Could I get a job in a prep school?!

[ramesesthegreat]

Just been looking at the websites of a few private primary schools around here, and noticed that many of the teaching staff don't have a PGCE or QTS, just a BA/BSc/B.ed. This made me wonder if I would actually be employable as a teacher in the private sector! I'd never considered it before, but I work freelance in an education-related area and would quite like to find something more stable, so it just piqued my interest.
I have an MA (distinction) and a BA Hons, both from a RG university, both in English. Have a CELTA too. Despite having no PGCE or QTS, would I be employable, do you think? I know teaching is a hard job, etc. and don't worry - am not about to pack in my current job on a whim. I'm just curious really :)

It's not impossible you could work in the independent sector. I've often seen ads where it's not a requirement to have QTS. Not sure about Prep vs Senior as Prep teachers often teach more than one subject?

I think most prep schools would expect an English teacher to have a teaching qualification.

However, there is a high demand for TESOL teaching in prep schools, especially if they attract a lot of, eg, Chinese students

Hmm, interesting! Thanks.

Just to say that a B.Ed degree includes QTS, which us why teachers with that qualification don't require a PGCE as they've spent their 3 or 4 year degree training to be a teacher.

I didn't realize that, thanks!

Well teaching experience is generally a prerequisite. One would hardly just stick someone with no experience into a class room with 15 four your olds and expect them to know what to do. Honestly I would imagine that it is easier to come into a public school without school teaching experience than a prep school. Maybe of the candidate specialised in something like classics and only taught the older years it could work? I'm not really sure what qualifications the teachers at my sons school have but they are all very qualified and really skilled. The ones that I have talked to have had experience in both the state a private sector. They're really amazing really, I don't think I could ever do what they do. Not because I don't want to but because I genuinely think it's beyond me

You don’t need any teaching qualifications to teach in state academies.

I work in a private prep and a teaching qualification is imperative

I would say so, avo.

It’s a Mumsnet thing that independent school teachers are unqualified, though. People who know nothing about the independent sector love to spout this.

IME, independent schools are definitely looking for qualified teachers, people who have invested in their careers.

You could do Teach First (if that's still the name, it was the graduate teacher programme when I did it) and gain QTS in a year while teaching on the unqualified scale.

You can do that in a state school as long as you have a 2:1 or a first in an in demand subject. Masters a bonus. When I did it I got extra points on the unqualified scale for an MSc. and TEFL qualifications and experience. The pay was only about thousand and change less than I got in the induction year following the award of QTS.

You could do that. I wouldn't recommend it tbh. It's possible though.

You can do school direct training and get paid on the job but the salaried places are few and far between and are, in reality, often offered to people with an existing link with the relevant school e.g. a TA who wants to become a teacher may be given a salaried Schools Direct place at their school. Beware of this as all the salaried places are advertised on UCAS as if they were open to all - and technically they are - but many of them have, in effect, been pre-allocated by the schools offering them.

www.teachfirst.org.uk/our-programme/about-the-programme/structure 2 year programme - earning all the way through. QTS in the first year while teaching on the unqualified scale, PGDE (diploma not certificate) during your NQT induction year. Then you can teach in any school and haven't taken time out of earning or taken out a loan.

When I did it it was bloody hard though, and you had to chase the support and training down. My main school would have been happy to let me sink or swim entirely unsupported if I hadn't demanded to be observed, chased up mentoring meetings and in service training, stood my ground about time off timetable to shadow lead teachers etc. To be honest there was more support during the NQT year than the first baptism of fire year. Absolutely only possible if you have a very thick skin and are resilient and self motivated.

Teach First is about committing to schools in deprived areas. That is hardly private prep!

Teach First and Schools Direct are different programmes. The first is about getting people with ‘leadership potential’ into schools which struggle to recruit. They are trained on the job, well paid but as pp said it is very hard work, poorly regulated in terms of the support you receive and has a huge drop out rate. Salaried School Direct is overseen by universities but managed by a lead school which must be judged outstanding by Ofsted and is a lot less brutal but, as per my previous post, is very difficult to get into if you don’t already have a link with a school who are interested in getting you trained up- it is the successor to the old GTP in house training route.

SIL is head of drama for a relatively well known private school. She has a degree in English and drama but no PGCE and is not a qualified teacher. She’s not the only one of her colleagues to not have QTS either. So it’s not just a ‘mumsnet thing’. Although she’s been there a long time and has said that things are stricter now and if she wants to leave she’ll struggle unless she gets qualified first.

Is it really the case that salaried schools direct places go to people already in the school?!

I got my first teaching job in the independent sector (senior, not prep) with no teaching qualifications or classroom experience. I had a 1st class degree from a top uni and had worked in industry for a few years and then done a bit of tutoring (adults).

This was about 10 years ago and it was an excellent school. It was a niche subject but there were others teaching, for example, MFL or the sciences in the same boat. The school actively recruited some staff straight from Oxbridge with the promise of doing their GTP once in the job. I had some issues finding a GTP because it was a niche subject so taught for one year without training, completed my second year while doing my PGCE (school allowed me to attend however many uni days and complete a school placement at 2 local schools), and then did my NQT year.

It worked really well for me and I have moved on in my career without difficulty.

The school would not recruit lots of staff this way and the vast majority had taken a traditional route into teaching, with a few of us doing GTP (or in my case, PGCE) and a handful of older staff who had been there forever and did not hold teaching certs of any kind. This was in a staff of about 100 teachers.

I don't think it's the norm but neither is it unheard of. The school was very supportive of my training but there was very much a 'sink or swim' element to it. A few years later, having had a few of us do very well following this route, they had a terrible year where 2 of the 4 new unqualified staff just sank and were out the door by October half term!

We would employ someone unqualified (but probably train them up) for certain roles, e.g. music teacher, games teacher, Latin teacher TA if that person was better than the other candidates or had more potential. But for core subjects a teaching qualification would be a must, but not necessarily QTS.