Ex Teacher - what could I do?

[figleaf]

I was a Design Technology teacher 8 years ago (Head of large Technology and Art faculty) I specialised in electronics and control. My youngest starts school this September so any ideas what I could do for a living? Not sure I want to return to teaching, fear things will have raced on and left me miles behind.Don`t understand news reports or paper articles on education now. I had thought of hospital schools or museums but not sure how to go about getting into these or even if I should be thinking about radically differently jobs. Any thoughts?

oooh I'll be watching this thread! I escaped teaching (Geog and History ) 5 years ago and wonder if there is actually anything I can do....

hope someone has inspirational thoughts!!

How about Link Education? There is a national shortage of Link Tutors.

You get to choose your hours and how many pupils you want to teach. The pay is excellent and you get travel expenses to.

Until Easter I was a secondary school teacher of ICT/Business. I'd been teaching for 8.5 years. I had enough. I did some lecturing at a local training prison (often crying out for staff) and I have since got a permanent job in the department but as a Learning & Skills Advisor. No more teaching at all. Lots of one to one interviews, sentence planning, etc. No more planning and prep, no marking, no taking work home. And despite working just 2.5 days a week I get a massive 30 days holiday I took a slight pay cut (not too bad) but the holidays in time I want them is a definite bonus

I really enjoy prison education - maybe worth consideration?

Also, a friend of a friend does teaching for soemone like Home Start and really enjoys that.

I'm watching this too. I escaped from Primary teaching 5 years ago and know that I am too way behind the times to go back into the classroom, not to mention not having any confidence left.

Oh, and if you do want to go back to school teaching after a break and you are concerned about your skills and being not up to date, there are some refresher courses around for you to ave a look at too.

I dont know what Link is you couldn`t enlighten me could you Jayzmummy?

The prison thing Hulababy, how does that work. I imagine all 5ft 2 of me talking to beefy,tattooed criminal - eek! (don`t mean to be flippant).

This learning skills advisor name has poped up on other threads too. Not sure what that is either can you enlighten me? I dont think its just a prison thing is it?

LOL figleaf - I am 5 foot nothing, but have to say that I have never had any problems from any of the inmates. I do have a whistle and an alarm attached to my key belt though - jusy incase - as i do one to one interviews in rooms on my own, some of which don't have their own alarms. In classrooms there are always alarms in the room. Officers arrive within seconds of an alarm going off. Never had to use one yet.

TBh I find the inmates far less aggressive towards me than teenage school children.

My job is prison related, but I suspect there are versions of it in many areas - pribation, colleges, youth teams/groups, etc.

I am a Learning & Skills advisor and my job entails:

• one to one interviews with inmates to discuss the routes through prison - courses in education, literacy/numeracy support, workshop placements, jobs in prison
• disucc their sentence plan targets and how to meet them
• put them in touch with agencies such as shelter, sova, careers, etc

I also have meetinggs with the sentence planning team of officers to discuss individual inmates (they are not present) and set them targets (reoffending bahviour courses, etc) and to decide whether they are suitable to be put forward for recat and to go to the open site.

And then there is the admin stuff - setting up the courses, contacts, etc. Paperwork for lifer prisons or prolific offenders, etc.

I really enjoy it, and I really have no problems with the prison environment. Once you get sused to having amassice set of keys attached to you and the fact that you have to unlock and lock about 4 gates just to go to the loo, and about 10 to go home - it's fine.

What experience and/or training did you need, Hulababy?

I had to have my teaching qualification/QTS and a level 4 qualification (in my case my teaching degree).

I have no other employment experience other than secondary school teaching, although I had been lecturing in the prison one day a week since the September.

Only thing I have HAD to do since joing the prison is to have some basic half day trainging (as do ALL satff incontact with inmates):

• security talk (before I could go in a room with inmates)
• diversity training (equal ops)
• fire awareness tarining (this week)
• healthy & safety (still to do)

Oh, and have my Hep B vax - I have the 2nd one on Friday.

And fill in the full, really long disclosure forms.

Thanks.

Yes, Thank you too. My husband is always saying I should think of diffeerent avenues, hadn`t considered prisons. Does the teachers pension continue?

figleaf.

Not may people know about Link Education, so possibly thats why there is a national shortage of teachers to fill the vacancies.

I found out about Link Education through another forum when my son was having difficulties attending school. He has SN and was being abused badly by the headmaster and a group of pupils The emotional abuse my DS suffered caused him to want to end his life

He was signed off sick by our GP due to him suffering from psychological distress caused by being in an inappropriate school placement.
The LEA kept very quiet about Link Tutoring simply because they hadnt got anyone to fill the post! I was left alone to home educate my DS and hadnt got a clue where to start!

Finally I found out about Link and pressured the LEA to employ a teacher who could become DS2's Link Tutor. Thank goodness they did!!

Our tutor came to the house three mornings a week and spent 3 hours with DS2 each time. She made up her on lesson plans and taught him what she felt he needed. They would go for a walk, collect shells from the beach and then come home and paint them. Cooking was a weekly lesson and most days the tutor would be here for well over her three hours.

Basically Link Tutoring is teaching children who are unable to attend school for a variety of reasons. You either teach them at home on one to one basis or if there are two/three children that can be educated in a small group setting then this is done in a designated area...village halls, youth clubs etc.

The Link Tutor we had said it was the most satisfying job she had ever done. She told me that when she was in a classroom she couldnt acheive the things she wanted with the children in her class due to funding issues etc. She loved the freedom she had by travelling from home to home to teach SN children.

You can choose which children you want to teach. You can choose your hours to suit your family commitments.

Over the last year our Link Tutor was able to help us rebuild DS2's confidence and self esteem to a level where he is now returning to a new school in Sept.

I found this info but there isnt much on the web about Link Tutoring.

HTH.

jayzmummy - what a terrible experience for your ds . I'm so glad you found another way to educate your son.

I'm really interested becoming a Link Tutor. I've been wondering what to do when I go back to work (primary teacher too), but really wanted a change, whilst using the skills I have. This sounds realy interesting.

Go for it puff.

This is interesting, I only gave up at the end of last term and need to stay home for a bit, but have wondered about taking the whole teaching thing in a different direction. One thing I have considered is becoming a teacher of the deaf, my son has one, who sees him every couple of weeks (varies according to how deaf the child is), depending on age they see kids at home, in pre-school or school, they are responsible for making sure that the child can access the curriculum, which involves stuff like giving inset to school staff, providing technology, and working with kids one to one or in small groups. You do have to take a further qualification but I think this can sometimes be funded by the local authority.

my eldest ds's teacher is now the early years mentor at our pre-school.

oh Jayzmummy how terrible!! So glad your story has a hopeful ending.Thankyou for the leads I`ll investigate.

figleaf - yes, same teacher's pension and all classed as being in continous employment too.

Just spoken to our Link Tutor and she said contact The LEA Children Out Of School Team or the Special Educational Needs Team..

With children being Dx with Aspergers or ASD on the rise and the lack of suitable school placements for these children, she said there has been a massive rise in children being placed on the Out of School register. Currently where we live there are 15 children being tutored at home by three Link Tutors but there are 27 children who are waiting for new teachers to be appointed

Jayzmummy and Hulababy you have both been very helpful - thanks.

Hulababy, sorry to ask yet another question but is there a specific dpt of the government etc that you contact to ask for job info etc? I`m thinking of the sort of contact info that Jayzmummy has just given re the Link stuff.

Jayzmummy, primary staff have been mentioned on this thread but do you think the Link people want secondary teachers too?(bearing in mind that I wasn`t an English or Maths teacher).