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Original poster

Considering moving into teaching aged 45, how realistic and salary projections?

121 replies

BritBratGrot · 20/09/2025 00:11

Hi, I'm a chemistry graduate and PhD. I moved into data and currently have a reasonably senior job heading a data science type team, £80k salary.

On one hand I love many aspects of my job: the technical wrangling, the people including my team, the serving my stakeholders with useful data products.

However I'm also a) bored b) frustrated I am never resourced properly and c) feel undervalued and unappreciated by the top bods who I've not managed to convince of the value my team brings and how much of the team's output outs driven by me personally - my team are all lovely but have significant personal or capability issues so I'm getting nowhere near as much out of them as I'd ideally like to given the headcount.

Anyway I am sensing redundancy in the next few months and I'm beginning to daydream about changing my career. I've always fancied teaching science but it's never been the right time to move and take a paycut. However maybe the time has arrived.

I'm not sure which teaching scheme would fit me best, open to ideas. Also if my starting salary is around £32K, given all my management and senior leadership, strategy etc experience, how might my salary be expected to progress?

I used to tutor gcse while I was studying and loved it, and I'm also a volunteer teacher in my (outing 😂) hobby, so I've got a good amount of reason and confidence for thinking I'd be good at it and more importantly enjoy it.

I'm am energetic and very positive 45. I know everyone is leaving teaching at the moment but could I do this?

OP posts:
GreenCat12 · 20/09/2025 00:14

Wouldn't you be bored, frustrated, and undervalued as a teacher? Oh and underpaid and overworked too?

Haggisfish3 · 20/09/2025 00:18

Yes, you could. If you teach chemistry and can do a level, then you could rise through the ranks of asst head of dept and head of dept within five years, easily. Previous experience isn’t hugely helpful when negotiating salaries in teaching tbh. But I reckon you could be on £45k within six years.

Unexpectedlysinglemum · 20/09/2025 00:25

Your three reasons for wanting a change are the same three than many teachers leave teaching

Unexpectedlysinglemum · 20/09/2025 00:26

You can do teach first and earn more and progress to leadership faster? And there is a similar scheme for getting PhD into teaching too I think?

Fibonacci2 · 20/09/2025 00:43

The world needs people like you, invested in education. The reality is, if you teach a level science at a comprehensive you will likely teach 5/6 children you are incredibly determined, rather than 30 students whose parents have said stem is the way to go regardless of achievement.

timestressed · 20/09/2025 00:58

Only few lessons with few determined students if HOD allows, the rest of the time won't be as pleasant, that is what I hear from my friend who is a teacher.

Zemu · 20/09/2025 01:03

Tutoring one child or teaching a group of motivated children in a hobby they enjoy is very different from teaching a class in a school. I’d be cautious because the reasons you dislike the current job - being under appreciated , personal problems of your team affecting their ability are going to be multiplied several times in teaching.

Many kids will not want to be there, will hate you and the subject, refuse to do any work, leave the room without permission etc. And rather than THEM being personally accountable YOU will be held responsible for their lack of engagement and achievement, whilst you are sworn at, disrespected, insulted, degraded, perhaps physically attacked, and then you will have to come back with kindness and patience and enthusiasm every day to those same kids and families.

Your major task will be behaviour management rather than teaching your subject. There will be kids in your class that can barely write, who cannot sit still for 10 mins, who are constantly on phones playing games because they are screen addicted. Who climb on furniture or out of windows, refuse to follow simple instructions, talk and shout all the time when you are trying to explain things, throw stuff around. You will feel you are failing the few that actually want to learn whilst spending 80% of your time and focus during class on managing behaviour of the majority.

You will work every evening, every weekend, every holiday. The job follows you everywhere and is never done. There will always be something more you could be doing, which will overshadow every family outing with dread and guilt. You will feel you are giving everything you’ve got, to the detriment of your own family, and it will never be enough. And the vast majority of the people you will make all these sacrifices for will not care or be thankful in the slightest for your carefully planned lessons, for the devotion of your life to them, for the time and energy you have given up to help them, on the contrary they will be hostile and rude and refuse to do the tasks you spent so long designing for them.

H202too · 20/09/2025 01:10

Would you enjoy teaching a bored low ability 15 year old with no interest. As ' they don't need Science' then being judged on those grades?
Not all like it but kids are kids. There are some truly lovely students though.

