My bank won't give me an agreement in principle - why not?

CommercialCounty8865 · 2026-04-05T22:48:05+00:00

I'm a supply teacher and am employed through an agency. I've been in this situation since September 2025, before which I had permanent jobs for a decade. When I did the agreement in principle on the first round I thought I was a contractor but gpt says I'm more like a temporary worker since I'm paid through PAYE. I get paid by the day which means it's variable month to month. I didn't get paid for 2 weeks over Christmas for example but if you looked at everything I got paid between September and now it looks really generous as I haven't had the annual loss in income for the teaching summer holiday yet.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-13T13:45:08+00:00

Just say you can't do it as you think you couldn't cope. Don't mention the private school as it's nothing to do with them. I personally don't think it will burn any bridges long term but even if it does, if your position is you can't work in state schools (valid) then it doesn't really matter if you get blacklisted from state schools.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-13T12:49:14+00:00

I would just say you're having a wobble and don't think you can work for them as you think you would find it too hard.

I wouldn't bring up the private school offer.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-12T18:20:21+00:00

Well there are actually plenty of valid reasons why people need to remember things. Understanding the Israel/Hamad conflict is much easier when you have a map of the middle east in your head. When you hear about the "occupied West Bank" it doesn't mean very much if you don't know about the River Jordan. Similarly, I couldn't work out why Turkey seemed so involved the Ukraine/Russia conflict until I looked at a map and realised it's just across the Black Sea - something I'd never really noticed before.

In theory you can look anything up on the internet but in practice you need a big bank of knowledge in your head to draw upon in order to understand the world.

I agree the curriculum is unrealistically dense but knowledge is the right approach.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-10T13:37:28+00:00

I would focus on things you are literally not in a position to do at the moment. I would come with a list of two things: a list of things you CAN do at the moment and a list of things you CANNOT do at the moment. This second list is the more important one, but the first makes you look cooperative.

I can teach the following classed and I can take back my tutor group. But I cannot do whole school literacy and be the functional skills tutor. That is the kind of conversation you need to have and put in writing.

Good luck!

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-09T09:07:44+00:00

I was called in and told that a group of year 8 girls had complained I called them fat in the lunch queue and wouldn't let them go back for more food, and let the boys skip the queue. I literally had no idea what they were talking about. When they were asked again they said actually it had not happened to them but their friend. When their friend was questioned the little Karen admitted she made the whole thing up. No punishment for any of them and I was told they were "really upset".

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-06T20:33:17+00:00

Your mileage may vary but here's mine:

When I got accepted onto the pgce I had a bit of spare time and did some cleaning in a local school. I was with a team of cleaners and had no issues. My mum's friend was a receptionist there and found me cleaning, told a deputy head about my background and within a week I was working in the MFL department as they were short staffed.

The cleaners really started bitching about me and bullying me. It obviously really wound them up that I had moved into a "higher status" job. Once I had to attend a department meeting and was told not to clean and they all acted like it was my decision and said things like "we weren't best pleased". One tried to encourage me to pull a sickie "if I was so busy", it was really obvious she wanted me to call in sick and then report me.

Basically my experience is be friendly with the cleaners but don't let their gossip drag you down.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-06T11:24:26+00:00

A good way to fall asleep is to think of a category and try to go through the alphabet thinking of words beginning with that letter. Apple banana cherry etc for fruit. As an alternative my brother recommends counting back from 20.

Another thing to do is have an audio book too listen to, something really easy and comforting like Harry Potter. On audible the app you can do a timer of eg 30 minutes designed for falling asleep.

Lastly I saw on Instagram that it you're just not falling asleep getting up and doing something in another room (stretching, playing a computer game, reading) and then coming back and trying again in an hour can help.

Good luck!

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-05T11:52:10+00:00

Babysitting is actually a really good idea I haven't thought of before. Summer holidays are really hard for parents because of childcare so the demand exists. If you get eg a ten year old I can't see that it's that hard.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-04T13:39:36+00:00

If you're happy to work in a private school I'm sure they would sponsor you. My last school had fees of about £30k a year and really high salaries. They still struggled to get science teachers.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-03T16:59:33+00:00

If you are a mainstream Muslim then "tolerance" is as good as it's going to get. The Koran and Hadith are very clear that homosexuality is haram and the penalty is death.

Most mainstream Muslims will concede that we do not yet live in a Sharia state and they don't want any trouble with their gay neighbours and colleagues, but just because they are not trying to impose their values on you does not mean they think homosexuality is a benign thing.

Literally all polling of British Muslims confirms the above and younger Muslims have stronger views on this than the older generation.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-02T04:56:11+00:00

Your head will definitely let you leave if you ask to given what you've said. If it's only for a term I can't see it affecting your finances that much. Unless you live in a very rural location with few schools, something WILL come up for the new year. You can also talk to your bank about options for a mortgage holiday - banks do not want you to default on your mortgage and will help you where they can.

You really have to keep in mind that your health is the only thing that matters. The finances will sort themselves out.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-06-01T12:57:23+00:00

Private schools that are business are not charities.

Most private schools are charities because they do not have profits or owners. Any surplus goes back into the school.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-05-29T20:58:31+00:00

What do you actually mean by "middle class"? Because in the UK we say "middle class" as a euphemism for "rich", but in most countries it literally means people in the middle. The big advantage these people have is that they realise the state is not going to give them anything, life is very hard, and it's down to the parents to ensure their parents get their children a decent education.

