Career change CS to primary school teacher? Advice needed

[Arabiannights01]

I currently work in the civil service and I really dislike it. I have been thinking about a career change for a while and I think (I’m confident) in thinking that i would make a great teacher and that i’d really enjoy it.

Has anybody else Re-trained to become a primary teacher in their 30’s? If so, how did you go about it? I’m worried that it won’t be financially possible but I need to really look into it as I have really strong feelings about it.

Step one would be to get in touch with some local schools to see about doing some volunteering to get work experience. Use annual leave at your job or something. Make sure you're going in eyes wide open.

I love my job, I'm a primary teacher in Scotland. But our pay is quite good and on a set scale, I don't understand the pay scales in the rest of the UK. So worth checking that too.

Best of luck, I left an office job to do PGDE at 26 and have never regretted it!

I work in primary schools on supply - most teachers are very stressed and seem to burn out quiet quickly. There are so many demands made on them. Most of them work during the holidays to do their planning and start very early in the morning.

I would say if you love the idea of teaching as a vocation, enjoy being with and around children. Don't mind your holidays only being during school term time and never being able to get time off otherwise then go for it.

If it doesnt work you can always go back to the civil service. I've worked in the NHS, Housing, Education. It's good to make a change sometime but don't expect it to be easy.

I have looked into primary teaching as pay seems better than CS (even in a profession) and the work life balance seems much better too (2 teachers in my family) but when I looked into it I realisied it's not something I'm suited to temperament wise and I don't think I would enjoy it. I think the advice above about getting some experience first is a good one and well worth the switch if you think you would be suited.

DH. Retrained from Indy try to primary teaching in his 30s.

I think you’d be a good candidate.

It is hugely stressful and long hours. However your experience and maturity sets you off on the right foot to cope. Dealing with parents for instance will be comfortably within your skill set whereas for new young graduate teachers have to learn that.

Look for a school based training program as I suspect , like DH a PGCE would drive you mad 🤣

Get as much experience you can and plan your move

Definitely see if you can volunteer in a primary and tell them why you wish to. I don't know what it was called but in the primary I volunteer in they had a group of people who were looking to retrain and had them in the classroom seeing what teaching is actually about, looking at the planning, the differentiation, marking, assessing etc.

I think the biggest surprise is usually the behaviour and/or language used by some children and the sheer amount of time and support that goes into changing negative behaviour into positive choices. I have seen several 20 year olds wide eyed when witnessing a child being physically removed from a classroom using the Team Teach safe handling methods.

All schools have students with behavioural issues some are much worse than others, we have forms to fill in if we are assaulted. As a volunteer I am not around those children as I am not trained in that but you need to know they exist, we have time out rooms to calm them down etc.

I absolutely love what I do, usually supporting low ability children within the classroom and I think older staff have more skills when transferring from another sector.

Thank you all so much for your comments. I appreciate that somehow I need to get experience first as I have none whatsoever. A school based training programme would be ideal for me I think.

Are you prepared to work 60-70 hours a week with no overtime?
No flexi etc