'Forget about the money'

How should new teachers go about choosing where to teach? Stephen Mccormack offers some advice after a year in the classroom

So, you've nearly made it through your training year. You've almost finished your teaching placements; you've passed those QTS tests in literacy, numeracy and ICT, and you're ready to embark on the real thing: being a full-time teacher.

The first thing you need is a job for next September, and if you're still in the application or decision-making process, here are a few tips, based on what I think should be foremost in your mind.

First, forget about money. In choosing where you'll start your career, do not be swayed by financial considerations. Go for a school where you think you have a good chance of being comfortable, well supported, happy, and not unfairly overworked. These factors far outweigh any small benefit you might derive from an extra pay point or two negotiated from your first head teacher. Lots of schools will offer to start paying you from July or August, which sounds attractive, but it shouldn't influence your judgement on whether the school will be right from September onwards. If you're comfortable with all the really important factors, then by all means exploit your rarity-value, but not the other way round.

The best way to find out about a school is to work in it. So, look for, and act on, evidence from your teaching practices. Many NQTs end up teaching in one of the schools where they did their training placements, because this will have given them valuable insights into how the place works, how the students behave and how teachers are supported. Others, equally wisely, steer clear.

If you haven't worked inside the school that you're considering, do your best to talk to teachers who are currently there. Ideally, seek out an NQT or two and ask them what their experience has been like during their first couple of terms. Have they found life tolerable? Did they quickly feel part of a team, and were the more experienced teachers ready with constructive advice?

Sometimes that advice will take the form of tips on classroom management or short cuts on marking. At other times, an experienced teacher might just say to a newcomer: "Go home and put your feet up. You've done enough for one day." The important thing is that NQTs are not just left to survive alone without professional, moral and emotional support. Another factor that is worth investigating: are other NQTs starting at the same time as you? They will form a valuable group of friends and source of support.

You might, in the course of your inquiries, discover that there's likely to be a large teacher turnover at the end of this year. This may be evidence of staff unrest. But it might be that teachers in the school are highly thought of, and routinely progress to jobs with more responsibility elsewhere.

It's also worth discovering how the school more formally looks after its NQTs. Are there regular time-tabled sessions with mentors? Are NQTs routinely sent on professional development courses? These can be helpful for the content, of course. But they're also good just because they get you out of school to mix with other new teachers from nearby. A chance to swap stories and advice can be a reassuring experience.

Consider where you would live. Too close, and you'll be seeing the children far too frequently outside school hours: definitely something to be avoided. But if you live too far away, your journey might be too complicated, too tiring or just too long. You might try the journey in both directions at the appropriate times of day.

Once you've made a choice and accepted a job, there are a few more things you should find out before the summer holidays, because a little targeted reading or preparation over the summer can save a lot of time, and hassle and late nights come October and November.

Last year, for example, I found out exactly which sixth-form book I'd be teaching from this year. Over the summer, I slowly worked my way through it, doing the examples and making sure I understood everything. This helped enormously, and saved valuable lesson-preparation time.

You'll want to know, as far as possible, which year groups and sets you'll be teaching, and have a look at the relevant schemes of work, so that you can start planning a few lessons. Let your mind work subconsciously on the material for a few weeks.

Discover if you'll be taking charge of a tutor group in September. Most NQTs get one, and there may be some paperwork about the little darlings that you could look at before you walk into the tutor room for the first time in the first week of September.

This is beginning to sound like I expect you to spend all summer sitting at a desk wading through paper. I certainly don't. In fact, one of my most important pieces of advice is: have a decent, relaxing holiday before the beginning of the autumn term. You'll need to build up all the reserves of mental, physical and emotional energy that you can, because they'll be sorely needed once the term starts.

Some people say the first full year teaching is easier than teaching practice, but most, and I'm one, think it is far harder. There are some advantages of leaving the training year behind. You have the status of being a "proper teacher", which has an effect on how you feel and how kids react to you. You will probably have your own room, and will quickly get to know exactly where everything is. This is far preferable to the frequent lot of a trainee: traipsing around from room to room with books, pens, board rubbers and half the kitchen sink weighing down a plastic box.

However, in brutal workload terms, your demands will soar. A near full timetable, with the marking that goes with it, tutor group responsibilities, report writing, parents evenings, meetings and more bits of paperwork than you ever thought possible.

It all adds up to an existence that will feel all-consuming, that will take over much of your life for the first year, and severely test your resolve. But there are rewards. Kids can be great to be with and richly enjoyable to teach, and I've found colleagues fantastically supportive and fun to work with.

The writer, a former BBC TV news reporter, gave up his journalistic career after 20 years to train as a teacher. He completed his training last summer and has been teaching for one year

education@independent.co.uk