dropping out of PGCE

2

I've been talking to people in my life about this but want some unbiased and outside opinions.
I graduated from my History undergrad in July and went straight into a Primary PGCE course which started in September. I've always wanted to work with kids and want to emphasise that i LOVE being on placement. But I hate my course.

Since starting in September, I've only been on placement for 17 days and the amount of paperwork that we need to do is absolutely draining me. I love being on placement but do not feel ready at all to be teaching and planning, but am expected to be teaching 5 sequences all in the last three weeks before christmas. I am absolutely dreading going back in because I know it's going to be full on and I'm nowhere near confident enough yet (I've only taught two whole class lessons so far, otherwise mainly doing guided groups and 1:1 work). On top of that, I'm expected to be planning these lessons myself even though they are already planned out by my class teacher - there's nothing for me to do, but I'm told I have to rewrite all the plans out myself which adds even more work to my workload. We are expected to do a million reflections every week and keep evidence of absolutely everything we do. It's only hit me last week that I can't stand all the faff my course is expecting of me. I've spoken to friends who did a PGCE with a different provider and their experience was nothing like mine - most of the things I'm being told to do have made them all shocked. I don't know if I've just gotten unlucky with the way my course is run or if a PGCE just isn't a program I can succeed on.
I've started seriously considering dropping out. I wouldn't do it until Christmas anyway, so would be sticking out the rest of this term, but might try and stick it out until the first half term break in Feb because of financial reasons. I don't know if it's worth just sticking it out to the end but I highly doubt at this point that I'll go into teaching at all so being miserable until July for a qualification I won't use seems silly.

Basically, it would just be nice to have any thoughts or advice from anyone, thank u!

Reply 1

great-cranberry

3

Hey there! It sounds like you know what your end goal is, which is to be a teacher. Learning to teach can be very stressful and you often have to step outside of your comfort zone. It is a skill that comes in time, and all the documentation you have to provide on lesson plans, reviews, meetings, standards, will all make you an amazing teacher, which I am sure you are already becoming. The most important thing to get right is behaviour management. And how can you manage behaviour well? By setting clear expectations before your students even enter the classroom, and having a clear well planned 5/6 part structured lesson, which will not give the students any time to get distracted. It is a lot of work, but will be well worth it.

It appears you are on the path you want to be, it’s just that perhaps you aren’t receiving the support you need? How is your relationship with your mentor? Do you have any other PGCE students you can confide in? It just sounds like you need some support, and the best way to get that is to communicate that with your mentor. I think you may as well complete your training so that you have that qualification behind you either way. You may feel bad dropping out, or on the other hand, if it causing you mental distress, then obviously you must put your mental health first. You will know what is right for you, and whether you can deal with the workload. I wish you all the very best with whatever decision you make. Good luck!

Sophia

Reply 2

quartkie

OP

2

Original post by great-cranberry

Hey there! It sounds like you know what your end goal is, which is to be a teacher. Learning to teach can be very stressful and you often have to step outside of your comfort zone. It is a skill that comes in time, and all the documentation you have to provide on lesson plans, reviews, meetings, standards, will all make you an amazing teacher, which I am sure you are already becoming. The most important thing to get right is behaviour management. And how can you manage behaviour well? By setting clear expectations before your students even enter the classroom, and having a clear well planned 5/6 part structured lesson, which will not give the students any time to get distracted. It is a lot of work, but will be well worth it.
It appears you are on the path you want to be, it’s just that perhaps you aren’t receiving the support you need? How is your relationship with your mentor? Do you have any other PGCE students you can confide in? It just sounds like you need some support, and the best way to get that is to communicate that with your mentor. I think you may as well complete your training so that you have that qualification behind you either way. You may feel bad dropping out, or on the other hand, if it causing you mental distress, then obviously you must put your mental health first. You will know what is right for you, and whether you can deal with the workload. I wish you all the very best with whatever decision you make. Good luck!
Sophia

