Hi

As above really, have been commuting into central London to sit in a cubicle staring at screens every weekday for approaching 10 years, had 8 years of various job before then, feel like a change and the idea of teaching appeals. It would be a pay cut, but in a midlife crisis kind of way money isn’t whats important, I would just rather spend my time doing something remotely rewarding and enjoyable while at work, and am prepared to sacrifice some salary to do it. It would also be a chance to get out of living in greater London.

I have spent a fair while on the UCAS site, booked the professional skills tests, and am filling in my application.

Anyone else gone down this route of getting into teaching as a career change rather than the straight out of Uni route? Any advice?

Not personally but when a bunch of us got laid off from RBS in 2009 two of my former colleagues went into teaching after completing a 12 month post-grad course to qualify – I don’t see them much but, whilst no job is easy really – they’ve both said on FB compared to RBS it’s massively more rewarding, the pay isn’t as good but it’s less stressful, ‘easier’ and of course they get big lumps of summer off.

A massively over simplified version of things seems to be that if you want an easier life Infant/Juniors is where it’s at, if you want more opportunities to progress / earn more Secondary is the one.

Teach Junior. Junior schools really need more male teachers.

I’ve got an ‘office’ job (Design/Engineering/Manufacturing)and my wife is a secondary school teacher. (Science)

From a ‘hours/workload’ point of view, I do a lot less than her, but am occasionally required to travel/do some silly long days for which I don’t get paid any extra.

From a financial point of view, I get paid about £10k more than her, and have a phone/laptop/company car.

I think the current direction teaching is going in is unsustainable – constantly trying to do more with less, trying to get kids who aren’t interested/don’t care to pass exams that they don’t perceive are worth anything.
I couldn’t/wouldn’t do it, not because of the money, and not particularly because of the workload, but because the leadership/management appears to be dreadful.
(Unprofessional, riddled with nepotism and inconsistency)
Their expectations of their staff is not compatible with family life (work/like balance doesn’t exist)

If you’ve got a yearning for it, then go for it, you might do pretty well if you are looking to teach a ‘desirable’ subject (maths/Physics/Chemistry) but just be aware of the whole picture.

A friend did, left engineering to teach primary, lasted a few years then got overwhelmed by the paperwork / politics and is back in engineering.

I would love to do is as the teaching, but I think I too would be defeated by the paperwork.

My wife did the same as you. Gave up a very well paid career at Bloomberg and went back to uni to requalify as a French/Spanish teacher.

It was hard work studying and spending 2 years with only one income was tough on us but she hasn’t looked back. She lucked out and walked into a great job at private school in East Yorkshire and absolutely loves it. I think having the extra experience of having worked elsewhere before becoming a teacher helped her somewhat when interviewing for her fist job.

That said though, whilst the holidays are great (and means we don’t have childcare issues in the holidays) the working hours are a bastard. There is hardly a night where she doesn’t do at least an hours work, often more.

half way through a part time BA in Primary Ed – I don’t think anyone these days goes into it without understanding the issues in Education, and for many that is one of the reasons that they do go into it.

How is it going to get any better unless people with experience outside of the education sector go into it and try to make a change?

I have no idea how long I will last – or if the families finances can manage with the drop in wages but there’s no way of knowing unless you try 😉

I wouldn’t do it but then I can’t stand kids.

Actually maybe that makes me well qualified.

Good for you and best of luck!
Go for a public school role. They don’t require any teaching qualifications (although they are advantageous) and if you’re lucky they’ll take you through the whole process. Amazing community, great resources and lovely locations (normally).

Edit: depending on location, subject choice and age choice, I know of a few vacancies.

I got sick of the recent changes and increased managerialism after teaching for 35 years and packed it in. I’m currently helping a bloke (BA, MA, 15yrs teaching, head of key stage and now head of science) to get out. He’s desperate and sick of 65 hour weeks.

However, not all schools are the same. Mrs MC visits schools in an advisory capacity and claims that some staffrooms have high morale and others are driven into the ground by largely pointless bureaucratic nonsense. I saw what the guy above had to do on a spreadsheet for each class (seating plans, target grade, current grade, extended comment on how to move from one to the other) and about every two weeks it had to be tweaked. Hours and hours of rubbish work just so that the senior managers look slick for Ofsted inspectors. All this ofcourse is on top of preparation and assessment. Result is this ‘outstanding’ school is likely to lose an outstanding teacher. This scenario is being replicated all over the place.

