What do you love/hate about primary teaching?

[123girlsandboys321]

Interested to find out more about what people love or hate about the job

I've always thought I'd like to teach primary (have a background in child psych) but I'm aware A LOT of people leave so I'd like to understand what's making people leave? Long hours/relatively low pay are the main things I've heard

Thanks!

Bump

Unbearable pressure. Constantly being given new tasks without any of the old ones being taken away. The goalposts being moved all time. Nothing you do ever being good enough. Poor communication The rules being made by people who have never been in a classroom as an adult.
The constant slating by the media and the general public.

Love teaching children, never the same day twice and I get a kick out if the energy and curiosity.
Hate the micromanagement and dislike and distrust most of the SLTs I’ve been involved with over the years. Not all, just the majority.

Hate?
Changing goalposts.
Never being good enough, no matter what you do.
The success of your day/an observation/Ofsted etc being essentially determined by something out of your control i.e. behaviour of pupils or how they react to something - you can never truly know whether something will work or not.
Lack of respect from parents. And some pupils.
And some management.

And, after teaching for 20 years, seeing good practice thrown out as no longer wanted, only to be brought back in years down the line and sold as the new best thing since sliced bread.

I still wouldn't do anything else though, as I love it when I interact with the children and see them questioning and learning and loving what they are doing. There are enough of those moments to keep me going.

And, to be fair, I also love the holidays. And I'm paid a lot more than any of my friends are, who have been working the same number of years as I have, but who work in private businesses and don't have strong unions to argue for pay rises etc.

Interesting replies thank you!

Out of interest, would anyone still recommend it? Or what job would you choose to do if you left?

I love teaching! Really pleased I decided to re-train. I suppose the moral is to find a school with a great leadership team as it does sound like there are some bloody awful ones out there.

I enjoy teaching. Every day is different. I enjoy new challenges. I’m happy to try new approaches to things but I don’t like how teacher expectations are unclear and also the fact that policies and guidelines for schools are designed by people who have no experience in teaching or even being in a classroom for years.

I would recommend teaching although the school you teach in can massively effect how you enjoy the job. I have worked in 3 schools and was debating leaving the profession altogether until I joined my recent school which I love!

I did leave, I now do 4 days supply, 2 days in an independent bookshop. All the fun, none of the paranoia and micromanaging. Do my job, have fun, go home.