If you have a passion why not? It can be boring, lots of pointless stuff but helping kids love your subject is amazing.
I think you would b e annoyed at some of the pointless stuff. If you do I would love to follow your journey. Maybe you could revisit this thread.

bitterlemonade · 20/09/2025 01:19

@Zemu - couldn’t have said it better.

It’s utterly draining and relentless. Raising up the ranks of a science dept will be relatively quick but only because science teachers are so hard to find… however that comes with taking responsibility for staff that are off long term or if there are classes being taught by non-specialists.

unsurewhattodoaboutit · 20/09/2025 01:41

Husband teaches A level in a 6 th form college. He’s had a long teaching career in schools. He’s massively underpaid now but the school system is built to chew up and spit out good teachers.

I would either stay doing what you are doing or accept you will be earning £40k less. Is it worth it really?

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 20/09/2025 01:49

I escaped teaching at 57. It was just too exhausting ( taught a practical subject)

l had lots of pain issues and it wrecked my feet for ever. I don’t recommend anyone going into teaching.

The kids are wild and dangerous. There’s no support as it all goes to English and Maths. Kids with dangerous equipment and big class sizes don’t mix. You can kiss your life farewell if you decide to do it.
Conditions and salary are crap now.

gerispringer · 20/09/2025 03:28

You could get on the job training at the best independent school near you. They'd snap you up. The salary would be higher, classes smaller and longer holidays. i worked at tough comps, grammar and independent schools in my career and the tough comps were good experience for me at the start of my career when I was a young teacher, but Im so glad I moved on - I definitely enjoyed teaching in the independent school with better conditions, more resources and without all the extra disciplinary hassle.

padso · 20/09/2025 03:31

It depends where you are & what school you work in. I have teachers friends on 80k as they are SLT but not heads or Deputy's.

If you get a job at a good school dc will be more engaged. my friends have stayed at their schools years. the pension is excellent

Octavia64 · 20/09/2025 05:22

You won’t be bored.

you will be frustrated that you are not resourced properly and you will be unappreciated.

estellacandance · 20/09/2025 06:30

Depends on your whole situation.

do you have a supportive DP?

if you dropped out could you go back?

stayathomer · 20/09/2025 06:33

Unexpectedlysinglemum

Your three reasons for wanting a change are the same three than many teachers leave teaching

These feelings screamed at everyone op, it literally sounds like the things you hate most would be cropping up if you started teaching

Soontobe60 · 20/09/2025 06:35

There’s a Facebook page for teachers who are looking to leave the profession and another for those wanting to take early retirement. Each one has 1000’s of members for a reason. Teaching is HARD!

Onelifeonly · 20/09/2025 06:39

You'll never be bored. As for the rest...... Teaching is 10% subject knowledge (that might be generous) and 90% crowd control, planning, assessing, trying to interest students who don't really want to know and conforming to management / curriculum / exam/ OFSTED expectations, not to mention dealing with parental complaints.

I work in primary and mostly love it but I've been on the management side for many years.

Readyforslippers · 20/09/2025 06:39

Teaching is probably one of the most undervalued and under resourced jobs out there. I'm sure you could do it, but I think you'd find it very frustrating.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 20/09/2025 07:13

gerispringer · 20/09/2025 03:28

You could get on the job training at the best independent school near you. They'd snap you up. The salary would be higher, classes smaller and longer holidays. i worked at tough comps, grammar and independent schools in my career and the tough comps were good experience for me at the start of my career when I was a young teacher, but Im so glad I moved on - I definitely enjoyed teaching in the independent school with better conditions, more resources and without all the extra disciplinary hassle.

The salary is often lower and lots don’t pay into pension.

Meredusoleil · 20/09/2025 07:36

Zemu · 20/09/2025 01:03

Tutoring one child or teaching a group of motivated children in a hobby they enjoy is very different from teaching a class in a school. I’d be cautious because the reasons you dislike the current job - being under appreciated , personal problems of your team affecting their ability are going to be multiplied several times in teaching.

Many kids will not want to be there, will hate you and the subject, refuse to do any work, leave the room without permission etc. And rather than THEM being personally accountable YOU will be held responsible for their lack of engagement and achievement, whilst you are sworn at, disrespected, insulted, degraded, perhaps physically attacked, and then you will have to come back with kindness and patience and enthusiasm every day to those same kids and families.

