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Secondary teacher to Primary LSA

8 replies

VenetoResident · 02/09/2020 11:19

I have a meeting with a school next week regarding potential LSA supply work.

Any tips? I'm a qualified secondary science teacher. Would that be a positive or negative for you as a primary school class teacher?

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VenetoResident · 03/09/2020 18:25

Bump...

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Aragog · 03/09/2020 21:24

I did a while back - over ten years ago now.

Was a computer studies teacher at secondary and I am now a hlta at an infant school. I started as an LSA and was promoted.m after a couple of years or so.

I love my job.

It's not great pay, and I still work long hours which I'm not paid for. Over lockdown, because of my subject specialism mainly, I was working incredibly long hours overseeing all of our home learning for example.

I spend much of my time teaching classes, covering PPA cover these days but initially I was in the classroom supporting small groups and individuals, and working alongside the teacher.

So long as you don't mind the big pay cut it can be great and really rewarding working with the children.

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Useruseruserusee · 03/09/2020 21:25

Hi OP, I’m an Assistant Head in a primary school. Schools will always appreciate you being a qualified teacher and we have a few LSAs who have chosen to step back from teaching positions for various reasons.

Do you know what age group you would be working with? Upper KS2 wouldn’t be much of a jump for you but EYFS or KS1 would feel very different to what you are used to.

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VenetoResident · 04/09/2020 05:55

Thanks for your replies :)

Don't know what age group yet. I did outreach work at my last school with Y5/6 and as you say they didn't feel that different to Y7.

Pay is not an issue at the moment, but I do need to not be working evenings and weekends in return for the drop in pay. Teaching swallowed my life (although I absolutely loved the job). I dread to think what my hourly rate really was!

Aragog - like you I have an additional skill set that could be exploited. It was one of my TLRs in my last school.

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Meredusoleil · 05/09/2020 15:16

Can I suggest you drop hours to part time rather than change from a teacher to an LSA?

That's what I first did. Went down to 3 days per week in secondary. Then managed to switch to primary whilst still maintaining part time hours and teacher pay.

I won't lie to you, going from teaching A level students to Reception or even KS1 is a massive change 😳 and although physically more challenging than mentally, it is so worth it!

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VenetoResident · 05/09/2020 18:39

Unfortunately secondary teaching isn't an option where I am.

Maybe I could move to primary teaching with some more experience?

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Meredusoleil · 05/09/2020 19:33

@VenetoResident

Unfortunately secondary teaching isn't an option where I am.

Maybe I could move to primary teaching with some more experience?

Are you not in the UK?

I moved straight across from secondary to primary without any experience. They were just happy I have QTS!

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VenetoResident · 05/09/2020 22:20

No I'm overseas. I'm limited in the schools I can work at because the term dates of the school my children attend differ wildly to the term dates of all the other international schools in driving distance.