Escape to New Zealand
I saw a thread on the TES 'Overseas Teachers' forum and thought the info about NZ should be 'pinned' for whoever it may help who can, and wants, to go there to get away from UK Supply. This is it:
11 | Posted by: The Tekka at 30 Jun 2006 10:51
Apologies for hijacking the forum but here's a response to pomsquared's request. Hopefully others might find it helpful too.
Moving to New Zealand to teach is not impossible and if you start fighting through the red tape early enough and keep yourself organised it's not that painful.
The best place to start is at this website :
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If you click on the \\"Opportunities in New Zealand for Overseas Trained Teachers\\" link you'll find lots of useful information. They are a branch of the Ministry of Education here in NZ and specifically target UK teachers. I first became interested in working in New Zealand after attending a seminar
they held one evening in Leeds. They often hold these across the UK to give information and allow people the opprtunities to ask questions.
Like getting into any profession in another country there is quite a bit of work involved but it is worth it and if you are considering doing this then you should begin this process now if you want to be in New Zealand to start a new job at the beginning of the acadmeic year, which is the end of January/beginning of February.
To work here you will need a work permit. New Zealand Immigration might not give you a work permit unless you have a job lined up. The other alternative is to apply for permanent residency. This is what I have done. To check out your immigration options go to this website :
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It's not very user friendly unfortunately. You can get in contact with the London branch and sort out immigration before you arrive or you might just want to do this when you get here. I had a good contact in London called Sam Foley. I'd recommend dealing with him if possible.
If you decide to apply for residency it does give you the option of staying permanantly in NZ and they will give you citizensip within four years, although I think that is changing to five years soon. As a professional you really will have no problem getting into the country to work.
You will need to register with the New Zealand Teachers' Council. This is their website :
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This is a bit of a long drawn-out process but it's not that painful if you are organised and start work on this early enough. To register you will need to have your qualifications assessed by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) for short. This means you will need to send your degree certificate and PGCE certificate to them. You also need to send transcripts of your degree and PGCE. This was a pain as I had to contact the universities where I was a student to have these sent to me and it took a while. Once you have all these documents you will need to pay a fee and they should send you an assessment report. It will be fine but it might involve you having to harrass them as they aren't very quick. This is their website :
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Again, unfortunately I don't think it's very user friendly. Once you have this assessment you can send an application to the New Zealand Teacher's Council. This is much more straightforward. You will need to include your registration certificate with the GTC and also a copy of your police record. You can get your police record by contacting your local police force in the UK. This costs 10 pounds and can take anything from 2 weeks to 2 months. The good thing is that you do not need to get a full CRB check.
Finding a job should not be a problem and you can apply directly to a school. All jobs are advertised on this website :
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Have a look under vacancies. It's not that different from the TES website in that you can browse or do a specific search by school and/or region. When you see an advert you can click on the \\"School Profile\\" link and it will direct you to the Education Review Office page for the school. This is their website :
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They are the equivalent of Ofsted but nowhere near as intrusive or with as much power. There are no league tables for schools here, thank god, but schools are given a decile number. This is a simple assessment of the wealth of the school's catchment area and will obviously reflect in the school's results and motivation of the kids. A decile 10 school means a wealthy area and a decile 1 means it's quite poor. This is worth thinking about as it will make a huge difference to how easy or difficult your job might be.
There is a huge reliance on foreign teachers here and the largest proportion are from the UK. The school I work in has about 35 British teaching staff and there is also a fair number of South Africans out of about 140 teaching staff. Secondary schools in the main population centres here are much bigger than in the UK. My school has 2,500 students. Don't be too concerned about being in New Zealand when applying for a job. I got my job when I was still travelling in Australia and it was a simple conversation over the phone with the Head of Department who offered me the job after 20 minutes. That is not uncommon and it might make you suspicious as to how desperate they school is but the shortage of good staff here means well qualified and experienced UK staff can be snapped up very quickly.
School life here is VERY different from the UK. The kids in my school, which is a decile 10, are very motivated and very polite. Although I'm sure this isn't the case right across NZ. There are no intrusive lesson observations, annual targets are a joke as are development plans and many schools prefer traditional methods of teaching (something which, ironically, I had to get used to). So in that respect they are quite conservative. Also many schools here are single sex (much more so that in the UK). Education is on a three-tier system of primary, intermediate and high. Many high schools here teach GCSE and A-level to the brighter students and the NZ high school qualification (National Certificate of Educational Achievement or NCEA for short) to the rest. This means that teachers with experience of GCSE or A-level are also in high demand. The schools which teach GCSE/A-level are increasing in number and they use the Cambridge International Exam board. There are no SATs thank god and most staff here look in horror when they are told about SATs, Ofsted and league tables.
There is a HUGE sporting culture in NZ schools (and society at large) and all schools insist that their staff participate in co-curricular activities. My school require you to do two. I was absolutely horrified at first by this but it's actually really cool. Because there are virtually no meetings (we have one per term) and because there are no ridiculous targets to meet and most kids are well behaved (in my school at least) it really does make a huge difference to your willingness to take a sports team or do some other activity. Schools are deadly serious about inter-school sporting rivalries. Make it clear in an application that you are willing to do co-curricular activities. Last term (10 weeks) I gave up five weekends to take kids out into the country for climbing, hikes and the Duke of Edinburgh Award. What a great way to see the country. Two weeks ago I went to camp with Year 9 and we hiked a volcano, went white-water rafting, went gorging, climbing, caving etc. The kids were great and thoroughly enjoyed it because they are used to the outdoors. I remember getting some kids in the UK to do anything physical was an absolute nightmare. Kids here are so much more independent and willing to explore. Really, just to say once again I thought it was too much when I first heard about this aspect of school culture here but now I love it.
The standard of living here really is much higher that the UK and people are not as flustered, rude or ignorant as many people in the UK are. I definitely made the right choice. This is an absolutely beautiful country and, whilst it can be a little too quiet at times, people are just so much more relaxed and they work to live as opposed to live to work as in the UK.
The only down side to working in New Zealand is the salaries which are far below that of the UK. Make sure you get evidence of your previous positions (a letter from your boss saying when you started and finished and if you were full time). Schools here honour UK service so you will not start on the bottom of the pay spine. With 7 years service in the UK I went straight to the top of the pay spine. The school year starts at the end of January and jobs really start to come up from September onwards. If you are coming from the UK and want to start work at the end of January then come over just after new year. You really need to experience the summer here. It's wonderful but bring your sun-cream and hat.
Well, I hope this has been helpful for pomsquared and anyone else interested in coming to NZ. My winter holidays have just started today and I now have two weeks off work. I'm flying to Queenstown to do a bit of skiing tomorrow and then off for a bit of hiking in Fjiordland National Park. Thinking of taking a quick hop over the Tasman Sea one weekend next term for a another visit to Sydney. I love it here and I have genuinely rediscovere my love of teaching and life. Hopefully you might too.
The Tekka
(Slightly smug and very content).
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