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Primary teaching experience - what to do?

Hi all! I tried not to ramble but here I go haha.

Bit of background: I am currently working in an academy in the secondary sector as a teaching assistant. I did try to do a PGCE in a specialist subject as a secondary teacher a couple of years ago however it was extremely difficult (covid didn't help at all) as I felt at the time that maybe teaching wasn't for me, I was young with going straight from undergraduate degree to PGCE 22 year old so little experience and I did have struggles mentally. I failed second placement and attempted it again after some time and more experience but I dropped out because I just knew that it wasn't working after trying everything I could think of. The mentors meant well and they did say to me that supporting students was more my thing and I believed them.

I love my job I have at the moment and the school is very supportive. I recently led a few summer school sessions with introducing the new year 7s and loved every minute of it. (Kids called me a hero aww). I've been thinking about career progression and what to do next and working in a primary school could be an option I'm interested in.

I've been thinking recently that if I got some experience somehow either working or volunteering at the primary sector for a few years I could think about becoming a primary teacher - I think I may enjoy teaching and work better with younger pupils when it comes standards like behaviour and/or classroom management (which was something that I struggled with teens because I was younger when I did the placements (22) so I wasn't taken seriously).

So now that I've taken a couple of years to work and if I take more years from now to gain experience either volunteering or working in the primary sector - I could think about applying to train to teach in that area.
But the question is: what is the best option to take to train? The academy does offer to train unqualified teachers but I don't know if I can work the same job I have now while training.
I'm not sure if I could divide the areas and work as a teaching assistant between both primary and secondary- is this possible while gaining experience before applying?
Has anyone ever been in a similar situation before? If so, what did you do to gain experience? Did you work while training?
TIA