Hi,

Could do with some advice/different perspective.

I left teaching 7 years ago. I went into teaching straight from uni and taught for 2 years. Why did I leave?

I found the responsibility over whelming, I found it difficult to talk to parents, especially when I needed to tackle difficult issues. Most of my friends were non-teachers and ALL of them had fabulous social lives and non of them worked weekends or after work.

I have worked in Public Relations since leaving.

Last year I had a little girl and my work wouldn't agree my flexible return, so we decided that I'd give up work. My DP now wants me to return to work.

I've been reminded of why I went into teaching and what I loved about it -children! I'm now soooo much more confident, find it easy to deal with difficult situations and talk openly and frankly to people. I've done my mad partying after work and I'm thinking about returning.

I just wondered if there are any teachers out there who could tell me whether the planning/assessment time has increased or decreased and whether PPA has made a difference? Do you find yourselves working additional hours in the evening/weekend to keep up?

Also, is there many opportunites for job-shares/ p/t work?

Would you advise someone to come back to teaching?

Should I do the returners course? I suspect I wouldn't get supply work now as I've been out for so long.

Thanks in advance!

Hiya

I stumbled upon your post and thought I would reply as I am a primary school teacher with one DD (almost 5) and one on the way! I only qualified recently and so was an NQT last year and found that the workload with a pre-schooler was immense. I work at a very unique school in the northwest with a 90% EAL and around 19 different languages. On top of that, we have not had good ofsted reports and so management are constantly on top of us about paper work etc. We regularly have our reading records, planning files, children's books and evidence files scrutinised. We are always being given deadlines to present random evidence that we are ticking boxes etc. My mum and two sisters are also teachers and have not experienced pressure or demands as intense as this so I am aware that it is not the average school in that respect. Having said that, I enjoyed my NQT year and found that doing it with a child was no harder than without. There were 2 other NQTs with me and each found the year around the same as me. I think that actually having DD helped me to put things into perspective and deal with things a day at a time because at the end of the day I had a child at home who came first, before any paper work.
I set a plan: no work before DD went to bed, and no later than 9.30 (unless I had an observation!) so that time with DH was not compromised. I also made sure I did all my planning in my PPA time so that my weekends were free. I used lunch times to mark and prepare resources. I also used my TA! I also made it through the last term with really bad morning sickness!!
This year I have a subject to co-ordinate and am slowing down to be honest. My school have not been overly supportive of my pregnancy and at the moment I have been signed off to rest. I will be going back next week to finish this half term then I am on leave. Whilst on leave I will be looking to change schools- but not professions. I want to return part time as I am concious that teaching takes up a lot of spare time if you let it and I would like to spend more time with the baby than teaching full time allows.
At the end of the day, the holidays are the most important factor for me. Now that DD is at school, I don't have any childcare worries and I know that working a stressful half term is always rewarded with a week off to recover!

So sorry this is so long, but hope it helps!
Sue
XxX

Make a pregnancy ticker

Thanks for your reply. Very interesting reading and I like your perspective on things and the way you've drawn a line at when you should stop working/spend time with family. Good to hear PPA time helps with planning.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your NQT year despite the pressure.

I hope you are able to find p/t time work - maybe you could do PPA cover somewhere?

Good luck with your pregnancy!