Getting into Teaching; seeking advice and truths

[PhantomCrispNibbler]

Hello all,

I'm currently in the application stage with gov.uk to get onto a PGCE course and eventually teach.

I feel like I just NEED to do something productive with my degree (Fine Art) and this is where I'm at.

I know school isn't the only option in teaching, but will a PGCE open new doors for me? I am entirely fed up of working kitchen/ hospitality jobs.

I'm looking for advice and experiences, and some truth to what teaching is really like (I'm considering teaching Secondary).

Some character background, I'm 28, a total worry wart, sensitive and seemingly flailing in life currently. I do wonder if teaching would cripple me or be the making of? I suppose all you can do is find out (and ask others for their own experience along the way)

Thanks!

Not me, but I can tell you a bit about my daughter's experience. In her second year at university she volunteered as a tutor as part of a scheme set up to support year 10 and 11 students in local schools. She really enjoyed it, kept it going remotely during the Covid lockdown, and then decided that she wanted to train to teach.

She graduated last year and thought about staying on at her university to do a PGCE there. However (partly in order to save getting into more debt) she decided to come and live back at home and train here.

The training is organised by a consortium of local schools. They allocated her to a 'home' school, where she spent her first term. She moved to a different school for her second term and she is now back at the first one.

One day a week is off the job (1.5 days a week in the first half term). Some of that time is spent on general issues such as safeguarding or assessment, and some is subject specific. She had to write a dissertation and, assuming all goes well, she will get a PGCE as well as QTS.

It has been hard work - she has been working very long hours preparing for her classes - especially as, since January, she has also been teaching a second subject that she has never studied so she has had to get to grips with the A level and GCSE specs and the necessary subject content. But she has found all the staff very supportive and has loved getting to know and developing positive relationships with her students.

Overall, she is really happy with the experience. She has also been getting great feedback from her mentors and other observers, which has given her confidence that she is doing the right thing and that she has made the right career choice.

I suspect that her experience is not entirely typical. She has mainly been teaching A level students, plus a couple of GCSE classes (neither subject is taught before KS4). That means that the classes are typically smaller than they would be further down the school and the students (especially at A level) are also probably better behaved.

Obviously she doesn't have anything to compare it with, but she is very pleased that she went down the school-based route. She has felt valued and supported, both by the central consortium ITT leads and by the schools she has been in.

The 'home' school in particular did a good job in making her feel welcome and a real (if temporary) part of the school. The head took a personal interest in the trainees based there. He has offered some of them jobs for next year. He didn't offer my daughter one because there was no space for her, but he told her he would have liked to do so and that he would look out for opportunities for her. True to his word, he phoned her a couple of weeks later to say that he had recommended her to a colleague in a school a few miles away.

She will be starting at that school in September. She will be a form tutor and she is really looking forward to getting involved in the pastoral side as well as the subject teaching.

I guess no one knows whether teaching will suit them (or they will suit teaching) until they try, but for my daughter at least, it seems to be a good fit. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Some people love the job and the pupils are what makes it worthwhile for me plus the support of good colleagues. I regularly work a 55 - 60 hour week as I am a middle leader - with considerable responsibility- but also have a class responsibility. The pressure can be brutal; no matter how good the lesson observation the box in the form that says "what can be improved?" always has to be completed. There is utter disdain for the profession in the press and wider society. Neither of my daughters have any desire at all to be teachers. They want a job like my husband's, same pay as me but a forty hour week working from home. I don't want them to be teachers either. Of my four closest university friends who did the same teaching course as me I am the only one still teaching. Once I've typed this I am going to start planning and paperwork and expect to work all day today (Saturday); yesterday I was in school from 7.15 until 5.45 and did another 90 minutes at home in the evening. I refuse to work on a Sunday and am hugely looking forward to the bank holiday Monday as it means I have a two day pause from work.
Google recruitment and retention rates for teachers, the statistics are there.

Just some musings from me, which might help your thought processes.

I'm looking to leave teaching even though I work in a lovely supportive school, but I just feel that I'm done with it. If I'm honest, I'm not a people person at all, and have always suffered with really bad nerves when I'm actually teaching, and those nerves have never gone away, which I thought they would do when I first started. I've stayed as long as I have because the actual teaching is only 22 hours a week of the job, and I don't mind the rest of it: planning, marking etc. The planning/marking can take up huge amounts of time, but now that I have all lessons planned from previous years, I can pretty much just work the school day.

Another thing I have always struggled with, which sounds shallow, but I'm being honest here, is the lack of status. As PP have alluded to, you are literally the shit on the bottom of people's shoes in society. My previous job was really high status, so maybe I'm more sensitive to the lack of status thing.

