Does anyone work in a British online school?

[Madrescuechicken]

By online school, I don’t mean a TEFL tutor, but someone with QTS who actually works at a British online school like Kings Interhigh or Minerva? I’m a qualified teacher who is really interested in pursuing this as a potential career move and would love to find out more. I’ve looked online, but that’s never the same as hearing from someone who actually does it for a living.

Anyone.... please....

Yes I do. One of the ones you will have heard of. What do you want to know? I'll answer what teachers usually ask...

In general - my school is very much like real school, workload is high and there is all the usual admin alongside the actual teaching - which can be intense on a screen on a full timetable. A huge benefit is not having to deal with any significant behavioural issues. And working from home is life changing. Salaries tend to be below scale but they are improving as the sector grows with more competition and when you factor in lack of commuting costs and wrap round care (my lessons are all during my own DDs school hours and I can do marking/admin when they are home) take home pay may not be all that different. Pension and sick pay aren't great, some schools won't offer any if you are a self employed contractor - but you aren't catching as many germs and it's a lot more manageable to get through a day slightly under the weather from home.

I recommend it if you've already got a good number of years' real life experience. I wouldn't for young or new teachers as I think you need that pedagogical experience alongside children and colleagues first.

Some job ads are on TES - but they don't have a filter for remote so you need to set up alerts for each school - Kings Interhigh, Minerva Virtual Academy, Sophia High School, Academy 21, TCES, Highgrove Education, Wendover Online School. Not all jobs are on TES - follow all of the above on LinkedIn too - both for ads and to see what they are doing. Some directly employ staff, others do contracts for self employed - pros and cons of both. I do wonder if the recent budget will encourage more of the latter...

Finally - there is now a formal DfE accreditation process for online schools called OEAS - it's worth having a read of the Ofsted reports - not many schools have it yet but several of the ones I listed above have or will be in the process of applying and getting inspected.

Anything else?

I have been working for one of the big online schools for a few years now.
Like most teachers, I was thoroughly fed up with working in a bricks-and-mortar school, and this was my last shot at staying in teaching.
@onlineteacher has described it really well. I like my job and would never go back to a “real” school, but teaching online has its own challenges. Online schools are also first and foremost businesses, no matter how caring they describe themselves to be.

Thank you so much @onlineteacher and @Ineedtobeanonymous, that's really helpful.I'm definitely looking to be employed as you would be in a regular school.

-Which schools do you work at? (Please message me if you don't want to say on the forum!)
-Do the schools you are in see themselves growing / taking on more staff?
-If you are employed by the school is your pay split across the year like in a normal teaching job?
-What is the security of the contracts like?
-How many hours a day do you teach? A rough idea of a full timetable and what it looks like would be really helpful.
-Are there any online schools you would recommend or avoid?

Thank you so much for your help.

I think online schools are growing steadily.
My timetable looks very similar to my old timetable, but there are no duties!
I am not comfortable sharing the rest of the info, either on here or via pm.
I would recommend working at my school, if you are happy with being at home on your own all day. It’s a lot less social than what you are used to, which doesn’t suit everybody.
Having said that, there is very little turnover in my department.