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Primary Heads or teachers - MFL advice please

15 replies

holmessweetholmes · 28/09/2015 09:35

I'm an MFL teacher with 20 years' experience of Secondary teaching. I love my subject but really don't love teaching in secondary schools any more. I have been teaching Spanish one hour a week in my dc's primary school (for free) and am enjoying it so much that I was wondering if there would be any mileage in trying to set myself up as a peripatetic MFL teacher and offer my services to other local primaries.

Does anyone have any views on whether that's something that primary schools are likely to be interested in? I have no idea whether they would even have a budget for this, as MFL seems mostly to be taught by whichever member of the normal teaching staff is most able to teach some language. My dc's Head was thrilled when I offered, because he wasn't enjoying doing it himself!

Thanks in advance for any views!

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Holidayrash · 28/09/2015 13:06

Most schools don't have someone qualified to teach MFL and are very keen to get rid of the burden.

Look out for PPA jobs and then sell the MFL side. You'll be paid more than if you set up independently.

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Holidayrash · 28/09/2015 13:07

And try private schools too as they'll been to gey someone to do it across the school with fewer restrictions about exactly when it has to be done.

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holmessweetholmes · 28/09/2015 14:24

Thanks! The ppa jobs thing is a good idea. I'd be more than happy to look at private schools but there pretty much aren't any round here, believe it or not!

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BackforGood · 28/09/2015 20:19

I have a friend who has been doing this for a while, and absolutely loves it. She started as her secondary school was one of those 'specialism' schools so they had a 'duty' to help feeder schools, but has carried on after that fashion finished, and has been asked by other schools locally if she can go in there too.
As mentioned above, she is (1/2) their PPA cover and I think they have a sports coach in for the other 1/2
It's a win-win all round. She loves her Primary work. The Primary schools love having someone in who actually speaks the language(s). The dc obviously benefit from being taught by someone who is a MFL teacher, who speaks the languages she is actually teaching.

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holmessweetholmes · 29/09/2015 08:58

Ah - just what I wanted to hear! Thanks! Although I might get paid more if I were a school's ppa cover, I'd be just as happy to go round to lots of schools and charge a flat hourly rate. I quite like the idea of the flexibility and variety.
Dh (who is a deputy head at the local secondary school) reckons schools might be even more keen to have me if they didn't have to have me on their actual payroll. Also, we live in a rural-ish area and most of the primaries are really small, so they would only want me for one lesson a week or something.

Anyway, I'm going to make a big list of all the local primaries and write to them.

Thanks for the advice folks!

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roundaboutthetown · 29/09/2015 14:33

If you're happy to teach right the way through from reception to Y6 and can tailor your materials and approach accordingly, they'll bite your hand off! My ds's primary school pays someone to come in and do this - she works her way through the school on the day she comes in, one class after another.

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roundaboutthetown · 29/09/2015 14:34

(ps it's a state school).

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NewLife4Me · 29/09/2015 14:39

Hello OP

My friend has a business supplying mfl teachers in primary and secondary schools.
her business is used mainly for after school clubs, but she is also called on to provide cover for absent teachers. However, as the schools pay for this themselves it's not as lucrative as the after school clubs.
She has several teachers on her books and the business is thriving.
She herself also teaches and does some private tutoring.

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BackforGood · 29/09/2015 22:00

If you are called in to do single lessons though, don't forget to factor in the whole of the time you spend, as part of your hourly rate - preparing the lesson, getting there, all the faffing about parking, signing in, etc. It's just 'part of the day' when you work a full day, but if you are driving 40mins to get to a school to teach for an hour, with planning you will be spending over 3.5 hours for that one hour's pay, and, of course, you won't be able to fit in 5 'lessons' in a day in different schools.

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holmessweetholmes · 01/10/2015 20:46

All very good points, thanks! I've just emailed about 20 local primary schools to test the waters. And I actually did a couple of hours' covering for an absent French teacher at a primary school this morning, who had been given my email address by a student of mine! roundaboutthetown - I worked my way through the year groups like you mentioned.

I'm really hoping the whole thing will take off. It's bloody lovely teaching all those eager little kids after 20 years of secondary. And just floating in, doing fun stuff with no marking or monitoring and floating out again - brilliant!

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EmGee · 02/10/2015 13:27

Please keep us posted Holmes! I, too, am a MFL secondary teacher (although no longer living in the UK) and would be interested in this kind of work if I ever moved back to the UK; or even seeing if something like it was possible where I live (albeit teaching English).

I can totally see the appeal of eager little faces after so many years of teaching not-so-keen teens.....never mind all the stress of exam results, paperwork, jumping through hoops etc etc!!

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GoblinLittleOwl · 02/10/2015 13:51

Apply directly to schools; our County Advisor believes all class teachers should teach French, despite few having sufficient training or knowledge to do this; fortunately our Head was far sighted enough to ignore this advice and employed a MFL teacher part-time, with great success.

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holmessweetholmes · 04/10/2015 15:25

Will do, EmGee! I'm waiting to hear from the primary schools, but I only sent the emails on Thursday, so I mustn't be too impatient!

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toomuchicecream · 04/10/2015 19:23

I suspect most schools would look at this as part of teachers' PPA, and the arrangements for this have now been put in place for at least this term, if not the rest of the year. So if you don't get much response my guess is that would be why. Don't be down-hearted, but do email again between Easter and May half term when arrangements for the following year are being made. At that stage of the year, schools will have just found out their budgets for the coming year and can plan accordingly.

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holmessweetholmes · 05/10/2015 09:36

Yes it is bad timing really, but it has only just really struck me that it's what I want to do. There's a potential job for September in the MFL dept of a very lovely private (secondary) school (HoD is a friend of mine) and I wanted to see if there was any mileage in this primary thing before I have to decide whether I want to apply for the other job. It's very tempting in a way (pay will be much better, school is fab, I can even take the dog with me), but it's a bit of a commute, may be full time rather than part time and there is Saturday school too!

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