Just how bad IS it being a School Teacher ?

[Lisa O`Brien]

My 17 year old son,forever changing his mind about things, is thinking he would like to become a Primary School Teacher.Primary School as he wouldn`t have the A levels to be a Secondary School Teacher. With the course he is doing [worth 3 A Levels] plus his GCSE`s [all Grade C] I get the impression a lot of Universities would take these qualifications. A really good course to do seems to be the 4 year Bachelor of Education leading to Qualified Teacher Status. All very well and good. However I have been reading online over the last few days accounts from teachers about just how stressful the job is. I had the impression [i think most people do] that teachers work 9 am till 3.30 or 4 pm. Apparently,this isn`t the case at all. You are often in school for 7.30 am setting up the day`s work, and leave school at 7.30 in the evening,only to then begin marking, planning and preparing the following day`s lessons. You are paid from the hours of 9 AM till 3.30 PM and no more. Teachers [especially Primary] usually spend about 50 hours a week working,although only a fraction of this time is spent actually doing what they love to do; teaching the children. Teachers writing in were saying the job is so stressful,and the workload so intense,that they are doing incredibly well if they manage to stick the job for 3 years. One teacher wrote that she has only just finished her first year as a qualified teacher in her post,and she doesn`t know how she is going to get through the next 12 months.The only plus side is the 13 weeks holiday each year. However,it was explained that a full 2 weeks of this is spent planning and preparing all the work for the start of the new academic year in September. I know it`s not me that will be doing the job it`s my son Sean, but it has completely put me off.!! Apparently most of this workload is down to,as I said,not the actual time teaching children, it is all the OFSTED school reports,and form filling and general paperwork required by the Government. I got the impression being a teacher was completely intolerable.!!  So my question to Forum members is; Are there any School [non dance] teachers out there? And if so, is it REALLY as bad as all that? Thanks.

[Fiz]

I am not a school teacher but one teacher I follow on Twitter came very close to a nervous breakdown and now only works as a teaching assistant whilst another I know is considering quitting. I can see you have done a lot of research and I do not want to discourage you or Shaun but it does seem a fraught profession these days.

[porthesia]

I was a receptionist at a private secondary school.  None of the teachers were there at 7.30 in the morning - some may have been there at 8.00 when I started.  No they don't leave at 3.30 and are most probably there until 5.00-5.30 but unless there is a Parents Evening or school concert then not there until 7.30 each night.  After school club was done in rotation.

 

Having said that, they were the most dedicated and hard working people I have ever come across.  I had to be on site during school holidays and some came in to tidy up the walls in their classrooms, take down old pictures etc - not all of them, but some of them.  They also got paid more than your average teacher and I think that always helps.

 

Also inset days, yes they did work on those days, we had a talk on spotting children who may be having difficulties at home, being bullied etc and our First Aid course was conducted on a Saturday.  All were willing to give up their time.

[MAB]

Aren't a lot of jobs stressful though?  I think as a primary school teacher he would have fewer problems than teaching seniors.  As you live in NI I imagine the he won't have to face the challenges of a lot of inner city schools in England as the real horror stories don't seem to come from rural areas.

[meadowblythe]

Well I qualified as a teacher but couldn't hack it- wrong time and wrong place. My husband is a teacher.  For what its worth my two pennethworth.

 

Regarding the hours: during term time reckon on for every hour taught, an hour preparation and an hour marking.  This will not be any less because of a primary school.

"holidays" (ha) - reckon on spending about half of each holiday on schoolwork.

 

You could easily spend every minute of every day on any job in school and not be done.  this does not obviously only apply to teachers but that doesn't mean it doesn't apply.

 

What you have is a degree of flexibility about when you work - some stay at school until 6ish each night, others go home and work later.  I've known both.

 

As well as the actual teaching day expect at least one meeting on average per week - either inset, meetings, parents meetings.  This is the minimum.

 

 

Behaviour:  I think junior schools have as many issues as senior schools.  It depends on the school, the head, the area, the ethos.  Certainly during my teaching practice I had more problems with discipline in a junior school than the senior schools.

 

I work in a fantastic school (state) with a fantastic head who puts teaching at the heart of everything we do.  He loves the school, loves the kids, and empowers the staff and students to achieve their best.  It's not an easy job but I love it and look forward to going into work (most) days.  I think most people in the school feel the same.  I've been in education for 20 years one way or another, and it is the school and head that make the difference between manageable and not manageable and I've known both.  

 

Certainly the teacher training college near me would not look at students who have no experience of being in a school, either as a TA or as a helper, and if your son is serious about it, I would strongly recommend that this is what he should do. It will also give him some sort of idea about whether this is something he wants to pursue.

 

please feel free to pm me if you would like any other information and I'll do my best to help.

[Fonty]

Why does your son want to become a teacher?

 

Is it because he has a burning desire to teach?  In which case long hours, stressful situations, and intense workloads, will make no difference to him.  After all, those are things that he will find at some point in any job.

