Where to go next - teacher to .....

[SarfE4sticated]

Hi all, hope you are well, and thanks for taking the time to read this. I know you are madly busy and tired, so I appreciate it.

Background - I am middle aged career changer from publishing to teaching two years ago. DId my PGCE, got first job, got to January and basically had a nervous breakdown. Pressure was too much for me and the hours were crazy - 65hrs a week, had a terrible observation and was told I needed to do even more, I just couldn't hack it. Completely lost my confidence and vowed to never go back. Signed off by doctor, left and have spent the last 5 months freelancing for publishing companies. Had the genius idea of getting into education publishing, but no jobs around at moment, and seems impossible to make the transition over.
I have been doing volunteer reading at a local primary school, and absolutely love it. I love doing interventions, planning sessions and small group work, and really enjoy being in schools. I have been offered a job working for my previous publishing company, and am panicking a bit at the thought of going back.

So, my question is:
Is there a, NQT-suitable position in a school, where you actually get paid for doing interventions for children who struggle with reading, literacy, maths etc? Could be paid working for an external agency?
Any thoughts?
Thanks again

Primary schools tend to use TAs for that sort of thing. You could become a TA but it would be a substantial pay cut.

Yes I was going to say the same, sounds like a TA role which would be a substantial paycut for an experienced teacher but maybe not so much for an NQT. Much less pressure and 8/830-330-4 hours.

I am a TA and that is exactly what I do! Most of the time, I love it. You would be very lucky to be paid teacher rates to do it though - my school has cut the number of TAs and those of us left have ever-increasing responsibilities and workloads. Primary schools just don’t have the money to pay teachers for anything less than teaching whole classes.

Yes, I did wonder that! TA money is too low for me though sadly.
I have seen a vacancy for an HLTA which paid pretty well (surprisingly) but there was quite a lot of PPA cover in the JD. I did a placement at a school where they had an ex-teacher who ran reading interventions, but I think that that school is probably the exception.
I guess I will just have to get an office job, and try to do a few hours a week as a volunteer reader.

Two suggestions:

1. Could you volunteer in a special school, then if you like it apply for a teaching post when one comes up?

1. There are few jobs as you describe for teachers and when the cuts come found, they are often the first posts to go. This makes schools reluctant to appoint permanent staff as they may be in the situation of making them redundant a year or two down the line. A supply agency, may be able to find you something suitable on a fixed-term contract.

Good luck whatever you decide. If you go back to the office job, bear in mind that some companies have community schemes where they sign up employees to volunteer in schools.

What about twinkl??
They are often looking for people to work for them as content creators. It’s not education publishing per se but a different avenue to look at perhaps.
They have some work from home opportunities in their website.

Another company I know of is Action Tutoring. We used their company to provide Maths booster sessions for our Y6’s. The tutors themselves are volunteers but they do recruit for volunteer co-ordinators and scheme creators.
Might be a couple of ideas to look into

Oooh CaptainFlash what a great idea. I have looked at Twinkle at most of the jobs seem to be based in Sheffield, but I'll contact them.

Newname that's a really good idea about the supply agency, I'll call a few tomorrow.

Thanks so much all!

Secondary schools need people to work with weak Y7s - we often don't have TAs to do it. We just don't have enough of them. Might be worth seeing if there's a local demand.

The school I am in employs specialist EAL teachers who run interventions throughout the primary and secondary schools. The pay is the same as a class teacher but you can be asked to cover for absent teachers and tend to have more lunch duties.

I'm in schools HR and was actually having the conversation with a head who had, had a large number of ex teachers applying for TA role. She didn't Shirly at any of them. It's not often seen as a good thing a qualified teacher looking to be a TA (unless it's at the end of their career and they are looking to wind down before retirement). There are many reasons for this but some are - they are seen as failed teachers and heads feel they might not work with/for the teacher and might try and take over.

Is it primary or secondary you want to teach in?

Our secondary schools have positions called Learning Mentors. Paid at same rate as TA3 but we have one who did her teacher training but realised it wasn't for her.

Just some of my experience though, all schools are different.

Hello pinkprincess thanks for your insight, it all makes sense. I will have a look at Learning Mentor jobs and see what I can find. I trained in primary but would happily work in secondary too if something came up. Cynderella your suggestion was really interesting, I'm really interested in EAL.
One of the other schools I trained in had a member of staff who would do preteaching with some children, just to get them equipped and confident for Maths and English. The head used to do it actually which showed how seriously they took it.
You have given me lots of food for thought, thanks everyone.