What to do about pgce?

[Zofloramummy]

Ok so I’m an occupational therapist by trade (20 years). I’m also a single mum. I lost my job in August and have been working as a TA in a mainstream secondary school with SEN kids since Sept.

I’ve always thought that I would redirect my career into education at some point. My job as an OT involved a fair bit of education and I really enjoyed that aspect. I love working with the kids and seeing that light bulb moment when they grasp a concept.

I’ve been to an open evening tonight at my local uni. They offer pgce primary and post 16. No secondary, I’d have to travel for that and also do a skills enhancement from one of my A levels if I wanted to teach secondary (I did History, Biology, Chemistry). I have a degree Bsc (Hons) 2:1 but it is vocational.

I basically don’t know what to do! Primary is accessible to me and probably the most logical choice. I would love to teach history but it’s limited on the jobs front and I can’t move easily. Further education intrigued me as it fits nicely with a large part of my previous role.

Basically I’m asking given my circumstances (dd is 7) what would you do?

My previous role as an OT was adult services so my education experience in that field has been group education work, and one to one.

Why would you have to do a SKE?

Is it because you want to teach history? I wasn't aware there are SKEs for that!

What is your degree in?

My degree is in Occupational Therapy.

I had a A in history, C in biology, C in general studies and an E in chemistry (I scored a B in mocks and didn’t revise much!)
But I got an A in gsce Geography and was thinking about doing a ske in either geography or chemistry

Your degree suggests science teaching but your A levels are not great for that (no offence!). There are also subjects like Child Development which you might be great at?

I have transferable skills from my previous career which would fit into child development, health and social, life skills. I also have a solid foundation in English, maths, history, geography. I’m quite creative and do a lot of craft based stuff with my dd.

I think that secondary is going to be too much of a push for as I’d need additional qualifications and at 42 the clock is ticking! The dilemma is whether to go for primary or further education.

Primary has a structured career pathway, but I worry about the work life balance being a lone parent.

Further education isn’t something I had considered until I went to the open evening and spoke to the course leader. The variety of jobs is attractive but often sessional nature of employment concerns me as I need a stable income.

Yes I know my A levels weren’t great! I had a boyfriend and I regret the knock it had in my results

You wouldn't need extra qualifications to teach other than the PGCE as you have a'relevant degree' for science and ,as you say, H and S or Child D (not sure how many training pathways there are for the latter two). However, if you trained to be a biology teacher, you would want/ be asked to do a SKE in other sciences, as few science teachers teach just one. But I think your OH background would be quite desirable to schools.

I did an SKE last year. Physics up to A-level and Bio and Chemistry to GCSE.

If you go for it I'd recommend VidLearn.

Are you sure you want to teach?

Have you considered setting up as an independent OT? If you specialised in sensory integration therapies I think you would have a lot of takers for that.