Advice on what people have found to be the best approaches to getting a job 2nd level

Hannibal6.0

Hi, writing on behalf of a the gf. She is a religion teacher with two years experience in teaching since her dip. The school she was previously teaching in still hasn't called her and school was back today. She had invested a lot of her time in that school but due to a lack of availability for her subject it doesnt seem like a call is likely. She has managed to have 1 interview so far in which went excellent but they said they had to give the job to someone who had been teaching longer but that they would keep her on file.

So my question is what approaches have people been taking that have worked out successfully. Like most she already checks the papers every week and trawls the net to see if anything has come up. Has done a number of door to door cv dropping also with no luck. Any suggestion for how a religious education teacher could go about getting into a school or even any teacher so to help other boarders...

Thanks in advance

seavill

My advice would be to do a part time degree or something like that and add a second subject.
I presume she has not got one as you do not mention it

Few schools will have enough hours to employ someone full time religion. Having something like English also will help with this.

In the mean time just keep trying and hoping for sub work. I can't see anything else that can be done. Go back to last years school even if they do not ring and ask for subbing. They are more likely to give it to someone they know and may feel for her as they had to let her go

happywithlife

did she work for the same school for the two years? was any reason given as to why she wasn't asked back this year?

seavil gave excellent advice there -
i'd add, to encourage her to attend any pdst meetings (she'll need to sign up to their mailing list if she hasn't already done so ) and attend any courses in her local education centre that may be of benefit -

is she qualified to work as a school chaplin? if not, maybe see about adding that to her belt

volunteer with local youth groups etc to build up her cv
principals really want to see what added 'extras' somebody can bring to their school nowadays

and call into every school within at her catchment area with her cv - takes a lot of time (and its expensive) but it can result in subbing work during the year.

but long-term she'd probably need a 2nd subject at least .

rainbowtrout

Hannibal6.0 wrote: »

Hi, writing on behalf of a the gf. She is a religion teacher with two years experience in teaching since her dip. The school she was previously teaching in still hasn't called her and school was back today. She had invested a lot of her time in that school but due to a lack of availability for her subject it doesnt seem like a call is likely. She has managed to have 1 interview so far in which went excellent but they said they had to give the job to someone who had been teaching longer but that they would keep her on file.

So my question is what approaches have people been taking that have worked out successfully. Like most she already checks the papers every week and trawls the net to see if anything has come up. Has done a number of door to door cv dropping also with no luck. Any suggestion for how a religious education teacher could go about getting into a school or even any teacher so to help other boarders...

Thanks in advance

Did she have her own contract or was it covering for someone else? Was she told she was being let go or that there may be no hours for her this year? Has she given them a ring to see if they have any hours for her? Wouldn't sit around waiting for them to ring if I was her, I'd be ringing them and finding out.

Hannibal6.0

She had her own contract for 1 year but was not permanent. She wasn't told she was let go she was just told that if there were hours available this year they would let her know. She has rang twice now on two different occasions, the first she was told that the timetable wasn't done so she couldnt be told and the second time was last week and was told that she would be kept in mind if anything came up but still nothing. Thanks for all the reply's so far

whiteandlight

With just one subject and religion at that she will have a long road ahead of her. Make sure she applies for everything, even four hours gets a foot in the door and will mean she can get day to day substitution too.
If she can't afford to add an extra subject to her cv then do as many free/cheap courses in theory or extra curricular that she can. Eg Edx.com, offer to help at a local Gaa club or set up a youth choir in a church, help with the local drama club/musical society. Computers is a good one, try attending or helping at a coder dojo. Consider a first aid course.
In teaching at the moment it is all about what you can bring to the school. I've actually been asked that by a principal in an interview, what do I bring to the school that others dont