[Closed] Any teachers?

You'd be swapping working away every weekend for working at home every evening and weekend.

teaching is a gamble, if your not any good its the worst job in the world, the work load is pretty crazy for the first few years too. If you then get promoted it keeps on being crazy.

there's 10,000 fewer teachers than this time last year so security isn't great...

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17840447 ]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17840447[/url]

yes, you'll go away less as a teacher but from what I've seen of my wifes workload you'll lose more family time than someone with a 'normal' job.

Can you not just change jobs to soemthing requiring less weekend work and travelling.

You can do a post-graduate diplomas in a year but there's tough competition.

I think you really have to *want* to be ateacher to succeed - if you're just doing it for the holidays you won;t get far.

my mrs is a geography teacher.

there were 15 on her course - how many got full time perminant jobs ........

just the 1 ..... she was lucky !oh and i echo the working at home i nthe evenings and weekends - she says often that she would trade that for my job where i spend long periods (3/4 weeks at a time often) abroad but still get my weekends off ...just in another country.

SinL and her partner are both teachers.
Her opinion is that if you are ok with no evenings during the week and a one day weekend, then the pay, holidays and relative security are the flips side.
They go overseas for 4 weeks each summer - you'll not get that in many other jobs.

Interestingly, more time with family is why I left big plcs to set up my own business. Salary plummeted alarmingly but never missed anything my kids have done.

I would try rethinking what you do now before jumping ship - teaching is a vocation, most teachers I know either love it or hate it, not many in between.

Hi, I am about to start my PGCE this Sept and I am (tentatively) looking forward to it. I kno people that have gone through the whole course only to be put off teaching once and for all. in the same breath, I know people who are really enjoying the profession and get a lot out of it.
to be a teacher, you really do have to like kids and find them funny (you don't necessarily need to have kids though I suspect it might help).
I wouldn't go for teaching if you for one minute think that you get lots of holidays and time off at half term etc. nor would I think about it if I didn't think I would be a good teacher. By that I mean having the confidence to inspire young minds to WANT to learn and not feel like they are being spoon fed a load of crap that won't be of any use to them!

If you do go for it, best of luck as it's not just something you can just try because you have had enough of working in an office etc - it's a professional commitment.

miketually - Member
You'd be swapping working away every weekend for working at home every evening and weekend.

This.

edit:- on paternity leave, so no cracks about "being in class" alright 😉

miketually - Member
You'd be swapping working away every weekend for working at home every evening and weekend

Again, this. I'm a deputy head and I only know what time it is via the food that people are eating at the time!

However, if you're good at it, it's the greatest job in the world.

Magic!

I appreciate it is something I need to want to do! And I do see further than just the holidays, time off etc...

At the moment, I have what many see as the dream job, working as a sports photographer, but like all jobs there is a flip side, standing in the rain I can cope with... I can even cope with having to watch football in the rain... But I am away every weekend between now and the end of September, with only one of those been for personal reasons... When I started, I loved my job, but it's getting harder to make money in it, the kit gets ever more expensive, and I miss riding at weekends with my friends and and everything else. On days off I still work already as I will be checking and responding to emails, scanning papers for images used, etc... And the money, well its generally not all that great...

I enjoy teaching and love helping people learn new skills, I used to help run a scout group before I took to the road, and enjoy helping young people develop... Looking for a new direction is something that doesn't get easier with age...

I have several close friends who are teachers. They all love it and appear to have plenty of time off. They also appear to work similar hours to me with occasional peaks as you would expect.
I dont see them working much during the evenings and they seem to enjoy weekends as I do and the long holidays that teachers get as well.
Two of them are heads of year as well and the workload seems manageable from what I can see.

miketually - Member
You'd be swapping working away every weekend for working at home every evening and weekend

Is this +4,+5? The OH is a teacher and this is probably the hardest thing about the job.

What do you want to teach? I take it you already have a degree?

I would be looking at teaching Art at secondary or perhaps Primary, and yes I have a degree in Photography...

You'd be swapping working away every weekend for working at home every evening and weekend.

I would have thought this is entirely subjective.

Someone who works 15 hours instead of 8 in their current job and decides to move into teaching is more likely to maintain that work ethic than someone who leaves their current job at 5.30 on the dot.

I know a couple of lawyers (who were engaged at the time) who ditched the City before the cull started in 2008 in order to pursue careers as teachers. He was a lazy lawyer, she was not. Judging by what they get up to socially during the week, he is a lazy teacher, she is not. 😉

It's a pretty broad church - the job must change massively according to school / subject / level. I can envisage some teaching posts being piss-simple - I know of a guy who combines head of maths with running an alehouse, for example. OTOH, some teaching jobs sound absolutely gruelling.

Doubt you can teach art exclusively at a primary school can you? I'd put that in the non-gruelling category if so.

I have what many see as the dream job, working as a sports photographer,

Friend used to be one.

