Can we talk about the 40% PGCE drop out rate? Anyone here dropped out?

Speaking as someone who went into teacher training with this mindset, I have some advice. Be prepared for criticism. A LOT of criticism. You reallyyy need to be able to roll with the punches, especially in the first term. Be prepared for just how tired you will feel. I don't think you can actually fully anticipate how much the things you've mentioned will affect you physically and mentally until you've experienced it. Sure you can be aware of it, but the reality doesn't hit until you have to teach lessons when you're feeling knackered and knowing that when you get your feedback you're going to be pulled up on every little thing you did wrong and questioned on why it was wrong and how it could be better.
Seriously, it is exhausting.

Dangerously exhausting. When driving in my NQT year, I can remember making a number of poor decisions at junctions that should have been enough to tell me to get off the road. One of my colleagues was so tired driving home just before Christmas in his NQT year that he fell asleep at traffic lights and awoke to find his car surrounded by people who thought he had had a heart attack and died.

To be totally honest my motivations probably come mostly from the fact that there are so few graduate opportunities available to me, I have a high 2.1 undergraduate in languages and an MA and I have absolutely no idea what I want to do if it isn't teaching. The fact that most of my fellow undergrads are either in very poorly paid work, unemployed or work as teachers made me think that perhaps the latter would be an okay option but I'm increasingly realising that teaching may not be for me.

Could have written this exact post, just replaced languages degree & MA with media for me.

Teaching is also quite poorly paid. It requires more qualifications, and has a pay scale, so you feel like you're progressing somewhere 'up the career ladder', rather than in a dead end job. But the top of the teaching pay scale (M6) is still low-pay (31K, or 23.8K after tax, band D). & reading the comments on TES.co.uk, some people there were teaching 10+ years and didn't even hit the upper pay scales yet.

I wouldn't go into it as an alternative to other low pay jobs, because teaching is a low pay job, for what you do. I think you definitely need to have some enjoyment in teaching, if you don't want to become part of that 40% statistic. Reading some of the replies here has just confirmed that for me.

Yesterday I did a lesson observation in some MFL classes at a reasonably good school ranked 'outstanding' by Ofsted and in each lesson, bar one Year 7 lesson, teachers were insulted, sworn at and asked nastily why they should be learning what they are learning. No one should have to put up with that.

teaching is a low pay job, for what you do.

Dangerously exhausting. When driving in my NQT year, I can remember making a number of poor decisions at junctions that should have been enough to tell me to get off the road. One of my colleagues was so tired driving home just before Christmas in his NQT year that he fell asleep at traffic lights and awoke to find his car surrounded by people who thought he had had a heart attack and died.

No it's not.

Working in a call centre is a low paid job for what you do. Being a teacher is challenging but has a purpose in society, with a much higher starting salary and potential earnings.

Thanks for your advice, I'll definitely bear it in mind. I'm hoping that I won't take criticism to heart in a way the affects me negatively, but I can't really know until I've experienced it.

Why is that so bad? Have you seen what doctors put up with? Or police officers or lawyers or nurses? They cope with far worse abuse and from adults not children. I've decided not to enter teaching for other reasons but challenging behaviour was certainly never one of them. It's part of any public service job and at least in teaching the source of it is children who you can discipline.

Just my opinion. Been working as a TA. When working in a call centre, you don't bring the work home with you once your hours are up.

Preparing lessons etc. invades my home and non-work life. £350 a week, post tax. Divide that £350 by the number of hours inside and outside the classroom that I spend on my job, and I bet it's below minimum wage.

I know, that, if I want, I can just be a totally crap teacher and not prepare lessons properly, or get my students to mark their own work during class, or be like any of those other p*** poor excuses for teachers I've seen whilst being a TA. But I want to be a better teacher than that. I hope I can be a better teacher than that. Again, just my opinion.

It's not really subjective though - the pay is objectively good relative to other graduate jobs with the same requirements and certainly relative to all jobs available. You work harder than someone in a call centre but you get paid more.

That work outside your set hours is made up for by relatively longer holiday time. Taking your work home with you is what makes a public service job attractive - it has meaning. It's not just a shift that you want to end and forget about. That's what adds value to a teaching position compared to working in a call centre where, yes, you don't take your work home with you, but that's part of the problem - it is absolutely soul-crushing, pointless, mundane work. It is not even comparable to being a teacher, both in pecuniary and non-pecuniary terms, where upwards progression, future earnings, purpose, prestige, self-fulfilment, etc. are all far beyond that of a call centre worker.

Exactly - you have motivation and desire to contribute to society. That kind of drive will only be found in these important jobs, not in call centres or other low paid work which you are trying to equate teaching to.

Absolute nonsense. Police officers have the power to arrest you over next to nothing, if you a GP takes a dislike to you then he can ensure that he never sees you again. Teachers are physically assaulted and kids come back into the classroom.

Interesting that on this thread that this attitude is coming exclusively from non-teachers.

Legally this might be true but in reality it's nonsense.