Teaching in England

jpt77

Hi folks. I'm a secondary scool teacher who is currently in employment in Dublin. I'm planning to move to England for the next academic year. Can anyone recommend a good website for teaching vacancies. Are the recruitment agencies the best way to go? I will more than llikely be going to London.

Any help would be appreciated.

sunflower!

I have just moved at Christmas! just started my new permanent job on Monday in a really nice school! i found the best site is www.tes.co.uk and in the end i got a job through a combination of that and one of the agencies. I joined a few different ones impact teachers were the ones who found me a job but there are loads I would sign up with as many of them as you can. You will need to get a garda clearance form and they will contact everyone on your cv!! You’ll need transcripts and copies of your parchments. It takes a while to sort it all out so if I was you I would start as soon as possible when you sign up with the agency you can tell them when you plan to be over. As far as I know you have to hand in notice here a term before you quit so there will be jobs coming on line in may for September, but like I said it would be good to sign up with agencies as soon as possible!!

If you have any other questions feel free to pm me. Good Luck!:)

Sassie

jpt77 wrote: »

Hi folks. I'm a secondary scool teacher who is currently in employment in Dublin. I'm planning to move to England for the next academic year. Can anyone recommend a good website for teaching vacancies. Are the recruitment agencies the best way to go? I will more than llikely be going to London.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi there,

I completed my Dip in 2005 UCD. I joined an Englidh teaching agency called MPS education and I got a job immediately with them in Essex.

I registered my CV with them. They contacted me with details of vacancies in named schools that matched my subjects, therefore you can choose which school might suit you best. They organised an interview n June 05, picked me up at Stansted, prepped me en route to interview, dropped me off at school, school offered me job at the end of interview (as is the way there. If they like you, they offer you the job on the spot and expect an answer)Agency picked me up from school, brought me to airport for return flight home. They also helped me in getting sorted with accomodation for that September.
I did not have any bad experiences with this agency and found that all schools that they were associated with were good schools.

Hope that helps and Good Luck!

jpt77

Thank you Sunflower and Sassie. Appreciate the messages.

maynooth_rules

Id like to know this too. My girlfriend is in Wimledon in college so would like to go over for a year. Do you have much of a choice about what areas you can teach in?? obviously i will be limited enough about where I can teach.

FlashGordon1969

I know this is off topic (well half off topic), but I was wondering how those teachers above found the UK system in comparison to the Irish? Is it as bad as they say or is it over done (the criticisms)?

gagiteebo

Hi OP,
I am in a very similiar situation. I am a secondary school teacher in Tipp and like most young teachers I don't have a permanent job, it's all sick leave and maternity cover. It's disheartening and frustrating as I am sure you know. This is my second year qualified teaching and I've been lucky enough to get jobs for both years but I know this summer is going to be spent looking for jobs and correcting exam papers and losing the will to live which is why I want to move to London.

Now the job I am in at the minute didn't become available until the end of September so I was jobless til then and really losing hope so in September I went to London with an agency that was mentioned above, Impact. I would not recommend this agency. They insisted that they had lots of work so I upped and left everything and off I went. They didn't meet me at the airport even though that is stated on the website and when I got to the agency they weren't exactly friendly. There is one Australian girl who was great though. Anyway I had all my forms and Garda checks etc so we went through them and then they said it's just a matter of waiting for calls to come in for jobs. Day after day nothing came in (bear in mind this is 3rd week in Sep). There were other people there from Australia, NZ, Canada etc and they had apartments etc and they had no work, maybe a day subbing a week. In the end I was so pissed with them I said I was leaving and they suddenly became super nice and helpful. Luckily that day I got the call about the job I am in now so had something to come home to. I pitied the people who came from far away, they were worried how they would pay their rent etc, London isn't cheap as you know.
Sorry to have rambled on but wanted to warn you about that agency.