In your situation, I think I would probably at least try it, because what have you got to lose really? I've seen posters on here talking about moving from a really cushy job in finance/science, and my advice to them is "don't do it!", but for you, if all you're doing is working in kitchens, then why not try it?

My only concern from your OP, is that you're a worrier - you will have to develop a very thick skin. There are children who will say the most vile things to you, and worse still, a lot of schools have appalling, bullying management, who manage their staff by constantly criticising - if you end up in a school like this, then move asap. There are nice schools out there.

Do you want to teach? Nothing about your first message suggests you're especially keen on teaching - more that you don't know what else to do. That's not to say you won't enjoy it/be good at it - but if you haven't actually experienced it yet I would try to get in and volunteer in a school.

You have to really really want to be a teacher, not just want to do something different from your current job. And even lots of people who really do want to be teachers can't hack it for long. Tbh OP, being a worrier and bring sensitive are really not a good start. You need to be seriously resilient and thick-skinned to be a secondary school teacher.

Hi OP,
I'm an art grad who did PGCE at similar age to you a few years back so thought I'd say hello.
I was warned during the process that I may find it difficult, as disclosed history of anxiety during application process. It is not an easy career by any stretch and I think the amount of "on" time, being around people and having to be completely engaged with other people is a huge jump from what one is used to in art. The amount of paper work is also a huge jump.
I teach art part time now although did pgce in primary. I frequently wonder if I would have been better off doing an ma in art education or art therapy. Schools are not easy environments at the moment, even for experienced career teachers, and I've found it very challenging, however much I love my subject and also working with children.
If you've done recent schools experience, you may know what you're going into.

(Ps. I chose primary as I had friends who hated teaching secondary art and my experience doing workshops at secondary schools was fairly off putting. However, as I've ended up preferring teaching art anyway, I now think a secondary pgce in art would have suited me as well. Just to say it is a consideration or choice about age groups and it's not as black and white as do this pgce, teach art, as you might think)

I completely agree with @WayDownInTheHole and @Fairislefandango

There are lots of great things about teaching, and lots of awful ones. If it is something you really want to do and get a buzz from, then the good can outweigh the bad for a few years if you are lucky enough to be in a great school, but it isn't really the job for someone who isn't even convinced they really really want to do the job. You have to remember that most teens aren't there to learn to appreciate art or to enjoy learning how to produce great artwork - they are there because they are made to be. Most of the job isn't about sharing your love of art and your skills, it is about engaging the pupils and managing behaviours.

I know school isn't the only option in teaching

Well, it’s the main one! What other options were you thinking?

As a pp said you need to really want to be a teacher. I did for years and retrained in my late 30s. But I've handed my notice in after 8 years of teaching due to workload and hours. I worked in the private sector and was valued and treated professionally but haven't felt like this in teaching even though I work in a 'nice' school that takes wellbeing seriously. But this doesn't counteract how awful the job can be. Until the government actually looks at workload (and lots of other factors such as behaviour, toxic slt etc) they're going to lose experienced teachers. I found the workload high but just about manageable before children (but still exhausted) but unmanageable now I have children.

I'm an anxious worrier and teaching has actually massively improved my mental health. When you're in the classroom you have to be in the moment and totally focused on what you're doing, which is a kind of mindfulness. I'm a Drama teacher and it gives me the same feeling of freedom that acting on stage does. For me the worst thing for my mental health is the long holidays: the devil makes work for idle minds.

However, you need to really love being in front of a class and really get joy from the teaching, as there's an awful lot of shit that goes with it. I'm not sure from your post that the idea of teaching actually excites you?

There is no substitute for spending time in a school environment and tbh I don’t much rate any ITT provider who doesn’t insist on this for their prospective trainees. Ideally you would spend some time volunteering or e.g. TA-ing but observing and shadowing are better than nothing. Have you spent any time in a secondary school to see if you actually enjoy being in the environment? My school employs a part-time art technician, usually a FA grad who spends a year or so with us before moving on, often to train to teach themselves. Many schools can’t afford this and if you had the capacity to offer as a volunteer they might well take you on.

Firstly, and most importantly, definitely volunteer. Even 1 day will give you some insight, but a couple of weeks will be good. Otherwise you dont know what you are getting into. By doing this you moght feel totally enthused and ready or the opposite.

Secondly, if you are sensitive/worrier, IMO if you want to pursue teaching, primary would be better. I've worked in both. Although teaching art would be a small part of primary teaching, the primary teachers who have an art background bring loads of creativity to different lessons.

I think that OP has left the building.... Perhaps we weren't positive enough?