Conclusion: look and research a school very carefully before taking a teaching job.

Get certified, get QTS, do the NQT and get out of the country

Good mate of mine did it a while back. Since he started teaching he has not been able to come out for a bike ride due to the massive amount of work he is having to do.

Basically in the last two years I’ve seen him twice for a very, very short bike ride. Used to ride 2 – 4 times a week.

Poor chap said its killing him.

So, never mind the pay drop, you will also have a massive drop in free time. Not sure how much satisfaction you expect to overcome those two important factors.

^ Exactly. One lovely student said how every year she hated having to sit through that ‘dotpeople’ assembly. I asked her to elaborate and she was referring to how the students were reduced to targets and exam stats. I fear with the way things are going, classroom teachers will take a depersonalised view of students in the same way.

Interesting food for thought guys thanks.

I would look to teach primary, so would hope that the politics of it all is not as bad as at secondary.

My mum used to teach so I have seen how much work is involved, if I can trim my commute time then I should about break even on how many hours I am “at work” even with some time in the evenings, and I am not averse to hard work or long hours. That said, I can also see how a good grasp of technology could have done some of that work more efficiently.

I am also of the mind that, if I try it, do it for a few years, decide it’s not for me and head back to the cubicle farm then I have not really lost anything other than money, and I will have had some experiences along the way.

having worked elsewhere before becoming a teacher helped her somewhat when interviewing for her fist job.

A teacher of fisting,my my that is a career change and a half! Is she making money hand over fist!! 🙂

Edit: stuck in quote mode

Yes, be a teacher if your nature is to help others like self sacrifice …

No, if you think you will have a good life.

Do Not become a teacher if you cannot give it your best to teach with the best intention to help them succeed/proceed in life.

😮

Yes, have done this exactly. After 17 years sitting in an office looking at spreadsheets and making good money, I had the opportunity to leave with some cash in my pocket. It was a tough call – I was full time at Uni for 2 years and am now half way through my probation year earning a pittance. But it was worth every second. I love it.

Yes, there is paperwork but it is survivable (at least, it is here in Scotland) and teenagers are, generally, willing to learn given half a chance. I wouldn’t go back and that is the true test I reckon.

you will also have a massive drop in free time

YMMV. I have more free time now than when I worked in the office. I get no emails at weekends or on holidays. No one phones me in the evening looking for some work to be be done. I can leave the building at 1530 if I have my work squared away and ride my bike in the afternoons and do prep in the evenings if it suits me. Yes I have to do some work in the holidays but I still have better holidays than most. Pay isn’t great but when you have a permanent job (I don’t yet) you are more or less secure for as long as you want to stay there provided you continue to do a decent job. Few private sector jobs offer this kind of security.

Do Not become a teacher if you cannot give it your best

Yep. Don’t think “that looks like a bit of a skive with loadsa holidays”. It isn’t, but it is rewarding in a way that sitting in an office plugging figures into spreadsheets could never be (for me anyway).

My better half has done it. She’s trying to work out what to do to get out.

She’s been teaching for around eight years and it’s the same old story – loves what the job is supposed to be, loves actual teaching and loves the kids, but is feeling ground down by the constant ‘political football’ game of change (“not so much as moving the goalposts, but taking the entire pitch and hiding it in a wood” as one teacher friend said), the mounds of often pointless paperwork and governments trying to treat education like a profit-making business.

That said, it’s a great qualification, and if you’re single or have an adventurous family it can take you around the world. My folks lived and taught in Manama (Bahrain), Ho Chi Minh and Rome – the old man has often said he wishes me and my sisters were educated at one of the English curriculum international schools as opposed to a UK comp.

I did a weeks secondment into a 2ndry school a few years back when I was thinking of doing similar…..it scared the shit out of me. Respect for those that do it, but its not for me.

I’ve just done the opposite. After 3 years of teaching maths I’ve recently escaped to an engineering career and I’m much happier for it. I loved teaching and I loved doing maths all day. I didn’t love the rediculous work load and the attitude of some of the parents.

I’d encourage you to contact a school and arrange a bit of taster. I had a few people in your situation come sit in my lessons a few times. It’s important you let yourself know what you’re in for. Most teacher training courses will expect you to have spent some time in a school before applying.

If you want to do it I’d certainly encourage you. Someone needs to step up and fill the gaps left by people like me who have been scared off.

