ANDREW HASLOP

Job title: Geography teacher

Age: 32

Where are you from? Whitehaven. I grew up near Summergrove and moved to Moor Row six years ago.

Where do you work? I am a geography teacher at West Lakes Academy, a secondary school in Egremont. I teach 11-18-year-olds.

How long have you done the job? I have worked as a teacher for eight years. I completed my newly-qualified teacher year at Whitehaven School, then worked at Southfield school in Workington, before coming to West Lakes Academy five years ago. I was made raising boys’ achievements co-ordinator two years ago.

Take us through a typical day: I arrive at school between 7.30 and 8am where I make sure all my lesson prep is sorted for the day. This includes printing and sorting out textbooks, etc.

The official school day starts at 8.30am when tutor starts. This is where the class gets registered and any notices for the day are read out. The first lesson of the day begins at 8.40am. We teach six 55-minute lessons a day.

When school finishes at 3.30pm there might be departmental meetings, where I meet with other teachers of the same subject to do lesson planning or analyse assessment data. I could also have a year group meeting, where I meet with other tutors and the head of year to identify any issues with students in the year group.

There are also after-school inset sessions which we take part in for our professional development. There are also many evening events throughout the year such as parents’ evenings and open evenings.

Most evenings I will also spend time lesson planning and marking books.

What do you like most about your job? I absolutely adore working with young people. I am really passionate about sharing my knowledge about geography and the wider world with children in West Cumbria. Seeing the excitement on their faces when the learning sinks in is thrilling.

I love how every day is different, with a different challenge. Young people are also really funny and keep me entertained. The summer holiday is an added bonus after a busy school year.

What do you like least? Teaching is a really hard vocation. During term time we work long hours and it can at times be stressful but this is offset with getting to work with young people and changing lives through learning.

What jobs have you done previously? My first job was at Woolworths. I was 16 and had just completed my GCSEs. I worked there while I completed my A-levels. I loved working there and I am still in contact with many of my co-workers from this time.

During the summer holidays while I was at university I worked at Summergrove Halls. Here I worked the bar in the evenings and helped to serve food through the day. I wasn’t great at waiting on as I once dropped a bowl of soup over one of the guests. After that I was only allowed on clean-up duty.

Once I finished my geography degree I started working at Whitehaven School as a cover supervisor. Even though I knew I wanted to be a teacher (originally primary), working at Whitehaven School made me want to become a secondary school teacher. I absolutely loved my time there.

Why did you want this job? Teaching is something that I have always wanted to do since I was 12 years old. I never really wanted to be anything else.

I wanted to be a role model that students could look up to, especially those who didn’t have a male role model at home. I wanted to help develop students to be good people and improve their skills and knowledge so that when they leave they won’t only just be successful in their job but in life.

What qualifications or experience do you need? There are many different routes into teaching but you do need a degree (mine is in geography) and a teaching qualification. There are many different ways into teaching. Mine was through a PGCE qualification. Other routes are, Schools Direct, the school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) scheme, Assessment Only route and the Teach First course. To get on to one of these courses you will need some experience in schools. I could not recommend this anymore - the more experience the better.

What is the typical salary for this job? The starting salary is £23,720. This can go up each year until you reach £39,406. To move up each pay grade each year you need to pass your performance targets.

You can also get a higher salary if you take on extra responsibilities. This could be as head of a subject or a whole school responsibility such raising boys’ achievement co-ordinator, which I am. If you move up to senior leadership your salary can significantly increase.

Any advice for people wanting to get into your profession? Teaching isn’t for everyone so I’d advise you to get some experience in the type of education you want to do (primary or secondary) and spend time within a department and in lessons before you apply for a teaching course.

Understand that teaching isn’t just a job, it’s about making a positive impact on a young person’s life and future. It can be the best job in the world but it can be tough. Be 100 per cent sure that it is something you want to do before you start your training.