APPLYING FOR JOBS – Academy or not academy? And saving pensions too...

I haven’t written for a bit because I have been in the full throw of filling out application forms. After many years out of playing this game, I found it was a much longer process than I anticipated -especially after my first full week teaching after so many days off. I didn’t really allow myself enough time and didn’t research as much as I would have liked or make my forms as impeccable and professional as I would have liked. It’s all a learning process and I know better for next time. Now is the time when most teachers look for jobs as we only have 2 weeks to give notice for a job starting in September.

The application forms were asking for full working history with no gaps and reasons for leaving. I am sure ‘reasons for leaving’ hasn’t appeared on my teaching application forms in the past. With a full working history of looking up my dates of pot washing and fruit picking, I knew that I would only be applying for jobs I REALLY REALLY wanted. ‘Reason for leaving’ can be a bit of a problem as there’s no way of making ‘got sacked’ look good even if it was 14 years ago; and how relevant is ‘pot washing’ to a teaching job? I get the kids to wash up. We will see how it goes because at the end of the day there is nothing wrong with the job I’ve got; it’s just that some days it seems like ‘existing and surviving’ rather than ‘enjoyment and excitement’.

After seeing the salaries available working in an academy, I began to do my research. Would I want to work in one? The answer is no. The academies are replacing skanky comprehensives and they look like something which has landed from Mars right on top of the comprehensive obliterating it. The unions are strongly anti-academy. I wondered why...it turns out there is no protection regarding teachers’ wellbeing and workload. Despite huge salaries being offered, they are not protected. They state that academies exist for monetary purposes not for the quality of standards in teaching and learning. They state the government wants to privatise schools so that they don’t have to pay for them.

Pensions

So after recalculating the way pension contributions are to be made, teachers will be making greater contributions for the same pension. I believe I would be paying £150 more per month for a pension I am expected to receive aged 68. £150 per month is quite useful to me so I am not contented to see it going on nothing. Most teachers too, have studied a minimum of 4 years so have substantial student loans to pay off. I have paid off my student loan which was probably due to me working 25 hours a week whilst doing a full time degree and the support of my parents, which not everybody has. However I do think this had an impact on the degree I got. Some of the teachers I work with have up to £25K student loan to pay off. After hearing of these increased contributions, I considered cashing in my pension but you can only do this within your first years of teaching. The NUT has a ballot to strike so that’s the action I will take. Our pay has been frozen, now pensions are threatened...if we don’t do anything what will be next? Take action and play with the pension loss calculator at http://www.teachers.org.uk/