Teachers! Please be honest…

[whatdoiactuallydo]

Hi guys

I've recently applied to take my PGCE and QTS.

I'm passionate about my potential future career as an educator but a lot of people in my life have been telling me to withdraw my application as teachers are underpaid, overworked etc

So I'd like to ask real teachers who aren't trying to sell me a course-

Do you enjoy your job?
Do you feel satisfaction in your career?
Is the job worth it for the pay?
Have you been able to buy your own home? (I get if you don't want to answer this one as it's very personal, but buying my own house in the future is something very important to me and I'd like to know if it's something that's realistic.)

Thanks in advance!

@PumpkinPie2016
Thats amazing and really motivating.
If you don’t mind me asking, how long did it take you to get to your position?

You sound really committed and I salute you and wish you a long and successful career full of wow moments. 💐

@whatdoiactuallydo I was about 3 years in when I took my first promotion to KS3 leader - I felt I wasn't ready before that, although some people are.

2 years later, I became 2nd in faculty at the same school and after 2 years (in Jan this year) became acting head of faculty while the postholder was on maternity leave.

Applied for a permanent Head of Faculty job back in Feb and was fortunate enough to get the first one I went for 😊

This is a really sweet thing to say!
Thank you very much, I really appreciate it.

@PumpkinPie2016 Your progression is amazing!
I really hope to progress over time. I'm not too worried about doing it quickly as I want to make sure I'm ready.
Do you have any tips in progressing your career?

I do enjoy teaching and I do get a lot of job satisfaction, overall. Some days are tough, but overall, for me, it's a career that works. But I'll caveat that with some extra info, in that I'm married, and my husband earns A LOT more than me. I'm in London, and honestly, the salary for a professional in London (or much of the South East really), is crap. I work part-time, and we have kids, and the holidays are a bonus as we don't need child care then. Essentially my job does fit in quite well with our lifestyle and our family. However, as a graduate 20 years post university, I earn less than almost everyone I know. I have a TLR (responsibility payment), and even with that and if I was working full-time, I'd still be earning less than almost everyone I know. And as you progress, the extra payments for responsibility is shockingly bad, it doesn't reflect the extra workload at all. Whereas if you were to progress in many other graduate fields you'd be earning double your starting salary, in teaching that NEVER happens, unless you become something that a Headteacher or Deputy Head. However, given the responsibility that Heads and Deputies have, if they had that sort of responsibility in almost any other industry in London, they'd likely be earning an awful lot more too. I am a homeowner, but if I were married to a teacher, and buying now, I'm really not sure that buying in London would be all that possible. It would certainly be very hard without the bank of mum and dad for example. If you're not in the South East, and house prices where you are aren't crazy stupid expensive, then teaching probably is worth it. But in the South East I really don't think it is at all.

@ToadiesCouzin Thank you for your input.
It really does seem like experienced senior teachers get the short end of the stick.

I've been teaching for 8 years but currently on maternity leave with my third child. I'm sorry if I'm going to come across as very pessimistic about teaching as a career but I'd rather be honest.

Do you enjoy your job?
Sometimes. There are moments when I realise what a privilege it is to work with children. I don't enjoy any other aspect of it apart from being with the children.

Do you feel satisfaction in your career?. Honestly, no not really. For me, it's the sort of job where you can never get on top of the workload and nothing is ever good enough. I've also become incredibly disillusioned with our education system over the past few years and no longer feel comfortable with what or how we're trying to teach children.

Is the job worth it for the pay?
Again, in my opinion, no. The pay isn't that great or inline with the expectations and responsibilities placed upon you. The main benefit for me is having the holidays off with my own children.

Have you been able to buy your own home?
Yes, but only because I bought with my partner. I wouldn't have been able to buy myself as I'm now only part-time.

1- Most of the time, but there are bad times. You have to have the strength to take negativity and completely unrealistic expectations, especially from parents.
2- much of the time, though it can be completely demoralising at times. I'm finding I'm expected to manage an increasing amount of high needs SEN with much less in class and specialist support than ever. This is often difficult to manage. I'm very experienced, so understand when it is due to resourcing and SLT will listen to me. I watch a lot of less experienced staff run themselves into the ground because too much is being asked of them and they don't have the experience/confidence to realise it is the system that is failing, not the individual.
3 - NO!
4 - I have bought my own place, but I'm in my late 40s and my DH has always had a higher wage than I have had. The only teachers under 40 that own now either have had sizeable support from parents and/or high earning partners. Not one single member of staff under 50 owns.