Career Pathway of Secondary Teacher

From as far back as I can remember I have always had an affinity with children, even as a youngster I would somehow wind-up being some form of child minder. Towards the latter part of my school years, I had created a great relationship with my science teacher who was both inspiring in his delivery and subject, I said to myself back then that it would be ‘pretty-cool’ to become a science teacher one day. Whilst working in the outdoor education sector I really came into my element, enabling young people to discover new abilities, traits they never knew they had and pushing them right out of their comfort zones to enable some truly spectacular learning opportunities. It was mainly school children that attended site and naturally would be attended by several teachers, it was in these discussions that I saw myself teaching.

Now, going from an outdoor educator to a classroom science teacher may seem like a huge step, however, during my career in outdoor education I had developed my skill set into the position of development tutor. At this point I was taking small groups of adults and delivering a two-week course, giving them the skills to work with young people in the outdoor sector, skills such as group management, pastoral care, session structure etc. I will go into deeper detail further into the essay.

Specific Requirements

The first step in becoming any kind of teacher is deciding what type of teacher you would like to be, and this relates to the age group you would like to work with. As I also want to teach a specific subject, I have found that secondary school is where I want to be. For me to achieve this I need to ensure that I have 4-5 GCSEs grade A*-C, 2-3 A levels and I need to have a degree, preferably in the subject area I would like to teach. Once I have all this as my base, I will need to complete a period of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) this can be done in the form of a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) to gain Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

Progressions and Likely Pay Scales

A career in teaching starts out in the classroom and from there depends on your own career goals, ultimately each natural step within the career path is a step up in leadership. If you are the type of person that is more focused of pastoral care, then perhaps having your own year group or become a year head will be your direction. In this position it will be your primary role to monitor the students’ well-being, manage difficult students and behavioral issues. You will need to create strong, trusted appropriate relationships with the students ensuring you follow a fair but firm ethos.

You could focus on the subject matter and delivery more deeply and thus aim towards becoming a department head, where you will become the main advocate for the subject in having an outstanding level of knowledge, become a team leader for other staff members and will control the financial aspects of the department ensuring that both students and teachers have all the required resources.

As mentioned previously each step naturally comes with a higher level of leadership which finishes with the headteacher and deputies. Where the deputy role is in supporting the head, the headteacher is of someone who has started teaching within the classroom, progressed with the school setting attaining more responsibilities and leadership throughout their career. In this position you will be a role model for all the staff within the school, pushing all those around you to do their best and to ensure a smoothing running of all departments.

During a career as a teacher not only will your salary be based of your qualifications and your experience but also on the position you hold within the school. When starting out you can expect anything from £25,000-£41,000 depending on where abouts in the country you are, the higher end will be a more London based school. For the more specific roles such as department heads, Deputy heads and Headteachers you can expect a salary from £47,000-£115,000.

Five Related Key Skills

There are going to be many transferable skills that someone like myself will have acquired from general life experience, therefore getting into teaching is one of the most popular second career choices. Here are five, of what I believe to be the most important, skill sets and where my ability in these areas is currently.

Excellent Communication and Interpersonal Skills for Working with Children, Other Teachers and Parents

This is not only vital in the respect of getting the correct information across to the students but also in ensuring you have a smooth-running day and in conveying information to parents about their Childs strengths and weaknesses. I have well established communication skill in this area, delivering safety talks to young people, relaying key information to parents and teachers and in my delivery of training courses.

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The Capacity to Learn Quickly

With improvements to teaching, subject knowledge and the vast array of learning styles teachers come across daily, the ability to pick new things up and learn quickly is paramount. Being able to adapt your delivery style to the individual needs of the students is, for me, a lot like taking a group canoeing. You will have some that will be able to pick up on how you say things and go off and just do it, some that will need to see you do it first and others that require more detail on a one-to-one basis. It is within a one-to-one that you will need to adapt quickly to ensure that the person gets the most out of the experience.

The Ability to Inspire and Enthuse Children

Fundamentally this is what every teacher should be doing, if you are not able to inspire and enthuse the young people about learning, then they are not going to be engaged or willing to do so. The ability to do this feel almost engrained within my personality, many times the young people I was taking out on hikes, bike trips or just had in my care did not want to be there. Without creating the right energy levels in myself, I would have lost the attention of those only half or not interested.

A Caring Nature and an Understanding of the Needs and Feelings of Children

Not all young people come to you from the same background, often those backgrounds come with specific needs and emotional care. It is important for a teacher to be able to identify when the young people are feeling up and feeling down, and it is important that these situations are approached with diligence and care. For a few months over the summer holidays the outdoor education would host groups of young people, without parents or teachers, and we would be responsible for their well-being.

Imagination, Creativity and a Sense of Humor

Having a good imagination, a great level of creativity and a superior sense of humor really ties all my previous skills together. If you go into teaching and are not creating fun and abstract ways to learn, teach, interact and assess. Then not only will the job become stale for you as the teacher but also for the students. Creating safety talks, session briefs and new games for the young people was the bulk of the job, and through doing so has widened my imagination, creativity and has subjected me to many different types of humor over the years.

Aspects of CPD

Teachers are encouraged by the school to actively pursue their continuous professional development (CPD). They will have specific working days where they are able so, in the form of teacher training days and will have access to regional training facilities ran by local authorities. Some key areas you will be encouraged to focus on are curriculum issues, new initiatives, pastoral care, special needs and subject leadership.

Once active in my role as a teacher I will be keeping a record of both sort and long-term goals to take control of my own progression. As it currently stands my long-term goal to achieve QTS and become a science educator.

The various steppingstone I have had to lay out before me consist of, getting myself back to a GCSE level of subject knowledge, gaining the correct amount of relevant A levels to gain a place on a physics degree, complete a 3-4-year physics degree and achieve either a 2:1 or a 2:2. The next step would be to complete my ITT either by doing a PGCE or whilst working within a school apprenticeship scheme.

Review

Before conducting this research into my chosen career path all I really understood was what I wanted to do and why I wanted to do it. The first thing you quickly realize is that there are many levels of teaching and that it is a wonderfully diverse occupation. Ranging across all age groups of young people and covering a vast array of delivery styles.

Coming from the outdoor education industry and heading into the nitty gritty world of a classroom-based teacher sounds more exciting than ever. Utilizing the ‘get into teaching’ key word and website has been a great starting point and branched me off into many other article and websites.

References

1. Prospects (October 2020). Specific Requirements and Skills. Can be found at https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profilessecondary-school-teacher [Accessed 19th June 2021].
2. Education Support (March 2017). Career Progression in Education. Available at: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/resources/factsheets/career-progression-education [Accessed 19th June 2021].
3. Department for Education (2021). Steps to Becoming a Teacher. Available at: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/steps-to-become-a-teacher [Accessed 19th June 2021].
4. National Careers Service (2021). Average Starting and Progression Salary. Available at: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/secondary-school-teacher [Accessed 19th June 2021].
5. UCAS (2021). Courses.
6. The Balanced Careers (November 20, 2020). Popular Second Career Choices. Can be found at https://www.thebalancecareers.com/10-great-second-careers-5088540 [Accessed 19th June 2021].