Secondary school teacher

[seethebeauty84]

Does anyone have opinions on how feasible becoming a part time secondary school teacher would be with three young children and no partner (recently widowed)? I want to be able to see my kids and be there for them, but need to do something for me too... (Previous job does not work as a solo parent to three little ones.) Thanks in advance x

A long time ago I did a part time PGCE.

The placements had to be full-time but the uni side was spread out,

It was quite exhausting.

Once you have the PGCE you have two years of ECT (early career training) which can absolutely be done part time no problem.

If you are planning to go into secondary, whether you can get part time largely depends on whether the school can get full-time teachers in your subject. If they can do so easily you will find it hard to get a part time job.

(I have worked part time for 20 years in education).

There is not much demand for psychology teachers as it isn't generally taught at GCSE or below so you would be teaching sixth form only which actually might work well for part time. You might have to do a long commute though as not many jobs come up in it.

English lots of jobs come up but they will prefer full-time.

There isn't much community in teaching as it is mostly you on your own in a classroom with a load of kids, but you can make friends and talk after/before school. Break and lunch tend to be duties (supervising kids) and meetings.

Is that to me - I am p/t - 3 days a week Monday- Wednesday and it is in my contract about coming in on INSETs / parents' evenings if they are on Thursdays / Fridays

Would you not be better teaching law at university or a college part-time? You wouldn't need additional qualifications to start with and if you did want to do qualifications you'd then do them as part of your job/through work.

I’m a teacher have been for 25 years plus.

I’m going to say the PGCE for a young 20 year old is hard core and full on. So you are a mum of 3 kids and well organised and experienced in managing difficult stressful circumstances - you’ll knock it out of the park. Of course you can.

I did my PGCE after my PHD and did it full time - I would recommend doing the PGCE full time if you can. That way your earning potential is maximised.

The only thing I would say is job wise I spent 20 years in state schools and loved some and hated others. I’ve been the last 5 years in a top independent school and now I truly feel at home and love it.

part time does give you a good balance as long as you don’t get roped into other stuff. Where in the country are you??

Of course you can refuse to do things on days "off" but the problem is then that it hasn't been done. If e.g. you missed mandatory first aid or safeguarding, it's got to be done at some point... if you miss a parents' evening you can be stuck with phoning or emailing hundreds of parents which is way more hassle than seeing them in person. And if you don't do any planning or marking you will be staying up very late at night on the other days.

There's no two ways about it: there's a certain amount of work that needs to be done and certainly for me I choose to spread that across the week and try to get paid for extra stuff where possible.

Regarding psychology teaching, this is an interesting article (you can generally read one article free without a subscription):
www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/secondary/missing-psychology-teachers-how-to-fix-recruitment

I'm not a teacher and have never worked in Education.

I have over the last two years been advertising roles which are not connected with teaching at all in the £25-£40k salary point. I have been struck by the number of teachers applying, some in more senior positions. Never experienced this a few years ago.

Two positions have been filled with current teachers who left to move to work in my team. Their stories of teaching life (when encouraged to talk) are not good and they both said it was about preserving their mental health and wellbeing of their families. They were both honest about this at interview.

They are now both exceptional members of the team. Work very hard and very productive but both describe their working life as a huge improvement on teaching.

Graduates also appear to be taking the same view as they either don't apply to do the PGCE or leave fairly soon after becoming newly qualified teachers

So I would really not invest in this being a recently bereaved widow with young children.

It is another sad indictment of the state that public services are descending into....I'm not making the argument that more money is the only answer...it isn't but it feels that the current government just cannot reconcile the situation....feels like they have run out of any ideas and motivation frankly.

You say you were a lawyer : if a qualified solicitor, it might make more sense to brush up on your skills or do further part time qualifications and find a part time legal role in the civil service / nhs. Eg senior data protection / information governance roles in nhs England pay £80k plus: if you were part time, and it would be truly part time, you would have more money and more family time than being a part time teacher.

I was a full time teacher all my adult life, then after I retired went back part time. I only work 2 days, but they are long days - 7.30 to 6pm each day. But I don’t bring any work home, do all my marking in school. And the planning is already on the network so only needs minimal tweaking. I do t attend staff meetings or parents evenings as they are usually on my non working days.

Nope. Ex teacher here.
Part time teaching just ends up as a full time job but for part time money, and even part time hours often aren't family friendly. Parents evenings, staff meetings, open days... schools expect you there for all of it.
I has to leave once I had two children, it just wasn't worth never seeing them. Got an admin job instead which pays the same as PT teaching did but hours to suit me.

Wow, well this was pretty conclusive that it's NOT a good idea! But was very helpful, thank you so much. I'll probably become an acupuncturist then! Xxx

Your training years and probation year in Scotland would be very hard but after that, working part time would be ok in some subjects. Essay based subjects such as English or History would mean a lot of marking though.

In terms of picking your kids up, unless your school finishes significantly later than average, I would always arrange after school care even if you don't use it. You never know when a kid is going to come to you at 3pm with an urgent concern, or a colleague will come to you with an urgent query- even if the school is open to you leaving at 3.05 each day, you can't really walk out on a safeguarding concern.

The secondary school near to me doesn't finish lessons until 15.55, later than the primary schools. Childcare would be a necessity.