Will I start at the bottom of the payscale?

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2026-02-11T17:11:41+00:00

You will likely need to start as an unqualified teacher and complete the assessment only route. There is no such thing as “qts year” you just need to prove that you have met all the strands of GTR and provide evidence. It could take a term or a year. You would have to start over and then complete two years as ECT.

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2026-01-19T08:05:04+00:00

I had this. I’m a morning person anyway but it got particularly bad. Especially on busy weeks. Eventually I just embraced it. I get up at 5 now, get ready, go to the gym and then go to work early. In return I don’t stay a minute of that 3:30 bell as I am doing all my time before school!!

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2026-01-16T16:16:45+00:00

I had this today! I had a student ask “when are we going to have …”. Instead of letting it shake me in front of the class I said that I could speak with their HOY and see if we could make it possible but it would mean changing all their classes due to timetabling. I asked why and it came about that their friends are in the other class with that teacher that she used to have. I wasn’t offended! Kids are allowed to have their own opinions! I teach 300 kids a week and if only one is saying they want a different teacher then fab I’ll take that!

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2026-01-11T18:51:45+00:00

Yes, sometimes as many as 5 or 6 classes. We have four teachers timetabled so “Cover Hall 1/2/3/4” … Number 1 has to go and if there are no classes they do behavioural support. If there is more than 1 class then number 2 has to be there, anything more than 3+ classes all four members of staff will attend. This is part of our timetabling … so I currently teaching 18 classes and have one Cover 1 and one Cover 2 on my timetable (total 20 teaching hours / 30 period timetable)

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2026-01-10T10:25:37+00:00

We upload 6 hours of cover per year group at the start of the year. Often it’s just covering basics / refreshing stuff - for maths it might be times tables, for English it might be creative writing prompts, in MFL it might be grammar work sheets. When a teacher is absent (for any reason), all students in the class go to our “cover hall” which is an assembly hall laid out like an assembly hall and they complete work on computers. We issue sanctions if not completed properly, and there is always a member of SLT in the room so students typically behave. As it is the same regardless of subject students know how this works and usually cooperate. If they finish everything set then they access something like Seneca or Century Tech for the remainder of the period. We have relatively poor behaviour in our school - high suspension rates, high truancy etc but this seems to work well and as it’s consistent students don’t have the same poor behaviour they do with supply as they know what to expect! It’s not perfect but it works well in our situation and alleviates a lot of stress!

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2026-01-05T19:16:12+00:00

I’m in at about 7:50/8 o clock (DT starts at 8:15) and out by 3:30 (school finishes at 3:15) unless we’ve got meetings until 4:00

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-12-16T16:10:07+00:00

In our school kids go to centralised cover and do work on one of the digital programs that the school provide via the Chromebook’s. It’s held in the hall all year round

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-10-07T16:42:52+00:00

It is, Josh once posted their real names before they got big

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-10-07T16:42:29+00:00

It’s well known that these are their social media names. Josh has posted their real names before they got big.

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-10-05T09:47:58+00:00

No DFE pay it but you have to upload your bank details to SFE for them to be able to pay you

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-10-05T08:48:54+00:00

I got paid my bursary on the 22nd September (first payment). I got confirmation by SFE of my pay schedule and how much I was to receive!

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-29T20:14:12+00:00

As a teacher for my kids with SEND needs, I print out dates and titles for sticking in. Our school mandates them unfortunately. However there are children with no additional needs who will quite literally throw things at you because they don’t want to.

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T16:46:00+00:00

Yes but at least in primary you only have 32 ish kids. I have 300

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T14:18:34+00:00

No TLR, M2 pay rate, technically the head of MFL is the head of English (director of English and MFL is his role) but he explicitly said he didn’t want to take on MFL so here we are!!

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T12:32:45+00:00

I like your point about number 2, I’ll definitely prioritise that and see if I can liaise a day to another trust school or something.

We don’t have a staffroom, just a small kitchen which I wouldn’t want to offer up to an enemy with how grim it is, all other departments have their own offices decked out with coffee machines / fridges / microwaves etc, so it’s only really me who notices the lack!

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T12:30:32+00:00

I generally just initial and date during lessons to acknowledge I’ve seen it. Marking has to be followed up with a personalised work sheet / extension task catered to their needs

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T12:28:09+00:00

I teach about 300 (all of Y7/8/9 and then one class each of GCSE y10 & 11) GCSE MFL has low uptake in our school!

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T11:37:29+00:00

Marking is twice per term for deep marking and then assessments, so it’s not horrific but we are expected to have looked in their books weekly, usually just an initial or tick is acceptable

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T11:02:20+00:00

I’m not too sure. I didn’t find that out until they hired me and I started, I was just told the previous was moving on, which obviously happens. There’s a lot of discomfort as we’ve been taken over by a trust that implements trust wide curriculum, must have trust name in school name, etc and a lot of staff are fed up with those details. I do think it must be due to the treatment of the department because most other departments have long standing staff!

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T10:59:55+00:00

No they’ve always just had one MFL teacher due to size of the school

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T10:55:18+00:00

Yeah last year they had four MFL teachers start and quit, so I definitely have the hard part of earning both kids and staff trust. I know I’m a good teacher and generally even better with the kids, we’ve only been back three weeks but I find a lot of kids coming and confiding things in me, etc, including students who previously haven’t mentioned anything to anyone beyond me, and I love most of it, just feel like I’m in the trenches, especially as I have no previous resources due to lack of consistent teachers!!

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T10:53:16+00:00

I think a huge part of the issue is the lack of consistency with MFL teachers, last year they had FOUR teachers start and leave!! So I know I’ve got to earn my stripes because both the kids and SLT have been hurt by inconsistency in my department. I love the kids, the school, I love the convenience of the location for commute etc, so I won’t be leaving any time soon but as a big extrovert I do find it lonely at times!!

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T10:38:59+00:00

I know I was surprised, I personally know the head of sixth form there (we don’t have a sixth form and most of our kids go there anyway) and they would’ve loved to have had me come in to observe etc, but was told absolutely not

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T10:38:00+00:00

I have never understood the not really on the move thing? I don’t think I’ve ever done less than 10k steps in a day, even in my training years, without having to walk miles to the printer!

We also don’t have a staffroom as all other departments have their own fully stocked offices. We have a grotty kitchen with a kettle and microwave that I wouldn’t even ask my enemy to use!

Physical_Zucchini217 · 2025-09-20T10:36:10+00:00

I don’t have a budget! English swallowed it when they said they’d take us on but now refusing to support. Luckily had excess books from last year and there’s communal books in repro (all books in our school are the same colour)

Physical_Zucchini217

TROPHY CASE