Move from secondary to primary

[silverpinecones]

So I definitely do know that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side but just wondering if anyone has any experience of moving from secondary to primary? How to do it? Any courses that might be useful? That sort of thing. My experience is humanities type subject and PSHE. 10 years now.

I know that I am technically qualified to teach in primary but at the moment wouldn't feel like I knew what I was doing as haven't had experiences of other subjects or the curriculum as a whole.

Any other thoughts, pros, cons - all welcome. Thanks!

I work in primary. Lots of us have UPS so I don't know where that myth has come from.

In my school each class had a TA for the morning, EYFS has support 5 days a week.

I've never taught secondary so I can't really make a comparison. There's a big difference between KS1 & KS2 though, I've taught both. Lots of whining from kids and parents expect the earth, they only seem to think you have their child in the class.

Don't really think the grass is greener.

I think it's very difficult to move into a position on UPS but possible to move up to it, particularly in LA schools (of which there are many more than secondaries).

I've not had a TA for over 5 years though. Ability range in my class is from pre-school to Y5.

I would be very careful of such a move. If you are unhappy where you are, maybe look at a different secondary school? Or special school??

I would echo some of the issues raised already
Lack of UPS - most primaries won't pay new starters above M6.
Lack of TLR but requirement to still lead a subject
High numbers of send without any support
High expectations about non teaching related stuff such as displays.
Book marking load is high with feedback and targets expected on all work
Expectation that staff work late constantly
Constant parent requests and contact

I know we could make a similarly depressing list for secondary. I think you're right about the community feel of many primaries and that some of kids will adore you and be lovely. However I also have friends who tell me they spend all their time at lunch marking and planning for the afternoon and they rarely speak to colleagues.

15 primary jobs available on my local area jobs site. 12 are MPS only.

All the secondary jobs are MPR / UPS

Thanks for everyone's thoughts on this, it was pretty much the pros and cons that I had been thinking it would be but good to hear it from others too. I have put thinking about this on the back burner at the moment as I have a new team at my school and have been feeling quite positive about that. Definitely we still have our ups and downs but at the moment I am pretty happy at my school as a whole. Plus I know I would need a pay cut to move to primary as I can't expect to be on UPS with a TLR as I am now when I don't know what I'm doing in primary really! I think I just often wonder whether I should have just done primary in the first place as that was always the plan since I was a primary school kid myself!!

Yes, but how many of you were recruited externally and awarded UPS rather than coming up internally and going through threshold? How many of your subject leads have a TLR?