My mentor is great and I honestly can't fault the school or even the course leader who seems very set on making sure everyone is supported etc. I'd love to be a teacher (obviously, that's why I'm on the course at all) but the longer the course goes on the more overwhelmed I get, and I think I'm realising I'm not as cut out for it as I thought? I have ADHD (I'm medicated, but still struggle) so all the time management and organisation is getting harder the more paperwork we have to do. I think I underestimated how much work this would be, and maybe would be more cut out to be a TA or something. I keep thinking I should've chosen Secondary instead of Primary because the amount of subjects I have to teach has started stressing me out as well, so in my head it feels like there's more cons than pros.
A lot of people on my course are also struggling with the lack of placement days and the amount of paperwork/admin stuff we need to do, but they all seem able to handle it better. Most of them are older than me and/or have kids, so I feel out of my depth anyway.
I'm going to have some conversations with my mentor and course leader about the workload, and then go from there, but I don't know what they could do because I unfortunately think it's just the way the course is. Which sucks, lmao

Reply 3

great-cranberry

3

Original post by quartkie

My mentor is great and I honestly can't fault the school or even the course leader who seems very set on making sure everyone is supported etc. I'd love to be a teacher (obviously, that's why I'm on the course at all) but the longer the course goes on the more overwhelmed I get, and I think I'm realising I'm not as cut out for it as I thought? I have ADHD (I'm medicated, but still struggle) so all the time management and organisation is getting harder the more paperwork we have to do. I think I underestimated how much work this would be, and maybe would be more cut out to be a TA or something. I keep thinking I should've chosen Secondary instead of Primary because the amount of subjects I have to teach has started stressing me out as well, so in my head it feels like there's more cons than pros.
A lot of people on my course are also struggling with the lack of placement days and the amount of paperwork/admin stuff we need to do, but they all seem able to handle it better. Most of them are older than me and/or have kids, so I feel out of my depth anyway.
I'm going to have some conversations with my mentor and course leader about the workload, and then go from there, but I don't know what they could do because I unfortunately think it's just the way the course is. Which sucks, lmao

Yeah, I have experience and know people within secondary. I couldn’t imagine how difficult primary is. I do know it is a very tough year, and have had colleagues diagnosed with ADHD who struggled. It was not uncommon for them to cry from time to time and feel overwhelmed. The training is very demanding. You are definitely not alone in how you are feeling. Try not to compare yourself to others, someone might seem like they are flying high, but could be really struggling. It is a lot that is thrown at you, as you are having to manage behaviour, timing, your own subject knowledge, as well as myriad of other things. It is tough! Like you said, I’d definitely communicate with your mentor how you are struggling and your thoughts, as they will have been through similar experiences and will have received training themselves on how to provide support. Have a conversation with them and see how it goes. They could do team teaching for example, you do the starter, and then they take the next part. You can use one of your mentor meetings to discuss strategies to be put in place depending on your needs. I know how hard it is. See how you feel though after talking things through and see if things improve. Good luck!

Sophia

Reply 4

quartkie

OP

2

Original post by great-cranberry

Yeah, I have experience and know people within secondary. I couldn’t imagine how difficult primary is. I do know it is a very tough year, and have had colleagues diagnosed with ADHD who struggled. It was not uncommon for them to cry from time to time and feel overwhelmed. The training is very demanding. You are definitely not alone in how you are feeling. Try not to compare yourself to others, someone might seem like they are flying high, but could be really struggling. It is a lot that is thrown at you, as you are having to manage behaviour, timing, your own subject knowledge, as well as myriad of other things. It is tough! Like you said, I’d definitely communicate with your mentor how you are struggling and your thoughts, as they will have been through similar experiences and will have received training themselves on how to provide support. Have a conversation with them and see how it goes. They could do team teaching for example, you do the starter, and then they take the next part. You can use one of your mentor meetings to discuss strategies to be put in place depending on your needs. I know how hard it is. See how you feel though after talking things through and see if things improve. Good luck!
Sophia

Thank you for responding!! Hoping it starts to look up :smile:

Reply 5

Fruma

4

It really difficult I'm facing the same challenges in my placement school. Alot of paper work and work load, the most painful is that mentor's are the major problems.

Reply 6

xjazmin

1

Original post by Fruma

It really difficult I'm facing the same challenges in my placement school. Alot of paper work and work load, the most painful is that mentor's are the major problems.