If you had your time over again would you still become a teacher?

[Want4dayhelp]

Seriously considered training to be a teacher after finishing my science degree. Decided not too and then dc/life got in the way. I now have a fairly stress free flexible job but it's not challenging at all. Every couple of months for the last few years I think about teaching again so I do some research and read the boards on here with all the posts about people wanting to leave teaching and it puts me off. I put it to the back of my mind again but it keeps coming back up.

If you are a teacher and could go back to before your training would you choose teaching again? Or something else?

Is there any truth here in that pp who say a definite no to teaching have been in it for 15+ years and so have seen the decline in conditions?

Pp who have retrained to become teachers having had previous jobs/ careers say they would recommend it but school is everything...

I'm currently nursing, looking forward to seeing the contrast next year when I'm in my probation year as an NQT.

I've been teaching for 15 years, with three maternity gaps, and six years in small group SEN teaching. I would absolutely do it again with some rejoinders about my personal circumstances. I am 0.8, have not worked full-time since 2010; I have done 0.2 up to 0.8, and I'd never be full time again. I'm secondary English, and the marking workload is heavy.

DH is a high earner, so I am happy to stay on the top band of UPS, and don't have to increase my workload still more with further responsibilities (couldn't anyway, as our academy trust don't promote part timers).

I love the school I work in and my colleagues, and feel very well supported. I have built good working relationships with notorious families in the area. This makes behaviour management much easier.

Pick your school carefully.

gettofuckthrees
I've not been doing it 15 years but I can think of some colleagues who speak of the old days full of nostalgia.
Elements of it sound better e.g. lack of focus on exams, students being held accountable for their effort rather than teachers being told Sarah must get an 8 regardless of how much messing around she does. There didn't used to be an intervention culture etc.

But I do also think (and this is anecdotal) some people like the good old days and complain about things now because they've had to raise their game. So now you can't decide that y8 doesn't matter so you'll stick films on, do lots of games, teach whatever content you fancied to teach, teach in one way and ignore the fact that some kids can't access the curriculum etc.

Whilst I think the overall culture across schools in general was probably better 10+ years ago (and I think we've gone too far towards staff being accountable in places), I do think it was easy for some staff who weren't that strong to coast along and blame the kids when a few changes to their own teaching might have helped.

Maisypops, I think you're absolutely right, in some cases.

nope. In some ways... the holidays and childcare friendly hours.. teaching has been great but if I'm honest I get more and more deluded year after year.
I've been sworn at. I've had photos taken of me which were Photoshopped onto a pornographic picture. I've had live animals left in my room. I've been asked for sex. I've been assaulted.
The only way i make it through is I now work in a brilliant school and I work part time.
Sadly retraining or leaving whilst I have a mortgage to pay is not an option.

Latest figures suggest a at least a third of new teachers leave within 5 years which suggests they've chosen to leave. I imagine most regret it.

A recent survey by the Associate of Teachers and Lecturers of current trainee/student teachers and NQTs found 73% had already seriously considered leaving the profession, mainly because of workload. I imagine many regret it.

Yes. The alternative when I did my pgce was to train in hr so as a full timer potentially I could have gone all the way to hr director and been loaded.

But teaching suits life with kids better. If I was part time in her I wouldn't be in a higher paid role. As a part time teacher I still get paid on UPS. Lower paid roles in hr are much lower paid than I am! I was always going to have kids. I always knew that would be my priority. Teaching is tough he encroaches on some family life but still suits what I need.

Also I love my school!! I would not have survived if I had to work in my first school....or either of my placement schools tbh.

@PixieN - I'm training to be an interpreter. I'm spending a few years brushing up on my language skills then I'll do my interpreter qualification. The thought of working somewhere different each day, going where I'm needed, meeting different people and being able to show I'm doing my job just by doing it, rather than needing to have book scrutinies/learning walks etc., is going to be amazing!

Sounds fab @IWantChocolates - especially escaping book scrutinies & lesson obs, not to mention marking! Sounds interesting too. Hope it goes well for you!

I had a career first and then re-trained as a teacher which honestly feels like the best of both worlds.

Definitely something else. 15 years in I am ruined. Worked all day yesterday just so I can have a bit of holiday with my family. Had a thread recently looking for tips to get out. Looking to buy a new house next year which we need to do for the space but then preparing to take a pay cut to leave. I'm hoping by then life with kids and less holidays will be easier.