It does very much depend on the management of the school whether you can gain job satisfaction in my (30 year) experience. When that changes, it can lead to very rapid drop in morale in an institution.
Plus points:
Working with young people, seeing them progress and get enthused by the work and then go on to rewarding careers as a result. (I was in the 6th form sector)
Working as a team in a good department was great fun
My days work was never ever the same, even if you taught the same course for a number of years, the students were different, their work was different and your approach was adjusted to suit. Bored? No chance.

Negative points:
It is very, very hard work, particularly at the start of teaching. My first two years were a blur of work, eat, sleep and not a lot else. Be prepared for 60 hour plus weeks during term time, obviously less during the holidays, but count on spending about a third of your holiday and half a day each weekend on preparation.
Be prepared to have your targets changed constantly from on high, often with very little rational explanation as to why you needed to change it all yet again. Some of this is external e.g. When the exam system is altered, some internal when the latest pressure on senior management is passed down the chain.
Job security in the sector I worked is becoming much more difficult as the current cuts bite. When an institution has a budget cut of 30% over four years, and 80% of that budget is staff salaries, it isn’t rocket science to work out what has to give.

Ouch, I’ve just read your “Negatives”, I couldn’t do that job for £100k, Nevermind what they actually pay teachers.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBjUiJFuXYQ[/video]

Sorry 😉

Ouch, I’ve just read your “Negatives”, I couldn’t do that job for £100k, Nevermind what they actually pay teachers.

For 28 of my 30 years teaching the positives outweighed the negatives by a significant margin. When the negatives overtook the positives, I took the decision to go part time which worked for a while but then my hours were cut as well, then I decided it wasn’t for me any more.
Edit:
To answer the original question, as others have said, get as much experience before you make the decision as you can, and if you do go for it you might really love it.

Two recent stories. #2 lifelong senior civil servant, retrained as maths teacher. Loved the training, hated the teaching. Now stats crunching for a QUANGO. #2 born educator and loving it. Duck to water. Conclusion: err flip a coin? Doing the right thing getting opinions though. Good luck.

I went from climbing shop jib to teaching in 1994. Was bad enough then for a 30 year old. By 2000 I had had enough of the planning which took as long as the teaching (including other stuff) and had got fed up with a myriad of new strategies. I then turned to supply and things like maternity leave and that has been so much better. Spent most of the last year and a bit in one junior school that has ended up in special measure because, briefly and over simply, the kids come in at a level from the infants that in a junior setting is way to optimistic and it is impossible to drag those kids up by the amount that the powers that be see fit in 4 years. They are too highly graded. That doesn’t matter, its just the crap that is piled on. I have to teach at least 2 hours more subjects in a week than there are teaching hours. Nowt can be dropped so its all doubled up. Eg my poetry lesson is about Vikings.
It isn’t easy by a long way, a less efficient colleague who teaches well but cannot manage his “homework” is currently going to bed at 3am for a 6am get up! He really should get his act together. Its not all like that. Todays session in the mobile planetarium was great fun.
Just be aware that its bloody hard work and very very frustrating when the goal post move and the ball is taken away.
Spend some time in a school or two, preferably a mix of types.

Sounds like a bold move – all credit if you take the step, be a great job if you figure it out. Seems like you need a lot of energy to teach primary – children’s entertainers last about 2 hrs at birthday parties before they collapse in a knackered heap – you’ll need to do 7 hrs a day 🙂 Markings quite light though.

If the management is really as bad as people say then you just have to learn to play it – I mean what happens in any industry where management doles out bogus, transitory strategy with zero staff buy-in? You develop your own strategy to ignore it – putting your energies where they count whilst giving the appearance of being on board with whatever management nonsense is beseiging your ears.

My daughter has just started teaching primary, year 6
She goes in at 0700 every morning and leaves at 1900 mist nights
I spoke to her tonight at 2000 and she had 20 books to mark before tomorrow.
She has always been highly motivated and hard working in all she does, but at the moment she is wondering if it is all worth it
She brings home £1400 a month

I’ve just taken voluntary severance after 15 years in further education (which isn’t even as oppressive as schools) and am very happy to get out. I genuinely love teaching but the bollocks that that went with it, along with the standard of student that we filled our courses with just wore me down in the end.

Ir’s a shame that it isn’t treated as a respected profession any more. There’s a lot of students out there with BTEC qualifications that didn’t really earn them, but hey, the success rates were good… Glad to not be a part of it any more.

