WANTED: Catholic RE Teacher

The view from of our staffroom

We are looking a Catholic RE teacher with a deadline of Tuesday 17 May 2016 - please share this widely with any teachers you feel may be interested. We are a four-form entry, all-girls Catholic comprehensive school with a sixth form.

Here are three reasons that this could be the job for you:

• The RE Department is small, friendly and supportive: KS3 is well-established and resourced (based on the Way, Truth and Life) and KS4 will be the new GCSE Edexcel Catholic Christianity spec. KS5 teaching involves General RE and A-Level (spec TBC). We are always looking at ways to improve our teaching and look forward to new ideas.
• Upminster is a fantastic location: we are located just 22 minutes from central London by mainline train (we are also on the underground in Zone 6) or less than 5 minutes off the M25 Junction 29. There is lots to do within a short walk from the school.
• There is potential for a Chaplaincy TLR. This is a role leading liturgy and the spiritual life of the school. Students enjoy this aspect of school life and are actively involved with chaplaincy activities around school. There are many things in place, but there is a great opportunity for making the role your own.

Read more here:

Read full job advert <here>

Download application forms <here>

If you would like to find out more, feel free to get in touch via <here> or on Twitter @iteachre

Image courtesy of Geograph

New Challenges

Image courtesy Swinton Fitzwilliam School

I'm now in my 9th year of teaching (10th if you count my PGCE) and each year I try to take on a new challenge:

1st Year - Finishing off the year with 7 weeks teaching street children in Ethiopia.

2nd Year - Starting my part time MA in Catholic School Leadership.

3rd Year - Starting as Staff Governor.

4th Year - Becoming Head of House and becoming Link Training Governor.

5th Year - Joining Governor Policy Review Committee (nearly everything needed reviewing!).

6th Year - New school, new job... Assistant Subject Leader on RE.

7th Year - Edmodo/digital learning/leading staff CPD/joining TeachMeet world.

8th Year - NPQML (Regret!), arranging two major local TeachMeets, Independent Learning Project coordinator.

9th Year - New job... Head of Year 10 (or PDC - Pastoral Development Coordinator).

Why?

Some staff are very content to turn up, deliver generally good lessons, fulfil all their contractual obligations and be a success in doing this. They're not looking for promotion, and are quite content maintaining the status quo.

I like to challenge myself and push myself. I know I sometimes get complacent and to keep adding further 'plates to spin' keeps me fresh, enthused and focused.

However, I am also getting better at saying no and have this year had the confidence to turn down certain things. This gets massively important as sometimes when you appear knowledgeable, insightful and willing, you get put upon. I still lead as much CPD as some members of SLT.

It's also worth noting that some staff are desperate to 'climb the ladder' as soon as possible. I have always always been sure that I wanted to 'walk before I could run', so to speak. In a Catholic school promotion can be slower... Indeed at least one of my PGCE cohort walked straight into a Head of Department job! I was told "Heads of RE jobs in a Catholic school are dead man's shoes" and that can certainly be the case. 

9 years in, I should probably be a Head of RE. However I recognise that for the last 3 years I have worked alongside an incredibly inspirational Head of RE who has given me massive free reign. I have been working hard on being a really outstanding teacher and ensuring our department leads on teaching and learning within the school... I really believe we do. There is nothing more that I love than a colleague coming to ask about something that a student has said we do well. So much of this works because I've not been desperate to seek elsewhere to be a Head of RE. 

In all honesty, had I not go the job as Head of Year this year I would have had to consider leaving in the very near future in order to progress. Thankfully that has not been the case! 

Is the job not enough of a challenge in itself?

Of course it is. Government changes keep us on our toes enough, but I think the important question is how do we "keep the light burning, keep on dreaming"? [Dream Baby Dream - Springsteen]. Especially in a personal way.

This Year

Head of Y10... No doubt more blogs to come!

