The graduate teacher programme

[ohmyliver]

Has anyone done this?

I'm seriously considering it, but would like to find out about what its actually like

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Is this the 'train while you teach' Thing?

Yes, I am also thinking about this too...

 

[Diana]

You need to find yourself a school that is willing to have you teach very little in your first term and will then change their timetable around you in the second and third terms.

 

[snoogles]

My other half did it + it worked out well. They did quite a bit more work than PGCE students did (more teaching, but similar levels of written work), but got paid while doing so, hence no debt. He had no problems finding a job afterwards either (was interviewed for every job he applied for).

 

[scifisam]

My other half did it + it worked out well. They did quite a bit more work than PGCE students did (more teaching, but similar levels of written work), but got paid while doing so, hence no debt. He had no problems finding a job afterwards either (was interviewed for every job he applied for).

The GTTPs I've known have actually ended up with a fair bit less work, but I think it does depend on the school. I was really shocked to find out that, by the third term, I was teaching 20 hours for £6k per year, and the six GTTPs at my school were teaching a maximum of 12 hours for upwards of £18k. And they didn't have to do as many assignments! They had to hand in a portfolio, but so did we!

It is harder to get onto, though, so, generally, GTTPs earn their extra money and so on. It also takes a lot more effort to apply for, because you have to make personal applications to schools and then apply to a uni for the accreditation part - though it's unlikely a uni will turn you down if a school's accepted you.

Whenever a friend of mine considers training as a teacher, I always tell them to forget the PGCE, and go for the GTTP. Even if that means waiting longer and getting extra experience in the meantime. It's not only better paid, but gives you better experience. That will not only make you have more chance in getting a better job, but it will make you a better teacher than you would have been if you'd done a PGCE.*

It also has the not insignificant advantage that you get to choose the school you train in. On a PGCE, you can be faced with travelling 3 hours each way to a shite school with a useless mentor. You only get that on a GTTP if that's the school you choose.

*(PGCEs turn out lots of great teachers - but, IMO, they would have been even greater if they'd done a GTTP).

There is also TeachFirst, which is becoming much more widely available now; easier to get onto than a GTTP, but with most of the advantages of a GTTP. Look into that option too.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

From where I'm sitting I'd chew my own leg off before I'd even think about becoming a teacher...

 

[spanglechick]

From where I'm sitting I'd chew my own leg off before I'd even think about becoming a teacher...

some people like it.

 

[ohmyliver]

thanks.... very usefull info.... I did the big arts week in 2005 with a small state primary in Poplar... got on well with the teachers and the kids, and had a great time, even if it did mean traipsing around Tottenham ct road trying to find proper A3 paper for the kids final pieces on a sunday, and being forced to sit through the schools production of 'cats'... might contact them

 

[scifisam]

thanks.... very usefull info.... I did the big arts week in 2005 with a small state primary in Poplar... got on well with the teachers and the kids, and had a great time, even if it did mean traipsing around Tottenham ct road trying to find proper A3 paper for the kids final pieces on a sunday, and being forced to sit through the schools production of 'cats'... might contact them

That would probably give you good contacts in order to get onto the GTTP.

But make no odds - it is a really hard job, and it's hard to appreciate that till you're doing it. Same goes for lots of other jobs, though.

 

[chainsaw cat]

Do you have to be a graduate? I've got a post-grad qualification but I never did a bachelors.

Could I get into teaching?


Do they take 5a.m. wino types?

 

[scifisam]

Do you have to be a graduate? I've got a post-grad qualification but I never did a bachelors.

Could I get into teaching?


Do they take 5a.m. wino types?

Depending on the subject and the school, they might. Not for the GTTP, though; their programme has another acronym (I forget what), whereby you get a degree at the same time as teaching.

I've known three people who've done it, two by teaching a specialist sport in schools, having good teaching skills, eventually being hired as a permanent teacher and then put on this unknown-acronym programme; the other was a music teacher by a similar route.

 

[jbob]

Is this the 'train while you teach' Thing?

Yes, I am also thinking about this too...

If you're thinking about going back to teach in international schools, you're best off doing the PGCE as it is the universally recognised standard. In Austrailia, for example, they won't employ British teachers without it, regardless of their experience. I'm not sure about Asia, but I'd imagine it's much the same. Worth checking some of the threads on the 'overseas teaching' board on TES, there was loads on it not so long ago.

