At Total Teaching we have a wealth of experience to draw upon from Headteachers and other highly qualified teachers which we are able to share with you on an individual basis.

No amount of general advice can ever be sufficient to cover the range of  different circumstances which individual teachers face, so our best advice is for you to contact us directly by e-mail or telephone to discuss your individual needs in confidence.

Our service can help with everything from Finding Your First Teaching Post,  Promotion to a post of Additional Responsibility, through to advising individuals on Application for Headship.

We often help teachers who feel frustrated in not getting the promotion they feel they deserve. We can check on everything which may affect your application including your Confidential References which in some cases have held some teachers back from the promotion their qualifications, abilities and experience should merit.

Do take a look at some of our general advice and then contact us with your individual enquiries.

Finding Your First Teaching Post

Our general advice covers:

     Help with finding a suitable vacancy

     Helping you to compose a letter of application

     Advising you on upgrading your current CV

        (Model CV available on request)

     Completing your application form

     Interview technique

     Salaries and Contracts

     Contacts for information on schools and

        local   authorities

     Registration with Job finding Services

Newly Qualified Teachers

Our advice and support continues when you have successfully completed your initial training and have begun your Probationary year.

Promotion

When is the right time for promotion?  When does experience stop being the number one factor? When do you become, "experienced"?

The obvious answer is that it depends on the type of promotion you are after.

Experience isn't everything but in some posts it counts more than others. Some establishments can afford to take less experienced staff and find the time to 'add value' whilst others need the finished article -so experience here would be paramount.

Perhaps one way forward is to send us details of the types of posts that interest you along with your CV and we will help you assess your skills, knowledge, attributes etc. against the job specs.

Don't let anyone tell you that you are too young, too old; lacking in experience, too experienced. You should be able to do that for yourself.

Senior management

The typical curriculum vitae describes qualification, experience, publications, and other scholarly accomplishments but often says very little about your teaching style or your personal strengths.

Artists, photographers, architects all have portfolios in which they display their best work. The portfolio concept can be adapted to education. A teaching portfolio would enable teachers to display their teaching accomplishments for the record. And, at the same time, it would contribute to more sound personnel decisions and to the professional development and growth of individual teachers.

What is a teaching portfolio? It is a factual description of a teacher's teaching strengths and accomplishments. It includes documents and materials which collectively suggest the scope and quality of a teacher's classroom performance. It is to teaching what lists of publications, grants, and honours are to research and scholarship.

An important point: the portfolio is not an exhaustive compilation of all of the documents and materials that bear on teaching performance. Instead, it presents selected information on teaching activities and solid evidence of their effectiveness. Just as statements in a curriculum vitae should be supported by convincing evidence (such as published articles or invitations to present a paper at an academic conference), so claims in the teaching portfolio should be supported by firm empirical evidence.

TEACHING PORTFOLIO
 

Teacher's Name
Department/School
Date Table of Contents
1. Teaching Responsibilities
2. Statement of Teaching Philosophy
3. Teaching Methodology, Strategies, Objectives
4. Description of Course Materials (Syllabi, Handouts, Assignments)
5. Efforts to Improve Teaching
    a) Conferences/Workshops Attended
    b) Curricular Revisions
    c) Innovations in Teaching
6. Student Ratings on Diagnostic Questions
7. Products of Teaching (Evidence of Student Learning)
8. Teaching Goals: Short- and Long-Term

9. Evidence from Ofsted Reports

Total Teaching can offer guidance covering every aspect of the application and interview stages.

Do contact us today at

info@total-teaching.co.uk

 or speak to one of our staff in confidence

on 01707 328637