Do you/would you work in a private school?

[Teaandtoastie]

I’ve always worked in state schools and am personally not in favour of selective education. However... I’m a single parent and my fixed term contract is ending in July. A permanent job had come up in a local independent school. Exactly my subject specialism, plus A Level teaching, which is something I’ve always wanted to do (did it on pgce but none since)

Part of me feels it would be betraying my personal feelings about selective education to apply. On the other hand, I need a job, it’s local, and in terms of career development it would be great. I tell myself I wouldn’t have to stay forever... but would it be harder to go back to state from a private school?

Personally, I think only you can make that call. I am not in favour of the private school system and couldn't imagine opting to work in one however if I needed a job and others weren't available, I'd go for it in order to keep my family afloat.

I’d be wary of being expected to be in school for many evenings and weekends doing all the extras they want you to muck in with.

I don't think so, as I have heard you are expected to work Saturdays/weekends/overnight and I would struggle with childcare.

But this is based on my research of two people!

Hmm, it never occurred to me about weekends- I wouldn’t be able to do that! Evenings not a problem for parents eve etc but not as a regular thing. Hmm, all things to ask at the interview, if I even decide to apply!

I had school on Saturday mornings at private school & I know if others that still do.

We also had teachers around over the weekends as it was a boarding school. We used to have teacher supervised homework in the evenings too.

Not a teacher, but I do know that one thing you need to check is what pension scheme you can have there, and if still TPS if they expect it to remain available for the foreseeable (say until 2022 when next GE due)

Working on-site until well into the evening is pretty much standard. Weekends you might escape unless you offer a sport and therefore have fixtures to cover.

I was very like you - I'm borderline socialist - but I had a choice of no job or private school (I moved to the US and would have had to get a teacher's license to even look for jobs in state schools).

I've actually found it far easier than I expected, for various reasons:

1. A job's a job, I need to work and had no choice.
2. The school I'm at has 10% of students on assisted places and wants to increase that massively (target of 30% eventually) because the board/head are committed to financial diversity.
3. It IS a much 'nicer' teaching environment. My last school in the UK was on special measures soon after I left so being somewhere with enough staff/funding, proper prep time, small class sizes etc makes my life nicer.
4. I am far more effective as a teacher here, and get real job satisfaction. I work just as many hours, but I'm not constantly chasing my tail.
5. The school is really committed to equity & diversity. We are given huge amounts of time to go to conferences on these issues, teach about them, plan our curriculum around them etc. It's one of the 4 main 'pillars' of the school's strategic plan.
6. If anyone is going to teach the next generation of business and political leaders, I'd rather it was me than someone who loved the idea of firmly entrenched class boundaries.

There are times when the attitude of some families really annoys me. There can be moments when their money & privilege come shining through. But for every one of those moments, there are countless ones of colleagues who support me to work on diversity, parents who appreciate the work, and are fully supporting the school's diversity work, and pupils who actually engage with the learning and really 'spark joy' in me.

So I think it would depend what kind of school it is.

I kind of fell into the job (a friend of a friend was going on mat leave and they needed someone mid-year just as I was looking for work, then they kept me on), and would never have looked at a private school. But, now that I'm here, I am quite happy here. I've been here 7 years so have had plenty of time to adjust and think about this.

I took a job in a private school after returning from overseas a couple of years ago. I don't even think about it - it's just a job and all children deserve an education - even wealthy ones! They deserve as good an experience as everyone else so I teach them With the same passion I did in state and I don't consider their background.

I would. Especially if the job fitted my skill set as closely as this one does yours. Children are children, and you may find a whole slew of different needs that are as desperate as any state school, despite the education being private. Go for it.

Switching to the independent sector was the best decision of my career. Having tried leadership previously, I'm now "just" a teacher with no responsibility other than that of my classes and my tutees. I took a small pay cut but am still paid above M6.

For the first time in my life, I love my job.

I worked in state, then indie, then went back to state because of a location move. I am now not a teacher at all, which speaks volumes. The indie was lovely, I was paid more than the equivalent main scale point, still in TPS, no Saturdays and HoDs etc are there to fence with the parents (weren't many and 1/3 of kids on a scholarship from a trust, or sporting foundation paid). Worth going for an interview. I didn't remotely grow up in any environment where I could have gone to private school, but I did enjoy the job as I got to teach and not behaviour-wrangle.

Love working in indie. It entirely depends on the school as to what is expected re weekends and evenings.. My old school was a day school. Finished at 4 and as I didn't manage a sports team had no Saturday commitments. Current school is boarding so a couple of Sundays a year and about 6-8 boarding duties til 10.30.

Smaller classes means less marking, generally far fewer behaviour problems etc. My particular school is non selective which I really like.. Kids who are weak academically get to learn in classes of 12-14 and we set for ability so you can do some really focused work with small, low ability groups. Would never go back to state.

I moved to an independent school this year after 20+ years in state schools. It is a breath of fresh air. I don't have to do any more evenings than I used to, and certainly not weekends. I never thought that I'd choose to work there but I absolutely made the right choice.