Retraining as a post primary teacher in my 40s

[Liftmyselfupagain]

I’ve just come off the phone from my younger brother having spoken to him about maybe pursuing to train as a secondary school art teacher. He said predominantly the only people who do that as in retrain as a teacher are people whose kids have flown the nest. Do you think this is true? I have two young kids 6 and 9 and see it as a career that could provide some stability, some free time for them in the summer and some quality of life - in comparison to the corporate life. The way he spoke made me feel niave and that I was wasting my qualifications. Would you all agree. I’m a big four trained accountant who barely tolerated it and have wanted a change for so so long. In my mid forties. Would love your views? TIA

Did you initially study art? Of course it's not only one group of people who retrain as teachers. I don't know what your life is like now but I'm sure you know teaching isn't exactly easy or has short working hours. Can you work part time in your current role?

Thanks for the reply. I studied architecture as a BA which is accepted as a primary degree. Honestly I ever wanted was to be is a fine artist and/or run my own business, work with people and my life took me in a corporate direction, and I knew all the while it was the wrong direction, but struggled to get off the merry go round. Would love some advice. I really don’t want to sit in front of excel for the rest of my life.

I have two years to get my act together to make a go of something else.

Oh dear, just came across this disheartening thread - https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5274234-to-retrain-as-a-teacher-at-just-turned-50

Well you certainly would be dealing with people! And there's a degree of autonomy in teaching as you run your own classroom - though there's still bureaucracy to deal with too. Not sure how enthused the average teen is about art, which might get you down, but you will also get the senior students who absolutely love it.

The first years can be hard though. What do you mean about stability, does your current job not being that?

Stability as in stability with a degree of freedom (summer holidays), three months where I live.

Ah, what life is like for a teacher will be different in different countries - as far as I can see, English teachers have it worse than Scottish teachers who have it worse than Irish teachers (in terms of workload).

Can you shadow an art teacher to get a feel for what their day is like

Thank you yes this really is the best option, thanks for your thoughts :)

I would contact your local secondary and ask them about doing some work experience for a week or two. See how you feel. Not just a day or two though, as you won’t get a real insight.

And then, if you like it, I would time your entry into teaching for when your youngest is In The higher years at primary.

I think accountancy will offer much better work/life balance and pay! Perhaps in organisations other than the huge firms.

Also, the cost of retraining and loss of salary for a couple of years will be £100k plus, which is huge.

A friend retrained as a teacher about four years ago, and teaches art. But she works in a school with a v good art dept so they teach ceramics and all sorts. She told me recently she has taught art of rebellion, like how dissidents use graffiti in places where dictators rule. Sounded v interesting! She enjoys it

My husband did it at just turned 50 after 25+years in banking. He finds it hard work, a lot of painful crap management but very fulfilling.

Like a pp said, visit a school for a few days and get a feel.

You may not know there is a retraining board on MN. It’s possible you’ll find threads on what you’re interested in:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mature_students

I'm not sure where the most recent thread about this has gone but a theme on MN is people wanting to change jobs mid-life and that it is really difficult. It seems the grass is always greener at the other job.

As a classroom teacher, I would not recommend ditching your (presumably well paid) job for teaching. If you want flexibility on hours/days off, I recommend looking for other roles in your current field. Teachers are expected to move heaven and earth to avoid being out of school - taking time off for anything is strongly discouraged - and, in fact, it's easier to teach a lesson than to dream up something pupils can do independently.

And if there's work teachers don't finish during the school day between teaching lessons, they are expected to finish it in their 'free time'. I think part-time teachers have the worst deal since they are only paid for their teaching time so they have to do all the marking and prep on their 'days off'. That two month 'summer holiday' is actually unpaid - the contracts are for 10mos but the salary is divided by 12.

Most teachers will tell you that the hours are just as long as in the corporate world but not as well paid. At my current, independent school, my working hours are 8 - 6 Mon-Sat - that's a 60hr week... but I'm not on 6 figures nor do I get a bonus ...