TESConnect looks like the best place to be honest. My experience with Impact hasn't put me off wanting to go to London though. Oh they did eventually call me with a job offer - at the start of February. Can you imagine if I had stayed waiting for that to come up, it was actually suggested to me that I should get a waitressing job until a job showed up. I have nothing against waitressing, I did it all through college but I went to London with that agency to teach, not to waitress. My advice is to stay clear of them, there are loads of other agencies.

Let me know how you get on

sean-og3

Hi Sassie, just wondering do MPS take a cut from your wages or how does it work? And do you know what the starting take home pay is like for a newly qualified teacher? Thanks very much.

Sassie

Hi there,
I started teaching Geography in Essex as an NQT in 2005 and my starting salary back then was £20,000p.a.
It was not a huge salary but completely managable back then. It obviously goes up on increments and increases yearly. Also, in the UK, there is a shortage of teachers in Maths and Science and I think English. After 2 years teaching these subjects full time, some counties offer you an extra £5000pa to keep you teaching there another year. It is called "the Golden Handshake".Look up the county council website for wherever you intend to go.
MPS took nothing from my wages. The school pay the agency and nothing is taken from your wages. If you have an interview in june for a psotion to commence in September, you will get pais from July onwards.So basically you get two months salary before you start and this money will be invaluable to you for your relocation costs. It can be tricky to open a bank account as you need proof of address nut often the agency will help you with this.
As I said before I taught Geography and can only speak about that subject area. The set up is slightly different in terms of assessment. Students are catagorised into ability "Levels" and they have "targets" within the year. You get the hang of it in a couple of days. Your department is very supportive as your department head and your department's performance is monitered. You get great resources, personal laptop, own room, an onsite person who is responsible for photocopying, free of course, and also free overhead printing, mounted projectors,interactive whiteboards, libraries on site.
There can be a liitle extra paperwork in the sense that you have to keep track of everything should the school be investigated. Parent teacher meetings take place out of school hours as do all subject and afterschool meetings. But the day ends earlier. School finished at 2.55pm.
There are a few hidden costs involved in living in England;National insurance, Council Tax so be sure to look it up.
I found it a great experience and the best training I ever got. A few people ask if ther cirriculum is better over hear or there. There are positives and negatives to it. But, there is no overcrowding of classrooms, there are great resources to make your job a lot easier, your room is lovely and warm and generally the room is your own. I can't tell you how many s**tholes I have taught in here and spent many mornings fighting over a wonky photocopier and scrounging for a whiteboard somewhere while I dust down the chalk from my clothes!!

kboc

Look on TES for your job. Agencies can send you to schools where their regular supply teachers will not go for obvious reasons.

England is a great place to teach. You develop a good ethic for the profession. Their is any amount of support as staff from fellow professionals. There is no hiding place, either from your school leadership or the inspectorate, OFSTED. This sounds scary, only if your a lazy sod and just want to punch in and out for the next 30 years! if you want to develop yourself professionally, england is the place. London is fabulous. Plenty of pupils from irish parentage, so you wont feel out of place. West and North London is full of good schools with lots of irish staff. Search the TES web site for the salaries. If going to london, you get a London weighting.

Go, you'll love it.

Enjoy

FlashGordon1969

Interesting posts above-England is often presented as the boogie man in Irish Education circles but I think there is some value in their system (in all educational systems)-particularly department structures.

Here there is too much sink or swim culture and too much Me Feiners-Im alright but screw you. People seem slow to interfere or critique struggling teacher. In some respects we are all struggling teachers-aren't we?!

jpt77

These replies have been very helpful. Will update you on any progress when I/we decide on the future. Thanks again. The system there sounds like it would suit me.

Duffbeer

What are your subjects? A friend of mine teaches and is head of a geography department in a school in Canterbury. He is always looking for teachers. I think he said that maths teachers are scarce aswell.

jpt77

History, Cspe, Irish. Think I can scrap the last one tho.:)