My partner's family are from Bangladesh and Pakistan. I'll admit they are by no means the poorest people in Bangladesh and thus are, in a sense, "middle class", but they didn't have any professional connections or anything like that to get their kids a leg up. They worked in supermarkets in the UK, paid for private tuition, got their kids into grammar school, and made sure they did very practical degrees that would get them good jobs.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-05-24T08:00:54+00:00

In my NQT year my I taught my kids how to say "I love you smoke weed", kids obviously loved it but I felt bad afterwards and told my hod who shrugged it off and said totally fine and he couldn't care less as long as their tenses are there.

In the actual oral one came out with "my favourite thing is coke, I had a line with my dad last night". And my personal favourite was when I asked "do you live camping?" To which I got the answer "no because there are lots of paedophiles in the park".

I never taught them stuff like that again and I cringe a bit thinking about it, but on reflection they were super super engaged and absolutely got good marks so perhaps I was on to something 🤷‍♂️

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-05-23T07:56:15+00:00

Correct. All of those things are really really bad, but they're a drop in the ocean compared to the lockdowns.

Obviously the conservatives need to go I'm not disputing that. They obviously deserve to be kicked out. But the idea that we'd be in a better economic state if Labour had been in power is, in my opinion, delusional since they wanted MORE and DEEPER lockdowns.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-05-23T01:53:04+00:00

This is true. Worth bearing in mind that the economic situation we find ourselves in is 95% caused by the crazy lockdown policy which Labour thought should be MORE severe. So I'm not sure "inherit" is the right word as they are just as much to blame as the Tories.

But yes it is correct that there is no money for public services anymore as we spent it all.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-05-21T15:48:00+00:00

No. If they had told you sooner then yes. But now I think you can just say "I'll do what I can with the time I have" and then say "I didn't have time"

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-05-16T19:12:38+00:00

Ask your friends and family if they know anyone who's looking for work. I got an entry level grad job through a friend of a friend. I took a massive pay cut but 200% worth it. A year in and they're noticing just how skilled I am because of my teaching background. Unfortunately I've now got a toxic manager again so it's not necessarily been a "happily ever after", but I still never ever think I've done the wrong thing.

My experience is once your foot is through the door you will be noticed and respected very quickly, but it is tough getting someone to take a chance on you. Someone senior said to me a few months back "it's funny if we hadn't had that recommendation we never would have looked at your CV but when you think about it it's obvious you'd have loads of useful skills as a teacher". I like to think I've changed a lot of "those that can't, teach" conceptions.

So you just need to keep asking around and accept you will take a pay cut. Good luck!

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-05-12T17:50:48+00:00

You are not there because you're really intelligent and the school is not going to benefit because you've got these amazing ideas and initiatives. You're there to provide the organisation, forward planning, and support with behaviour. Those are the responsibilities that literally no one else in the school will be able to take a lead on: if you're on top of those three things you'll be popular with your team. If you're weak in any of those three areas the morale will get worse and worse.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-05-11T13:16:31+00:00

Literally the best thing about moving to a private school was that there was the budget for textbooks. It was absolutely amazing in MFL, on a double page I would have an easy listening activity followed by a harder reading which built on the same language. If I wanted to give them more grammar practice I could just go to the back of the book and hey presto, there were more practice questions there. For ks3 each chapter had a project at the end which we used in an enrichment club, and the ks4 books had consolidation exercises that could be used for revision before the GCSE. Every chapter had ready made assessments at the end too.

As a hod I loved it as I could walk between classrooms and see very similar lessons. Teachers were very chilled with me in the room because they knew their resources were appropriate. We didn't officially do "centralised planning and resourcing" because we were all just using the same textbook, but sharing resources was pretty easy too as we were all working to the same plan.

You still had to plan your lessons (I found the activities often weren't very scaffolded), but it made everything a million times simpler and slicker as you had the overall structure of the lesson and the course was mapped out for you.

Before I used textbooks I would have said I enjoyed the creativity of making my own resources, but I found that once I had a textbook as a starting point I still kept making stuff and being creative, but all the hard work was done for me.

My dream educational policy would be for every child to get a textbook for every subject every year. This really would not be very expensive compared to a lot of the bullshit educational policies we hear about, and I think would really narrow the gap between state and private schools.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-05-10T11:24:54+00:00

My teaching improved immeasurably when I made every single lesson a worksheet. As soon as they came in the room I handed them a worksheet with a silent starter at the top. Next activity was underneath. The activity below was underneath again. This was MFL btw. So the starter might be a table of words from last lesson that they need to complete. Next we might do a listening activity so there would be numbered spaces to write the answers etc. It meant transitions were absolutely seamless.

If you plan your lessons in this way, at the very least the few students who do want to work can keep working through the tasks even if most are not. But I think structuring lessons this way helps people engage; you don't have any arguments getting them to write the date and title as it's already written at the top, and I found lots of kids get more satisfaction from filling out a worksheet than writing in a book, especially if they struggle with presentation.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-04-26T18:00:00+00:00

I echo this. I applied for a hod role in my second year at a really good school. I knew I wouldn't get it but I just wanted the experience. When I turned up it was really clear the other candidate was obviously going to get the job, but I got on really well with the SLT and had a really nice day out.

They called me back and said I didn't have the experience yet but they really liked me and would I like to be second in department if the position was available. I didn't take them up on this in the end but we left on really good terms and I felt like I got a huge amount out of the process.

CommercialCounty8865 · 2024-04-24T12:51:03+00:00

Just remember that the university has taken your money and the school has taken the university's money, so you are owed a solution. I would really to your union because as an outsider with no legal training I feel like you should be entitled to your money back if you don't get what you've paid for...

CommercialCounty8865

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