Would a school be interested in a KS5 volunteer?

[cressetmama]

I'm old by classroom standards and didn't finish my PGCE until I was 55. Needless to say, there is no interest in my CV for paid work. I don't want to do supply, but would like to be useful generally. I actually prefer older students and would, I think, like to offer unpaid help in Y12 and 13 to students and teachers. I have QTS, now expiring, in secondary citizenship (no longer a mandatory subject). For enabling/accompanying trips or coaching with writing UCAS applications for example, how would your school view an approach?

In my professional career, I was a (very) successful business-to-business copywriter working with FTSE companies globally. I have a decent B. Sc Econ from an RG university and top grade A levels in English and History, and a less good one in French.

How would an SLT view my offer? Is it worth bothering to do?

[GinandJag]

I have no answers to your questions, but I am surprised that you can't find teaching work. Have you registered with agencies?

I am 51 and have just started a new job after a career break. I still get multiple calls and emails from agencies every day.

[Sparklycat]

Are you only saying to supply agencies that you will do ks5? That may be why you are getting no work, colleges don't bring in day to day supply they will just cancel the lesson.

[LIZS]

Try 6th form or fe colleges.

[LIZS]

Or apply for cover supervisor jobs.

[GinandJag]

I have never come across a school that covers sixth form. The teacher just leaves the work which they take away with them and doss in the sixth form centre.

[MrsS1980]

Where are you OP, I'd have you in to help deliver PSHE and C!

[MrsS1980]

OP? I mean.

[Curioushorse]

I'm also surprised you can't find work. Gosh, most of the schools round here are short of people. And we'd actually quite like some older people with life experience who come cheap.

Having said that, no, we wouldn't have you in as a KS5 volunteer. And we wouldn't have had in any schools where I've worked. It's the one area of the school which is generally lovely to work and where you don't need help. AND, we all tend to get quite possessive/ twitchy over our KS5 students. Their grades do matter so much to us that there'd be no way that I'd be entrusting them to a volunteer.....because I'd be mildly suspicious about why you were volunteering rather than getting paid work.

[Curioushorse]

Actually, OP, with the credentials you've just listed I'm REALLY surprised you haven't been snapped up- particularly given your age. Any chance there's something wrong with your applications? Are you getting the interviews? Want one of us to have a look at your applications? I really can't believe that you can't get work. Where are you based?

[cressetmama]

I am almost 60, and in the SW there is absolutely no shortage of teachers in anything other than STEM subjects. I haven't even bothered to apply for anything in so long because I haven't ever even been asked to interview, even when I was a freshly minted NQT. I have just assumed that my age placed me outside consideration.

I don't need to be paid. I would just like to be useful, but I have also seen all the nonsense and bureaucracy that teaching brings. I also understand what a pp says about being tender towards "their" KS5 students. I was actually thinking about offering assistance in DS's school (a very new UTC) but reluctant to get slapped down a second time, as I offered my local big college the same idea and never got any acknowledgement that I had even written.

[MidniteScribbler]

Have you thought of setting yourself up with your own tutoring business?

[cressetmama]

I've thought about it, yes. But in what subject? Nobody wants tutoring in social sciences (my degree is in Politics and Government, 1977) and I could manage English or History but have locally seen no demand.

After the PGCE I thought about writing a subscription-based live e-course in citizenship that would be updated daily for non specialist teachers delivering the curriculum with an almost all ages lesson of the day (because subject knowledge and research are what I do well) but then David Cameron and Mr Gove arrived and citizenship was off the curriculum. So I didn't waste the effort; schools just dumped the subject in favour of extra maths or English, which does at least count towards the league tables.

[noblegiraffe]

My sixth form might want you as some sort of mentor to maybe help disorganised kids structure their study, apply for apprenticeships, that sort of thing. Especially as you are offering to do it unpaid! We're quite big into pastoral stuff as we're a school sixth form where I think colleges are far more likely to leave the kids to it.

[cressetmama]

I know there's no cover in sixth form, but would it not be sometimes useful to have a helpful granny there to coax or encourage? I don't want to be a cover supervisor for Y8. I like them from Y10 on!

[GinandJag]

You should be able to find G&P work for a few hours a week. Schools traditionally use history teachers to deliver this subject which is not ideal at all.

[cressetmama]

Sorry Gin, G&P... something and pastoral? It's a new acronym for me.

[titchy]

Government and Politics. It's an A level course...

[GinandJag]

Mmm

[cressetmama]

noble*, whereabouts are you? I am on the edge of the world, that is W Devon/SE Cornwall. Every teacher in the UK seems to want to come here!

[StepAwayFromTheThesaurus]

Have you considered moving towards student support services in HE? There are lots of possibilities there that your experience may be very useful for.

[noblegiraffe]

Nowhere near, sorry! But I do think you'd have more luck approaching sixth forms rather than colleges.

[cressetmama]

Gin G&P doesn't even feature on the curriculum round here. It's taught in History, where it exists.

[DaftVader36]

What about volunteering to go in to schools and mentor/coach students that are struggling or disadvantaged. More schools doing this, and def happens in the SW.

[GinandJag]

My DD did G&P A-level, no history, and is now doing PIR/E at uni. Her G&P teacher was a Politics and Economics specialist. No sniff of history. I think that any decent school would snap up a G&P graduate, no question.

[cressetmama]

Hmm...student support opportunities could be interesting. It would be a new avenue to explore, and sounds like the right general direction promising.

There have been so many cut backs in recent years. I asked about career advisory service and was told there was no structure left, even for volunteers, after cut backs, and that seems to be what's happening everywhere in every subject. I don't want a paid, full time job, just an useful way to spend time before I shuffle off.