Best route from TA to teacher?

[Dontreadtoomuchintothis]

I'm currently a Primary TA3 and, pre-COVID, was often used as PPA cover, absences etc.
I've made the decision (at 46!) to complete teacher training. I have a degree and relevant GCSE grades but am weighing up the best route for me. Ideally, I'd love to teach in my current school as colleagues and SLT are fantastic.
I'd love to hear from people who have made a similar move- give me some confidence to go for it please!

I'm a TA and in September will be starting my teacher training through a schools direct. It just made sense with the experience I already have as a ta to go through school based training rather than uni led. So I will have a base school for the majority of the school year and go to a contrasting key stage the first half term after Christmas. In school 4 days a week and uni one day a week.
Unfortunately, this year no schools in my local schools direct programme were offering the salaried route, but your headteacher might be interested in giving one for you?

:)

Thank you and best of luck for September.
I think I'll approach my Head with my plan and take it from there.

I do t known but I’m watching with interest! I’m a TA with my level 3, having picked this up after I had chilcdren. I also have GCSEs and a degree etc. Working in year 1 at present with a tricky cohort but I really love it - have done some cover work and PPA time when my teacher is unavailable.

Can’t really afford for me to be without my (admittedly lousy!) salary for a year, so I suspect full uni route is out!

Depending on how much experience you have you could ask your school about the assessment only route to QTS. Our school has put an HLTA through this and will again once the current one has her degree.

Or there is school direct salaried.

I think I wouldn't have enough teaching experience for assessment only, would love salaried training but guessing those places are rare.
Good luck to anyone else also looking to make the move

I am a TA and have an interview for teacher training on Thursday. Assuming I get in, I will train part time and spend 2 days as a TA, 3 days training - ultimately qualifying in December 2022.

I had planned to go down the salaried route and my headteacher was willing to support me, but sadly our SCITT provider is no longer offering the salaried route following the bursary cuts.

I'm doing the salaried route in September and they loved that I was already a TA! The government pulled the funding after applications had already opened this past autumn, but some schools are still doing it out of their own budget. But even the unsalaried option, you might be eligible for student finance. Have you got a Get Into Teaching adviser? Mine was so helpful! Good luck!!

@Dontreadtoomuchintothis

Thank you and best of luck for September. I think I'll approach my Head with my plan and take it from there.

Thank you! I can't wait, I'm so ready for it! Definitely! I expect your SLT would love for you to stay to do your training so will hopefully do all they can to help you with funding etc. I've managed to get a maintenance loan for September but its only £8000 odd, but I figure, it's only one year.

Good luck! Hope it all works out well for you! :)

It’s still cheaper for schools to pay for school direct salaried (your salary and tuition fees) than it is for them to employ a qualified teacher, and with salaried you don’t have to have a teacher with you all the time. It’s daunting but great preparation for the actual job.

It is doable - I was able to take a mortgage holiday for a year as the bank saw it as retraining, got a part time job in retail for my training year and don’t forget you count as a student so you get a discount on things like council tax.

Watching this with interest as I am thinking of doing the same.
In fact I have a meeting with my Head tomorrow!!
I am 49

@MumofSpud

Watching this with interest as I am thinking of doing the same. In fact I have a meeting with my Head tomorrow!! I am 49

Good luck with your meeting- let us know how it goes!

Hi, had my (short!) meeting and the head is on board with this!
She even suggested that I could do subjects that I do in my support role, I checked with the Gov helpline and they said this was possible too - it is up to the discretion of the school.
I thought the school had to follow the gov guidelines but it appears that the schools can decide for themselves as they know the trainee the best!

@MumofSpud

Hi, had my (short!) meeting and the head is on board with this! She even suggested that I could do subjects that I do in my support role, I checked with the Gov helpline and they said this was possible too - it is up to the discretion of the school. I thought the school had to follow the gov guidelines but it appears that the schools can decide for themselves as they know the trainee the best!

Delighted for you! Interesting to hear that schools can decide on best way of training too. I've got a call with a training advisor on Friday so hopefully will be able to speak to my Head next week. Thanks for coming back to let me know how your meeting went.

Look into TES Straight to Teaching. I'm currently doing it under similar circumstances.

I left a TA role to do a uni based PGCE (currently 8 weeks away from finishing!). It's been a hard year, and I'm coming to the conclusion that perhaps I would rather go back to a TA role with the lower pay but 'perks' of actually having weekends and evenings off. I would love to go back to the school I was in previously, I don't know if I would be feeling differently if I had trained in that school as I really loved it there, hope you get a training spot in your current school!