@squidwid primary teacher here.
the actual teaching and learning is priceless. Really rewarding, the children are amazing. If it was only that involved, I’d say yes, 100% I enjoy it. However there’s so much other stuff that makes it less enjoyable.
parents can be a pain, if your SLT aren’t supportive then you’re screwed, subject knowledge has to cover English, maths, science, history, RE, geography, P.E, PSHE, (we’ve recently started teaching French when only one of us can speak French 🙄) art, DT. You have observations to check you’re meeting the teaching standards in your lessons, SLT do learning walks, book scrutinies, there are behaviour policies, marking policies, teacher standards and you have to be up to date in your knowledge of any schemes of work/schemes for learning that your school follow. Your SEN and pupil premium resources, IEPs and interventions are checked. Your lower 20% interventions are checked. They ask for pupil voice to ensure the children are being challenged and enjoy being in your classroom etc which is justifiable I’m just showing that every aspect of your job is SCRUTINISED to the last detail. You have to be prepared for that, have a thick skin, be reflective, be willing to adapt etc. You can be moved to any year group - I passed my NQT last year and I’ve been placed in year4, EYFS and year5. That’s me having to start all that planning from scratch with no prior experience in those year groups- it’s tough. People mention holidays, but my holidays, half terms and weekends are taken up with planning, updating IEPs, making/getting resources ready, potentially taking books home to mark on some weekends if I’ve had a staff meeting to attend or parents evenings happening etc. I have 2 small DC and have had to miss certain things they have going on- one has class assemblies, a parents evening here or there that I’ve had to miss. I’ve now been given a subject to lead as I’ve passed NQT so I have to work on that as well.
I’ve been told it gets better the more experience you have (which makes sense, as you can use previous planning) but as I’ve not had the same year group twice, I haven’t seen the benefit of this yet. You can put a preference in for the year group you’d like to teach, but you don’t always get what you’ve asked for.
I do wish from my personal experience, that I waited until my DC were older, as I spend less time with them than I’d like. I always seem to be working. If I came to work and I was appreciated, I might feel a bit different, but parents complain and I can’t remember the last time SLT thanked me for anything.
It’s a lot of work and when you sit down and work out the hours you put in and the pay you get at the end of it, that’s soul destroying. I last worked out I was on below minimum wage for the hours I put in each week.
This is just my experience though. It probably does depend on the school as well.