Moving to England to Teach!

Skullion

Hi,

I'm seriously considering moving to England to teach English at second level. I'm a newly qualified teacher and there's just no hope of finding a job here.
The only problem is I'm quite clueless on England in general - like which areas would be considered rough etc.
As I'm moving country I don't want to go through a lot of turmoil to end up in an area where I'm unhappy, so I guess I'm looking for advice. I was thinking Kent (I know, I know, quite a big area) as there seem to be quite a lot of teaching positions available there. However I wouldn't be opposed to London itself. Can anyone tell me which areas to completely avoid and which would be nice areas to live and work? Ideally I'd like to be in a middle-of-the-road school; not disadvantaged/behavioural problems, but also perhaps not overachieving as there would be a lot of pressure for my first time teaching out of Ireland.
Also I'm unsure whether to look into bringing my car with me - would I have to pay to register it over there? And would it be worth my while or should I sell it and rely on public transport?

HavingCrack

This is more general advice than teaching specific but if you're able to get a job outside the south east in places like Bristol, Exeter, Manchester, Newcastle (basically anywhere outside the South East really and maybe Bath) you'll get an awful lot more for you money as regards cost of living.

rebel girl 15

Have a look on tes.co.uk - lot of teaching jobs listed there. You have to register as a free member, but it is worth it. If you are looking to know about schools, have a look at their OFSTED reports, google the school name and OFSTED and you'd get it. Any ones done recently can be fairly harsh, lot of previously outstanding classed schools and now being classed as good with outstanding features despite doing the same things