Primary school teachers do you enjoy your job?

[Winchester13]

Hello I am really interested in knowing what you think about your career as a first school teacher particularly nursery or reception? Is it worth all the hard work?
I am a teaching assistant and don’t know weather to follow the teaching path or paediatric nursing.
Thank you very much :)

This gets asked a lot, over in The Staffroom

Overwhelmingly, folk reply that the small % of your time you spend teaching, is great - rewarding, satisfying, enjotable, etc., but 'all the rest' just grinds you down over time, and it becomes overwhelming.

I would stay as a TA. You get the nice bit with the children but you can still have nice evenings and weekends. The pointless paperwork is relentless and taints the enjoyment of the job.

Thank you very much both of you. That’s what I hear a lot, that they love the work with the children but hate all the extra work at home, planning etc. I love helping the children as a teaching assistant and would be very happy to stay one if the money wasn’t so bad. :( x

Have you got / are you planning to have kids? There's a very big difference in work pattern to those two jobs.

Also, presumably pediatric nursing would require a much longer retraining period and I think salaries are ultimately fairly similar.

I'm not a teacher or a nurse but it seems but jobs are really hard for very different reasons but I don't get how nurses manage chikdcare!

*both jobs

Back has said it perfectly. I love teaching. I don't love everything else my job entails. I often think being a TA is my ideal job!

However I have to admit, the holidays Fit very well around family life.

I wouldn't work for the NHS at all. You just wouldn't cope with the shifts.

Yes the holidays are fantastic and the children. :) I worked for a while in nhs as a healthcare assistant but with adults and would rather work with children. I have a daughter who is nearly 5 so having the school hols is fab but when I worked in the hospital I only worked 2 shifts a week. For both jobs I would have to go to uni for thre years. X