Career change - PGDE primary teaching

[nik1231]

I'd highly recommend getting work experience first before making the decision. As a very exhausted teacher of 15 years who works in a relatively nice area with easy children, the job is hard, stressful and mentally and physically draining. There are some great perks for sure, but it does come at a cost to your time, social and personal life and own well-being sometimes. I don't think people not in the profession realise how full of the job can be. That said, it may be for you and you may love it, there are lots of teachers out there who do, but I definitely think it's worth getting work experience and talking to as many teachers as you can before making the decision.

 

[Norfolking Good]

Hi everybody
I am just wondering if anyone has any advice for changing careers to be a primary school teacher?

I currently work in professional legal services but I really do not enjoy it. I find it quite stressful with meeting client expectations and other reasons as well so I don’t want to continue in the profession. I am well paid which is the only thing keeping me here.
I am in a very fortunate position where I don’t have a lot of expenses eg mortgage so money is not the most important factor, so I’ve been thinking about what careers appeal to me and primary teaching is one of them. The only things I hear about teaching in general are negative though! Is it really like that? I’ve heard there are no job prospects out of your probation year and the stress is just not worth it. The lack of jobs is one of the main things putting me off. I’m in Scotland if that helps!
Thank you in advance for any advice/experiences!

Former teacher here. Definitely do some work experience if you can. Maybe go in once a week and read with the kids or do a solid week just to see what teaching is and how the dynamics of the classes work and it’s actually what you think it is if that makes sense.
There is a lot of great stuff being done out there, really imaginative lessons but I won’t sugarcoat how hard the teacher training is. It’s a massive learning curve and you’ll hit new heights of tiredness you never knew. It’s a little like being on stage for 6hrs a day.
Your NQT year is a hard year in the sense you’re suddenly out there with the stabilisers off but you should have a good support system in the school and a designated mentor. It is stressful but I found it better than the training year by far. I think as with any profession you need to make your bones for a few years as an ordinary teacher, get the experience and a saddlebag of resources and resilience and then you can got higher up as you want. Some of my friends got promoted very quickly and truth is they were good but very inexperienced and found that even harder than the additional responsibilities. Hope this helps a little

 

[bcfc999]

I'd highly recommend getting work experience first before making the decision. As a very exhausted teacher of 15 years who works in a relatively nice area with easy children, the job is hard, stressful and mentally and physically draining. There are some great perks for sure, but it does come at a cost to your time, social and personal life and own well-being sometimes. I don't think people not in the profession realise how full of the job can be. That said, it may be for you and you may love it, there are lots of teachers out there who do, but I definitely think it's worth getting work experience and talking to as many teachers as you can before making the decision.

I agree with this, but also found personally that despite having done a lot of work experience, I hated actually teaching so much that I went back to my previous career. Looking at it now, my work experience was more TA activities eg. reading with the kids, small intervention groups, which is all stuff I enjoyed, versus actually standing at the front of class and teaching, spending hours planning etc. I think if TA pay was better I would've gone into that after my PGCE instead. All this is to say - think seriously about what attracts you to it, what you enjoy, and how much of your day would actually consist of that.

 

[Gossip101xoxo]

Hi everybody
I am just wondering if anyone has any advice for changing careers to be a primary school teacher?

I currently work in professional legal services but I really do not enjoy it. I find it quite stressful with meeting client expectations and other reasons as well so I don’t want to continue in the profession. I am well paid which is the only thing keeping me here.
I am in a very fortunate position where I don’t have a lot of expenses eg mortgage so money is not the most important factor, so I’ve been thinking about what careers appeal to me and primary teaching is one of them. The only things I hear about teaching in general are negative though! Is it really like that? I’ve heard there are no job prospects out of your probation year and the stress is just not worth it. The lack of jobs is one of the main things putting me off. I’m in Scotland if that helps!
Thank you in advance for any advice/experiences!

 

[Norfolking Good]

I trained back in 2008 and we got a bursary back then so I think my tuition fees were just added to my current student loan and then we got something like £1500 per term to live on. Depending on the subject if it was high demand like science or languages then they got a lot more and I think a golden payout on qualifying too, sadly history wasn’t in that group so we didn’t get any of the perks there.
I did my PGCE in one year so resigned from my job and lived in with two postgrads off campus to save money but I was in my twenties then and the thought of doing that now makes my blood run cold haha.
In terms of your application for the course obviously the more experience you can get the better and try and read some of the literature like the Teaching Times and TES to give you an insight into current themes in education, issues and policy. Always sounds good if you can throw in a few buzz words!

 

[Monkeymagic85]

Thank you for your reply I will write to schools and ask for work experience or even to observe, it’s hard because i am working full time so don’t think I could commit to a week’s work experience because I have no holidays left for the year! Sorry for all the questions but how did you fund your training? Obviously taking a year out of work to go back to uni is a big cost and commitment so I’m just wondering how other people have done it and managed? Thank you!

