Teaching another subject

[LiamRose]

Hi MN,

I'm currently a secondary English teacher and love my job. My department are second to none and my HoD/SLT are incredibly supportive.

A job has come up at my school in another subject, as MAT cover, for a year. It's a subject I feel I could confidently teach due to the versatility of my degrees and one that I have been drawn to. I don't want to stop being an English teacher, long term, as I love the subject and teaching it. I would, however, like to gain experience in this other subject whilst I have the opportunity. This MAT cover role is ideal as I could teach the subject for a year, then return to English.

I was wondering, is it possible to take a MAT cover role at the same school you are currently working at, then return to your old role when it ends? I know they would have to replace me for a year, so I'm not sure if it could work or not. It would essentially be a secondment. I'd also like to discuss the role in more detail as I'd want to keep my current GCSE classes and take them through the Y11 (which is usual practice at the school; I feel a sort of, I've started now, I don't want to disrupt the continuity of the course for the students), whereas the role being advertised is full-time.

How would I go about approaching my HoD to discuss the possibility/express that I am interested. Although the new subject is not directly line managed by my current HoD, she the new subject falls in the wider English Faculty that she leads.

I hope this makes sense!

Thanks,

LR

Interesting. I don’t have an answer. I can see a problem for the school in that you are not proposing a straight swap for the year which means replacing you will require someone who can teach more than one subject? There may be some slack in the timetable to compensate but that looks like a potential sticking point to me. Your HOD may have an idea of what other people in school can do so some juggling might make it possible.

Can you argue your gaining experience in this other subject would develop extra depth to your English teaching - I guess if it were drama, that would be reasonable. More difficult if it’s geography, I guess.

I think it will depend on how supportive your HOD is, ultimately. You can ask hypothetically?

Thanks for your reply! You're right that it wouldn't be a swap; both my role and the MAT one are full-time, so they'd have to fill my hours for the year. I can see why this could be a problem.

Thanks for the advice re: explaining how doing this would benefit my practice in English. You're right about putting it to her, hypothetically. The worst that she can say is no, it wouldn't work.

Thanks again,

lr

I think the sticking point is getting the cover in for you. I teach English but do not have a A level in it even, just picked up a class initially because there was s need in the timetable and then it just became full time. So I would make known your interest in that other subject snd you may well be able to worm your way in gradually when they see you are good at the job.

You can ask. Obviously the main thing would be that they'd then need to get maternity cover in English instead of the other subject. There might be complications if the original teacher returns before the full year is up.
Keeping your year 11 classes sounds sensible, but then they would need a maternity cover who can do a bit of the other subject as well as English, to make the numbers balance up. It might also be trickier to timetable.
Definitely worth an ask, particularly if it's a common pairing such as drama. If it's not, there may be solutions around - for instance, there may be an SLT member who would be happy to pick up a bit of the other subject, or some other shuffle around.