A/N teachers - NCT - please advise!

[katepol]

Bit late, so will bump tomorrow, but has anyone started the A?N teaching diploma without being involved with their local branch first? Does it matter or is it frowned upon! Ta.

[SueW]

Never too early to get th ball rolling. Lots of tutors don't do tutorials in August so you'd want to be signed up by July to start Sept. And you may have to wait for a place.

I thought the most challenging thing would be speaking in front of groups of people. I'd done this in the past but was always a bit nervous to start with. The other thing I thought would be hard was reading and understanding research.

As it happened, my daughter became very ill with something very rare about a week after I was accepted for training. It took a couple of months to find out what it was and when we did, I spent night and day finding and reading research and making decisions based on what I'd read and talking to her consultant. Every cloud has a silver lining.

In fact, the most challenging part was that the course is so flexible. I would really rather have had very strict deadlines which forced me to hand in work even if it wasn't what I considered perfect, iyswim. There were some modules I loathed such a 'Special Situations', usually referred to as The Grief Essay, which looks at your own experience of grief and the support of new parents who may have unexpected outcomes. Flexible deadlines meant I could procrastinate forever on that!

[katepol]

Thanks again Sue. I am looking to start in Sept time, do you think it is too early to start the ball rolling now re getting in touch with a tutor? How long does the admin/funding process take?

Also, what was the biggest challenge for you doing the course? Thought I would ask an easy question to start off with lol!

[SueW]

As long as you sign up within the next 11 months or so you can 'officially' pick my brains - and those of hundreds of other trainees and newly qualified on the students' egroup (newly-qualified last one year, I think, then we have to leave the student list) You can access the experience of even more experienced teachers on the teachers' egroup.

I would contact a tutor and take it from there. Committees come and go and you may find that you find a couple of people you slot right in with. Or you may find something you want to offer in the branch as a new service which slots in nicely with your training e.g. a branch/class liaison (popping along to classes and telling people what's on offer in the branch, maybe arranging the occasional postnatal coffee for class groups to encourage them to meet up).

Good luck.

[katepol]

Thanks very much Sue, for your advice and offer .

I am expecting to get involved in my branch once training is underway, but short of writing a few articles for the newsletter a few years ago, and going to one meeting last year after which no one contacted me ever again, despite being put on the general committee, my contact with the branch so far has been minimal.

I haven't found them to be especially welcoming tbh. I know it is up to me to be pro-active, but it is hard enough going to a meeting where everyone else is chatting together and ignoring you, let alone chasing them afterwards when no one even lets you know the date of the next meeting or distributes the minutes...

I really do want to train, and don't want the attitude of the current committee to put me off, so am thinking about just contacting a tutor before officially speaking to the branch. Is that so unusual do you think?

I was going to help out with the admin at the last NNS, but they only wanted volunteers on the day and I had a previous commitment.

Lovely to hear from a newly trained teacher though. I hope I have the opportunity to pick your brains in a few months or so!

[SueW]

You can start the diploma without having been involved in your branch.

However

• it is likely that your tutor would prefer to see you have some involvement with the branch so that you are aware of what the NCT is doing locally and how they support new parents. It also helps you to feel more comfortable promoting NCT in your classes and referring your class members on to the local services. Some branches also have a volunteer who will come into your classes and ease the transition from antenatal to postnatal by arranging postnatal coffees, etc so it helps if you have a relationship with them.

• unless you are self-financing 100%, the volunteers in your branch will be funding 80% of your training costs by running Nearly New Sales and various other fundraising events so it's kinda polite to show your face from time to time!

My local branch asks that everyone get involved in some way in our NNS at least. It doesn't have to be on the day but can be in advance by simply logging into a phone system and taking down messages or counting labels into bags of 25 which is easy to do even if you are a SAHM with an absent OH or a single mum and a child/children that barely sleep(s) (in which case I would prob recommend putting off the diploma for a while!)

Do feel free to ask questions if you need. I have just qualified and there are lots of other trainees/recently-qualified on here.