Promotion - do I want it?

[MsDragons]

There is the opportunity for me to go for a TLR for working with student teachers, NQTs, etc as well as being responsible for delivering some INSET to the staff at a large, outstanding secondary school.

I'm currently a normal classroom teacher with 10 years experience, rated outstanding in the last few observations I've had done. I'm happy where i am, comfortable with what I'm doing, happy with my work-life balance, we don't really need the extra money, and if we did I think it'd be easier to get it by doing a couple of hours of private tuition a week or doing some exam marking. I sort of think I should be going for some sort of promotion though, and since our staff turnover is low the promotion options are few and far between at our school, and I think I could be good at it.

So do I go for it? Is the extra money worth the extra hassle/stress/paperwork? The deadline is Monday, so i need to make a decision now about whether to apply or not.

I'm in a similar position wrt a 2nd in Dept role. It's not especially a job I want, but I think I could deliver competently.

It's also a consideration that the extra money might give us more flexibility for dh to look for something that doesn't take him away from home 2-3 nights a week!

I'm currently discussing with HOD whether doing it for a year or two & then standing down for a hypothetical bright young thing who came along might be an option.

On balance I'd probably say go for it, but it's not a straightforward decision, I know!

Thanks for your reply.

I'm still undecided, part of me thinks I should go for it as a new challenge, the other part of me thinks it's a whole load of work that I just cba to do, I can barely bring myself to write an application letter. And then, what if I do go for it, while being quite ambivalent about it, and then don't get it? There are over 100 teachers at our school, it's pretty arrogant to think I'd be the absolute best person for the job. ARRGH! I wish I loved the idea of this job, or hated it, so I could have a clear answer.

If you're really undecided, apply for it and buy yourself some more time to think. You are free to pull out of the process at any point.

Make your decision if/when they offer you the job.

It does sound like an interesting post, though.

I've asked for more information, spoken to the person who is currently doing the role about what it entails, now I'm about to spend the weekend thinking hard about it and deciding whether I really want to do the extra work (the woman doing the job atm said it can take up quite a lot of time, way more than the extra frees she's got in order to do it). It does sound interesting though. I'm more tempted now than I was last night.

I did this for a la, would love this job in school. Go for it and see what happens.

If you're going to stay in teaching it's a long road till retirement and you never know who you're going to be managed by - they might be great or they might be a massive knob jockey. So try and get up the ladder.

I'd say go for it - it sounds like a rewarding and fun job.

I've applied. Interviews will be next week some time I think. We'll see what happens, I'm still not quite convinced I want it, but I won't know unless I apply and give it a go.

I agree that there are great managers and massive knob jockeys around, I've had a couple of each in my 10 years so far. My current managers are pretty good imo. I'm not convinced I want to go too far up the ladder, the bit of my job I enjoy is the classroom teaching, and the further up the ladder you get the less time you spend in the classroom.

I really liked having this role, however if you do decide to accept it, make sure it comes with a chunk of time. Ultimately, from what you've written, that is your key concern - you'd be up for the challenge, but don't want additional workload. The only way to achieve that is making sure you get time.

I was given 2 hours and it didn't cut it at all. I had to obs everyone in my care as NQT and ITT co-ordinator. We had 9 NQTs and 11 student teachers. It was crazy. I also had to write up quite long termly reports to LEA for NQTs (our school was academy but still used LEA process for this aspect of the job). I also led the induction programme and the weekly NQT training after school. This did involve a bit of falling out with some HODs who wanted their staff for other things. I was still teaching a 19 hour week of mainly GCSE and A Level groups in English.

It is quite a big job deserving of proper time. They will all have departmental mentors, but the responsibility for signing them off and dealing with any issues (and there are always issues) will be with you.

It is a good job to do in school and there are possibilities beyond school - you will be out at uni training sessions and possibly interviewing for new PGCE too depending on how involved you want to be.

I was in a very similar school - large outstanding academy.