When deciding on what school to send your child or children too, analysing an Ofsted report will give you an insight in to how the school is performing in the eyes of the Department of Education. Schools that have been previously rated as Good by an Ofsted inspection will be rechecked within three years. There is often little notice to a school of an Ofsted inspection so that the inspector can get a real view of how the school is ran and how it is performing.

For a parent, an Ofsted can be a great insight in to a school and I would strongly recommend that all parents read these reports when they are issued if your child already attends or if you are thinking of enrolling them. Ofsted reports give an overview of the schools performance in different areas such as achievement of pupils, quality of teaching, behaviour and safety of pupils and leadership and management. These levels are then combined to give an overall achievement level.

Recruitment agencies offer a great service to those in need of a job. Whether this is specialized education recruitment services or just regular ones, the end result is that you can get yourself a job that will pay your bills and allow you to start enjoying life. In the end it is a basic requirement of society that we have a job and work to pay our way.

Recruitment agencies work in a simple system. They spend time looking for open vacancies in all manner of different working environments. These are stored in a database with the requirements of each post added as a keyword. At the other end of things you or anyone else looking for a job, will give them your details to enter into their system as a job seeker.

The database will search from both directions, as a new job seeker is entered, it looks for relevant positions and as a job is entered, it will look for a suitable job seeker to fill the vacancy. It is a great way to take the legwork out of finding a new job. Continue reading →

As a teacher, planning and preparation is vital to ensure the smooth running of a classroom. It is very hard to teach without having planned your lesson in detail and getting prepared any materials you will need.

Most teachers have a basic plan of what they will need to be covering within a term or half term and then on a weekly basis, split this down in to specifically what to teach within that week. You can often refer to previous lesson plans from earlier years to base your planning on but as educational targets and views change, you may need to tweak this each time you use it. There are also some great places to find resources to help you with your lesson plans and advice from other teachers on how to tech a specific subject in an informative and fun way.

Always ensure you have time put aside each week to go over the next weeks plan and double check it.

Ofsted stands for Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. Their job is to regulate and inspect all settings which are responsible for caring for children and young people or any educational setting.

When they come in to a setting they carry out an inspection to establish what level the setting is at for certain areas. These areas include: Overall effectiveness, Effectiveness of leadership and management, Quality of teaching, learning and assessment, Personal development / behaviour and welfare, Outcomes for children and learners and The effectiveness of early years and sixth form provision, where applicable.

Each area is given a score of 1-4 1 being outstanding and 4 being inadequate. If the setting receives a 3 or a 4 then they are required to improve their performance in these areas. A little while after the inspection takes place the report by Ofsted will be available for the public to view.

Twenty years ago, online courses started to pop up as a way to cater to students with non-traditional schedules and schooling. Universities quickly realised that with the right teacher at the helm, it would be possible for more classes and even entire programs to be access online. The flexibility of these classes allows students to learn around their own schedule, and creates a variety of new opportunities for teachers. With online teaching jobs, educators are able to reach out to more students not only in their country, but also around the globe. If you are considering taking one of these jobs, here are five things you should know.

Full Time Employment is Not Immediately Available

Seasoned educators will tell you that it may take a few years before you can teach full-time, online. Expect to start with one or two courses. Universities will determine your worth based on the number of students who pass your class and move on to graduation. Students will also be given the chance to review your performance and their feedback will be used by faculty to determine the future of your internet-based career. Continue reading →