What can I do now?

[MyHusbandMakesMeSoWet]

So, my history is pretty complicated. I have taught in primary schools on and off since 2003. A years contract here and there followed by supply in between. Then a year doing something else and then back to permanent supply since 2009.

I have just left supply teaching as I am fed up with it. Realised too late teaching is not for me but now lost my confidence and unsure what I am good at, if anything. Lots and lots of rejection lead me to give up and do supply.

Anyway, I ve made the decision to leave supply and do something else. I have lots of ideas but unsure where to start with any of these ideas. Anyone know people in these roles? How did they get them?

Ideas are; they are random

1. trainee/assistant educational officer, coordinator in a museum, zoo, educational place.
   
2. dyslexic teacher, assessor.
   
3. SEN teacher- working in small groups in mainstream schools.
   
4. breastfeeding consultant Nct or something similar
   
5. support/trainee educational coordinator for a charity or similar who go into schools and run programs.
   
   I don’t know where to start. Lacking in confidence, want something I can do without returning to long term studying, part-time and flexible to fit in with dcs 5 and 2.

[BringOnTheScience]

Expand your first category - lots of big companies, especially utilities and tech/engineering/science industries have education & outreach teams. That’s what I'm doing. Not a huge number of vacancies, but private sector salaries.

[Greenshoots1]

start by registering with lots of job search websites, and see what comes up. Try the guardian. Be prepared to job hunt full time, and get many many rejections.If more than 100 people apply for each job, then you can expect over 100 rejections on average, can't you, and that is without being a weak candidate.

[BringOnTheScience]

How did I get it? It was advertised locally and colleagues sent me the link.

LinkedIn is good for STEM sector job ads. BIG STEM Communicators network is national. Guardian jobs section is traditionally strong for education jobs.

Depending on where you live, look up nearby firms and universities - eg I was signed up for non-academic job alerts on nearest uni's website. Regularly check the websites of the local museums & attractions. I made a Word doc of links to Vacancies pages and had a weekly session of clicking on each link.

[MyHusbandMakesMeSoWet]

Bringonthescience- how did you get into that? Apply for a job and got it or through study and volunteering first?

[BringOnTheScience]

husband I had a science career, then did my PGCE in my 40s. I taught primary for a few years then had to get out for the sake of my physical and mental health. My STEM education job requires the combination of science knowledge & teaching experience.

You can be a STEM Ambassador as a volunteer to gain experience. Many scientists do it to share their passion for their subject.
www.stem.org.uk/stem-ambassadors/ambassadors

[MyHusbandMakesMeSoWet]

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately I have no background in science and wasn’t the best at it at school. I was a primary school teacher.

[MyHusbandMakesMeSoWet]

I am scared of rejection and it’s a hurdle I have to get over. Part of the reason I went into supply and stayed there so long was I was unsuccessful in so many interviews it seriously effected my confidence. So I stopped going to them so I didn’t have to deal with another no. I am certainly not someone who lands on their feet and good things happen to easily. Everything career wise is a struggle.

[BringOnTheScience]

So, what is your best subject? Focus on the positives and your strengths :-)

[Lowdoorinthewal1]

The intervention teachers in my school have all previously been full timers and then wanted part time roles so took intervention positions which lend themselves better to that.

If you are interested in SEN you could sign up with Axcis and see what they have available in your area.

[youarenotkiddingme]

What about looking at Team Teach training or similar? You train educational and sometimes social care staff on how to manage behaviour and restraint reduction.
It's related to Sen field.

[fleshmarketclose]

What about looking at a role within the LEA in school support. The best Local Inclusion Officer we ever had had been a teacher and the one we have now left her role as a Deputy Head to take the position. Not sure whether she will be exceptionally good as she is finding her feet just now but the insight is helpful particularly if you have a reluctant SENCo as a nudge from the LEA then cannot be dismissed as unrealistic expectations.

[Lowdoorinthewal1]

kidding Team Teach tutors all have lots of experience in the field. Ours are all Ed Psychs or SLT in the special schools.

Have you done Team Teach training? There are always lots of specific questions from the candidates (X does this, how should we manage that?). You would need to be really confident in the field to deliver it properly.

[CauliflowerSqueeze]

My friend did an MA in SEN and now does small group work in a school part time. She said it’s like a dream come true. She arrives in an hour early and leaves an hour after school and has zero marking or planning or red tape forms to fill in outside of school hours. She’s never been happier.