He got so sick of being freezing cold at football matches, he'd photo every player as much as he could in the first half, and then leave at half time.

Whoever scored a goal in the 2nd half, he'd just submit a random first half pic of the player.... 😉

Another friend is a football journalist. He's divorced and never seen on his bike during the season....

You'd be swapping working away every weekend for working at home every evening and weekend.

I used to envy this - I used to spend every evening and weekend stuck in the office....

My bro-in-law finished his PGCE... still can't get a years work, to complete his 'newly qualified teacher' thingy. Very frustrating for him - and his folks (he's 30.... not moved out of home yet...)

Good luck whatever you choose...

It seems to have been mostly covered but i would say the security is not really what it used to be 20 years ago. I know of many who have been asked not to come back, nothing to do with them, just the way the ratios are being 'tweaked' leaving gaps.

Salaries are being slowly eroded, 10 years ago the salary was pretty good, now its slightly below average and falling. Add to that the additional contributions to the pension.

Workload can vary depending on the subject area and the type of person you are, everyone has to do some work at home.

I know this will upset the usual crowd but the hols can be a pain, the fact you have zero flexibility. For some its not an issue but it means you are always on hols during the expensive times and if you fancy going away when you are not on hols then its tuff luck.

Good luck, and if you go for it and find out its not for you get out as soon as you can, if you dont it might destroy you.

Not teaching Art at Primary, that would be general teaching...

Yep, I know several guys who are divorced from too long on the road... I'm sure it happens with other jobs as well mind...

Primary teacher here - part time to sharechild care. Firsr few years are hectic buthten it is partly how you proritise, manage your work load and how organised you are.
Also depends where you are looking for jobs as lots of competition here in the southwest...

Happy to answer more questions - I have tutored students too - email in profile...

Did I mention I will not be doing school stuff again until Monday morning! 🙂

I'd like to echo what stevewhyte above says, plus a recommendation for primary. Obviously each to their own, but it's great to have a class of enthusiastic children ready to learn and have fun learning - seems to rarer to have this at secondary level.

I'd recommend contacting local primary and secondary schools and asking to go in and help out, if you're serious about retraining you'll need as much of this type of experience as possible - ideally you'd be able to work unpaid as a teaching assistant for a term... (yeah, I know...)

You'd be swapping working away every weekend for working at home every evening and weekend.

My mum was a teacher all her life and it was VERY rare she ever worked at home, maybe once a year.

The OH is a teacher (HoD Business/ Economics) and works bloody hard, almost every evening September to May, then it eases off in the summer term. It is a treadmill and you need a good work ethic, amongst other things, to be a good teacher.

Also if you can control and enthuse a classroom it can be a great job and hell if you can't. It's deinitely a marmite jobs, you'll love it or hate it!

Job security: We laid off teaching staff last summer. We look okay this year because we managed to recruit more students, but there are further budget cuts every year for the next three years, so more will go.

Workload: Next year we're increasing our contact hours by 5% (and therefore prep and marking) for no extra pay. At Easter, I took a weekend and 4 days off, then started marking on Good Friday and for most of the rest of the week - October half-term, Christmas and February half-term holidays are similar.

Pay: We have a pay freeze and our pension contributions have just gone up. Being in the North East, my pay's pretty good compared to other similarly qualified people but regional pay deals look like they might scupper that.

Having said all of that, I'm still reasonably well paid and I've got 4 weeks after the next half-term holiday where I'll only be in work for 7 or 8 hours a day with no evenings or weekends and I get 6 weeks off completely after that.

But, I am (semi-actively) looking for alternative employment...

For the OP, we're trying to make do without recruiting any staff to replace leavers or retirements, so I'm not sure what the employment prospects are for new teachers.

Thanks for all the thoughts guys, lots to think about... I don't mind long hours, but I do mind not having a life... its very difficult to get that balance right when you are working for yourself, and you never know when the next job is coming in, so you tend to work all the hours...

Oxym0r0n, I may well be in touch if thats ok?

My mum was a teacher all her life and it was VERY rare she ever worked at home, maybe once a year.

The job's rather different nowadays. However, you do illustrate how peoples' perceptions of teachers are formed.

I don't mind long hours, but I do mind not having a life

I gave up on having a life 3 years ago. Since then, I've got all my marking done on time 🙂

be prepared to moan/strike/moan.

Zero flexibility on holiday time apart from 6 weeks over the summer, like a large proportion of the rest of the working population. 😉

Aren't they trying to encourage more Male teachers into Primary, or has that been shelved due to cuts?

My mum was a teacher all her life and it was VERY rare she ever worked at home, maybe once a year.

Miketually +1, the job is different nowadays. To add balance to Peter's mum's working life though, my dad was a state secondary school teacher from 1973 to retirement, he worked at home in the evenings and weekends pretty much all the time. The 'free periods' he got between lessons in no way gave him enough time for lesson prep, marking and so on, particularly since free periods were routinely used to cover other teachers' abscences. (cue Mr Wilson the German teacher caretaking chemistry 😆 ) The only choice he had was to take the work home with him or stay in school way into the evening and leave the paperwork there. As a child it was nicer to have your dad in the house after school even if he was busy there. Not so much in the school holidays though. What has changed now is that both primary and secondary school teachers also seem to have quite a bit to get done in their 'holidays' too these days.

