Primary PGCE - would you recommend it?

[marsbarheaven]

Considering a primary pgce - I've worked in business for 5 years but I'd like a change, related to a psych degree (focused on child learning and development)

Would anyone recommend it?

Has anyone left? If so, why?

Want to assess fully before deciding!

No. Not unless you totally understand what you're getting into. Make sure you have a lot of support, childcare sorted and for your much of your pgce and nqt year you can kiss goodbye to your evenings and weekends.

I'm 7 years in with two kids who thankfully go to my school (an indie) so logistics are sorted. It's only this year I've gone full time now my youngest is in reception. Beforehand it would have been too much.

The job is much more admin than child-focused now.

It’s utterly exhausting but I love it.

What experience have you got in primary schools? That will give you the best information about whether it’s for you.

It’s also very child unfriendly and inflexible.

I did a PGCE as a single parent when my DD (only child) was in primary school. It was really hard but I somehow managed to get through it. The main problem for me was childcare. I had to be at my placement schools by 8.30 at the latest and the breakfast club at my daughter's school didn't open until 8. My placements were over half an hour away. My uni were not flexible at all and I almost got kicked off the course. I had to spend a fortune on taxis in the end to get earlier trains. I tried to find a child minder but they didn't start any earlier. My daughter also hated going to breakfast and after school so I felt really bad. The workload was also full on. I was up planning past midnight every night as well as writing essays. Also weekends were spent doing planning and prep too. Writing it all down I can't believe I actually did it but I did. It would be easier, I guess, if you have a partner. I've now been teaching for 8 years and it has been a rollercoaster ride. I'm happy at my current school but wouldn't recommend teaching to anyone!

No. I was primary ta for over ten years in a very challenging school. I did my pgce this year and it was exhausting. There is no way that I'd work in primary. Fortunately Im working in secondary now. Unless you really know what you're letting yourself into, don't do it. On my primary pgce course more than two thirds of the cohort deferred or dropped out. There are plenty of reasons why there is a teacher shortage.

I'd sooner recommend a day in the company of Michael Gove.

If you have a psychology degree, I would suggest focusing on that and maybe going down the Educational Psychologist/SEND/advisory route. That way you can still work with children but use your knowledge and expertise in a productive way. I also would not recommend teaching to anyone. The profession is in a bad, bad way and everyone I know is trying to get out! I only teach and get paid 0.4 but in impacts on every single day and I am constantly stressed by the emails demanding another SEN report, OCA descriptors, can you do the staff meeting next week, can you write a hundred incident reports and copy them in triplicate? Where's your class data? Why are these 10 children not making expected progress? Why are your exceeding children not doing more? Where's the data breakdown for your subject specialism? And that's quite apart from planning and assessment. We all hate it!! :-(

In oder to train as an ed psych (you need to do a master's for this) you need to be teaching for at least one year. So you have to do a pgce, get a job, do your nqt year, get on an ed psychology master's course and do at least one years full time study for that. And then get a job as an Ed Psych.

All I can say is, there are some bloody good reasons why teachers are leaving in droves nd there is a recruitment crisis.

Sorry, not helpful - I left after 30 years. Fed up of having my pay, my pension, the curriculum, my professionalism messed around with. It got to the point where every morning I was wondering how badly hurt I'd be if I drove my car into a lampost and how long I could have off work. It was a job I loved for so many years and never saw myself leaving. I would rather saw my own leg off then ever teach in state education again. Now I work in a tiny private school and am happy, off meds, no more councelling and no thoughts of self harm. Read the TES forums, tragically there's too many of us.

I did my PGCE in 2013 and it was very hard work. NQT year I worked until 10pm 3 nights a week. Now I work 8-4 and then an hour or so after the kids go to bed.
I think it all depends on the school you work for. My school is unbelievably supportive. There is a real emphasis on work/life balance. School is locked at 5:30 and anything not done by then, can wait until tomorrow. We also have to commit to leaving early at least once a week (before 4pm) We don't do any paperwork that doesn't benefit the children (no doing things for the sake of doing them/keeping up appearances) I have also had my pay rise every year since I started so am on M6 in my 6th year of teaching. Should hopefully go on to UPS in September.

Find a school with a great SLT and the job will be far more manageable.

I love it. I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

Wow thanks to everyone for your honest responses

It's so sad that so many people seem to hate teaching. I feel as if I'd love the actual teaching part, but everything that goes with it sounds pretty terrible

The teaching part is great as long as you are good at behaviour management. The parts that aren't great having an unsupportive TA who undermines you at every opportunity and an SLT who don't listen.

I love teaching. It's hard work but if it's the right thing for you then it's worth it. I worked in offices for years and it was much less stressful but soul crushingly boring and I was much less happy than I am now. I'm secondary and wouldn't teach primary for all the tea in China. But if it's what you love then I'd say go for it. Get as much experience in schools as you can before making the decision

I have applied to do a scitt in 2019
Have been in primary schools for 20 years in different roles last 7 as ta.
I can’t wait.

I wouldn’t recommend anyone go into primary teaching at the moment.

PGCE was hard-loads of new stuff to learn and it was exhausting. NQT was also hard as it's your own class and the responsibility is on you, but I think the year after just knocked me for 6. You lose lots of non-contact time, you haven't got that 'awww, she's just an NQT feeling' and you get lumped with clubs and curriculum responsibilities!

I had a few years where things were ok, then in came a series of changes that cocked everything up...
PPA (should have been a good thing-having time to do your planning, but wasn’t really because the workload seemed to triple with its introduction),
APP,
new curriculums,
changes of government,
cancelled curriculums,
removal of levels to make things easier for partners to understand (ha!),
PMR,
endless observations,
targets,
half termly data drops,
books scrutinies,
learning walks,
climate walks,
Academies
on and on and on.

You are only ever as good as your last observation-it can be a very stressful place.

It's very hard but if it's what you want to do then you will get through it.

It can be even harder if you have an unsupportive mentor though.

Teaching is difficult and rewarding. School culture varies school to school.

I'd get into schools for a reasonable stint to get an idea of what it's like before applying (e.g a week in shadowing or regular volunteering)

If you have an unsupportive mentor and tutor then it's practically impossible.