Finally! Got a job teaching in a Secondary School in Melbourne! (took 4 months though!)

[wisey26]

Wohoo! I have finally managed to find a teaching position here in Melbourne, after 4 months of looking. The interview process lasted 2 days – the first day was a traditional question and answer type interview with the HR manager, Head of Faculty, Head of the Senior School and a subject teacher. Based on this interview they created a shortlist of candidates and I was invited back for a second day of interviews, and on this day I was observed teaching two lessons – one in accounting and one in Economics. Discussion of the lessons followed then I was offered the job at the end of the day. It is a job teaching Business Management, Economics and Accountancy in a leading selective entry private school half an hour by metro train outside the Melbourne CBD. I thought I’d start this thread to help other teachers manage their job hunt effectively and say things I wish I had known before I came to Melbourne, because if I had known this information I may have done things differently. If there are any other teachers who have a different perspective, experience or tips I’d love to hear from them too. Here are my top 10 tips ( some new, some old which i have posted on here before elsewhere) based on my experience:

 

If you are in the UK, do not come to Victoria until August at the earliest. That is when schools start recruiting for the new year starting January. I arrived in January, nearly all the schools had filled their staffing needs by then, and very few jobs were being advertised. And the few jobs advertised were fiercely contested…my new school told me they were getting around 60 applications for recent teaching vacancies they had advertised.

 

Sign up with a good recruitment agency as soon as possible. I was alerted about the job opportunity by a teacher recruitment agency. Not only that, but they reconstructed my CV and sent it to the school which got me an interview, prior to this I had got very little response to advertised jobs from my CV. And best of all, they sent me a list of questions I might get asked in my first interview on the first day. I was astonished to find that every question except maybe 2 questions I was asked by the panel was on that sheet – it was almost like walking into a test having seen the test before and therefore preparing the answers beforehand. My first interview with the school was very comfortable and easy as a result. I will not mention on here the agency I used because I don’t want to be seen having created this post to be plugging a company, but if you want to know PM me and I will tell you.

 

Have a understanding of the Victorian curriculum. Make sure above all that you know about your study design, the Principles of Learning and Teaching P-12 and about the different types of assessment (assessment for/as/of learning.) These topics will come up in the interview (they did in mine anyway!) and they will want to see that you know them. Some schools even put on their websites that all their teachers have an understanding and implement the Principles of Learning and Teaching P-12 (private schools) and to be honest, I think the dumbest risk you could do is go for an interview when you know nothing about the curriculum of the country and their teaching methods.

 

Be prepared to work doing something else while you are job hunting, or you will run out of money quickly. I had a job as a salesman which was just above minimum wage but it sustained me financially while looking for teaching work. Because unless you teach Maths, Science, English or French, you will most likely be waiting quite a while before you find work.

 

Don’t expect permanent contracts. The contract you are likely to get will be one term, two terms or up to a year. I have spoken with a lot of people and I’ve not heard of anyone being employed on a permanent contract straight away here in Australia, I don’t think it happens! But if I am wrong, let me know on here.

 

Focus your efforts on private schools. I find that they are much more receptive to UK trained teachers than state schools. Maybe that’s because of my subject specialities, I don’t know. But I found the state sector a much tougher environment to even get an interview.

 

Complete your VIT registration while in the UK…getting all the required criteria satisfied will be more difficult to do from Australia.

Don’t think that you can rely on supply teaching work as a source of income to sustain yourself while job hunting. The schools are all flooded with the CV’s of teachers looking for work and schools tend to stick with people they have used in the past that they know. Relief teaching will not work as a primary source of income in the Melbourne Area.

 

If you are determined to try your luck relief teaching, you will need a car. Some agencies won’t even consider you if you don’t have one, and those that do will tell you that you are really limiting your opportunities by not having one.

 

Persevere! There are jobs out there, but you will have to work very hard, be flexible in where you work and be very patient to get them. (unless you are an experienced maths teacher with good references – in which case you can ignore everything I’ve said in this post and do what you like as you can walk into jobs! :-)

[Guest The Pom Queen]

What a great post, very helpful and informative. Congratulations on the new job x

[Guest]

Congratulations, it's not my field but I think it's wonderful you have taken the time to share your experiences to help others.

