Teacher or Teaching Assistant?

[query]

I am considering a career change at the age of not quite 40 ! I fancy the idea of either teaching or being a teaching assistant. Been doing a bit of research about both & obviously a teacher requires much more training (I have not got a degree, but have qualifications which are possibly equivalent - more or less).
Come on wise MNers (especially if you do either of those jobs) - what are the pros & cons ??
My child is at school & ideally i would love to work at the same school although there are a couple more in the area.
What's my first step then ? Should I do it??

thanks all - going into DSs school tomorrow to have a general chat with the head ! I'll see what he advises

Message withdrawn

I'm so excited now! Head was great & said he could set up a full range of experience across all the classes - so I could see what goes on in each.
And then introduced me to one of the teachers who had done exactly what I want to do - career swap, TA & now teacher !! I'm going in again after half term for a full day - to sit in with this teacher who teaches Y6
I'm so excited I grinned all the way home !!!

I came across this the other day when I was looking for some good reasons to apply for a TA job myself tatips.com/why-become-a-teaching-assistant-7-reasons-to-become-a-ta.html

hi, just seen your post, just curious please, if you did decide to career change and become a teaching assist, would dearly love to career change,

I was a Mental Health Nurse and then went on to be a TA after some health problems - only planned to stay a year but ended up staying for ten.

I found that I enjoyed mainstream secondary learning and behaviour support and spent time in classes and in a specialist base. I did get a higher level post and managed a base for a few years without direct teacher supervision. The money was awful, the hours were short, the holidays long and the stress could be enormous but despite all that, the satisfaction of teaching a child to tell the time or helping them to craft their first whole paragraph of an essay is something that makes you keep going back.

I quit this year after the teaching staff changed in our dept and the level of professionalism sank like a stone. I wanted to view teachers as professionals, and most do behave professionally. Unfortunately poor teachers can fail to inspire or develop children for years on end - this is not something that can happen in most professions - if you can't do your job properly, you don't last.