Not getting shortlisted for Primary teaching jobs

[PurpleCranberry54]

I’m a primary trainee teacher (TeachFirst) and am currently applying for jobs for September. However, I’m having real trouble getting shortlisted for lesson observations and interviews. I’ve applied to and been rejected from 7 jobs so far. I’ve had SLT, including my headteacher, look over my personal statement, and everyone has said it’s great and they wouldn’t change anything. I tailor each application to the school, make sure I hit every criterion on the person spec and make an effort to visit. I’m not sure if the primary job market is just extremely competitive or something, and I should wait for after the resignation deadline to have any luck as an ECT, or there’s something wrong with my application that I’m not seeing.

Any advice is appreciated.

Where in the country are you applying? We have a very diverse staff in my school, including teachers who gained degrees in other countries.

I think for Primary, certain areas, particularly if they're near big universities that train a lot of teachers, can have a lot of applicants for each position. The town I'm in, a little way north of London tends to really struggle to recruit enough good teachers.

Visits are often so important. Have they been during the school day or at the end of the day?
If in the school day make sure you are positive and smile. Interact with children however briefly if you can. EYFS children may approach you in particular.
Years ago our Head was showing candidates round for the deputy job. She asked us what we thought. We all said “ the smiley one”
She was the only one to smile , look positive and actually respond to children. Yes,she was appointed!
Good luck the right school will be out there for you.

Some have been during the day, but most have been after school because of my teaching commitments as a salaried trainee. I try to make a good first impression, but many of the tours I did were also attended by 10+ other potential applicants, so the members of SLT showing us around didn’t even get to know our names, making it much harder to stand out. Thank you for your words of reassurance!

That does sound like large groups looking round. Not long until the resignation deadline. Hang on in there.
Taught in the North West for 35 years and worked with so many schools for the later part of my career as an SEN advisory teacher. The right fit is out there for you.

7 applications is really not very many so I wouldn't worry yet about your personal statement not being good enough, especially if you've had positive feedback from a headteacher. You just need to keep applying.

I must have applied for at least 80 jobs as an NQT. I was finally successful at the end of June, in my 6th interview. It's been 16 years since I graduated but it was definitely very competitive back then. I think the job market has changed a lot in recent years for experienced teachers, but I imagine ECT roles are still incredibly popular. You're literally competing with everyone in the county who has graduated this year. Only you know how picky you can be in terms of the type of school, the year group and how far you wish to cast your net, but I remember filling out about 15 applications between April and May, then getting desperate and applying for pretty much every NQT job going once it got to June. I even remembered seeing the same 2 people at 3 separate interviews so we were clearly all doing the same. It paid off in the end though and, luckily for me, the job I ended up being offered was at a lovely school which I still would have applied for even if I was being more choosy. I went to a couple of interviews at schools I didn't really want. Maybe it showed as I wasn't offered either job, but I looked on it as vital interview experience.

There will definitely be a lot more jobs advertised after 31st May so don't give up hope. I only had one interview in May, the other 5 were all in June. As I say, I must have applied for at least 80 jobs in the end. I had to keep a spreadsheet to keep on top of all the application deadlines etc but it was worth it in the end.

Good luck

Just to add, obviously the more you apply for the harder it is to visit them all. What I will say though is that, I'm my experience, the visits are more to see how you like the school in terms of whether you want to apply. Like you have found, many tend to be busy and I honestly don't think the person showing you round gets time to remember names or get to vet you in terms of whether you'll be a good fit. That's what the interview stage is for. Often it's not even the headteacher doing the show round, it's often a role delegated to the deputy.

So don't worry if you can't arrange a visit. It's still worth applying and won't be held against you. All it means is that the school might be an unknown to you in terms of whether you think it's for you or not. Again, it depends how choosy you can afford to be I guess.

Thanks a lot for your insight and reassurance! I doubt that there will be 80 jobs to apply for where I live, but I have applied for 15 so far and am awaiting responses from quite a few. Not losing hope yet!

What you said about visits is interesting because I was under the impression that these were an expectation in primary, and the selection panel won’t take you seriously unless you have come in for a tour.

You're welcome

No, that's not true at all. They're interested in appointing the right candidate for their school. They're not going to hold it against someone if they weren't able to visit for whatever reason. The right candidate may have only seen the advert a day before applications closed and had no time to arrange a visit. They may have had prior arrangements during advertised visit times. Candidates who are applying for lots of jobs definitely won't be able to visit them all. Schools know and understand that there may be reasons someone can't visit before applying.

It's useful if you can (for you) but definitely not essential.

A job at the right school will eventually come along. It may just take some time. You can always do supply work or mat leave cover in the meanwhile. In my case, after years of looking to leave one school, I was offered a job at two different schools on the same day!

The primary job market is unbelievably tough at the moment and is only going to get worse with falling rolls, to the extent that for the first time in my life I'd advise someone thinking of training in Primary to think twice. I know this is depressing but it's nothing personal, just an incredibly tough market. There will be more vacancies after the unexpected resignations come in by 31 May.

Sorry if I've missed something but why aren't you staying in your training school for year 2 of the TF programme?

TF placed me in a school 1.5h away from my house. The commute isn’t mentally, physically or financially sustainable.

That sounds really tough, I’m sorry. I’m guessing that TF won’t move you so you can stay on the programme? I know of a couple of people who did this but it was a very long time ago and in quite extreme circumstances. I have had a couple of ambassador emails this week asking if we can place participants so it seems that they are feeling the lack of vacancies too.

I don’t know if this observation will be welcome and please disregard it if not but from a shortlisting point of view and because I am very familiar with the TF programme it would raise a question mark, not necessarily a red flag, to see an application from someone who is leaving the programme at the end of year 1 as in my experience this is a last resort and often indicates that relationships at the placement school have completely broken down. Your explanation for why you are leaving is totally reasonable so if there’s an opportunity to include this somewhere on the application form I would encourage you to do so.

Good luck

Thank you for your insight! My school is lovely, and I would stay if not for the distance. I put commute as my reason for leaving in the application form. The extent of it is also pretty obvious by my address vs the school’s address (it’s in a different county), too. In interviews, the panel has always been very understanding of this. However, I have found that schools around me don’t really seem to know much about TF, and I’ve had to explain how it works to SLT. And yes - they struggled with vacancies last year, too, which is why I ended up so far away. I will keep looking in June, but this process is so demoralising. Especially when the feedback on my lesson observation and interviewing skills has been good, but there’s always a reason why they went for someone else…