Has anyone retrained as a teacher in their 30s (and older)

spendaholiceejit

Hi,
I'm at a bit of a crossroads in terms of career. 6 months ago my job was put into consultation. I offered to cut my hours and this was accepted, it isn't really working out well.

As part of my job (we are required to give back to the community by volunteering and i've always loved this) , I visit schools and teach children arts. Now, with my spare time with my reduced hours I have started a company offering these classes to children and its been popular.

My husband is encouraging me to leave work and retrain as a primary teacher. We should be able to afford it if I take a part time job (basically something that will pay the food bills) I already know work is scarce in this field, but I can't stop thinking about it. I'm also under no impression that teaching would be easy... I know exactly how difficult it would be. I'd love to hear from anyone who retrained in teaching after a decade in industry.

Marktheshark

Have you done any common purpose training courses such as "your turn" or matrix ?
Of not consider doing one first, your pathway to accelerated success in teaching will be laid before you.

spendaholiceejit

I haven't specifically had any involvement in the ones you've mentioned.

As well as our company programmes, I mentor for Young Enterprise and have been involved in this for the past four years and I also educate adults on mentoring programmes funded by local council and am occasionally taken in by the local college's Business Studies courses to talk to the students about industry .

I'm going to look into the ones you've mentioned, it would appear that experience is the key to getting accepted to the PGCE course.

trailingspouse

I retrained in 1996, at the age of 36, after working in the insurance industry.

Sadly I left teaching in 2012, beaten, bruised and disillusioned. I had enjoyed the first 10 years - worked in difficult schools, found it rewarding and challenging, seemed to be pretty good at it. But as the years went on, more and more seemed to be piled on, often for no very good reason (or none that anyone could explain if you asked 'why do we have to do this?'.

The culture within schools changed (at one point I had a deputy head who spent more time talking about her love life than about teaching, and would be on her phone in class!), behaviour deteriorated considerably (and we weren't able to do anything about it other than write the child's name on the board - don't get me started...). When I started teaching I could reckon on maybe three children in any given class that didn't know how to behave, but the time I left I had a class where 9 children were little !!!!s.

While I was teaching, much was made of 'work life balance' - but I never saw any improvement in practice. My normal routine was to try to get as much marking done during the school day as I could (this meant not taking lunch breaks), so that I was taking the bare minimum home with me (that could still be 60 books a night). I did my planning on a Thursday evening (I liked to know what was coming up the following week so that on the Friday I could flag things up to the children and get things ready for Monday morning). Sunday afternoons were spent getting resources together. The rest of the weekend was spent doing the marking that I'd not been able to do during the week.

And when I walked away, no-one asked me why I'd left. No-one - not the school, not the authority, not the supply agency I was working through. No-one.

If you are going in to it with your eyes open, then go for it - it can be very rewarding. Maybe things have changed in the last 5 years. But be warned - the system eats good, enthusiastic, competent, caring teachers, and spits out the bones.

spendaholiceejit

Thank you trailingspouse. I have read SO many stories like yours online and so few positive tales and this is frightening. I have friends who are teachers and they are constantly complaining about their job. I *think* I can handle the bureaucracy as I already work for council and the paperwork for this is always tough although I'd imagine you were also used to paperwork having come from insurance.

I wonder if I'm better just taking the leap and going full time at my children's art club. At least I can actually teach the children, have fun, and all without the interference. (I do have everything above board) The children love it and it's STEM based so very relevant to them.

bartelbe

As others have said, be very wary of becoming a teacher. My parents were teachers and I have current friends who are teachers. The two big issues are workload and behaviour.

The workload means 60 hour weeks are not unusual. In addition to marking there is allot of pointless paperwork and bulls**t that goes with teaching. They are obsessed with targets and collecting stats. Imagine doing that for multiple classes with 30 odd students. Schools will also dump extra responsibilities and duties on teachers with no extra time or money.

Then there is behaviour. If you end up in a school with a weak senior leadership team and a c**p intake, it can be a nightmare. I know teachers who have been off work due to stress, partly because of having to deal with uncontrollable classes week after week.

It should be a great job, but with the bulls**t stats culture and tolerance of appalling behaviour, I would avoid teaching at all costs.

spendaholiceejit

Isn't it awful that it has turned out this way?

april87

I'm in the same boat as you Spendaholic, looking to retrain as a teacher after my maternity, and I seem to come across so many horror stories. I have always wanted to do primary teaching but ended up choosing science at uni instead. After having some experience in the class room, I still fully wanted to go ahead with it. But like others have said, one thing that bothers me is the work/life balance. I have it pretty good right now, and going to a 60 hour week worries me, especially with a young child. Any positive stories would definitely be appreciated I think.

spendaholiceejit

Yes April, I actually applied for a PGCE after my degree ten years ago, I didn't go through with it. I've always loved working with children. If only someone would come on here with a happy story! To be honest, I don't think the bad stories have put me off just yet.

april87

Yeah same here Spendaholic. It would just be nice to hear a positive story.

PasturesNew

spendaholiceejit wrote: »

.... leave work and retrain as a primary teacher....I already know work is scarce in this field...

One aspect of retraining that many people overlook is where the jobs are.

You say work is scarce - and any jobs going would be "where the work is", so it might be that there are no jobs within, say, 60 miles of you.

You should at least look into provision/vacancy levels in your commutable distance, in case retraining is done and then you find that there are no jobs in your county or the adjoining county whatsoever, ever.

Where jobs are scarce, it tends to be that available jobs are most likely to be in places where not many people live, or in "rough areas". Vacancies exist because people leave the job as they hate the environment/area, or because there isn't enough population to be able to provide enough qualified people to apply.

So research the jobs market: who is advertising, why are people leaving, where are those vacancies ....