Fascinating reading - in exactly the same position as the OP. Turned 40 - fed up with current job and have half filled in my teacher training application for August for secondary. Would actually prefer primary though although that won't be until next August. I've been speaking to a couple of teachers and getting mixed feedback about workload/hours, although they both love the job and get a lot of satisfaction out of it. TBH that is key for me - I'm coming to the conclusion I'd rather work 60 hours a week at something I love (and earn about 50% of what I'm currently on) than 36 hours at something I hate.

@ Dazzlingboy my feelings exactly...

I'm coming to the conclusion I'd rather work 60 hours a week at something I love (and earn about 50% of what I'm currently on) than 36 hours at something I hate.

I right, double your working hrs and half your pay, that will last about 3 months have a reality check.

Most people over the past 3 years who have re trained have not found full time employment and to be hoest few actually will. Over the next 5 years teacher numbers will drop another 10,000 easily.

Wife is a principle teacher in a primary school with no deputy head.

She works her arse off. Where the heedy isn't there, she runs the school as well having a high amount of class commited time to teaching.

She enjoys the kids aspect of the teaching and seeing them progress through the year.

She takes a lot of work home - be it marking or planning, and does a fair amount of work on the computer to prepare lessons. It doesn't really bother me much as the work gets done when she watches the soaps most days. May change when the baby comes along, but we'll see. She also works it so that she tries to get the work done during the week, leaving the weekend free most times.

As for security, I guess she was lucky back when she started by getting some permanent placings and making some jumps between schools that turned out to be right decisions looking back. I know a lot of people coming through the system now are struggling to find places.

only other thing i'll add is that enjoyment of a school and classes can very greatly on the other people your working with. like every workplace your get some gooduns and some wallopers...

to reiterate the points a lot of others have said, it very much depends on where you are, what you teach and your work ethic. I work in a boarding school, and the hours can be terrible at peak times of the year.

What you take home seems to depend on subject; I teach English, so the marking can be endless if you don't plan well for it, especially exam moderation.
The other part is the emotional side. Working with teenagers can be pretty draining, and it's not just the horrors we read about in the papers, the atmosphere of schools can be pretty full on.

If you want to go into teaching get some experience first plenty of schools welcome volunteers. This is the best way to see if you would like to go into the profession.

I'm a teacher (English and French) and if you're taking work home you're doing it wrong..peer assessment...they mark each other's work!..genius...

Some of us like to give feedback to the kids and now and then see what they are up to, so i am not convinced i am doing it wrong thanks.

Workload and pressure for results for me as a Lecturer are ridiculous and almost crippling.
It's sometimes a bit like trying to squeeze a 4" turd through a 2" bumhole! 😕

Having said that, i've been earning every day this week which is more than can be said for the blokes on site i used to work with.

With regards security, good luck getting into FE at the moment as staff cuts are in full swing.
The yearly re-shuffle/cull of management makes it a risky move to go up in the organisation as well.

Don't go into this blind either, be very aware that education IS A BUSINESS these days probably as much as a service. 🙁 👿

Don't underestimate the difference that specific classes can make to your working life and stress levels.
I currently teach Yr10, Yr11, 6th form, full time FE, Apprentices and full cost adults from site and the differences between each group with regards behaviour, attitude to learning, motivation and ability is enormous.

secondary school teacher here.
I'm getting-out of it after about 7 years.
if you're in a nice school with reasonably nice kids and an organized department, there can be ok times, but overall I find the general attitude of the kids and the workload too much for me.
every lesson; a starter, plenary, objectives, materials, tools, ppt's, differentiation, worksheets, marking/feedback, life-skills, tracking sheets, targets, intervention, management of the class...plus all the things that you never thought of
then answering all the emails...
every evening I work, every weekend and every holiday, and I think I'm pretty slack compared to others, I would dread to think how much time some teachers actually spend doing work.
obviously the cost of getting away trebles at school holiday time aswell

Perhaps schools should just concentrate on teching life skills,like reading and writing,typing, maths skills and social interaction, along with languages, not lots of media studies,religion, long gone history,and such like, perhaps more buissnes involvement and lessons on how to get a job in real life when you leave the book learning behind.

rusty trowel - Member
Don't go into this blind either, be very aware that education IS A BUSINESS these days probably as much as a service.

That is spot on, and not just in the Further education sector too. Something that many do not appreciate.

The thing about teaching is that its very emotionally draining, no other job is like it in that respect other than perhaps social services. It can make you very tired very fast.

If you get a good school and a good department then its goes a long way to enjoying your job, if not then for no amount of money would you enjoy it. Its a hard job.