By Nick Hext
Nick Hext worked for 11 years as a sports journalist, latterly as football editor of a sports website. He is training with the Trinity Teaching School Alliance and will start his first full-time teaching role at Temple Learning Academy in Leeds from September.
There is no single designated route into teaching, so don’t believe for a second that you’ve left it too late if making the jump from another career. I’d been a sports journalist for 11 years when I swapped former Leicester City manager Craig Shakespeare for the better-known William Shakespeare.
It was a big decision to leave sports journalism after just over a decade of effort and great memories. The time was more than right, however, to challenge myself in a fulfilling environment where I could make a difference every day.
My biggest piece of advice is to get as much information and school experience as you can before signing up for teacher training. There are a variety of routes to consider and also subject areas if, like me, it’s teaching itself rather than a specific subject that has the appeal.
I’m currently nearing the end of my training to teach English (hence the earlier Shakespeare mention) and which subject to choose took longer for me to ponder than the overall leap into teaching. Unsurprisingly my prior knowledge of Rochdale’s home form or the qualifying criteria for the World Snooker Championship hasn’t been introduced to the GCSE syllabus. Yet.
It was my experience in journalism that helped sway me to English, and my previous career has definitely proved useful finding my sea legs in the classroom. There is an overlap with areas of the English curriculum and that has helped me to bring a different perspective to students in areas such as the media, creative writing and the spoken word. For example, a year seven class were able to engage in writing their own headlines about A Midsummer Night’s Dream — lots of their efforts putting the professionals to shame!
I started my journey at Get Into Teaching events in York and Leeds to get as much information as I could from Yorkshire’s teacher training providers. I also used this chance and the conversations that followed to organise three weeks of school experience in both secondary and primary schools. This was crucial to really conclude that I was making the correct decision.
It’s one thing to think about teaching, but you do have to peer inside a classroom before signing up. It’s good to get involved with the learning even if it feels a bit strange at first!
The Trinity Teaching School Alliance’s teacher training course has been my home this year. The main appeal for me was that a school-led pathway offered the chance to get in the classroom from the first week of term.
I’ve been able to enjoy superb support, a wide range of interesting sessions on issues across education, extended placements in three schools with contrasting ways of working — which I’ve found absolutely invaluable — and welcoming staff during my time in all of their classrooms.
It really is an individual choice for which training provider appeals to you. Do plenty of research, work out what is specifically important for you and you’ll have the necessary information to make the decision.
Once you get started, make use of all of the opportunities you are offered. I’ve found that experiencing a wide range of settings has been vital to determine my next step after training, especially as a career changer learning about education from scratch. For my first full-time role, I’m teaching both primary and secondary students at Temple Learning Academy in Leeds, an all-through school, which is going to be a brilliant opportunity to get students across all years learning.
Listen to all the advice you receive from teachers whose classes you stumble into. I’ve found them to be incredibly generous with their time, and implementing their feedback has been one of the most important aspects of my training. Slowly but surely I’ve learnt how to help students to get the most out of my lessons. This is invaluable, especially when you are trying to work why a lesson looked better on paper than it did in delivery!
Keep going and progress will follow. The hard yards have to be run, but getting on your teaching shoes could be the best decision you ever make. On your marks!
It’s never too late to change career to teaching. You can register on the Get into Teaching website to get personalised help and advice from an experienced adviser every step of the way.
