Forums Forums Wirral Information Jobs - Training No jobs for teachers

It's virtually impossible to get a permanent job as a primary teacher on the Wirral and in surrounding areas. I've been qualified 3 years and I've been lucky enough to have 3 long term temporary but can't secure permanent work. I have excellent references and always get good feedback from my teaching, I've even been through an Ofsted inspection with great results on my teaching!
Is anyone experienced with teaching applications and that dreaded letter of application? Any help would be much appreciated!!
Thanks in advance

Hi Christine, I can sympathise with your situation, a friend of mine also on the Wirral is in the same situation. All I can recommend is that you register with Tes online, the forums there are full of just the sort of people who can offer you some help and advice. www.tes.co.uk and go to the forums, used to be called staffroom.

GOod luck

If you are willing to travel there are good jobs abroad through teaching, I travelled on a TEFL based qualification and most of the schools where screamin out for fully qualified teachers. Good money too!

That's bad after working for the quals and putting all the effort in when placed. Is remedial teaching on a one to one basis a possibility? At least it will keep your hand in whilst searching. Good Luck.

Thanks everyone they are all possibilities to consider - I do a bit of one on one but going abroad was something I hadn't really even thought about so thanks! I shouldn't really complain, there is a lot of teachers in the Wirral a lot worse off than me - I get 5 days a week supply which is great money but I'm sure you understand it's not quite the same as a permanent position to call your own!!

I wish you well, if i can mark your Wiki exercise book, be very careful with your choice of words, (I do a bit of one on one)

Bert. Stop It you rude man

Naughty Bert! Detention!

Thank you Sallybear that's really helpful!
No no stickers for me for my choice of words Bert

Im afraid this is what happens when a government pushes for 50% of the population to become graduates.

coudnt agree more, never mind you can always go in a different direction and go in straight at the top.

Hi Christine - Bidston Avenue will be looking for a new teacher for FS2 (Reception) for September 2010 as Mrs Manley is retiring.

Thanks everyone - I do a lot of supply at Bidston Ave - I will keep my fingers crossed!!!

I often wonder though, what else am I going to do since I have a degree in teaching??!!

Miss, miss, miss, back to one on one

Its a shame a degree isn't enough to get a good job like it was supposed to be - that's the BS they fed us when we were studying. In those days when it was true you could have a bank manager with a degree in Zoology.

I wonder if I've bumped into you in the staff room Christine I've been doing voluntary work there - starting again tomorrow - year 5, year 3 on Fridays.

If your needed as a volunteer why can't they pay you or someone to do the job. I just wonder if there were no volunteers available, would they have to turn it into paid employment, It seems to me that a lot of paid jobs in this country are lost to unpaid volunteers.

Yes quite possibly! What a small world it is! I've been there a few times over the past few weeks - in Y4, Y6 and I was in Y3 on Tuesday afternoon.
So far I'm not sure when I'm in again but I'm sure I will be!

We hear on the news that they're screaming out for teachers - there was an ad campaign on the TV only this year.
Am I right in thinking that areas like Wirral that is probably more middle class than inner city Liverpool don't have a teacher shortage but the inner city does????


This is a genuine question not a critism of anyone.

I hear it all the time - I don't know where they're crying out for teachers because North West has a surplus of teachers and hardly any jobs....??? Believe me I am as confused as the next person? There are more jobs as you start to hit Manchester way but even they are not great in number, and of course then you have graduates from that area who also need jobs like Wirral, Cheshire, Liverpool etc.

Thanks Christine
Good to know they wasted money on a TV campaign which was not needed

If it was needed, you can guarantee it would'nt be provided! The amount of money that is wasted on schools under this government is shocking, the report leaked by the BBC really shows what a massive financial mess the system is in, and how incompetent school's are at managing finances.

It's only going to get harder and harder for teachers as a result of that report. Quite funny how the report was originally commissioned and intended to be published upon completion, but Labour tried, and successfully managed for some time, to keep it out of the public domain.

Thank god for the BBC.

There's such a big pressure from Ofsted too - who also seem to make a decision as soon as they reach the school gates and then go all out to prove their point and start destroying GOOD teachers careers. This didn't happen to me, my temporary contract ended at the school before the Ofsted, but I am still in contact to those who still work there, those who are having their lives/careers ruined.
Maybe I'd best be careful what I say!!

I got overlooked for a part time position once because they had some volunteer teacher in doing supply FOR FREE! More fool him and the school shouldn't have used him like that. Anyway he got a job there eventually and apparently he wasn't the greatest teacher on the planet...just saying ha ha

And there lies the problem with some volunteer work, while there are volunteers, those jobs will never be turned into paid employment.

You could consider a Masters - pretty expensive but it like a pay-as-you-go and you have 5 years to complete. Or a Research post - I don't know what speciality you took but there may be jobs in that area. Have you tried approaching schools direct, there are sometimes jobs available, part-time to start. Perhaps consider GDDR for help. You must be looking in the Times Ed but there are colleges who recruit lecturers (good money for new starters). If you register with supply agencies you could strike lucky and end up with a permanent contract until something better comes along. Good luck.

