WIBU to take a year out before starting teacher training courses in 2017?

[RangeTesKopeks]

Hi everyone! :)

I'd really appreciate your advice or tips please! This is a bit of an AIBU and a WWYD.

I'm in the middle of applying for teacher training courses at the moment to start in September this year. I'm applying for a mixture of PGCEs and School Direct courses. School Direct is a course that lets trainee teachers work as an unqualified teacher at the same time as studying for a PGCE.

However, I've learned that applicants for teacher training courses aren't normally allowed to take a year out between applying and starting the course.

I'm applying to teach Modern Languages (French and Spanish) for the teacher training courses. However, I focussed on French in my final two years of my French and Spanish degree at university (including my Year Abroad).

Partly because I'd like to improve my Spanish and because I'd love to go travelling, I'm thinking about taking a year out before beginning a teacher training course. I'd like to travel from October to December this year before hopefully working as a language assistant in a Spanish school (from January to June next year). I would be reapplying from October this year for teacher training courses next year.

I'll be 24 and a half if I start the teacher training course this September, or 25 and a half if I start the course in September 2017.
I understand that age isn't necessarily an issue, but I would like to start a full-time job or training as soon as possible. This is also what my family and friends think, when I've told them about my plans to take a year out before starting a teacher training course in 2017.

I'd be really grateful if any of you could let me know what you think please! Do you think that it might be better for me to start a teacher training course this September or could I take a year out and reapply for September 2017?

Thanks everyone!!

Only 54% of MFL teacher training places were filled last year, and that's with a £25,000 bursary for a first or 2:1.

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/nearly-half-mfl-teacher-training-places-are-left-unfilled-ucas

Yes, you are, because this year you will be getting a £20,000 bursary as languages is a protected subject while next year that bursary won't be there.

Study this year, travel the next one

What do you mean the bursary won't be there next year?

Travel and use the time to consider an alternative career.

There are no suggestions that those bursaries are being discontinued memysonandi.

I don't know anything about the bursary question. However, there are too many foreign language teachers with inadequate knowledge of the language or experience of living and working in the foreign country, so from that point of view a year working in Spain would be fantastic preparation for teaching.

With the caveat that I'm not a teacher but that I have (weirdly, now I think on it) surrounded myself with them - lots of teacher friends, my husband is a teacher and from 23 to 26 I lived with a boyfriend who was a teacher at the time (though he's now left the profession):

There would be some logistical problems with taking a year out between the PGCE and starting work, as your plan would seem to make it hard to apply for jobs and attend interviews. Not insurmountable, but something to think about.

I have some friends who did Teach First, some straight after graduation, some after a few years in other careers. My husband did a PGCE in his late twenties after a few years in the city. A couple of thoughts from this:
I know people who have absolutely terrible Teach First experiences and others who got a lot out of it and are very glad they did it. I think you have to be really into the whole ethos of Teach First - it can be a bit culty - and have a real drive to work in a very challenging school. It doesn't seem to work well if you just want to be a teacher and see it as one possible route - you have to be into the idea of Teach First itself. Also, it probably is too late for that for next year now by some way.
The people I know who went into teaching a bit later - 27+ - all seem much happier than those who did it at 21. Of course you could say that's because they haven't had as much time to be miserable(!), but I think my husband is much happier than my friends who went straight into it after graduating were at four years in.

Again, this is second-hand (but quite closely observed) experience, so take it with the necessary salt.

Wow thanks everyone!! I really, really appreciate all of your replies and suggestions

At the moment my gut feeling is the same as a lot of the people who've posted so far. I'm so grateful for your ideas and help with this

I feel that if I take a year out from September this year to travel and to work in Spain, I won't regret it because it will mean (hopefully!) that I'll have lots of different experiences, be able to improve my Spanish and have lots of first-hand experience of living abroad that I can talk to my pupils about.

I remember in secondary school, my Spanish teacher had lived in Cuba for several months. Listening to him talk about his experiences there definitely inspired me to learn Spanish and made me understand the practical advantages of learning a language.