 

If, on the other hand, he is thinking of doing so because he can't think of anything else he would rather do, or because the long holidays seem appealing, or because it seems better than working in an office...then he would definitely be in the wrong job!

[LinMM]

If only the world was full of people who had a burning desire to do the job they are in whatever it is!!

 

Many people who started in teaching may not have chosen the profession with any burning desire initially but go on to become first class teachers and even Head teachers!

 

Others whether they had ....or did not have this burning desire initially..... leave altogether within five years .....or disappear from the coal face so to speak for jobs in education management not based in the school environment.

 

Many do not return to full time teaching once they stop to have children

 

The above comments are from my own personal experience of 30 years within this profession.

 

I agree that the tone of a school can be very much down to the Head and how organised school policies are in actually being delivered. A very good discipline policy which all parents have to sign can go a long way even in the most difficult inner city schools. And I have worked in schools where the change of Head has worked for very much the better and very much the worst in different inner city schools.

 

On the whole inner city schools are very much more demanding but also have their particular rewards.

 

Rural schools usually have less discipline problems but have other problems where there is a very small staff .......I'd work in an inner city school any day myself even though as I say much more exhausting........you really do need those holidays......which only teachers really believe I find!

 

The hours are much longer than 9.-3.30 though!!

 

Most teachers are at school preparing/ marking/ room display changing/ curriculum meetings/ whole staff meetings etc etc for most days until about 5.30- 6 pm .......many schools close at 6pm so you can't stay till 7.30! Though I have no doubt teachers with responsibilities other than for their class do get there early in the morning from 7.30 - 8am.

 

Also even if you do leave at say 6pm you nearly always have at least ONE set of books to mark at home in the evening. A set of 35 books can take anything from 45 mins to 2 hrs to mark depending on the age and subject matter......eg 35 year 6 essays can take a while for meaningful marking/comments etc

 

At certain peak points in any term there is also a lot of extra data filling to complete which takes an age and is probably the thing most teachers dislike the most.

 

All my experience has been in Primary Schools. I do get the feeling that Secondary schools are very different and may be tougher again depending where you are but I think it may be less rewarding on the relationship front as you have a lot more continual change of pupils but I can't really comment on Secondary.

 

Like many jobs you have the excellent and wonderfully productive times and then the not so good times when you think you are in the wrong job.

There's probably also the 15 year blues when you think......could I have done anything else? But again I'm sure this is true of other jobs.

 

I had a two year break from teaching and among other things did work in an office for a while but although I was never as exhausted as in teaching I got bored and went back to the frontline!!

 

Where your son is concerned it could be good to get some experience in a school for a while in case he really does decide he hates it but I wouldn't worry too much if he hasn't got a burning desire about it all ........some are born to greatness and some have it thrust upon them....as the saying goes....who knows until he tries.

[Lisa O`Brien]

Thank you everyone for your comments and opinions so far. With the  BTEC he is doing ,one of the advantages of it over A levels is the work experience that comes with it. He has already clocked up ten full days on placement in an addiction centre,and others on the same course did placements in local Primary Schools,so this is something where,if he can, he would like to go to on his next placement.There is a primary school literally over the road from us ,so if he could get in there it would be ideal. His auntie in the Republic is a former professional concert pianist,who retrained as a primary school teacher and teaches both music and Special Educational Needs children near where she lives. She is incredibly stressed all the time,and in fact now job shares, as it was making her ill. The Republic of Ireland have a completely different education system to us in the North[ours is the same as the rest of the UK with Key Stages etc.]  So I can`t really ask her what it`s like as it would be totally different. There is a wonderful college attached to Queen`s University Belfast called Stranmillis University College,right in the middle of Belfast in a beautiful campus that does Teacher Training here. It has a maximum of 400 students,which would be ideal for Sean, as I don`t think the idea of a huge University appeals to him. He was given his overall grade for the first year of his work[it`s a 2 year course] .He was awarded Merit,which is the equivalent to A Levels at Grade C. He knows he will have to achieve mostly Distinctions this coming year [Equivalent to Grade A at A Level] if he hopes to get on ANY half decent University course,but at the moment he is thinking along the lines of continuing at Newry College after this year to do the BTEC HND ,and trying to get more experience,and see what happens or how he feels after that. He isn`t even 18 until February so he has time on his side anyway.

[Anjuli_Bai]

Teaching and dancing have much in common.  If one is born to dance or teach, one will find a way. Perhaps not in a conventional setting - but in some setting. Either as a vocation or an advocation.  If the environment of the usual path is less than wholesome - there are other paths and other environments.  

[meadowblythe]

Anjuli is right - there are many ways into teaching than full time college.  I trained with the Open University and it was a wonderful experience but obviously involved little to no time with other students.  And you can find on the train on the job schemes, these seem to be proliferating (SKT,SKIT?)  Others may like to comment on the pros and cons of this approach.

 

I think at this stage experience is the key, and no hasty decisions!