Going by some of the articles I am reading in the press I would say that these teaching assistants may be a source of the problem. It looks lik heads, who now have to do their own budgets I believe,are taking on assistants as a cheaper option than taking on qualified teachers. Just an observation, I am not saying the assistants don't do a good job. Pre-empting any stick from assistants.

What are these teaching assistants all about, we never had them and i don't think i was ever in a class with less than 40 kids.

And that bert, is why we can read, write and add 2 and 2 and get 4, well most of the time anyway.

I've always prefered the basics. No idea why I was taught latin or algebra. Never been in ASDA and had to price a tin of soup by adding letters of the alphabet together.

Right, I am off to tersus epulae...

Could never figure out why, when my wife gave me alphabet spaghetti it always spelt prick.

Is it Asada that does basics? I thought it was Morrisons. I know Tesco does Value stuff. If you don't add the letters together, how do you know which soup you are getting?

The problem with shortage of Teaching posts is just a local situation caused by the TDA. There are too many training establishments covering this part of the country (Hope, John Moores, Edge Hill and Chester), other parts of the country are crying out for teachers and have no nearby training establishments. The TDA's job is to allocate the number of training posts at each establishment and they are clearly totally wrong around here.

Places like Blackpool have no nearby training (I think ... Lancaster and Bury are the nearest two) and are very short of teachers.

Good luck Christine, I will PM.

Counselling jobs the same! :-c
Good luck christine

Thanks everyone your kind words make me feel a little more positive. I have had 3 long term positions so I have been very lucky but it's just securing that permanent post. I'm getting married in April and although we're not ready to start a family, we couldn't even if we wanted to because of my job. I just feel unsecure although I do get a full week supply teaching every week. The agency say "Oh you're great, schools ask for you all the time!" Yeah well why don't these schools give me a job?! Ha ha - not that I'm bitter or anything!!
What is the GDDR by the way?
Thanks again everyone!!

My girlfriend is a teacher in Liverpool and had the same problems after qualifying. Best advice she can give is keep on with the applying and supply. She supplied for 3 years and had a year contract at one school which ended. Those schools that are requesting you on supply will at some point have a vacancy and if they are requesting you for supply this will look good when a job does arrive. It is very difficult to find teaching posts in this area due to the number of universities sending out teachers each year. Have you completed your NQT year yet?

Bert, I think you will find that class room assistants where brought in by a previous labour goverment, for the sane reason that the last labour government brought in the comunity police. Need i say more

christine i think you taught my son while his teacher was on maternity leave two years ago in birkenhead he thought you were a great teacher

There is a bit of a difference between a classroom assistant and a full blown teacher. Classroom assistants are needed in a school and do provide a valuable role. It would be uneconomic and unecessary to substitue them for teachers. They are there to provide a supportive role and not to teach.

Personally I don't see the point in community police though, why bother with somebody who can only do half the job? Let me guess, to save money!

my daughter has a lot of help from the teaching assistant. if she didnt have the help she would be so far behind. she can read well its writing things down she gets muddled up.the school have applied for funding so she can have the teaching assistant next year.she does get help from the teacher as well but the teaching assistant can free her teacher up to teach the class.

Yes I know where you mean, I did! Ah bless isn't he sweet...looking at your location in comparison to the school I think I know who you mean too!! How lovely, he must be in year 6 by now???

Yes my NQT all done so I have to be honest I am luckier than some new teachers, I will get there eventually I suppose. I have accepted a one year fixed term at a secondary school this year so I'm ok for another year at least!!! Who knows what else it could lead to?!

Well in my new job (local secondary) I overheard the trainee teachers saying how difficult it is to get an interview, but what surprised me was that this was coming from science NQTs.

Which school are you at next year Christine? (PM if you like)

yes Christine he's in year 6 now still wellbehaved and still playing football

As a trainee design tech teacher we where given some very strange statistics to look at:

There are only 2 places on the western hemisphere that have had a decline in the number of applicants for school and have too many teachers, one of them is Detroit USA and the other is Mersyside.

And yet Merseyside has FOUR local teacher training facilities. Areas that are crying out for teachers are sometimes miles away from TT colleges. Good planning by the GTC!

my son is in his second year of teacher training at edge hill.he decided to go for a change in career as there wasnt much work in his previous job. he's also been in the army.he's doing design & technology, he would eventually like to work at his old school but he would be prepared to go where the work is.

Plenty of jobs in places like Blackpool - that's the schools with policemen on the gate and bullet-proof windows installed - no I'm not exaggerating or joking, just a sign of the times.

Plenty of jobs around London as well.

Plenty of jobs abroad as well for teaching. I myself taught engineering in Saudia Arabia and a little bit in Abu Dhabi

Nomad