 

[-JUMBO-]

I trained for 4 years to become a teacher.....what do you think of my qualification versus a PGCE?

 

[treefrog]

I'm a PGCE NQT and the other NQT at work is a GTP. He said it was awful, and he should have gone for PGCE. The money works out roughly the same as the PGCE bursary isn't taxed, and GTP don't get the golden hello if you're a shortage specialist (£4k is nowt to be sniffed at!)

There's also the fact that your school might be like the one I work in, where GTP are treated like cover slaves and given a shitty time...

 

[scifisam]

I'm a PGCE NQT and the other NQT at work is a GTP. He said it was awful, and he should have gone for PGCE. The money works out roughly the same as the PGCE bursary isn't taxed, and GTP don't get the golden hello if you're a shortage specialist (£4k is nowt to be sniffed at!)

There's also the fact that your school might be like the one I work in, where GTP are treated like cover slaves and given a shitty time...

£18k (minimum) goes down to £6k? Eh?

But yes, it does vary a lot on the school. At the schools I've been at, the GTPs never got given any cover work (and neither did NQTs). In fact, GTPs and NQTs are technically never supposed to be given cover work - but it does happen.

 

[treefrog]

£18k (minimum) goes down to £6k? Eh?

But yes, it does vary a lot on the school. At the schools I've been at, the GTPs never got given any cover work (and neither did NQTs). In fact, GTPs and NQTs are technically never supposed to be given cover work - but it does happen.

just repeating what the GTP veteran told me. I got 9k untaxed as a bursary for my PGCE, and had a lighter workload and more training.

The GTPs at my school are treated like slaves, and both the former GTPs at my school have some real horror stories...

 

[scifisam]

just repeating what the GTP veteran told me. I got 9k untaxed as a bursary for my PGCE, and had a lighter workload and more training.

The GTPs at my school are treated like slaves, and both the former GTPs at my school have some real horror stories...

Ah, maths? I did an English PGCE, and got £6k.

£18k still wouldn't go down to £9k either.

For most of my PGCE, I was teaching 17 hours; the GTPs at my school were doing about 12. So I guess if anyone is going to do a GTP, they'd better research well into what the GTPs there say it's like!

 

[jbob]

It's 14k taxed for GTP, sam. It says here that it's variable, but most schools I've heard of unsurprisingly pay the bare minimum they can get away with.

 

[scifisam]

It's 14k taxed for GTP, sam. It says here that it's variable, but most schools I've heard of unsurprisingly pay the bare minimum they can get away with.

I'm pretty sure it was 18k in London.

Perhaps I've just know lots of really lucky GTPs - but at least it proves that they do exist.

And, to be fair, a PGCE isn't exactly easy either. Financially, that minimum £5k difference (though it would usually be more than £5k, since most subjects don't get £9k bursary - from next year I think the bursary's going up, but people will have to start paying tution fees), is pretty significant. It wouldn't get taxed very much at all, unless perhaps the guy had a really well-paying job in the earlier part of the tax year or something.

The GTPs I've known have all started their first jobs on M2, as well, even if they didn't have teaching experience prior to the GTP year.

So I accept that it isn't as much better than the PGCE than I thought (grass is greener and all that), but it is still quite a lot better.

So, ohmyliver, if you really want to go into teaching then this is a good route to take.

 

[jbob]

I'm outside London, so you may well be right. When I was looking into it, the minimum 14k was on offer. It was highly competitive to get onto, and seemed variable in quality depending upon the school. I guess one thing you can say about the PGCE is that as it's split between lecture hall and work experience, you're more likelyto get a standardised training package, whereas the GTP is wholly dependent upon the particular school that's running it.

 

[scifisam]

I'm outside London, so you may well be right. When I was looking into it, the minimum 14k was on offer. It was highly competitive to get onto, and seemed variable in quality depending upon the school. I guess one thing you can say about the PGCE is that as it's split between lecture hall and work experience, you're more likelyto get a standardised training package, whereas the GTP is wholly dependent upon the particular school that's running it.

It depends partly on the uni that runs the accreditation part of the GTP, too; about half our PGCE sessions (at UEL) were shared with GTPs, and when one of them was being treated terribly at her school, our tutor stepped in to remind them of their legal responsibilities.