Would I be mental to re-train in teaching after being a nurse?

[queenofwandss]

That really. I have been a nurse for 14 years and have done a few roles all in the community. I am a band 6.
Financially, I would have to wait before I can afford to retrain as a teacher, which is no bad thing because I need to think it through properly. When I have suggested this to colleagues and family most people say I am mad! Out of the frying pan into the fire and all that. Ideally I would like to teach English literature but maybe child development (nursing field) or textiles (my hobby).
Any words of wisdom?

But how many of us get work / life balance when we have kids? If you're a nurse you still need to look after your kids when you're on your (much less generous) holidays as well as try to sort out cover for the rest of it (plus your unsocial hours unless you have a partner or family who can help with that). I'm not saying teaching is not a hard job, but your argument that looking after your own children during school holiday is somehow detrimental to work / life balance seems strange?

All that equally applies to teaching though.

@CaptainMyCaptain I'm not saying it doesn't - I'm just saying it's not included in the "cons" of nursing and one of the many reasons I would not recommend it. This shouldn't be a competition of who's working conditions are worse.

The main reason I want a change is because I don’t feel like I make any difference in my job.

Hmm, I often feel like in teaching now, sadly.

Trying to spin 30 plates, whilst meeting each plate's individual needs (and those of their parents!), assess, plan, review, mark, monitor, feel in forms, whilst being continually watched and micromanaged by someone who doesn't do your job or know your class, who's telling you you're doing it wrong, you should be faster, you haven't noticed what plate 26 is doing and they can't hear you at the back!

@Sadcafefair enough. You obviously have very capable daughters. Drama is largely a practical subject but at that level there’s a fair bit of essay writing too I should imagine. Thanks for replying.

Only do it with full awareness of the stress, workload (immense) and actual working hours.

I taught for a long time and now train teachers. It’s a brutal profession.

Don't for the love of god become an English teacher. As a core subject, English teachers get dragged into EVERY school initiative. Plus the marking is a full-time job on its own (marking 1 book - 20 minutes. Times the 300 kids you teach every 2 weeks, insane!). Added on top of 2 other full-time jobs (teaching and the administration load of teaching). Plus duties, meetings and all the other school admin crap.

I think arty subjects aren't so heavy duty. But English? No way.

You try to catch up on work

I'm not suggesting that just that nursing and teaching have that in common.

Except that the only people that say that are people that moan about teachers moaning.

Well there aren't enough teachers so I wonder why that is.

Highly unlikely to get a teaching job without an English degree or a textiles degree (for subjects you mention). Health and social care, childcare are possibilities

Yes, yes you would be. Retrain in something less stressful!

This made me laugh!

Thank you all, I’m still harbouring a slightly whimsical idea of teaching but definitely not going gung-ho to the application forms!

Definitely sounds like teaching would leave me feeling a little the same as I do now, in which case it’s a lot of money and effort to get there.

Thanks for your input (keep on swimming those of you who teach/nurse already, it’s tough right now).

I think the workload at secondary is less …. except for English teachers. However, behaviour is hardcore and managing it is beyond exhausting. I don’t bring work home as a secondary teacher but that’s because I work in an amazing department where we collaboratively plan and are all very skilled and experienced.

At the end of the day I do not want to talk to anyone, including my family, because I’m all talked out! I also have little patience with my own kids because I’ve spent all day being ridiculously calm and patient with other people’s.

I don’t hate my job like some teachers but it dominates my life and and I am severely underpaid for the amazing job I do of motivating reluctant packs of teens to do something they don’t want to do in a place they don’t want to be, whilst maintaining a calm and orderly environment.

Best job in the world in August though. 😂

The marking is a full-time job on its own (marking 1 book - 20 minutes. Times the 300 kids you teach every 2 weeks, insane!).

Reports.

Schemes of work (where every lesson is planned as a 4 part lesson). Given that most teachers teach 7 or 8 classes, that is 7 or 8 schemes of work every 6 weeks. One will take hours.

Books read to support what is being taught.

Data entry (some schools do this monthly).

Mock / practise exam papers (again, monthly in many schools).

Typed up lesson plans for every single lesson (a total waste of everyone's time but almost every school requires them now), with individual students with various special educational needs referenced in them, for the specific adaptations being made for them (e.g. little Billy's work printed in font 18, on yellow paper, little Jessica with 50% TA time, little Arlo given sentence stems...)

Behaviour reports.

All of this done outside of school time because in school time, obviously the teacher is in front of 32 students. Plus lunch duties, break duties, meetings, bus duties, breakfast clubs, revision clubs, homework clubs, initiatives, training sessions, moderation sessions.

Teaching is an 80 hour a week job. It's a full-time admin job, with teaching on top. Which is insanity and is why 1) We can't retain teachers and 2) We can't recruit new teachers for training.

Taught English for 20 years. Loved it at the start. By the end I drove home in tears every day. Being treated like shit by a room full of 30 teenagers with 50 mins on the clock x 7 each day is draining. And the constant threat of being recorded / filmed is pretty grim too.

I only worked PT, but went in on my days off to catch up on all the paperwork - marking / emails / endless tracking and recording. Essentially I worked full time for a part time wage.

I wouldn’t do it if I was you - unless you have no kids of your own, no partner and are prepared to sacrifice your evenings and weekends and have very thick skin.

“Teaching is an 80 hour a week job. It's a full-time admin job, with teaching on top.”

This is accurate.

And for those asking about the holidays, I used to mark through the October break, the Easter holidays, Feb mid term & some of Xmas. Never did making in the summer hols, but spent the last week prepping.

I used to teach English. I still teach and am sooooo much happier now I am not teaching English. This does make me sad but it had sucked everything out of me in terms of complying and hoop jumping and exams exams exams.

Typed up lesson plans for every single lesson (a total waste of everyone's time but almost every school requires them now)

Really? I've been a teacher for 30 years and have never worked in a school where this was required! I've been in my current school for 3 years and have never typed up a lesson plan or shown one to anyone.

It depends on the school.
We had phases of it depending on what the head wanted and what the HoD wanted or could reduce it down to.
We also had to submit all class resources to be held centrally. Mainly so they could be scrutinised when the WALTs/WILFs, WWW/EBI All/Some/Most or anything that changed due to the current whim could be checked.

I always had to submit planning. With 3 levels and all differentiation on it. It got worse and worse until we had to write almost every word we intended to say and evaluation afterwards. I retired at 60 ten years ago having been bullied out.

The lack of flexibility was the nail in the coffin for me. I worked in a very high achieving department and it was expected that we didn’t phone in sick - we’d crawl to work and sometimes they’d tell us to go home, if we were lucky. For context, my boss worked in our department for 40 years from 1982 - 2022. She was off once in the 80s and again in the early 00s. Both times she was hospitalised. Other than that she never missed a day, and the same was expected of us.

An immediate family member’s wedding or funeral was an exception, but even then it was questioned.

I’m out of teaching now and it seems nuts! I can call in sick, work from home, go in late if I have an appt. All things I couldn’t do as a teacher.

You already have your degree. Is there a training fund you can tap into and ask your employer to fund a PGCE? You could dabble your toes in the teaching side of what you do and know and see where that takes you.

I've worked in 5 UK schools and the only one that didn't require it was my first school, 20 years ago. So you're very lucky to have avoided that.