Secondary Teaching in London. Any advice.

[Big Cox 88]

My wife and I are both teachers and are thinking of moving to London to teach for a year as relief teachers. Any advice, tips or stories of your experience would be great. The finance (renting out the house) and being able to get leave without pay (have permanent positions) which is holding us back a bit.

 

[Deliverance]

Try and avoid teaching agencies, you'll get much better pay if you can score a job direct with a school. Its possible to do phone/Skype interviews with schools from in Aus. Primary teaching is the easiest to find work in. Check TES or London borough council websites directly. Schools are already advertising for the new school year. Teaching in the UK is highly scrutinised, so expect to work harder. Try not to get sucked in to living with other Ausies, seems a bit pointless to me to travel to the other side of the world and hang around with expats. Find a sharehouse with some locals or Europeans for a different experience and to save on rental costs. Get some friends to rent out your place at home in Oz, keeps it easy. All in all its mostly a brilliant experience, but there are difficult things as well.

 

[krayfesh]

I'm in England now through an agency and definitely try to avoid agencies. It does make things easier in terms of finding work but there is a lot of feeling mistreated early. I'm at a school full time now so don't deal with them as much.

Cost of living is high and takes some getting used to.

You'll be working way harder than back in Australia - a lot of long days and getting ready for many observations.

Be careful and picky with schools people will send you to if you relief with an agency. A lot of schools have real issues.

 

[Big Cox 88]

Any experiences with the agency ANZUK?

 

[krayfesh]

Nah. I've only used Engage. If you are planning on going with an agency talk to as many as possible, negotiate your price.

 

[superfraser]

Any experiences with the agency ANZUK?

I've worked with them in Australia - in my capacity as Daily Organiser of a school, hiring their teachers.

I'd say they are a great company who place high expectations on their teachers to perform.

 

[TyroneVickery29]

Try and avoid teaching agencies, you'll get much better pay if you can score a job direct with a school. Its possible to do phone/Skype interviews with schools from in Aus. Primary teaching is the easiest to find work in. Check TES or London borough council websites directly. Schools are already advertising for the new school year. Teaching in the UK is highly scrutinised, so expect to work harder. Try not to get sucked in to living with other Ausies, seems a bit pointless to me to travel to the other side of the world and hang around with expats. Find a sharehouse with some locals or Europeans for a different experience and to save on rental costs. Get some friends to rent out your place at home in Oz, keeps it easy. All in all its mostly a brilliant experience, but there are difficult things as well.

I'm in England now through an agency and definitely try to avoid agencies. It does make things easier in terms of finding work but there is a lot of feeling mistreated early. I'm at a school full time now so don't deal with them as much.

Cost of living is high and takes some getting used to.

You'll be working way harder than back in Australia - a lot of long days and getting ready for many observations.

Be careful and picky with schools people will send you to if you relief with an agency. A lot of schools have real issues.

Is it possible to avoid agencies if you plan on doing casual teaching to start with?

 

[Deliverance]

I've never known anyone to do this. Your only chance I think may be possible is if any of the Boroughs have a centralised supply pool. Youd have to check each one individually. Most schools are well and truly addicted to the agencies.