Where to teach in the UK as a first year teacher?

November 19, 2011 2:42 PM

What are your favorite places in England to live and work with a lower cost of living than London?

I'm asking for my boyfriend who is applying to teach primary school in England from January 2012 to July 2012. He's interested in teaching in the UK to get some experience teaching (its difficult to find work teaching in Canada at the moment), but is having trouble deciding where to apply for jobs.

Any recommendations of places to consider or regions to avoid?

From the research he's done so far he's considered Southwest England, Birmingham, the Midlands, and Kent/East Sussex. Also open to other suggestions.

Things that are important in his decision:
- Would like to be within 3 hour public transportation ride to Heathrow or Manchester airport (international connections to come see me in Norway)
- Lower cost of living is preferable, London looks to be too expensive
- Small to mid sized city

Thanks!

posted by snowysoul to work & money (13 answers total)

Edinburgh airport also seems to have connections to the same cities in Norway that Manchester does. Thee hours from Heathrow, Manchester or Edinburgh covers a lot of GB (apart from the westerly half of the SW, chunks of Wales and some off the beaten track places) so you might want to say whether he is looking for urban or rural and any other qualifiers.

London as you say will be mentally expensive, it might also be worth looking up the quality of any schools in London and other major cities that he applies for, not everyone is cut out for some of the rougher ones.
posted by biffa at 2:53 PM on November 19, 2011

Brighton (they have a good primary PGCE too), Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, York. St Martins in Lancaster has one of the best PGCE courses in the country assuming IOE in London is out. I don't know how the Scottish system differs, but Edinburgh is beautiful and buzzy. Also Glasgow.

The north is generally much cheaper than the south, if you want to take that into consideration.
posted by everydayanewday at 2:57 PM on November 19, 2011

Oh and I forgot Lancaster has one of the lowest costs of living in the country re rent/food/beer.
posted by everydayanewday at 3:04 PM on November 19, 2011

Didn't the OP ask about England? I.e. excluding Glasgow and Edinburgh?
posted by runincircles at 3:05 PM on November 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sheffield is cheap, it's friendly, it's pleasant and green, and it's like a city made of a lot of villages all stuck together. It has a large number of independent breweries, and it's right next to the Peak District so there's a lot of climbers and hikers around. I'm 20 minutes from the city centre here and 20 minutes from beautiful countryside walks with views for miles.
posted by emilyw at 3:07 PM on November 19, 2011

There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of towns that fit those criteria. Kent/East Sussex are in commuting range of London, so won't be a great deal cheaper. The South West is great, but unless you're talking about seriously rural areas, it's more expensive than the North, and, depending on exactly where in the South West mean, it can be a rather convoluted journey to LHR. Generally I would say look at the East Midlands or Yorkshire: Nottingham, Leicester, Leeds, York, Chesterfield, Wakefield, etc.

In particular though, let me be the third person to recommend Sheffield. Beautiful countryside nearby, very cheap by English standards, and MAN is a straight shot by train in 60 minutes. Here's a much longer answer I wrote last year about life in Sheffield. The schools are, on average, better on the south west side of the city.
posted by caek at 3:09 PM on November 19, 2011

Newcastle has much to recommend it as a city, great nightlife, decent culture, an international airport and is close to imho some of the finest countryside in England. Well worth a look!
posted by prentiz at 4:08 PM on November 19, 2011

Didn't the OP ask about England? I.e. excluding Glasgow and Edinburgh?

Three hours from Edinburgh airport would rule in a big chunk of NE England.
posted by biffa at 2:51 AM on November 20, 2011

I imagine the emphasis on England here is deliberate, on account of Scotland and Wales having their own education systems, but I'd agree with going north, away from London and the largeish commuter penumbra. I'd agree with caek on the general area that makes sense: A larger city like Sheffield is more likely to have at least some expats, so your boyfriend wouldn't feel quite as isolated.

My one tiny concern with heading north would be whether he'd be have trouble with broader regional accents, which is why I'm wary of recommending Newcastle, even though there are flights from there to Stavangar and (via Ryanair, ptui) to Rygge.
posted by holgate at 6:50 AM on November 20, 2011

Something to consider is that London will have lots of vacancies because no-one can afford to live there, similarly schools in the north will have far fewer vacancies because the cost of living is much lower. Somewhere in-between like Cambridge (1 hour north of London by train) might be a good compromise.
posted by Lanark at 9:41 AM on November 20, 2011

I live in the Midlands and it's OK -- I live in a fairly nice but expensive area with good schools. If there were a London train leaving my town right now I would be there in either 2 hours or 1 hour, 15 minutes depending on the speed of the train. I'm uncertain as to how long it would take to get to Manchester, from Birmingham (not too far) perhaps 2 hours, 30 minutes.

If you're looking for places to avoid in/around Birmingham send me a PM.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 9:47 AM on November 20, 2011

Cambridge, close to London so you can get there when you need to, much cheaper living costs.
posted by epo at 12:27 PM on November 20, 2011

Thanks for the answers and advice, I'll pass it on. The emphasis on England was deliberate as it will be much easier for him to find something in England rather than Scotland with the agency he's signing up. Cheers!
posted by snowysoul at 12:41 PM on November 20, 2011