[wolvesaussie]

Well done thats great news , you have been really helpful to my girlfriend so i am really pleased it has worked out for you

[Love Shoes]

Congratulations ... well deserved x x an inspiration

[PositivePixie]

Thanks for taking the time to let people know exactly how you have found it on the ground so to speak - its always hard to get the solid facts from people who are currently doing it, and worth its weight in gold to people whom are thinking about it or about to do it (or trying to do it lol)

 

I will do a similar thing for Adelaide when we get back there and I've done my teacher rego etc

[Jin77]

Congratulations. I'm a science teacher and we came out here in Jan. Did VIT well in advance. Have been be to a course about how to get out of provisional status even with my twelve years experience. The recruitment agency were initially really supportive with adjusting my cv and my profile and contacting with any posts in the private sector. They are surprised that i haven't even managed to get to interview stage.Meanwhile my back up plan was CRT with a different agency. i didn't get any CRT until March and now only get one day a week. I went to Doveton for a day and it was horrendous. I was on yard duty and saw a commotion as boys were running in and out of the toilets. Realised that they were showing each what someone had "left behind " on the floor. the school had no white boards or any boards. It was open plan and i had students from other lessons walking in and out. I was glad when that day ended.

 

One of the things that i noticed here. Yes, CRT's teachers are treated badly by students like they would back in UK . It's also the fact that the students can't get their head round that a person of indian ancestry can have a British accent. This can get tiring.

 

Maybe if we had come out here later in the year i would feel a bit more positive about my work related experience but at the moment I think I would rather go back. Time will tell in the next few weeks if i can get a post for term 3.

 

Good luck to everyone with the job hunting.

[wolvesaussie]

how come you are not fully registered with years of experience Jin

[starlight7]

Oh well done wisey. It is so good to hear positive feedback re the teaching profession and great that you are willing to share your knowledge. You are right when you tell people to look at the private schools- I believe it is very difficult for even locals to get into state schools. No idea why because there are a few dire teachers in the state system who probably need to move on.

[Sammy1]

Congratulations. I'm a science teacher and we came out here in Jan. Did VIT well in advance. Have been be to a course about how to get out of provisional status even with my twelve years experience. The recruitment agency were initially really supportive with adjusting my cv and my profile and contacting with any posts in the private sector. They are surprised that i haven't even managed to get to interview stage.Meanwhile my back up plan was CRT with a different agency. i didn't get any CRT until March and now only get one day a week. I went to Doveton for a day and it was horrendous. I was on yard duty and saw a commotion as boys were running in and out of the toilets. Realised that they were showing each what someone had "left behind " on the floor. the school had no white boards or any boards. It was open plan and i had students from other lessons walking in and out. I was glad when that day ended.

 

One of the things that i noticed here. Yes, CRT's teachers are treated badly by students like they would back in UK . It's also the fact that the students can't get their head round that a person of indian ancestry can have a British accent. This can get tiring.

 

Maybe if we had come out here later in the year i would feel a bit more positive about my work related experience but at the moment I think I would rather go back. Time will tell in the next few weeks if i can get a post for term 3.

 

Good luck to everyone with the job hunting.

 

My advice is to approach schools directly. If your recruitment agency is only getting you one day a week, then they are not doing enough.

 

Takes copies of your resume to each school and introduce yourself to the Principal or Deputy Principal. The schools receive lots of emailed resumes, you will stand out much more if you take the personal approach.

 

I teach full time, but have relief taught in the past. A school really has to get to know you and it is an opportunity for you to show them what kind of teacher you are. Relief teaching is a foot in the door and can lead onto short term contracts and hopefully permanency.

[Jin77]

how come you are not fully registered with years of experience Jin

Its to do with number of weeks on school placement during my teacher training PGCE.

 

I get the impression here, they want teachers to do fours years in their teacher training for example doing a masters.

[wolvesaussie]

how many did u have ? we waiting to hear back if girlfriend will be fully registered or not. cant remember now how many weeks she had think it was over the min requiement tho

[wisey26]

Thanks for taking the time to let people know exactly how you have found it on the ground so to speak - its always hard to get the solid facts from people who are currently doing it, and worth its weight in gold to people whom are thinking about it or about to do it (or trying to do it lol)

 

I will do a similar thing for Adelaide when we get back there and I've done my teacher rego etc

 

That’s great Pixie! I think it would be great if teachers on the ground could publish specific useful information and tips about their experiences in their various states of Australia that would be useful for people thinking about teaching there, which may help them save a lot of money, stress and mistakes. It certainly would have helped me make better decisions in any case if I had this type of information beforehand. I’d love to hear what Adelaide is like. I am also very curious about Sydney and NSW – I did want to give Sydney a go when I was considering where in Australia to live, but I gave up bothering trying to register as a teacher there because I found them to be so awkward – much more so than any other state - they have different criteria to all the other states and they would not register me as a fully qualified teacher and they said I would need to go through additional training in school to qualify as a teacher.