[youarenotkiddingme]

I am an advanced trainer!
Not a teacher though but have extensive experience of working with children with behavioural difficulties.

[Letseatgrandma]

I have run through most of your ideas in the past. Sadly with limited success.

1. trainee/assistant educational officer, coordinator in a museum, zoo, educational place.
   
   I have only ever seen one job like this advertised. It was in a local museum, was 9-5, during the holidays too, and paid minimum wage.
   
   
2. dyslexic teacher, assessor.
   
   You need to do a masters and it wasn’t cheap.
   
   
3. SEN teacher- working in small groups in mainstream schools.
   
   I don’t know of any Schools Now that pay teachers to do this-it’s either LSAs (often who used to be teachers!) on crap money, or the interventions just don’t happen at all.
   
   
4. breastfeeding consultant Nct or something similar
   
   Don’t know much about this.
   
   
5. support/trainee educational coordinator for a charity or similar who go into schools and run programs.
   
   We don’t have anything like that in this area-maybe we are unlucky but there seems to be no money for anything in education now.
   
   I also considered working for the LEA as a specialist teacher but they are going through redundancies at the moment and seem to be laying people off so don't think that’s the way to go.
   
   I am in the same boat though. Teaching-either perm or supply is shocking at the moment.

[MyHusbandMakesMeSoWet]

Thanks for your input and suggestions. I want to make sure I do the right thing and don’t jump into another wrong decision. I wouldn’t want to do behaviour management or SEN in that area. I also wouldn’t want to work with groups in schools in SEN either. I want to completely get away from teaching a group/class in a school. I don’t think I d be qualified to teach others about restraint techniques either. Ultimately I want to do something with children.

I don’t know what I am good at, that’s the problem. My confidence is low so I think nothing! I feel I was probably unable to get a permanent job as a teacher as I wasn’t any good at it! Although no-one told me so and I was praised as an excellent supply teacher by some schools.

I guess I am fairly good at maths but only C grade at GCSE so not really. I love reading. I am good at behaviour management but found I hated this aspect of supply as I was constantly dealing with rubbish behaviour. I am very adaptable,organised and resilient and can think on my feet.

Input- yes I know! I ve looked on and off for several years and everything is a dead end. I agree, budgets mean TAs are used for group work rather than teachers.

I agree jobs running educational programs in museums, zoos etc seem to be like gold dust. I guess it’s such a good job people don’t move.

I wanted to be a health visitor but you need to be a midwife first. I don’t want to train as one and wouldn’t want to do the shifts. There no longer seems to be any sort of fast track route to being one.

I am most interested in training in Speech and language therapy or child sociology. However, both require extensive training and are very academic. I am not an academic and although did ok at school had to work very hard for it. I don’t think I would qualify for a SLT course either. You needed to have studied in the last ten years (I graduated in 2003) and you need at least ABB at A levels. I got BBC. It’s so frustrating!

[MyHusbandMakesMeSoWet]

www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/pg-specific-learning-difficulties-dyslexia/

I think this might be my best bet. Personally I would like to do something more than one evening a week but with ds5 and dd2 anything more than a few days is not an option. Then once dd is at school in sept 2019 I could do the next qualification.

Not sure where this qualification would take me though. What I would do next?

This also interests me.

www.nct.org.uk/nct-college/work-opportunities/breastfeeding-counsellor

But again not sure where I d go with it? Would it really give me a recognised qualification and would it only allow me to get a job working for the NCT? That would be very restrictive.

I am lucky that I do have the money to be able to retrain in anything I like.

[Lowdoorinthewal1]

What about a job with Portage?

[MyHusbandMakesMeSoWet]

Let’s- is the first link any good for you? Don’t know what area you’re in but guess have equivalent courses elsewhere.

[Lowdoorinthewal1]

Prep schools all have learning support teachers and in my experience the job spec always specifies the dyslexia qualification- so you could aim at that?

[MyHusbandMakesMeSoWet]

Low- very interesting suggestion. Thank you. That could be perfect.

[Letseatgrandma]

Thank you for that. I have investigated it before but just don’t have £7000 to pay for it and my school wouldn’t pay :(

[cleomummy]

Apologies for my username. Just realised my dh, or not so d, has been messing around with my account.

[missmapp]

Are you sure you need to be a midwife before you can be a health visitor? A health visitor i work with said her previous job was in social care, she is quite young so I don't think she would have had time to train as a midwife prior to her current job, I might be wrong though.

[Redwineistasty]

Have you had a look at national parks or national trust?.... they often have education departments for when schools
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