primary to secondary

Question: I would like to retrain from being a secondary school teacher to a primary teacher. Please can you tell me whether it is essential that I do a conversion course. There are only a few places in the country that do it and they appear to be very expensive. Could I gain experience through supply teaching and then apply for a primary position? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sean Russell, Jft's careers adviser, answers:
There is no regulation that prevents you working as a primary teacher; the same would apply if you were primary trained and applying for a secondary post. I once knew a school in Wiltshire who appointed a deputy head of a primary school to be head of English in a secondary school.

However, as your letter implies, you may want to get some experience first. There is certainly nothing to stop you taking the supply route either by contacting schools directly or signing on with an agency.

On the other hand, I'm not sure that working as a supply teacher would be the best way to gain that experience. You would need support, advice, ideally a mentor and unless the school is prepared to make this available to you as a supply teacher, which is probably unlikely, you may want to consider a more structured re-training.

If you have just completed a PGCE course, you could apply for a Primary teaching post, but the school would have to provide considerably more in the way of an induction and this would be unlikely. Perhaps it would be better to gain your QTS in a secondary school and then consider one of the TTA retraining courses as outlined below.

The Teacher Training Agency runs returners courses which would be appropriate for you. They run for between six and twelve weeks at various locations around the country and cover areas such as: the National Curriculum, use of ICT and classroom and behaviour management. They also include a supported classroom placement.

Further details can be found on their website, or by phoning 0845 6000993. The good news is that they offer training bursaries of £150 per week up to a maximum of £1,500 and also grants to cover child care.

Even better news is that the Department for Education offers even more money through its Welcome Back scheme. You will need to have Qualified Teacher Status, left the profession before 30th April 2000 and be taking up a new permanent or full-time post in a maintained school or non-maintained special school between 17 April and 31 December 2001.

£2,000 is available to you, or up to £4,000 if you teach a shortage subject. More details can be found on the DfES website or by phoning 01928 792022. It is important to check the most up-to-date information before you apply as details of these various schemes will vary. The information outlined above applies to England, do check with the relevant departments for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.