Secondary to Primary

[Tonii1985]

Has anyone ever gone from teaching at a secondary to teaching at a primary? How did you go about it - did you need to re-train or did you just go for a primary job? Thanks

I did supply and built up my experience and now work part time in secondary and part time in primary. There doesn’t seem to be as much of a shortage of primary teachers as there are secondary so the approach worked for me. Most agencies just want a body in front of a class but at least 2 wouldn’t sign me up until I had a primary reference.

I had taught for a decade in secondary and after having a child and moving found gettingva secondary job hard - less schools rurally - so I did primary supply and got offered a job that way. That was 10 years ago now. I will say though, that it's much more labour intensive in many ways and a good grounding in maths is essential. The year 6 sats are now roughly equivalent to the old year 9 sats. I'dcrecommend sitting the papers from last year and that will give you a good idea of the requirements.

There is literally no money in primary schools and as such you will be expected to deal with SEND and EBD issues that have largely gone by secondary as those children go to specialist provision. The pressure for results is just as bad. I also find I am much more involved with parents, social services and outside agencies.

Feel free to pm me if you want. What subject are you coming from?

Are you sure you want to do this? I went from primary to secondary- primary is much harder work IMO

I did this. I just applied for jobs in primary, but I had done some very specific transition related jobs in secondary that allowed me some experience, iyswim. There is no way to retrain.

I'd agree with others...primary is more work, but secondary I find somehow more stressful...more confrontation, I think, and more outside pressure... GCSEs etc.