Am i mad to consider teaching?

[fatfingers]

I am a qualified probation officer but left the Probation Service a few years ago due to ill health and then couldn't get back in due to Govt cuts. Worked as a youth offending officer for a while before taking a job in a secondary school a couple of years ago.

This job is well paid for what I do, term time only and hours fit in well with dcs (I can collect them from school). But it is boring and there is no route for career progression. While it is nice not to have the stress I have worked under previously, I am now coasting.

I like the school I work in, really enjoy the contact with pupils and running groups. I am considering asking my school about applying for GTP as QTS will open more doors within education for me (I would like to move into PRUs/behaviour units eventually). Am I mad to look at teaching as an option in the current climate (just heard Govt want to change pay now)? Should I just plod on until dcs are older and recession is over or go for it now?

No, I don't think you're mad at all.

Do the research, speak to your school and see how you feel. You may decide later on that it isn't the right option/time anyway.

There's a similar thread about nursing asking the same thing!

Best of luck x

No of course not. Go for it if that's what you want. You may be able to train while at your current school, under the GTP scheme.

Just another thought. With your nbackground you'd be really well suited to a pastoral manager type post - a school-based liason person between different agencies, and an on-site trouble-shooter for badly-behaved/troubled youngsters. Worth a thought?

That is the other direction I could go in Sassy and I have given thought to it. My role touches on that at the moment and I work closely with the Inclusion Unit and SEN dept. I suppose the biggest thing that puts me off is that the salary isn't much better than I am currently getting and that is just about the ceiling for me without a teaching qualification (as SENCOs, etc have to be teachers) plus I would lose the school hols as non teaching pastoral manager jobs are usually full time.

There are very few teaching jobs at the moment and huge numbers of applicants. We have several qualified teachers working as TAs because they can't get teaching jobs in mainstream schools. A PRU might be different and you have experience - QTS won't hurt but expect it to be a rough ride.

YANBU - it is great working in a PRU and IME, not many teachers want to work in them They will snap you up with your relevant experience and desire to work there.

And also EBD/ ASD schools tend to find it more difficult to fill teaching positions. They're very specialist but interesting places to work.

This thread has really made me feel quite positive. I certainly don't expect it to be an easy ride Grockle - I think that is the benefit of being jaded and cynical a bit older and having had a stressful career previously.

We have teachers working as cover assistants (although that is generally because they want less pressure/stress) but the school I work in does employ quite a lot of NQTs and has struggled to recruit teachers in a few subjects this year (Maths in particular). Citizenship is the NC subject that my degree corresponds most closely to and I have considered the fact that this might make me less desirable than others when it comes to finding work.

I suppose I just keep thinking that I must be slightly crazy to want to put myself under lots of extra pressure when I am having such an easy mindnumbing time of it at the moment and hitting targets with minimal effort. Unfortunately I'm not good at plodding.

OMG This is really freaky! I'm a Probation Officer and I will be moving on to the YOT on secondment soon. I am hoping to apply for post grad teacher training this year (for next year) but to teach at primary stage. What job do you do in the school? Have the probation skills come in handy? Would really like to hear about how it it different to Probation - apart from the obvious difference in that its children lol

What a coincidence PinkPanther..we obviously have the same career plan! I enjoyed the work I did at the YOT but I must admit the particular service I worked for was in total disarray. I hope your experience is better. I had little training and was managing over 30 cases in addition to constantly writing PSRs for the most serious offences due to being one of the most qualified officers there (although this was my first stint with YOs).

I was pleased to escape when I got the job in a school tbh and I must admit, I enjoy the more structured, organised way of working now. My probation skills do come in handy and I have developed groupwork programmes as part of my role. I also approach things differently to many teaching staff, which is often a positive. However, on the whole my skills are wasted in my current role (don't want to specify in case it identifies me). It is just the thought of going back to the drawing board and re-training (this time with dcs) that is scary. Will you leave the service and go back to Uni to do your teaching course?

This will be my first experience of the yot although i worked in a prison before joining probation and delivered a group programme to some yo's who were the worst group ever! So expecting it to be v challenging. However since having my first child and now pregnant with second, I no longer want to interview lifers (i only work with lifers) day in day out asi think its starting to get to me now i have children. Did your experience help much in your interview for the school? I was hoping they may fond it applicable as it is working with challenging people. I will apply for either scitt or gtp as i need to get used to the school enviroment. Without identifying yourself are u able to suggest what kind of jobs i could get in a school prior to getting qts? Would be interested in specialised roles. PS Happy Mothers Day everyone!

Could you try volunteering in a PRU / LSU in a secondary school for added experience? Or, better still, a job as a TA? We employ quite a lot of agency staff and it is really quite difficult to find people who are up to the job!

There is one agency in particular that we use, who seem to have the best people for working with SEBD kids - can PM you the name?

PinkPanther I have pm'd you. Happy Mothers Day to you too! I agree that a job as a TA is another alternative - ime any jobs you take in schools are going to involve a pay cut though.

Your job sounds like hard going. I think this is the difficulty with the PSOs taking all the lower risk cases. I used to enjoy the variety of having a good mix of cases but as POs moved towards only carrying the high risk, I found myself working with a never ending list of child sex offenders with a few really nasty, resistant violent offenders and I found this harder and harder to deal with once I had dcs.

Must admit though that I had never actually been frightened by any offender until I moved to the YOT! The kids are on a different scale. I took over from a PO who had gone back to probation because she found she hated working with the young offenders. It is a case of having to repeat everything 10 times, the kids breach all the time, there were serious further offences/incidents every weekend but I enjoyed it! So far removed from a school though.