Teaching as a career- how to prepare? -primary or secondary? etc etc?

[SlackSally]

Ok, this is a very big question and probably won't be easy (or even possible) to answer, but I guess there's no harm in asking.

I am in the middle of an English degree and after some thought about what one is actually supposed to do with such a degree, I've settled (I think) for trying my hand at teaching. This is due to many factors, a large one being that I personally remember several of the best teachers I had and would love to make that sort of difference to (a) child(ren)'s life.

What I want to know is: how should I prepare for this plan in advance of applying to do a PGCE? I'm pretty sure some kind of experience of the classroom would be essential. Would it matter what kind of teaching experience I gained in relation to what I ended up doing? eg. If I volunteered in a primary school, would that be any help in going on to be a secondary teacher, or vice versa? What else can I do to boost my chances of getting a PGCE place/becoming a decent teacher?

My biggest question is whether to go for primary or secondary. Obviously, one is not inherently 'better' than the other and it's hard to know how to advise someone else, but if anyone could give me the pros and cons of each ( to their minds) that would be a great help. I'm leaning toward primary, but have been told by some that most primary school teachers do teaching as a degree, and are better prepared for the pastoral side of teaching younger children, as opposed to having the subject specific knowledge of someone with an ordinary degree in something. Is this true? Or a load of guff?

Sorry about the question bombardment, but I'm only in the early stages of researching what I might need to do and any advice from the wise owls of MN would be a massive help. Thanks a lot in advance.

Thank you very much, Countrylass, for taking the time to give your thoughts. Don't worry about sounding off-putting. It'd be pretty pointless if everyone replied 'teaching is great, there's nothing bad about it and I enjoy every second of my job', wouldn't it?

You sound quite like me (specialising in English, hopefully getting a good classification, having people possibly doubt your decision), which is encouraging, mostly. You say that from the people on your course, many failed to get a job quickly. While I realise you weren't the one who interviewed any of them, do you have any idea as to why those didn't, while others did? Was it generally those who were 'better' on the course? Or those who could be more flexible? Or those who 'knew' people? I'd love to think jobs are allocated purely on a meritocratic basis, but I realise this is often not the case. I really am torn between primary and secondary, so I'm going to try my hardest to get some experience in both. How easy did you (or anyone) find this? Would I just be able to ring up a school and offer to come in? Presumably they'd need some sort of CRB check? And how much experience? I guess the more, the better, but with uni, job, etc etc I won't have masses of time to use.

Hi slacksally

Most schools will bite your hand off if you offer to volunteer. You will need a CRB and it's best to sort this asap as they can take several weeks to sort.

With regards to jobs - aaaah - what a tricky one! The difficulty in getting jobs lies with the fact that there is simply not enough jobs and too many teachers being trained. You may remember a few years back that there was a real drive to recruit teachers with the offer of better financial incentives. This DID encourage people and teaching has just become so much more competitive. To give you examples - my ITT provider (UEA) had 180 places and approx. 800 people to choose from just for training. The government seem to finally have taken ownership of the problem; this academic year, UEA have halved their intake to try and combat the problem that so many people cannot get jobs.

These are the factors that (in my experience) will maximise your chances:

• being male -being under 30
• being prepared to move for the jobs or, at the least, accept jobs which may involve commuting
• at secondary - specialising in science and languages, unfortunately English is not a shortage subject
• living in the 'right' area; there are still some areas which need teachers - inner London certainly, not sure about the others.
• knowing the right person

Having said all that, it is obviously possible to be a 40 year old female who lives in an area with no shortage of teachers and who doesn't know anybody at the school to be offered a job! I'm just saying that this is not easy or common in some areas. I was 'lucky' in that I got offered a job by my placement school as did some of my friends. If you really want to do it, don't let all of the above put you off, but please don't assume that there are loads of permanent teaching jobs within your community. Also, grades don't really count for much - the PGCE comes with a Pass/Fail grade and thats it. Employers won't know your assignment/teaching grades, only that you've been awarded qualified teacher status.

With regards to experience, most ITT providers require at least a couple of weeks. This could be all at once, or perhaps an afternoon a week for several months.

Let me know if you need any more info.
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