Subbing - a bit of advice...

wellingtonia

Hi everyone,

I am new to the forum but I have been watching for a while. I am currently travelling overseas but my plan is to begin the long road to primary teaching upon my return. I have a 1H B.A. (English and Sociology) but I do not have an honours Irish. (Much to my regret now I dropped down in April before the L.C.) Anyway, my plan is to repeat L.C. Irish when I get home and then apply for the post-grad Mary I and Hibernia courses.

All of this in itself is worrying me enough. I have read so many posts here about the difficulty getting accepted into the Mary I course. It is a major gamble for me to take a year to repeat Irish and then hope that I am one of the few who is accepted into the course. I am willing to take the risk becuse after a year of working in a job that I couldn't care less about and a bit of time travelling I realised that I really want to teach.

My question is directed specifically to Trotter but also to anyone who has had a similar experience. Subbing in Cork would be the ideal thing for me to expand my experience while I do repeat Irish. I know from your posts, Trotter, that you have extensive experience doing this. How difficult is it for people to get a subbing job? Is it worth it in terms of the amount of positions you can actually gain? Does it affect the interview for the postgrad? How can I get a subbing position!? Where to begin!?!?

I'm sorry if I am rambling a bit. I am getting a bit bogged down in the ol' head about the whole situation! Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Trotter

Wellingtonia, first of all I was in a very similar situation to you. Luckily I did have an honour in LC Irish which took away the repeating requirement anyway.

When it comes to subbing, it is literally a case of going around as many schools as possible and trying to hand your CV to the principal. The reason I say that is because they recognise the efforts of someone who actually attempts to meet them for a couple of minutes to introduce themselves.

Also, its important to register for any subbing services provided by education centres etc. I know in my area, the subs register in the education centre and that list is then circulated to the principals at the start of the year.

Its all about doing the groundwork that makes your chances of being called that bit better. Once one principal gives you a shot, he/she may be impressed and call you again in a months time.. If you can have this happening with 3 or 4 principals, over the space of a year you may find word of mouth leads to a few days here and there in a new school and it starts all over again.

The end result is being the "1st sub" on a principals list. However, it is more difficult now because primary principals must look for a qualified person to do all sub work first, before giving it to a non qualified person.

My advice is to be very patient, get yourself known in as many schools as possible. If sub days are few and far between, try the secondary schools. Its not ideal but when it comes to the interviews, it shows you are doing everything you can to be in a classroom of some sort.

Understand that to get into the minds of a few principals so that you're called regularly can take time. It took me 2 years before I was making anything close to a "decent" wage from it. Having committed to the Hibernia postgrad, my wages has taken a big drop because of taking time off for teaching practice and taking study days and days to work on assignments.

I hope it goes well for you!
T

wellingtonia

Thanks for replying so quickly. I saw from your other posts that you were in a similar situation.

I will take on board all you have said and give it my best shot. In terms of the income aspect, while that is obviously important, all I want to do is give myself the best chance I can for getting accepted into a post-grad course. I am lucky to be able to move home for the year also. Not ideal, but it is impossible otherwise.

Thanks Trotter, I knew you would help me out!