Neil F.
About me
| Neil F. | |
| Music | |
| Music and Education | |
| Undergraduate | |
| 1988 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| School Improvement Adviser | |
| Wigan Council | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Education | |
| 2005 | |
| £18000 | |
| £60000 |
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A day in the life of a School Improvement Adviser in the United Kingdom
My career history
I left York in 1988 and went to London University to take a PGCE with qualified teacher status. I remained in London until 2005 teaching music and English up to A Level. I worked in five different schools during this time, each time moving for promotions. I became Head of Department (1991) then Head of Faculty (1997)after which I was promoted to Assistant Headteacher (2000) and then Deputy Headteacher responsible for Curriculum and Assessment (2003). In 2005 I moved to Wigan to become School Improvement Adviser for the Local Authority.
Courses taken since graduation
MA School Improvement/ PGCE / Postgrad in Processs Consultancy
Where I hope to be in 5 years
Before I retire I hope to work for another Local Authority as an Assistant Director or perhaps for Ofsted as one of Her Majesty's Inspectors or perhaps as a Director of a chain of schools.
My advice to students considering work
Get some real life work experience in your chosen field or shadow someone already doing the job you are keen to explore;
- Learn a language - we work in Europe and also important for the future to think beyond Europe into China and Japan etc;
- Do your homework on the organisation you are applying to before you apply
- Try and do a mock interview if you can with someone;
- Do a good CV and supporting statement and check it for accuracy - so many letters these days are rejected because of silly mistakes;
- Become adept at doing things like presentations, decision making tasks and those sort of recruitment tasks and tests that companies now like using. There are sample tests out there you can seek out.
Keep abreast of national developments by reading the Times Education Supplement and get to understand the different routes into teaching as well as all the other possible jobs related to working in schools and education. Make sure you have some relevant work experience with children and young people before you go into education related work.
Final advice is: work hard but play hard!
My advice about working in my industry
Keep abreast of national developments by reading the Times Education Supplement and get to understand the different routes into teaching as well as all the other possible jobs related to working in schools and education. Make sure you have some relevant work experience with children and young people before you go into education related work.
What I do
I work with schools and in particular Headteachers, to help them with self-evaluation activities such as lesson observations, monitoring of standards and other aspects of school leadership and management. I support schools pre and post Ofsted inspection and assist them in developing action plans to improve their schools further. I am also monitor officer for schools that are causing concern or that are in special measures. I am also in charge of assessment and moderation at primary level.
Skills I use and how I developed them
The qualification and subject were important in that I could not teach without being a graduate in the subject. I only got a 2.2 but nowadays a 2.1 is vital for teaching, as is some prior experience of working in a school, even if only as a volunteer before you apply for PGCE. You also need GCSE Maths and English and Science for Primary schools. I feel that having a York degree goes a long way with employers because it is recognised as a good university and part of the Russell Group.
Extracurricular skills:
- Ability to forge relationships quickly with people;
- Ability to form partnerships with other organisations;
- Ability to think on your feet quickly
- Ability to analyse data and make sense of it
- Communication skills -speaking to large and varied groups of people from all walks of life.
I think a lot of the above I have developed "on the job". Some skills have been developed via training in post or whilst doing my MA.
What I like most
I enjoy supporting schools to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people.
What I like least
Working within the confines of limited and ever decreasing government resources.
What would I change? I think I would have liked to have done a stint of working overseas at some point but did not really get the chance due to being on a fast paced career ladder.
Next steps...
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