Teaching in NZ

[treefrog]

Hi there,

My partner and I are teachers and looking to move to NZ in the next 3-5 years (in the process of saving some cash!).

What's it like teaching in NZ? How does it differ to the English system? We're thinking of moving to either the Wellington or Christchurch areas. How easy will it be to find employment in these places? (I teach science and he teaches ICT).

Sorry for all the questions, I've read the official NZ teaching websites but the some non-sugar-coated info would be very helpful!

[jodieinchch]

All I can say that Canterbury is very difficult to get teaching jobs (from what I've been told here at teachers college)...

[ruthyroo]

hey ho

Mr Rr is a secondary teacher, currently doing relief. Top tips (and wild generalisations / bitter experiences) include:

Despite the much publicised shortage, it is pretty hard to find full time jobs in good areas / nice schools. As in the UK the shortages are generally in the rougher tougher areas and schools that are fairly challenging. Also smaller cities (like Chch and Dunedin) that have teacher training institutes are difficult to find jobs. Wellington and Auckland are probably the best bets.

Challenging schools in NZ are as challenging as they are anywhere. Don't accept the first job that comes up - try and check out the area / decile rating / management - though that is hard to do from the UK. You definitely want to look for a school with a firm senior management and decent discipline policy.

The main difference to the curriculum is that - there is no curriculum in NZ! Schools are very free to develop their own teaching programmes and somehow attain some mythical national standards by - I dunno - teacher telepathy or something... Try a search on the nzherald web pages for NCEA and NZQA to get an idea of the issues currently surrounding the assessment of students here.

Students - mixed bag as always. The general informality of NZ life can spill into lack of respect / distance between teachers and students. Fine if you are a buddy buddy teacher, difficult to adjust to if you are ingrained with the UK class system! Mr Rr enjoyed being more relaxed with students but found that left him very little to work with when he did need to discipline them. He has had some german students in his classes this week, and says the difference between them and the kiwi boys is startling, in terms of attitude to work.

Sport is king, academic acheivement comes second.

Contrary to what TeachNZ tells you about workload, you will still spending every waking minute working - evenings and weekends. That's just teaching

Will stop now and not put you off any more!!

just, don't think you are coming to UK on Pacific - everything is different - the system, the culture, the kids.

[jodieinchch]

Nope there is a New Zealand curriculum...theres one for each curriculum area. it's only for private schools where they don't have to follow them.

there is a clear difference between country schools and city schools too. in country schools there is often 'area schools' which means that there is a small number of children on the role, so classes are combined. in these schools focus is often also put on practical matters.

look on www.ero.govt.nz that is the education review office, which tells you about the schools.

[willsken]

hey ho

Mr Rr is a secondary teacher, currently doing relief. Top tips (and wild generalisations / bitter experiences) include:

This is something that is concerning me at the moment. I worry that I will find it hard to get a job in the area we are going to settle in. Is it easy to get relief work?

[ruthyroo]

There is relief work around but I suspect that it tends to be in the bigger cities. The system is quite different to the UK - rather than signing on with the local authority to do supply work you have to get in with the individual schools. Mr Rr basically touted his CV around a lot of the schools in the area when we first arrived and told them he was available. He has since built up a relationship with a couple of them and gets fairly regular work. But it's never guaranteed unfortunately.

Nope there is a New Zealand curriculum...theres one for each curriculum area.

When Mr Rr arrived in his first school it was like there was no curriculum - or rather there were zero teaching materials / year plans / etc and no one seemd to be able to tell him what he should be teaching, or what the standards were to be teaching to. I think this was more a reflection of the particular school than the 'system' itself - so apologies for letting my bitterness break through there!

[renew]

anyone got any experience of training to be a teacher in new zealand?
I am a physicist with an electronics background but cant see much in new zealand , especially outside of Auckland so I have been thinking of training to be a teacher in New Zealand.
Any advice greatly appreciated.

[jodieinchch]

I am in first year teacher training in christchurch at the moment. I had never gone through the UK system for teacher training, but from what I've read about, here it is more about the training for how to teach, what to teach, etc. and in UK its more about the theories behind it. This is purely from what I have read though. Ours is the last college of education in NZ (I think) and we are merging with the Uni of Canterbury next yr, so maybe then it will change more towards the theory based learning...?

[treefrog]

Cheers everyone! We were thinking of moving during the UK summer holidays and doing supply with a view to landing a job for the new NZ school year, which would give us a bit of time to check out the schools/get used to the curriculum.

I thought the teachNZ site was talking nonsense when it mentioned a smaller workload, i did make me wonder how much else on that site was, erm, massaging the truth a little!

[firstkings]

Treefrog,

I'm a physics teacher, about to start as HoD at Christ's College in Chch. The Head is also a physics teacher from the UK.

They have waited an age for me to arrive (not there yet...5 days to go!), because they couldn't find a suitable candidate for the job - Christ's is probably one of the most prestigious schools in the country. It's not because I am anything special, but that there must be a shortage of physics bods on the ground.

http://www.edgazette.govt.nz/vacancy.php?action=subscribe

will keep you informed about all teaching jobs in NZ. I subscribed for several months to keep my eye on what was happening. There seemed to me to be plenty of jobs in physics advertised, if one bears in mind the population size.

I didn't look at the other sciences as I'm rubbish at biology adn have only a boyish facination with chemistry!

Cheers

David