Your major task will be behaviour management rather than teaching your subject. There will be kids in your class that can barely write, who cannot sit still for 10 mins, who are constantly on phones playing games because they are screen addicted. Who climb on furniture or out of windows, refuse to follow simple instructions, talk and shout all the time when you are trying to explain things, throw stuff around. You will feel you are failing the few that actually want to learn whilst spending 80% of your time and focus during class on managing behaviour of the majority.

You will work every evening, every weekend, every holiday. The job follows you everywhere and is never done. There will always be something more you could be doing, which will overshadow every family outing with dread and guilt. You will feel you are giving everything you’ve got, to the detriment of your own family, and it will never be enough. And the vast majority of the people you will make all these sacrifices for will not care or be thankful in the slightest for your carefully planned lessons, for the devotion of your life to them, for the time and energy you have given up to help them, on the contrary they will be hostile and rude and refuse to do the tasks you spent so long designing for them.

This sums up my 10 years of secondary school teaching really well 👏

TaborlinTheGreat · 20/09/2025 07:46

Zemu · 20/09/2025 01:03

Tutoring one child or teaching a group of motivated children in a hobby they enjoy is very different from teaching a class in a school. I’d be cautious because the reasons you dislike the current job - being under appreciated , personal problems of your team affecting their ability are going to be multiplied several times in teaching.

Many kids will not want to be there, will hate you and the subject, refuse to do any work, leave the room without permission etc. And rather than THEM being personally accountable YOU will be held responsible for their lack of engagement and achievement, whilst you are sworn at, disrespected, insulted, degraded, perhaps physically attacked, and then you will have to come back with kindness and patience and enthusiasm every day to those same kids and families.

Your major task will be behaviour management rather than teaching your subject. There will be kids in your class that can barely write, who cannot sit still for 10 mins, who are constantly on phones playing games because they are screen addicted. Who climb on furniture or out of windows, refuse to follow simple instructions, talk and shout all the time when you are trying to explain things, throw stuff around. You will feel you are failing the few that actually want to learn whilst spending 80% of your time and focus during class on managing behaviour of the majority.

You will work every evening, every weekend, every holiday. The job follows you everywhere and is never done. There will always be something more you could be doing, which will overshadow every family outing with dread and guilt. You will feel you are giving everything you’ve got, to the detriment of your own family, and it will never be enough. And the vast majority of the people you will make all these sacrifices for will not care or be thankful in the slightest for your carefully planned lessons, for the devotion of your life to them, for the time and energy you have given up to help them, on the contrary they will be hostile and rude and refuse to do the tasks you spent so long designing for them.

It certainly can be like that, and I've worked (briefly) in schools where it was. However, as a cheap (because newly qualified) but mature and capable science teacher with other experience, you would probably be snapped up and might have your pick of schools. Not all schools are as Zemu described (though nany are). I'm in a fantastic school after 30 years of teaching (including a couple of bad schools and some good ones). My lessons are all teaching and virtually no crowd control. It is possible. The workload is still brutal though.

saraclara · 20/09/2025 07:49

I see that I'm not the first to have read your OP and immediately latched on to
However I'm also a) bored b) frustrated I am never resourced properly and c) feel undervalued and unappreciated

Why on earth would you choose an alternative career where you'll be even more under-resourced, undervalued and unappreciated?

I hate putting perspective teachers off the job. My grandchildren will need good teachers. But really, these days it's a job that destroys people.

HermioneWeasley · 20/09/2025 07:50

Data science people are in massive shortage and most organisations treasure them. Just get a better job in another company

Piggywaspushed · 20/09/2025 07:51

You might feel undervalued and under resourced now but you aren't in monetary terms. Your current job 'values' you enough to say you are worth 80k. Teaching won't unless you are in SLT.

There are a few red flags in what you say. I have known quite a few teachers (mainly in maths , science and computing) who are quite entitled, think their industry experience, management experience , or previous salary means they should progress more rapidly (maybe this is how the private sector works but it's not how teaching tends to) - indeed more rapidly than lifelong teachers/ highly skilled teachers/ better teachers - and a feeling of superiority over colleagues. That attitude actually led to some poor relationships, not enough focus on building teaching skills and a lot of frustration. The one thing you might be able to negotiate is a starting salary slightly higher up the scale. But it just means you get to the ceiling quicker.

I think you need to get into some actual classrooms and see what they are like ' red in tooth and claw' as it were!