#UKEdMag - Jobs: "The Times They Are A-Changing'"

Back in early April, I posted on my blog to help my school find a new member of staff (see <here>). I also used Twitter to help me with an internal job application (see <here>). These two experiences helped me to write my most recent contribution to the excellent UKEdMag - subscribe <here> if you haven't done so already! 

Read the full article <here>

Martin is always looking for new article writers so get in touch with him <here>

Thank You, Twitter (New Appointment to HoY)

Image courtesy of EXSS Impact

I didn't want to make it a big thing, so last Friday night, I sent one short tweet asking if anyone was a Head of Year (<here>). I was fortunate to have a number of responses. 

By the end of the evening, I had an offer to proof-read my application letter plus various questions, tips and other exemplar letters being emailed to me. I was genuinely overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers. The variety of people who offered their help was also wide ranging, a pastoral deputy head, a head of KS4 who line manages HoYs, existing HoYs, aspiring HoYs (who had struggled first time round and shared their mistakes). What more could I ask for?

It is important to discuss things with people in your own school, but sometimes for a variety of reasons you can't do that. Perhaps they are involved with the interview process... maybe they are also applying for the job... maybe they have some other interest... sometimes we don't want to be asking around everyone publicly as it becomes 'staff room chat'. Sometimes you just want to hide behind an avatar and a handle to ask for help.

Thankfully, I did also have a few people in school who greatly helped out, but this combination was great as it enabled me to put together a whole variety of information, prepare myself fully and feel confident there was nothing more I could do.

As a result, on Wednesday, I was able to celebrate my new promotion to Head of Year (Y10).

Thank you all SO much if you helped with advice, emails and tweets. Twitter really is the best possible staffroom.

I'm sure I will be blogging soon about the help I will need moving forward... 

Come Work With Me? (Advertising A Job)

And so the world of Twitter and blogs continues to open new possibilities... especially in the job market! 

Last year, I was fascinated to read about Ross McGill (aka TeacherToolkit) and his quest for a new job in Scotland via blogging and Twitter - read <here>. Certainly the world of social media and teacher blogging have revolutionised so much of what we do - why not the jobs market too?

Martin Burett (aka ICTMagic) has recently launched a new arm of UKEdChat.com to help teachers find jobs (see <here>) that has a very different price structure to that of TES Jobs. It will be interesting to see if schools will sign up to this instead - I hope so, as Martin is doing brilliant things via UKEdChat - make sure you are signed up to all their regular bulletins.

TES Job adverts start at £199 and go above £1000 depending on how much space you want. However, how many staff still read the large jobs section? I get emails weekly with targeted ads, I've also started using the iPad app (still a little fiddly!). However there are other options... Guardian Education Jobs continues to grow and searching for 'Education Jobs' in Google throws up an increasing number of recruitment sites.

Some schools are also using various recruitment agencies more and more... not just for temporary positions but for more permanent ones too. I don't think it's a coincidence that these agencies are more than happy to sponsor TeachMeet events where they can speak to staff about their services. They must work, or schools simply wouldn't be paying their fees.

Twitter has also played a large part in this change. Ross started up a Twitter account called @MyEdHunt which retweets jobs and many schools and staff tweet and retweet vacancies in their schools. Martin is also tweeting jobs via @UKEdjobs too. Ultimately the schools' own website can become a vital hub to catch the attention of potential employees.

This is the second time we are advertising this job as unfortunately we didn't appoint first time around. Considering it was very short notice, we managed to get a few applications, some via Twitter. This time we are advertising via the Catholic Teacher's Gazette which is in print and online; this was a cost decision. However it is increasingly hard to decide where to spend your money?

Perhaps, a strong social media presence may be the new way forward for schools.  I'm hoping I can get the job out there again via Twitter and this blog. I'll be sending everyone the way of our school website where all the details are <here>. However, the flip side to this is that there are a lot of good teachers on Twitter but a huge number of good teachers who are not... (yeah and maybe they should be! See <here>)

Do you want a job working with me in an amazing, vibrant and official Outstanding (S48) RE Department? Get involved <here>.

Update 29/4/14:
Also now on TES in the end!! <here>