to get more than supply or maternity covers for years.

Thanks for the advice PurpleDaisies i will be sure to pm you with any more questions i will inevitably think of!

I became a teacher 5 years ago and absolutely love it. Obviously at times I get tired/frustrated/fed up but because I love my subject (chemistry) and working with teenagers the annoying bits are worth it. Ring a local good school and ask to go in for a couple of days to see what you think.

I’ve been teaching secondary English for 12 years, 7 years as HoD. I love it, like someone else said upthread it has allowed me to have a good life, buy a nice house, have plenty of holiday time etc. You have to work hard and deal with stress well, but if you allow the kids to cheer you up you can spend your day having a blast. Teaching often gets a very bad press, some people would have you believe you have to work 80 hours a week for about 20k and you are regularly dealing with ‘violent’ students. In my bog standard Northern comp, this is simply not the case. 13 weeks holiday, £50k a year, decent pension and having fun at work is a good deal in my eyes.

Most teachers don’t last 12 years in the job, so perhaps factor that into your planning.

Do you have a degree already? Can you do a PGCE?

I've been a teacher for over 25 years and have never regretted it. I've taught in the UK and abroad, full time and part time and my experience and qualifications have opened up so many doors for me.

However I'm now no longer a classroom teacher. I'm not sure I could do that again but I did do it for many years.

No i don't have a degree i completed the first year of the course. Ive been a sahm for the past 6 years and its now time to do something i want and I'm proud of. I think i have my plan in place, lots of great insights and advice on here so thank you! I was getting bogged down with the negatives but i need to remember every job has good and bad points.

I love it. I’m secondary and I think it’s easier than primary to be honest.

From listening to people who teach primary I tend to agree. I don't think that I could be a primary school teacher for all the tea in China. I find secondary very straightforward though

I love it, but as pp have said, it depends SO MUCH on the school. Shit school, shit SLT = shit experience.

I don't regret it! I've been teaching 14 years on and off, and I absolutely love it. The job was very hard for the first few years but now I think I'm pretty good at it, I don't feel stressed, and I get a good amount of satisfaction out of it. I say go for it, with your eyes open.

Also don't compare primary and secondary. People think you don't get behavior problems in early primary but people don't believe the things I've seen! Still love it though.

Also don't compare primary and secondary.
Agree on this.
No good comes of it as it seems to almost always end up with a few whining who has it harder, who works the longest hours, who has the easier job etc.

I would find EYFS teaching stressful and exhausting, but your average EYFS teacher would probably find going from 11 year olds barely out of primary to 18/19 year olds every hour a bloody difficult job. Horses for courses and all that sort of thing.

Typically most reasonable people tend to find their feet and comfort zone in their chosen range and think "gosh I couldn't do another range".

I am a registered children’s nurse (quite a bit older than you) and a few years ago decided I’d had enough of nursing and would train as a teacher. I did three months of the training and left. I can honestly say it was the worst three months of my life.
Nursing is actually harder work on a day to day basis, some days I can barely stand up at the end of 13 hours without a break, it’s generally more stressful because I often care for very very sick children and their families I get less holidays work unsocial hours including Xmas day etc and of course the NHS is just collapsing around us which is devastating and everyone is under massive pressure all the time. But I believe in what we do, I work with brilliant team of staff we are totally committed to the children and their parents etc they absolutely come first for us at all times, and we genuinely care for our children.
I can’t fully explain why I hated teaching so much except to say that the ethos and way of working was totally contrary to my personality. I never once regretted chucking in the training I went back to nursing the next day.
If you’re still interested in paediatric nursing many hospitals will now take adult trained nurses and give them training it is the hardest but most rewarding job you can do you will work in partnership with some amazing children and their families you will get to know them watch them get better struggle suffer, support families when their child is critically unwell, rejoice with them when they get better and occasionally we sadly grieve with them when their child dies. It’s very stressful children go down hill very fast and you need to be competent enough indentify this ideally before the situation becomes critical and act accordingly on top of this there’s all the other crap endless paperwork bed pressures lack of equipment no staff but we I know genuinely make a difference to children and their families the vast majority are genuinely grateful for what we’ve done and to my mind it’s a million times better than teaching.

Never regretted it for a second and I am in my 11th year in Primary. Last 6 have been as a full time SENCO which, despite it's frustrations, is the perfect job for me.