The Teacher Mother

Hello and welcome to ‘The Teacher Mother’, a blog that explores the challenges (and successes!) of primary education, whilst considering the parent perspective. I am a mother of two, with baby number three due any day now! I am a primary school teacher, but started my career as a secondary Science teacher. I made the switch a couple of years back, when struggling to juggle my work-life balance. I specialised in teaching KS4 Science and was passionate about making sure my students understood the importance of gaining the best qualifications they could.

As many secondary schools teachers would understand, you don’t work where you live! This meant I had a 40 minute drive to work every morning, which stopped me being able to drop my son off at nursery everyday, as I had to leave before nursery opened. I would rely on my mother to come to my house every morning and take my daughter to school and my son to nursery. I would come home, feed and bathe the kids, put them to bed and work until 10-11pm every evening preparing lessons resources for my students. And it wouldn’t stop there, it spilled over into our weekends too. My husband would often go to bed before me whilst I stayed up late prepping and planning for the next day.

My patience was wearing thin and reserved for the kids I taught everyday. I would come home and be mentally distracted with work and not present with my family. I wouldn’t listen to my daughter read everyday and grew more and more frustrated when she wasn’t making the progress I’d hoped she would. I would lose my patience with her, patience I had reserved for my students, but not her.

Then, a Year 5 teaching position came up at my daughter’s school. The school was a 10 minute drive away, I could finally take her to school and pick her up, be more engaged with her learning, take my son to nursery myself and most importantly, be more present with my family. It was a huge change from teaching Science at KS3, KS4 and KS5 to teaching all subjects at KS2. But, in all honesty, it was an easier change. I had no lesson resources to make, the curriculum was mapped out for me, all I had to do was deliver it. Now, primary education is not as easy as that, it comes with just as many challenges as secondary education, however these were different and felt more manageable. Most importantly, they did not disrupt my work-life balance.

Fast forward to now, my son has started at the same school and everyday we all drive to the same place together. They see me everyday at school and I have a better understanding of what they are learning and how to support them. As I embark on maternity leave, there will soon be 3 children to consider, as well as the 32 I will return to at the end of the calendar year.

Before falling pregnant, I was encouraged to start an NPQSL (a senior leadership course for teachers) and had ambitions of progressing into leadership within the primary sector. Those ambitions still stand, and I would like to utilise my unique position as a parent and a teacher within my school and to implement truly effective change that will benefit our community. This blog will document the internal dialogue as I consider what I would change, how I would change it, how to engage with staff and parents, and ultimately (and most importantly) how it will enhance the progress of our pupils.