Edmund and PurpleDaisies, I have an offer already for a teaching course starting this September and am waiting to hear back from a couple more teaching courses after having interviews.

I'm just worried that if I reapplied to the same unis and training providers this year before going travelling, they would remember that I declined their offer the first time around and may not offer me a place the next time I apply (although of course there's no guarantee anyway that I would even get an offer the second time around!) I remember that I found the interview tests tricky this time around due to time constraints and because the questions obviously need to be fairly demanding.

I suppose next time at least, I may have a better idea of what to expect though in terms of what questions they may ask in the tests.

We had a TA last year who had a place on a teacher training course and deferred it for a year, so ask if that's an option rather than declining and reapplying.

Margaret I completely agree - I think that it would be very hard to have a sense of continuation and progress between the PGCE year and NQT year if I decide to go travelling between the PGCE and NQT year.

I also feel that once I begin work, I'll want to carry on working rather than suddenly leave work to go travelling for a year. I think it's partly because I haven't actually started working in teaching yet that makes the idea of travelling so attractive right now, because I haven't got any specific and pressing commitments now that would be holding back from going travelling. I think that once I start work, it'll definitely be a very different situation!

Ooh noblegiraffe that's a good idea! Sorry, just saw your post!

I initially thought that deferring an offer would be possible, but have since heard that it may not always be allowed. I'll definitely ask if I can, as it does sound like a good idea.

Apologies, Range! Thought you were only starting to apply now. I still believe you should take a gap year first though. Best of luck regardless!

The other good thing to remember is that you get 6 weeks summer holidays. Not quite the same as a year off but pre kids you could certainly enjoy a decent amount of travel for 6week blocks.

Six weeks is nothing like a year working/travelling! It might do a bit to refresh her Spanish but it's not going to really improve it in the way that living and working there would.

I've just emailed one of the training providers who have given me an offer to ask about their policy for deferring trainee teaching placements. Just waiting to hear back!

Sorry Desolate but I'm with Casual and Noble. Op - travel the world, use your languages and be 100% sure about teaching in this country.

I quite agree.
What I didn't think was so nice was saying that Teach First students are twats.

The OP asked if anyone had experience of Teach First. I have. I didn't know I was obliged to be "nice" about the people who chose to do it.

A family member was an MFL teacher with only one language (had studied another in first year of uni, so similar to you I think?) and he found it difficult to get posts/move around as most schools wanted two languages. So I think your plan is a good one.

YANBU to consider a year out, teaching is stressful and they are leaving in droves.
Have you observed a teacher in the type of school you would apply to?
before signing up you really want to find out what the role includes, there's very little actual teaching.

OP if you have already had a year out and a gap year after university I would urge you to start straight away once you have an offer. You can always take time out after qualifying.

You can always take time out after qualifying.

That's not usually very easy though. You'd be applying for jobs from abroad for a start. Once you've qualified it's definitely best to get a year or two under your belt before thinking of taking time out. The first year is hard enough without being rusty from not being in the classroom!

You can always take time out after qualifying.

She can, but I bet she won't. When I graduated aged 21 a few people went travelling; many, many more said they'd work for a few years then travel. Exactly one person (well, couple) did, and they got a lot of 'are you mad!'s. Realistically, putting it off now means a very strong chance of never doing it at all.

Also, if she feels her Spanish is too shaky to teach with now that means she won't want to teach it in her placement schools, which is going to have knock-on effects on her references and their ability to vouch for her as a dual linguist. I think this can matter - having already had A-level experience and references that spoke to that got my husband his first choice of job post-qualification.

Think of teaching as a five year or so job. Taking a year out first sounds good but if it leads to other jobs, grab it with both hands and dont look back

I took two years out before I started my PGCE. I don't think it was a bad thing, and probably helped because I was positive that it was I wanted to do. I agree it would be an advantageous thing to do in terms of your career and your confidence in Spanish to do a year there so I think you should do it, but yes, I would definitely aim to do it before your PGCE not in between your PGCE and your NQT year, which would be more difficult for interviews etc and you'd be less likely to do it at all when you're excited about getting your first job and/or offers start coming in.