Advice about teaching

[Kat2341]

Hi, I’m looking for some advice about pursuing a career in teaching.

I think that I would really like to teach English at secondary school level both because it is a subject that interests me and there seems to be more chance of securing employment in my local area. However, my degree is in law and I do not have A Levels in English. So my question is what further education/training could I undertake to qualify for both the relevant teacher training and subsequent job vacancies? Would a masters in English be sufficient? Are there any alternative (less expensive) qualifications that I could do? I work so would be looking to study part time preferably distance learning. If I do decide to retrain as a teacher I’d be looking to do it in about 8/9 years time - when my children are older.

Thanks in advance.

OP, why not try studying for the A-Level yourself next year?

As fas as AQA goes, I would say the SPAG is a bit loose but tends to focus on things like the student's use of different sentence types and lengths and the agreement of verbs : so the accuracy, fluency and cohesion of their own writing. Yes, you can specifically teach this to top end staudents : and they often enjoy it. But I don't think you have to. the revision guide I bought early doors which has pages on this kind of thing is the one I have never used.

I feel like when the change started some exam boards went a bit OTT but inreality very lttle really changed in terms of writing skills. The lit was the bigger change. So, I guess I go back to my original idea that you need a love of literature : and, yes, you can have that with a Law degree , I am sure, but I think not having done English in any form at A level would make for an unusual English teacher.

I have English, French and German so grammar city!!

Piggywaspushed (Love your user name by the way) Yes, I think a love of literature (and a passion for language generally) is essential. When I dont see that in a trainee, I feel so sad. Law degree lady does have A'Level lit. and simply by chatting to her, you can feel her genuine appreciation for literature.

Ah yes: poor poor Piggy

I know three English teachers without English degrees: they have Fine Art, Philosophy and Classics. I think they all have an A Level though.

Agree about the age thing. I am 39 and I am the fourth eldest in my department of 15.

I'm an English teacher with no a level or degree level qualification- but Mfl. I've got all that I need for grammar/ lit analysis, but pick up what I needed for individual texts as I go along.

The biggest area I've needed to pick up expertise is the detail, theoretical and practical, of how do teach reading, spelling and sentence structure. A degree and a pgce don't prepare you for that anyway apparently, based on what my colleagues seem to know!

My experience wrt are are similar. There are 4 of us around the 40 mark- everyone else is younger. Nobody seems to get to retirement age