300 hours post qualification experience requirment for post primary teaching

Jane98

Hi,
As a NQT of Maths, I was delighted to be recently offered 7 hours teaching plus 2 hours resource teaching. The school I am teaching in is a very small DEIS school with very weak students and my classes are only an average size of 8 students.

I was delighted that I would be able to complete my 300 hours post qualification exeperience over the course of the year and was hopeful that having completed this would stand to me next year when applying for jobs.

However on reviewing the Teaching Council website around the 300 hours requirement I have now read that my hours will not count as I have less than 14 students in my class. Surely teaching is teaching?? I will probably work harder this year with this class as I will have my work cut out to keep them at ordinary level and away from foundation level compared to teaching a class of 20 strong students.

How do other teachers feel about this or have you had any experience in this area?

tangerinepuppet

I just about fulfilled the criteria last year, between my resource classes, two full-size classes and bits of subbing I picked up. I agree that you will be working just as hard or maybe harder with those small classes. The rules seem completely arbitrary, as do most of the Teaching Council's decisions. I can't offer any advice but I totally agree with what you're saying.

implausible

Does the TC have to know how many students were in each class? Who signs the form? If it's the principal, can s/he not be a bit 'creative' to get you up to the mark?

tangerinepuppet

deemark wrote: »

Does the TC have to know how many students were in each class? Who signs the form? If it's the principal, can s/he not be a bit 'creative' to get you up to the mark?

This is definitely a viable option. I've heard of it working many times. (Yes, the principal signs the forms.)

vamos!

Could you just present the form to the principal and see if they sign it. Maybe you didnt read the section that mentions the class size?;) Has anybody not filled ot out their form? Are there consequences? I never got p to anything signed and keep my TC fees up to date. I have just looked at my cert and Im still provisional even though my provisional status expired last year. Worried now that the TC will react badly if I try to put it right

headmaster

So, you're a trainee teacher and one of the 1st things you want to do, is to get the Principal to cheat. I really don't think teaching is for you.:o

spurious

Yet another stroke of genius from the TC - honestly, what world do they live in?

I could find them five students that would require more work out of them than a class of fifty and they would have the cheek to tell a NQT that those hours didn't count?

implausible

headmaster wrote: »

So, you're a trainee teacher and one of the 1st things you want to do, is to get the Principal to cheat. I really don't think teaching is for you.:o

I hope this is tongue-in-cheek. The OP didn't mention 'cheating'; a few experienced teachers however, have offered advice on how to get the school to facilitate getting the 300 hours.

And, from what I've heard from some primary teachers, most principals will sign off on the hours you've done as it's the only realistic way to get your Dip.

clartharlear

My principal happily signed off the 300 hours I had teaching classes of 14+ leaving cert students, but the TC rejected it because it was in the College of Commerce.

dory

Pardon the ignorance, why are 300 hours required? I thought you were a teacher after the Dip (PDE now). Is this an extra thing to be really really qualified?

clartharlear

I don't know how new it is - it was there when I did the PGDE in 2008. You also have to do the 300 hours in the 3 years after the dip. The Teaching Council only give you a provisional registration before the 300 hours.

Jane98

As the OP of this thread, I just wanted to state that I never suggested any cheating of the system.

My reason for posting was to try and find out the reason for the requirement to have at least 14 students in a class. I am interested to find out what other teachers think about this???.

Personally I think it disadvantages NQTs teaching in smaller schools and especially those teaching subjects which may not be very popular. For example, my second subject is Applied Maths which I know is not a commonly taken up subject and I would question how many Applied Maths classes would have 14+ students.

Any thoughts on or experiences with this?

MarionMcg

This is my second year out of college and Ive only got 30 hours experience so far. Thats mainly due to the fact I took an adult education job last year.

I totally understand that the teaching council want NQTs to demonstrate they can deal with large class sizes but its not realistic given that theres no jobs out there. You can lose your TC registration if these hours arent completed and then youre unemployable and have to start the process all over again.

I know the TC has reduced the requirement for primary school teachers so a similar reduction could be introduced for post primary if the jobs market doesnt improve over the next few years.

Avery

I did the PGDE last year. We had a lecture from the Teaching Council and the 300 hour requirement came up. People asked, given the job situation what would happen to their teaching qualification if they hadn't reached 300 hours after 3 years. The representative said that nobody would have to ever "re-do" the PGDE. They were open to explanations as to why the 300 hours hadn't been gained e.g. lack of employment opportunities/travel/family reasons and would extend the deadline where required.