Do you enjoy primary teaching?

houseyhouse

Would love to get people’s take on primary teaching. My partner has suggested retraining as a primary teacher. I love kids generally and I think I’m good with them but I did some TEFL in a primary school years ago and I came away from it swearing I’d never be a teacher. In hindsight it probably wasn’t a good experience to judge teaching from: I was young, I don’t speak the local language, classes were huge (50 kids), and the kids were used to corporal punishment so my attempts at discipline were laughable by comparison.

So primary school teachers… do you enjoy it?

byhookorbycrook

I love teaching. There's no other job quite like it, every day is different. There's nothing like seeing a child suddenly " get it." I love meeting past pupils and seeing how they are getting on.You can be the much vaunted " one good adult" for a child. Children never cease to amaze me, 30 years into the job!

I don't love how pointless paperwork and bureaucracy is taking over so much of my time. Some parents seem to think that their child can't do any wrong and blame the school for everything that they themselves haven't done. Every time a social issue arises, the cry goes up that "something should be done is schools..." There simply isn't enough time to cover everything and with large class sizes, you can't always give each child the time they need or deserve. Your heart will break for many children who are being failed by the system, even before they start school.

I'd strongly suggest you try to get some experience in helping out in a school, " loving children" is easier in small groups and certainly far easier when you don't have to teach tables/spellings and the other humdrum stuff that needs to be covered too. And that's before you ever get into behavioural/emotional issues or children with additional needs in mainstream schools. It's criminal how their needs are being brushed aside by the policies of the DES which considers a space on a chair in a room, with no supports as " inclusion."

Retraining as a teacher is costly, could you afford it, if you couldn’t work throughout the training ?You will also be on a lower pay scale and will struggle to get a permanent job in the short term as well, could you manage financially on subbing, considering that you will be tied to your home area?