I think people worked in the evenings or days when they are not at uni. I know some employers can be flexible on when you work, my workplace is good for this but I know not many are. If you have support from family/partner, it probably helps

 

[Gossip101xoxo]

Former teacher here. Definitely do some work experience if you can. Maybe go in once a week and read with the kids or do a solid week just to see what teaching is and how the dynamics of the classes work and it’s actually what you think it is if that makes sense.
There is a lot of great stuff being done out there, really imaginative lessons but I won’t sugarcoat how hard the teacher training is. It’s a massive learning curve and you’ll hit new heights of tiredness you never knew. It’s a little like being on stage for 6hrs a day.
Your NQT year is a hard year in the sense you’re suddenly out there with the stabilisers off but you should have a good support system in the school and a designated mentor. It is stressful but I found it better than the training year by far. I think as with any profession you need to make your bones for a few years as an ordinary teacher, get the experience and a saddlebag of resources and resilience and then you can got higher up as you want. Some of my friends got promoted very quickly and truth is they were good but very inexperienced and found that even harder than the additional responsibilities. Hope this helps a little

Thank you very much for your response! I can imagine it being very tiring having to be ‘on’ all the time. Do you mind me asking why you left the profession? I’m wary about changing careers to a new profession then leaving after a few years because it’s not what I thought it would be and being back at square one. How do you suggest getting experience? Could I just write to local schools? Thank you!
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I think it depends where in the uk you are, my SIL is currently doing hers to be a secondary teacher and I have a friend who did it a couple years ago. Both are in their 40s so never too late.

I’m in Scotland and know a few others who did this as a second career and none of them struggled to find a job. The first year is also guaranteed after qualifying, I think if you were rubbish you wouldn’t get kept on but due to there always being changes in a school, there is usually a job after

Thank you for your reply! I’ve heard from a few people that councils are not providing enough funding to hire new teachers so lots are on supply which worries me slightly but the situation might be different in a few years so who knows!

 

[Gossip101xoxo]

I wrote to schools both primary and secondary and asked for work experience as I was contemplating teaching and thought that I’d try both just in case. I went into secondary teaching in the end but found a week in primary really made me realise it wasn’t for me so it’s worth doing both just in case. You could also try a legal dept at A-level/ higher education as a few former solicitors and law employees did that too.
I left partly due to burning out and I was not enjoying it anymore. The highs were great but the lows were awful so felt that as it was beginning to affect my health this came first.
On my PGCE we had a range of ages 50% were 21 fresh out of uni and 50% we older up to late 40s early 50s so age isn’t an issue really

Thank you for your reply I will write to schools and ask for work experience or even to observe, it’s hard because i am working full time so don’t think I could commit to a week’s work experience because I have no holidays left for the year! Sorry for all the questions but how did you fund your training? Obviously taking a year out of work to go back to uni is a big cost and commitment so I’m just wondering how other people have done it and managed? Thank you!

 

[Gossip101xoxo]

I think people worked in the evenings or days when they are not at uni. I know some employers can be flexible on when you work, my workplace is good for this but I know not many are. If you have support from family/partner, it probably helps

Thank you I don’t think I’d be able to do both my current job and study, unless I dropped a couple of days at work and then did the course part-time, which is definitely an option. Lots to think about!

 

[Norfolking Good]

I wrote to schools both primary and secondary and asked for work experience as I was contemplating teaching and thought that I’d try both just in case. I went into secondary teaching in the end but found a week in primary really made me realise it wasn’t for me so it’s worth doing both just in case. You could also try a legal dept at A-level/ higher education as a few former solicitors and law employees did that too.
I left partly due to burning out and I was not enjoying it anymore. The highs were great but the lows were awful so felt that as it was beginning to affect my health this came first.
On my PGCE we had a range of ages 50% were 21 fresh out of uni and 50% we older up to late 40s early 50s so age isn’t an issue really

 

[Monkeymagic85]

Hi everybody
I am just wondering if anyone has any advice for changing careers to be a primary school teacher?

I currently work in professional legal services but I really do not enjoy it. I find it quite stressful with meeting client expectations and other reasons as well so I don’t want to continue in the profession. I am well paid which is the only thing keeping me here.
I am in a very fortunate position where I don’t have a lot of expenses eg mortgage so money is not the most important factor, so I’ve been thinking about what careers appeal to me and primary teaching is one of them. The only things I hear about teaching in general are negative though! Is it really like that? I’ve heard there are no job prospects out of your probation year and the stress is just not worth it. The lack of jobs is one of the main things putting me off. I’m in Scotland if that helps!
Thank you in advance for any advice/experiences!

I think it depends where in the uk you are, my SIL is currently doing hers to be a secondary teacher and I have a friend who did it a couple years ago. Both are in their 40s so never too late.

I’m in Scotland and know a few others who did this as a second career and none of them struggled to find a job. The first year is also guaranteed after qualifying, I think if you were rubbish you wouldn’t get kept on but due to there always being changes in a school, there is usually a job after