NQT Experiences

Laura Sweeney - Newly Qualified Teacher

Laura received the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland's "Student Teacher of the Year 2006/07" award.

Laura Sweeney trained as a music teacher and gave very little thought to moving out of Ireland during her degree. However, once she was in to her PGCE year and began to look for career opportunities, moving to England became more attractive.

'My initial interested in Kent was kindled when a sociology teacher who had moved from Ireland to a job in Kent came to my university to speak about the opportunities there," she says.

The Job in her present school in Kent was brought to her attention by the Noredco agency that is now working for the Kent Teacher Recruitment Team and often represents it at recruitment fairs in Ireland. She was pleased to be offered the job at the interview and was able to take up her post in July 2007 before taking the role on a permanent basis at the beginning of the autumn term in September. As is very common, the actual decision to leave home was a hard one but the career opportunity she was offered outweighed any disadvantages. Although she was concerned about finding suitable accommodation, Laura soon teamed up with another new teacher from Ireland moving to the same school and they now happily share a house together. She has not found living in Kent to be overly expensive.

Life at her school has been very busy and she has found the students to be generally well behaved and enthusiastic about music.

"I have taken advantage of my school's proximity to the Bluewater Shopping Centre," Laura says, "and there are some very nice restaurants in the villages surrounding the area where I live ".

With London only 45 minutes away by train she has also been able to get there fairly frequently. She has been back to Ireland using the low cost airlines, and family and friends have been over to visit her in Kent.

Professionally, Laura has been pleased with the support she has received from her school and the LEA toward the completion of her first year in teaching. She has been on a residential conference, organised by the LEA, a music technology course and has enjoyed three days "inset" training at the school.

"When 1 came to Kent 1 had originally intended only to stay for a year," Laura states, "but I will now stay for at least a couple of years."

Malachy McGrogan - Newly Qualified Teacher

Originally from Belfast, Malachy McGrogan actually completed his degree in ICT at the University of Exeter before returning home to look for a teaching position. He found out about teaching opportunities in Kent via an advert on the Noredco website and a subsequent Open Day in Belfast where he met the head teacher of his present school. This initial meeting resulted in an invitation to travel to Kent for a more formal interview and a job offer quickly followed.

"Leaving home was a fairly difficult decision," Malachy says, "because I had intended to start my career in Ireland. However, I was determined to find work and coming to Kent gave me the opportunity I was looking for"

Malachy came to Kent in August 2007 and found accommodation using various websites including the accommodation pages on Kent's dedicated teaching website www.kent-teach.com. He has found the cost of living to be around the average he would have expected to pay in Belfast. He has quickly settled in to his school and has found making friends there very easy. He is enjoying the social life in Kent, has been to London by train several times and has made use of the easy links to France to visit Calais.

"I have been back to Ireland twice since September" he says, "once by plane and once using the ferry."

He is happy to report that his school has been very supportive with his professional development. He has regular meeting with the school's deputy head teacher and has been on courses arranged by the LEA. He has also enjoyed working with the school's students who have been well behaved and "for the most part, excellent".

Malachy is happy at his school and intends to stay there "for the foreseeable future."

Irish Teachers Ease English Schools’ Staff Shortages

Kathryn Torney, Education Correspondent for Belfast Telegraph

Newly qualified teachers from across Northern Ireland have been helping to combat the severe staff shortage in English schools.

Employment prospects for new teachers are extremely poor here with a recent survey by the NASUWT teaching union finding that only 25% of recent graduates had managed to obtain permanent teaching posts in Northern Ireland.

Medway Local Education Authority in Kent is one of the areas which actively recruits teachers from Northern Ireland. Sixteen teachers from Northern Ireland took up posts in the area last September. Among them was Noel Hawthorne, from Derry, who completed his teaching degree at Belfast’s Stranmillis College. He now teaches Technology and Design - a shortage subject in England - at The Robert Napier High School in Gillingham. “It is a very good school and I enjoy it,” the 23 year-old said.

Noel received pay for July and August as an incentive and the Council paid for his transfer across. “It was great to be able to start my induction year, rather than have to make do with supply work in schools in Northern Ireland,” he continued. “I applied for jobs here and went for one interview but didn’t get it. When I went on the trip to see the English schools nearly every school I went to offered me a job. One school even offered me a house for a year and another threatened not to let me out of the school until I signed on the dotted line!”

Catherine Simpson (23) from Lisburn, teaches eight and nine-year-olds at St Mary’s R.C. Primary School in Gillingham. She studied for her initial teacher training at Edge Hill College outside Liverpool.

“I graduated in 2002 and then came home to look for a teaching post but ended up doing supply teaching for a year, I must have applied for 20 to 30 jobs in Northern Ireland and didn’t even get called for an interview and then my grandmother saw an advert for teaching posts in England and encouraged me to apply. I was interviewed at the Wellington Park Hotel on a Wednesday and the head teacher rang me on the Friday to offer me the post. Teaching in St Mary’s has been a great experience and I’ve really enjoyed it. If my contract is extended beyond the induction year I would love to stay as I get on really well with the children and the staff.”

A spokesperson for one of the teachers’ unions commented: “As long as we have a surplus of teachers here in Northern Ireland, I think that newly qualified teachers should give serious consideration to at least completing their induction year across the water. Schools in England are crying out for highly qualified teachers. My concern is that that it is soul destroying for so many of our young people to spend four years preparing to enter the teaching profession and then find that the best we can offer them is a few days supply work every month.”