If I could turn the clock back I would try another career in a heartbeat. 

Thank you, @PixieN!

I had a career first and then re-trained as a teacher which honestly feels like the best of both worlds.

I came to teaching late but have still had enough so retraining again. Definitely wish I'd taken a different route when I wanted to leave my previous career.

I blame the hot guy I had a date with who, a teacher himself, replied with, when I'd told him I'd always thought about teaching, "Why don't you just go for it?"

I really wish he'd warned me off instead! I didn't even have a second date with him!

Yes. I’d definitely still be a teacher!

37 years in and just love my job. But then l am in lreland where its still pretty sane in Primary. I couldn't do the UK system from what l read here. I feel so priveleged to have had a job my whole working life that l have been passionate about.

Depends. If you are asking 'would I start teaching again if I had a time machine and could take myself back to the mid 1980s' then the answer is yes.
A great job, when what you do each day makes a positive difference in the lives of some really vulnerable children and their families. Challenging, interesting job where what you put in used to make all the difference.

If, however, you are asking 'If I were 21 now, would I start teaching in 2018', then the answer is a definite no.

I mean, I'd love to be able to 'be a teacher', but I just can't take all the rubbish that goes with it - the micro managing, the lack of autonomy, the lack of trust. The hours and hours of time wasted in Education going round in circles. The thousands of pieces of paper that need to be produced to no end. The lack of autonomy to be able to respond to children's interests and needs rather than trying to push them all through the same hoops. The fact there are people in charge of the country who say "all children MUST........." when there are always going to be some who can't. Oh I could go on and on.

I feel like it's been a blessing and a curse. I did a rubbish undergrad so don't know what else I would have done and it's taught me a lot, but it's also been the source of indescribable stress and unhappiness. I'm now in a new career that I wouldn't have got into without teaching so the answer is yes, I'd do it again, but not forever!

Whats the new career Kate?

I wish Id trained as a psychologist prekids. Not convenient now Im 40 and not near enough a relevant uni!

Nope. I would have stuck with becoming a doctor. Instead of being 20 years in and stressing about how I'm going to keep going for another 30 years, I would be qualified and experienced and, like my GP friend, working three days a week to make the same money I make as a headteacher now. I'm sick to death of the aggressive and unreasonable parents, the sheer volume of kids with issues who deserve more than I can give them, the endless troubles I have making ends meet, trying to keep my teachers sane and whole and trying to have enough life in me left to be there for my own children. This isn't what I signed up for. I wish I had studied harder for my chemistry exams.

Yes - fabulous job. Kids are hilarious.

How do you know if the school is a good one? Is it the kind of information you would know from working in schools in the area?

Well. What one person would say is a good one for them might not be good for you. Your priority is to know that the Headteacher is fair and kind and supportive. And that’s quite hard to find out for sure.
You need to know if you have the right personality for the type of kids at your school. You need to know the profile of your subject area in your school and if your department works well together.

I'd still be a teacher, but I work at an independent school. This was my last ditch option rather than quitting the profession after my previous school took a turn for the worse. I don't know that I'd ever go back to the state sector.

Yes, because I loved the earliest part of my teaching career.
However, I wish I'd left after 8 - 12 years rather than letting teaching squeeze the life out of me for 20 years.
I love my new job though, so it all worked out well in the end

No I wouldn’t. I’d have trained as an accountant instead and make more money doing that. But now I’ve reached a point where what I earn as a teacher plus the holidays make it too hard to quit. I just never feel like I’m doing a good enough job or able to meet the needs of all the children in my class. It’s exhausting.

DH is also a teacher, amazing at it and loves it. He would definitely do it again.

No! I have left teaching now, been out 18 months and never going back!!

I didn’t become a teacher, I am a teacher. I’ve been teaching since I was left in charge of the ‘bottom group’ of readers in P7 and helped them with their reading every day (I still get a Christmas card from one of them). I love teaching now (age 46) as much as I did as a twelve year old. At its best, there is nothing to beat it. Having said that, I would not teach in the state system now for any money. I am lucky enough to work as an independent, self-employed teacher and teaching still makes me happy every single day!