Is teaching a good profession?

Scroll to see replies

Hi,

Yes, I would love to help students succeed and know it's rewarding and I've always been interested in education. I'm not trying to sound greedy, but it's unfair that after many years of study, pay is little. I know pharmacy is a completely different degree and years of study, but for example, my cousin will hopefully qualify as a pharmacist next year, and will be on 30k ish, while I'm on 22k and slowly working my way up.

I also don't know what else I can do with a History and Sociology degree, but I know I'm interested in education. It's just unfair how the teaching profession isn't valued much!

I would advise you to start up a YouTube channel where you can upload videos for whatever subject(s) you are doing. It may be able to top up your income if you do reasonably well.

Reply 21

fefssdf

I did further maths AS cause my school doesn't teach further maths but I really wanted to do it so managed to complete AS but didn't do A2 cause it was too much work considering I already had to self teach one maths module this year. Seeing as you can get into a maths degree having done no form of further maths then it's wouldn't say further maths is needed to teach in secondary schools unless you were going to be teaching alevel further maths but most maths teachers are just going to be teaching GCSE meaning you would only really need your own GCSE knowledge and A-level maths in order to explain concepts more effectively ; personally I want to go into teaching A-level maths and GCSE maths and my degree should mean I'm confident to do that, but schools have a serious shortage of maths teachers - ones at my school keep leaving it seems - so as long as you had A-level maths and a degree somewhat relevant to maths like even psychology has statistics in it then you can train to teach maths ; teach first for instance just requires a 2:1/2:2 degree I think and then a good A-level maths grade but obviously I would imagine this is particularly competitive so better to have an actual maths degree . Sorry this dragged on loool

Reply 22

Pierson

The statistics I mentioned include academies who still have to submit their accounts to the government and have to publish their finances online. There are zero deputy headteachers earning £120k. All salaries above £100k are going to headteachers, a lot of whom are in charge of multiple schools.

Reply 23

chiarax213

Wow, does he work at a private school?

Reply 24

The Empire Odyssey

Original post by Onica

Hi!

So growing up I have always wondered that why do some individuals succeed and why do others fail in the education system? I guess my interest in wanting to go into teaching was due to my experience in the education system. I went to a school that was under-performing, and although I thrived and did well, I was always concerned about those, formerly my peers, who were unable to succeed in the education system. I was always concerned about the inequality that existed in our education system because it can be argued that some have more economic and cultural advantage in comparison to others. I also questioned whether our education system is effective in promoting social mobility. I have an offer for History and Sociology to study at the University of Warwick and hope to go into teaching after my degree. However, I have a few questions about this profession as some say it's not the best profession to go into.

Question 1

I've heard a lot of negative news about the hours that teachers work, some saying that it's ridiculous- is this true?

Question 2

How is the salary compared to other professions like Pharmacy for example. Looking at the pay scales, the starting salary is 22k and the pay increase in incremental each year. Also, do you need to have at least 6 years' experience in order to apply for head of department roles and head of year role?

Question 3

What routes can you take for training that will include a salary while you train to get your PCGE? It says that the route via school direct ( salaried), you must have full-time work experience at least 3 years. However, I won't have this as I'm a student and only have part-time experience so how would I be able to apply for this route?

I've also been thinking of doing a law conversion course (GDL) and then the L PC exams if this does not seem to be a good profession. Do you think it would be a wise decision and do you get funding in a form of bursary and scholarship for conversion courses for law? Has anyone done a law conversion course before?? Just curious

Sorry it's long but I'm just not sure if it's a good profession due to the negative things people have said. Thanks :smile:

Q1 - there is no doubt that there have been increasing pressure from the government placed on teachers, which has said to put the profession at an all time low, crisis point. More and more teachers are leaving the profession every year because of the ridiculous work/life balance (or the lack thereof) and the compromises they have to put between their professional and personal life. There is quite a lot of bad management about these days because SLT cannot cope with the pressure for their Heads so the SLT put more pressure on the teachers. A lot of schools are being called "exam factories" - only caring about exam results and less about the student welfare and what that sort of pressure is doing to the kids. There's also been an increase of data analysis and marking which teachers have complained this is taking away actual teaching time and affects students' learning and progress.

Q2 - I believe Pharmacists earn over £25K per year, so a little bit extra to that of teachers. The pay only increases very steadily in the teaching profession. It doesn't increase that much unless you hold extra responsibilities that's on the Teachers' Pay Scale. In theory, you don't need to have 6 years experience to be promoted to middle management in a secondary school. However, most experienced teachers would say to NQTs that you should focus on honing your skills and craft as a classroom teacher nowadays. Especially, as there is less time on this focus, and more on data analysis and classroom management. There is no stopping a school from hiring an NQT for a Head of Year of Head of Department, but most skeptic teachers would say that school must be desperate to hire an NQT for a middle management role. You usually work your way up. For example, if you want to be Head of Year, then it's best to start out as a form tutor, then being an assistant to that particular year for a couple of years. Same for HoD. Most are given a Key Stage to look after or to lead and with success, it would be much wiser to apply for HoD as it's a lot of responsibility, especially for a core subject like Maths or English.

Q3 - https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/

I wanna be an English teacher some day but right now, I'm staying well away from Education. We have had 3 Education Secretaries in the past 5 years and 2/3 have bought shame upon the teaching profession. I have no idea how this new one will do under May's constituency.

I'm forever on TES, and there's at least 3-5 post per week of a teacher wanting to quit. A lot of them say, if you're interested in raising a family, then don't enter the profession. It's good for holidays and pension, but it's not worth the stress. More and more teachers are returning to work with a mental health disorder such as depression or anxiety or substance abuse such as alcoholism and drug abuse (TES did a survey) which found out more teachers can't hope with the demands of the job so their mental or physical health are being jeopardized.

If you want to get into teaching, your best bet is to do work experience in schools by shadowing a classroom teacher. I say you should go to as many different school as possible because EVERY school is different. I would say you try some academics, some state schools and independent schools and possibly Grammar Schools if they're still about.

Until they get the pay sorted out as well as stop threatening schools with OFSTED and so forth then I would reconsider entering the profession in this decade. But as far as I'm concerned, I don't wanna join. I did work experience at my school a few days back and I just thought I'd love to be a classroom teacher but most my exp was short lived cause there was far too much admin to do, it was ridiculous.

There will always be a need for teachers. The profession won't die out - I think just joining it when it improves will be better. I think getting industry experience first is also better, rather than going straight from school, to uni, then back into the classroom. It's very ignorant in my opinion. Try and do industry and see more of the world first.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 25

jacinto downer

Of course teaching is a nice profession. I am a teacher. I like my profession very much

Reply 26

Lenny boy

Original post by sulaimanali

I think teaching is a good profession, but one that is definitely not treated fairly or equally as other professions.

As a teacher, I completely agree with you. I think many people assume you are expected to give everything up and devote yourself (like a saint) to the job. This attitude also spills into tutoring work I do, as so many people do not think you should be paid a reasonable salary per hour as you're 'just a teacher'. Yet many other professions where you train, get a degree and a post-graduate qualification, you are respected and paid well. No wonder education is so often full of young people who are inexperienced and leave as soon as they can.

Reply 27

Cote1

My friends and family who teach in high schools say it is a difficult job for a number of reasons. They say there tends to be a heavy workload. Some have struggled with the internal politics of the schools they are in and with the way that they are managed (though I think that this can happen in any job).
I would definitely do voluntary work first if I planned to go into teaching.