Teacher seeking HSMP help

[LindaElane]

I am a Maths teacher with 20 years experience attempting to get admitted to the HSMP.

I am not certain I can get enough points to qualify.

One of my central problems is the need to get points for five years in a "senior or specialist" position. Three will probably not be enough for me.

Can anyone look at this list and tell me if I would be likely to be seen as having met the five year as senior or specialist?:

1) I was Head of Department for Maths for 3 years. (I think this one will probably be granted.)

2) I worked as a "specialist" in Math teaching math classes for students who speak English as a second language. I had to take many graduate level college classes to do this, and was paid extra to do this. I did this for four years and it did not overlap my time as department chair.

3) I worked for two years as a "Geometry Team Leader". In my school, I lead a team of 10 Geometry teachers in decisions about curriculum and pedagogy. I was paid extra for this.

4) I wrote th curriculum for two of the courses our large district (City of Phoenix Arizona) teaches. This might count as "senior" or it might count as "Achievement" in my field.

5) I obtained funding and initiated a "Teacher Cadre" in my school. We met after school to discuss ways to improve instructional practice. Again, this might count as "senior" or as "Achievement" in my field, or as neither.


I would really, really appreciate any responses and thoughts about this!

The truth is, I'm really scared. I may need to resign my post before I can hear back about my application, or forfeit one year's severance pay. If I don't have the severance pay, I probably won't have the financial security to live in the UK while seeking work.

Thanks!

[amhilde]

Is your severance pay tied to when you tell them you are leaving the post, or are you being forced out in some other manner?

I was under the impression that the UK needed teachers- especially in maths, though this may have been rectified lately. Depends too on where you want to work- the inner boroughs of London are hurting, and could probably use your ESL teaching skills, but there is also the problem that plenty of London teachers currently cant afford to live in the capitol. Do you want to stay and work in London or move to another party of the country? Have you considered contacting some teacher specific recruitment agencies in regards to the openness and demand for teachers? They may be able to help you decide if this is a move for you or what the best time line would be. It may be that the recruitment cycle is over, or coming just coming up, and you should then time your application for the most beneficial time period.

The whole thing about the application is to make it look good and back up everything you say with hard, original evidence. Im not sure how they would call your potential specialist experience- but trying to get Achievement is, from what i have gathered here, extremely difficult.

Do you have a specific timeline in mind? This process is extremely nervewracking- im still waiting for notification of pass or fail and I cant plan anything until I know which way the UK is going to go. Its enough to make you tear your hair out some days.

PM me if you have any UK specific living questions!

[Cool]

First, let me state that I am still in the process of packaging my application so I'm pretty fresh myself but in my opinion, the starting point in applying for hsmp is possessing the right attitude/frame of mind. Do not be scared; refocus your mind on evaluating the criteria and seeing how many points you can justifiably claim. Go through the posts in this forum and you'll find much assistance already existing on the forum. All you need are 65 points and evidence that you can continue your career. That latter part about continuing your career is a walk over for you - there's huge demand for teachers, I hear!

Professions/careers defer but as far as I know, hsmp is not career specific. It therefore means that within the broad guidelines given for 'senior level positions', activities undertaken will defer.

Since your post was majorly about claiming senior level position, let's consider it:
Going by the over-28 guidelines, all you need are 5 years graduate level work experience with 2 years senior level included in the 5 years.
Head of Maths Dept for 3 years: I expect that to count. If the period during which you wrote the course curriculum falls into that period, the senior claim would be augmented.
Wrote the curriculum for 2 of the courses taught in your district: I would give a shot at claiming points for achievement. That should qualify under published work, I think! That would be 2 pieces of evidence for achievement. You need one more - read the guidelines carefully. Did you receive an acknowledgment from the Education Authority? If no other evidence at hand right now, you could consider getting peer reference as your 3rd evidence.

Having said all that, from what I've gathered, rules for senior and achievement points are very stringent (but aren't all the rules?!). Come on, give it a shot. Claim all the points you possibly can - reasonably!

Wrt resigning your post, I believe the general practise is to give notice of resignation. I'd suggest you wait until you receive hsmp approval before putting in your notice. Unless you've contracted to give very long notice, I guess you could take 1 or 2 months to sort that out before relocating - you'd have to process EC anyway

Wow, what a long post! Hope it helps.

[LindaElane]

Thanks so much for your help!

The "severance pay" thing is because I've been employed so long. They want to hire new teachers, who make about half what I do. So they are willing to pay all teachers at the top of the pay scale 1 year's salary, broken down into 500 a month for about 10 years, in order to move them out. Every teacher "at the top" is eligible for this, but you have to give them several months of notice if you are going to resign and claim this. You can, of course, resign at a moment's notice, but would not get the severance pay.

Thanks for the idea about admitting that one of the curriculums that I wrote was while I was department chair. I was not going to mention that, because I was hoping to get them to accept that I did five years as senior/specialist.

I am really interested in ways to make my work as a math teacher for second language students sound 'specialist'. I had to take a year's worth of graduate level courses in order to be certified to do it.

My other possibility is to take a delay in pay this fall, receiving the pay next summer (sometimes teachers do this rather than go without pay in the summer). This would probably put me over the 40,000 pounds, but I cannot be sure, it would depend upon what the exchange rate does.

[amhilde]

If you have to give several months notice for the severance then you could apply in your own time.After HSMP comes Entry Clearance which, as another American, shouldnt be too arduous for you. Now other threads on here describe this process in much more detail but the way I understand it is that when you receive HSMP clearance then you have X number of months ( three I believe) to apply for EC. After EC has been granted then you have X number of months (again, 3 I believe) to enter the UK at which point your HSMP year starts. So really, you could, upon HSMP approval, drag the process out a bit to suit your needs and not have to forfeit your severance pay.

Amazing what they do to teachers in this country- im over here in Nevada and they dont pay squat- especially with housing the way it is

[dokwal]

uk needs math teacher with british degree or native country experience

otherwise u will be un wanted or a teaching assitatant (if u r lucky)

i have seen maths teachers r working in call centre

rgds

[amhilde]

just having a quick review of the teachers union website and wow, its confusing. They have a job board and all, but given the education system in the UK, you may want to contact someone to talk about your options and potential. I think its the National Union of Teachers- check that website and perhaps call someone at their national headquarters and run your idea past them. You especially may bave special requirements for continuing teaching in the UK- as per one of the HSMP questions. Best to be on the safe side!

[buntosanya]

LindaElane

I just came across this post, i don't know if this information might still be relevant, but in case it does and you can still get this to read.

I will advise you visit the following 2 websites and some other websites, all you have to do is google search for 'Teachers recruiting Agencies'. Teachers are in high demand so i don't it think it will be a problem for someone from USA to get an agent and a sponsor for work permit for teaching appointments in UK.

Try the following websites, www.teachlondon.com and www.timeplan.com.

I don't believe you really have to go through HSMP.

Cheers