Finished Primary PGCE at 50 and don't want to teach

[peebles32]

I have just turned 50 and finished a PGCE in primary teaching. My placement was ok but I knew I had made a mistake and did not want to leave halfway through. It was the physical demands as well as the mental demands. I have wanted to teach all my life and never had the opportunity to do it. I was a TA years ago and the classroom has changed in the past 15 years!! The amount of SEND children not getting any support is shocking.
I am shattered. I was the oldest on my course and all the lecturers kept telling me how much they admired me and I got swept along. Even the ones in mid forties were struggling so why did I not see it myself?
I did not think about menopause, back problems and even on HRT I am struggling, but I was embarrassed to say I had made a mistake.
I just don't think I will be able to hack it so looking to go into a more pastoral role.
Anyone got any ideas on what I could possibly do? I have elderly parents and young teenagers and never really gave that thought how I would cope with them too.

My family are all so proud of me and I feel like a fraud! I need to work as we cannot manage on one salary but don't know what to do.
Everyone has all these expectations of me and I feel like I will disappoint everyone.

@Boomboom22

The most inspirational leaders are ones who were fantastic in the classroom as well as out of it.

Personally I think the acronym should be SMT and not SLT. There are plenty of managers in schools but very few leaders.

How about a training role with a large private company (pharma, energy sector)? Or NHS or consultancy? Work out your transferable skills, which you'll have in spades with your recent studying and previous experience.

You seem to be confused.

Receiving abuse from students and parents doesn't make teaching an abusive profession, it would make teachers an abused profession.

Absolutely there are some shockingly bad HTs and senior managers - as there will be shockingly bad managers in any job, but there are also some fantastic HTs and Snr Managers. Of course you can offer your opinion, but your opinion can also be challenged when other posters don't agree with it.
Particularly when you are trying to suggest that your poor experience means the whole profession is like that.

(I have worked as a teacher , and outside of education)

I do agree with you that there is a strong correlation between poor SMT / HTs, and those with limited experience in actual teaching though.

It's true, @UsingChangeofName - I've come across every kind of senior manager/leader from fantastic to dreadful and everything in-between. A couple of the worst were inexperienced as teachers although had been in "industry" (unspecified). Generally, if they are good classroom teachers who respect their colleagues and manage with a bit of sensitivity and intelligence it works out well.

Honestly, it gets easier! In training everything is new, year 1 most things are new and year 2 not much is new so planning is easier. I found my RQT (year 2) year an absolute breeze.

Can you find a school that is right for you, get your ECT done and reconsider at that point? If you don’t do the two induction years within a certain amount of time, don’t you lose your chance now? I’m not sure.

@UsingChangeofName

I am definitely not confused. Good management in education is a rarity. If you’re abused by management, parents and often students, then yes the profession is abusive. You go to work with a high chance of experiencing abuse. Hell, even the department of education thenselves are masters at gaslighting and deception.

There are many teachers/ex teachers who have similar opinions as myself. The only teacher I know who also happens to be my friend (from way before training) is a deputy head of a large state secondary. She disagrees, which is fair enough. Swears blind her school is great. The retention figures would say otherwise.

Plenty of people loved teaching but were forced out due to being too expensive etc.

I completely agree with this. There’s not even an ‘etc’-it’s solely being too expensive. You get to a certain age in a cash-strapped primary (I can’t speak for secondary, I don’t know if things are any better there), and you may as well have a target on your head.

I did my PGCE in 2016 and it's not stopped me getting supply luckily!

I have! They tend to be paid less than M1, are subject to hideous behaviour, get treated like dirt by agencies, struggle to pay their bills over the summer and have no pension.

Even with all of those things, the teachers I know doing supply would still rather do that than be employed as a permanent teacher.

In all honesty, I think you need to dig deep and do the ECT. Perhaps part time. It gets easier as time goes on, and to be honest, most teachers want to jack it all in at this time of year. Everyone sits around in the staffroom (if they still have one...) knocking back the coffee and chatting nonsense about becoming a long distance lorry driver or something. Par for the course.

Same @Shinyandnew1

@Shinyandnew1

You do get a pension with supply, just a private one. I think supply is pretty hideous at secondary but can be fairly enjoyable in primary.

Hmmm, have you done many years of primary supply, yourself? That can be pretty hideous as well.

@Shinyandnew1

It is all pretty hideous to be honest but overall I would still take a day in an affluent primary over a secondary 🤷‍♀️. At least if it’s terrible you can put it on your black list and never return. I often found in secondary you’re given the bottom sets as a supply.

@MasterGland that did make me chuckle, as all the TAs in my school are doing just that ( myself included!!) 😀

Most of my supply agencies have put me on Nest pension

Neat: 3% employer contribution. TPS: 23.68% employer contribution. Not quite the same! You would notice a huge difference at 60!

Look well done for completing the course and you have figured out it is not for you. I know of someone who felt the same and he got a job using the qualification teaching people who came out of the army to get job hunting skills so those jobs are out there or adult literacy classes that kind of thing.
Teaching is a tough job at any age.

It’s being petty. SENDCO stands for Special Educational Needs ans Disabilities coordinator . Both terms SENCO and SENDCO can be used . I am one- in my school my job title is SENDCO. People do use both. It doesn’t matter to me but as you’re being petty…

This! Thank you. I am one by the way.

😂 Oh dear. How familiar are you with the SEND Code of Practice?