australiphile

Hi everyone,

I am currently doing the PGDE Secondary French in Scotland. Last year I got to discover what Montessori schools were like and I really want to become a Montessori teacher. I contacted many schools in Australia and there's such a need for teacher that they were thinking about paying my tuitions to do the Montessori training in Italy. But then, I learnt that I needed a teaching qualification to be allowed to teach in schools in Australia, as you need to be registered through some kind of organism that is different in each state. That's how I ended up in Scotland, doing the PGDE which, I was told, was recognized in all the countries of the Commonwealth, so Australia too. I know that in England or Ireland, it is not called PGDE but PGCE. In Scotland they tell you that after your year at university you have to do a probation year. But with the PGCE in England or in Wales, you don't have to. I'm rather impatient to go back to work in a Montessori school so I would like to skip the probation year and do the Montessori training next year. What I would like to know is if I am going to be recognised as owning a teaching qualification or not, if I don't do the probation year. Am I going to be able to teach in Australia without doing the probation year? Or do you know if it would be possible to do the Montessori training next year and then to consider my first year of teaching in a Montessori school in Australia as being my probation year (as if I was postponing my probation year for a year)? Is it actually possible to do your probation year in a Montessori school? I hope I'm making sense here. English is not my native language and sometimes I feel like I can sound very confusing when I try to explain something a bit complicated.

Thank you in advance for your info!!!!!

roamer25

You're very confused alright.

There is a probation year in England, Wales and NI, it just has a different name and is managed slightly less - NQT year. In this year you are expected to achieve certain competencies before becoming fully registered as a secondary teacher in your subject.

You could not call a year teaching montessori as your probation year because montessori teaching is for under 12's and your qualification is for secondary, which is 11 +.

You can skip your probation year in Scotland but if you came back to teach French in the UK or Europe, you'd be paid on a lower scale to teachers who have completed their NQT/Probation year, sometimes called point 0, sometimes called the unqualified rate.
You would have to be observed and checked and basically made do probation then.

You can do your probation abroad, but it has to be in your subject and with the age group you studied to teach.

Montessori is a private qualification in the UK, with mixed recognition. As far as I know, the government does not require you to do probation in montessori after your montessori training. But you should double check this.

Why did you not do a primary PGDE if you want to teach to that age group?

australiphile

Thank you very much for your help!!!

I did the PGDE in secondary French because two years ago I was a teaching assistant not far from Dundee. At that time I didn't know anything about Montessori. I got the interview with the university of Aberdeen and ask if I could postpone for a year my entrance to the programme as I wanted to gain more experience and to improve my English! Then last year I was in Minneapolis, discovered Montessori, didn't want to do the PGDE anymore but wanted to do the Montessori training instead. I learnt that I needed a Teaching Qualification even to work in a Montessori school in Australia, it was June already (I didn't think that it would be a problem that I didn't have one because my sources about Montessori were coming from the USA where you dont need any teaching qualification.). So I thought about doing the PGDE first as I had a place waiting for me, even if it wasn't for primary (plus I was also working with 12 to 15 year old kids in that Montessori school so they were teenagers, the age of secondary students). As I said, i am just very impatient to work again in a Montessori school, even more in Australia! The good thing is that the PGDE training in Aberdeen is a bit special : it's (according to what they told us) the only university in the UK with Cambridge where primary students and secondary students work together. We only have one day for our speciality (French, for me), the rest of the course we are all together!

Do you know where I could check for whether or not I would need to do the probation year to work in a Montessori school in Australia?


Thank you again for your help!

roamer25

That doesn't really mean anything in terms of your qualification, nice as it may be during classes. You are still secondary trained and will be provisionally registered as such. Few countries view 'teaching' as a flexible qualification - most require at least an age and stage specification.

A simple google search came up with http://www.montessori.edu.au/default.php?menu_id=1

Looks like a logical place to start, no?

My mother and my sister are both Montessori teachers and it's rare to have secondary montessori, due to exam requirements taken precedence really.
If you look really into the method, you'll find current formative assessment and critical thinking agendas echo some of the montessori method and in my opinion, considering exam pressures, go as far as we can realistically go while still trying to produce good results for kids to get into university with.

We can't do it all!