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How to become a teacher?
- Thread starter elh_2009
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If you did a degree in Primary education, you could do it in 3 years at Uni. On the flip side, if you want to teach a subject, e.g History, you'd need to do three years at Uni to get a History degree then add another year on for a PGCE.
My partner tried to get onto the PGCE and it is a competitive market at the moment. Bear that in mind.
My partner tried to get onto the PGCE and it is a competitive market at the moment. Bear that in mind.
All depends on what age group.
And what you did for the past years till now.
Some uni's will let you in based on experience alone and some will ask you to do a year entry course before you do your degree.
if you have No ALevels at all you are looking at 5 years before getting a PGCE finished
And what you did for the past years till now.
Some uni's will let you in based on experience alone and some will ask you to do a year entry course before you do your degree.
if you have No ALevels at all you are looking at 5 years before getting a PGCE finished
Soldato
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Not at all.
I'm a primary teacher and we have a colleague who decided to become a teacher after working as an LSA in school for years. She's 43 and is now halfway through her 2 year training course (she is doing on-the-job training, so is doing a class share, working alongside another teacher as an unqualified teacher, gradually increasing the amount that she teaches and taking more control of the class. She gets paid a fairly decent amount too, given that she is unqualified. Obviously you don't get this as a 'normal' student).
It's a tough, but very rewarding career, and I absolutely love my job, and think I'm good at it, even though Mr Gove keeps telling us all how much we're failing our pupils
.Like others have said, you need A-Levels. If you want to do a degree in a specific area first, then you can do a PGCE afterwards.
A primary teaching degree is a 4 year course at some unis, a 3 year at others.
I would personally say that I think a PGCE is more suited to those wanting to be secondary teachers, who want to teach the subject they have done their degree in. I did the 4 year Primary Ed course and I don't think I would have felt prepared to teach 12 subjects, as well as learning classroom management skills, etc, after doing a 1-year PGCE. PGCEs are extremely intensive.
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Agreed.
Get yourself into a classroom (Secondary or Primary, whichever you're interested in), observing for at least a few weeks before making any decision.
And preferably observations in several different schools.
You could even try out for an LSA position first to get further experience.
Just please, do not for the love of god go into it blind or with only having observed a handful of days in one school. If the job was advertised accurately, I doubt many people would be interested in teaching at all.
Soldato
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What helpful input to the discussion.Better than thinking alone - email some local schools saying you're looking to apply for teacher training, and see if they'll allow you in for observation.
Then at least you've got something to base a decision on.
Soldato
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It's a shame you've started to think about this just as we all broke up! Definitely get in touch with some schools in September. 
Soldato
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I like the idea of teaching, helping to develop and expand the mind of young people is something that can be very rewarding I imagine. But something tells me that in practice it would be (as others have said) soul destroying, as so few kids are actually interested in learning until they get into college and uni.
Nevermind the kids, the papertrail for any ITT course combined with data handling/admin and general bureaucracy is enough to drive anyone mad.
Your job is to make them interested!
There are ******** everywhere, sure. But you soon realise which kids deserve and receive your attention
Caporegime
I'm going in to teaching. Half my family are teachers.
Teaching is great and very rewarding, however it might not always feel that way.
Also; Gove is a trying to privatise schools (Academies and they will soon be ran for profit) and these are changing the way teaching works. Gove is just warming up though.
Teaching is great and very rewarding, however it might not always feel that way.
Also; Gove is a trying to privatise schools (Academies and they will soon be ran for profit) and these are changing the way teaching works. Gove is just warming up though.
Good point, well made.