[Sammy1]

That’s great Pixie! I think it would be great if teachers on the ground could publish specific useful information and tips about their experiences in their various states of Australia that would be useful for people thinking about teaching there, which may help them save a lot of money, stress and mistakes. It certainly would have helped me make better decisions in any case if I had this type of information beforehand. I’d love to hear what Adelaide is like. I am also very curious about Sydney and NSW – I did want to give Sydney a go when I was considering where in Australia to live, but I gave up bothering trying to register as a teacher there because I found them to be so awkward – much more so than any other state - they have different criteria to all the other states and they would not register me as a fully qualified teacher and they said I would need to go through additional training in school to qualify as a teacher.

 

 

You are right about NSW. They have the most stringent requirements of all the states, especially with regards to primary school teachers. The units that must be studied are extremely specific in content and number. The salaries there are not that great either..

[wisey26]

You are right about NSW. They have the most stringent requirements of all the states, especially with regards to primary school teachers. The units that must be studied are extremely specific in content and number. The salaries there are not that great either..

 

Even Aussies are sick of it. Everyone else has a mutual recognition principle in place, but NSW have to be the odd one out. I dont understand it - they treat other teaching professionals from Australia and elsewhere like they are from a different sub standard teaching environment. I think their attitude is arrogant personally.

[wisey26]

Congratulations. I'm a science teacher and we came out here in Jan. Did VIT well in advance. Have been be to a course about how to get out of provisional status even with my twelve years experience. The recruitment agency were initially really supportive with adjusting my cv and my profile and contacting with any posts in the private sector. They are surprised that i haven't even managed to get to interview stage.Meanwhile my back up plan was CRT with a different agency. i didn't get any CRT until March and now only get one day a week. I went to Doveton for a day and it was horrendous. I was on yard duty and saw a commotion as boys were running in and out of the toilets. Realised that they were showing each what someone had "left behind " on the floor. the school had no white boards or any boards. It was open plan and i had students from other lessons walking in and out. I was glad when that day ended.

 

One of the things that i noticed here. Yes, CRT's teachers are treated badly by students like they would back in UK . It's also the fact that the students can't get their head round that a person of indian ancestry can have a British accent. This can get tiring.

 

Maybe if we had come out here later in the year i would feel a bit more positive about my work related experience but at the moment I think I would rather go back. Time will tell in the next few weeks if i can get a post for term 3.

 

Good luck to everyone with the job hunting.

 

Hi Jin77

 

I’m sorry to hear about your situation. But I must say every school is very different. In my school, one girl stood up in my interview lesson and said “I’d like to welcome you to our school sir” which I found very strange but very nice as well. and they were all very polite, pleasant and well behaved. And it was extremely well resourced – all students have laptops with wireless internet connectivity in every classroom. Granted, this is a private school, but try not to make judgements based on your experience in Doveton. Personally, for one day a week I wouldn’t be doing CRT work unless I had loads of savings, I would work in a different job. And lets be honest – as bad as your experience was in Doveton, relief teaching in some schools in the UK is worse than what you have described as your experience in Doveton, so to make a decision to go back on the basis of your work experience wouldn’t be sensible. I’d advise you to focus on private schools, you wont have any of the student or resource problems you describe.

Something does not sound right with respect to your registration. I came at the same time as you, I also have a PGCE, and I have 5 years less experience than you and yet I have full registration. I did a four year degree (one year was a placement year) and one year PGCE. But you only need a total of 4 years higher education – 3 year degree plus one year PGCE and a few years experience to get full registration. With a PGCE and your experience I’m very surprised you don’t have it. True, you need a minimum number of days in school teaching during your PGCE – I think it was 80 days teaching practice but I may be wrong and it might be more – but I thought all PGCE courses met this standard?

 

And finally I am surprised you haven’t found a job with your subject and experience. I have seen science jobs advertised regularly in the papers and elsewhere over the last few months. Is there some variable we are missing? For example are you restricted to only working in the Melbourne area and not regionally? Have you been focused and applying for work consistently since January or did you take some time out? Have you been buying The Age newspaper every Saturday and checking the teaching jobs section? Have you signed up with the different job websites (some of them are quite good). I dont' mean to be critical I am just trying to understand your situation.

[Del70]

Thanks for the interesting post.

It would be good to hear from some Primary School Teachers too.......... A couple have posted things on PIO, and it's always good to know about the problems and pitfalls. Lack of jobs seems to be the big problem!!

[Dorset]

You are right about NSW. They have the most stringent requirements of all the states, especially with regards to primary school teachers. The units that must be studied are extremely specific in content and number. The salaries there are not that great either..

 

I'm in NSW and spent a term as a temporary teacher. Despite 20 years of UK teaching experience, an MA and NPQH, unfortunately I have to go through accreditation with all the newly qualified teachers........

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[Emma132]

Thanks for taking the time to share, it's useful and encouraging to hear that someone has been successful!