I retrained as a teacher in 2004. I’d originally been a research scientist. The first few years in the job are really hard with long hours planning and prep. It does get much easier as you get more efficient, work out what systems and strategies work for you and you gain confidence. I spent my first year working at rough inner london school that had dysfunctional management, left there after the first year (my wife pointed out after the fact, if I’d stayed I would have ended up a basket case). Moved to a better managed school which was a much more rewarding experience. I’m now teaching in Aus in a catholic boys school in Melbourne.

The school is very supportive when I need time off for family (sick kids etc) but I do put in by going on camps, running the science club and helping with out of hours activities, so I do build up brownie points.

It is a good school, the job is very rewarding and the holidays are brilliant especially when you have a family. Downside is that my kids friends parents assume I’m professional childcare during school holidays (always either the mad parents or the ones with nutter children), a point I have since made very clear to be incorrect. It can also be hard going back to work after 6 or 7 weeks of holidays (I can hear the sympathy from everyone over this). Less than one more week till we are back, time to get out for a ride.

If you want less paperwork and crap, go into the independent sector. We’re ISI rather than Ofsted and everyone’s a lot more laid back and more interested in teaching than targets. Agree with the joy of trips though…I’ve had 6 ski trips, 3 trips to Cyprus and I’m off to Space Camp at Easter. It’s jolly hard work (can you manage a day without swearing!!) but very rewarding and very fun.

I know you are in London but have a look at this

http://www.teachinscotland.org/?dm_i=LQE,34OUF,3LDKO9,B7V7J,1

This gives quite a bit of info for people thinking of going into teaching.

I am currently doing my probation in Scotland, working in a secondary school for a year (NQT – Newly qualified teacher). So with a bit of luck I will be full registered and looking for a job to start after the summer. (I am also under no illusion that I may not find a full time job and may return to my previous career but that is not my intention). I also think the experience will make me better now at any job – Transferable Skills etc.

At 45 I was one of the older ones in my uni year, but having spent most of my working life in creative/tech companies I don’t feel too much of an old duffer.

There is no doubt about it there is a very steep learning curve and it is very hard to start with (well I found it that way). It is a very busy job (which I quite like) you need to do a whole load of things at the same time. There is an awful lot to do out with standing up in front of a class. Preparation, course development, marking, reports, parent’s evenings, professional development, and clubs etc. Efficiency, good time management and thinking on your feat are definite requirements otherwise it could take over your life completely.

I think Primary is a bit different, my brother and wife are both Primary teachers and they seem to be expected to do everything regardless of how much of their free time it takes up. Experienced Secondary teachers seem to be a bit more hardnosed. (No offence to Primary Teachers that is just my observation).

If you are interested in kids, getting to know them, like a challenge and being busy it is still a good if demanding job. The holidays are grand (and needed).

Ouch, I’ve just read your “Negatives”, I couldn’t do that job for £100k, Nevermind what they actually pay teachers.

The ATL (Association of Teachers and Lecturers – one of the more passive unions) have worked out that the recent pay freeze actually now works out as a 12% pay cut, when taking inflation into account.

I don’t have the maths to back that up (it’s in my other half’s magazine and I’m sitting in a coffee shop) but it’s also worth taking into account.

My wife is a secondary teacher and theres no way in the world I’d give up my well paid job staring at a screen to take a pay cut and try and teach the little sh*ts she has to deal with, and she’s in a decent school. I can see the rewarding bit and the holidays are a temptation but the amount of work she does out of school hours is a lot.

If I were you OP, I’d try staring at a screen somewhere which didn’t need a commute into London.

Yes, be a teacher if your nature is to help others like self sacrifice …

No, if you think you will have a good life.

Do Not become a teacher if you cannot give it your best to teach with the best intention to help them succeed/proceed in life.

Chewkw speaks sense.

Basically, only you know if you really want to at least try it. Married to a teacher of 21 years experience I don’t think I would, but that says at least as much about me as the job.

Thanks all

I will take the tests, work on my application, and go and get some time in a classroom somewhere and see how I feel about it after that

I did a weeks secondment into a 2ndry school a few years back when I was thinking of doing similar…..it scared the shit out of me.

Same here, I was also a governor at a local primary school so that I could get a good insite into what is involved. There is a shedload of paperwork and internal politics (Mrs Natrix is a teacher)

50% of new teachers leave the profession within 5 years, make sure that it is really what you want to do before taking the plunge……

Where are you based Steve? Seems like there’s a few of us teachers on here…