Thinking of primary teaching

[SalemSpellman]

Hello everyone,

I'm thinking of going in to primary teaching, please can you give me your experiences? What are the hours really like? Best and worst things about your job?

I already have a degree and masters in a history based subject.

Thank you.

It can be the greatest job in the world. But it can also be shite. Like any job, it depends on the organisation you are in. Look carefully at the different training options and trust your instincts when you are visiting schools - if the staff look unhappy, that tells you a lot.

The hours are gruelling if you want to do a good job, and the job itself never finishes. You will always feel behind or out of pace with something. However, the rewards speak for themselves. Have you done any work experience? Highly recommend getting as much as possible under your belt before you apply anywhere.

Just a thought though- if you have kids, be very careful. It is not a family friendly job and you will have to have a good support network around you to help out - you will need to be in school from about 7.45 and there is work to do in the evenings and weekends as well, especially while you are training and have academic work too.

Sorry - best and worst bits:

Best: when you can see your kids making progress and all your routines and classroom management ticks over just so.

Worst: supporting kids and families who are struggling. You will have kids that you just want to take home and look after and it’s really hard to see kids suffering.

I'm a TA but have worked closely with teachers for 7 years. Agree that the hours are long if you want to do a good job. It suits people who are very organised, it's very difficult to just go with the flow, everything needs to be in order. That's what takes all the extra time in the first few years, getting everything set up.
Best bits are working with lovely kids and seeing them progress.

I think I have replied to thread like this every week for months-that’s good that there are so many people wanting to train!

Rather than me typing it all out again-do a search on here, you’ll find there are loads of recent really great replies.

Thank you everyone, @Redlocks28 I should have done a search before and will do so now.

Best - the children. The teaching. The feeling you are doing something that makes a difference.

Worst - the micro managing. The complete lack of autonomy. The loss of being able to follow the children's interest and go off on a tangent. The complete disproportionate amount of time spend on ridiculous tasks. The having to write out everything, in detail, that no-one is ever going to read.

I reckon on an average of 12hours a day, per day worked - spread across the week. Different people organise it differently.

However, all these things vary widely, depending on management.

If you want to teach because you really want to teach, it will be rewarding and frustrating in equal measure.
If you want to teach because it will fit in with kids holidays, think again. You will never watch your kids nativity/sports day/leavers do. You spend half a weekend and most of your evening working. You spend every holiday collecting shells or tisty tosties or maps or taking photos of stuff for a display. Your dining room will be forever full of bags for life full of STUFF.
But if none of that puts you off, go for it!