Tackling recruitment for the new School Year – Spotlight on New Zealand and Australian Teachers

Did you know?

Schools in New Zealand and Australia end their school years in December. This means you can interview and appoint experienced teachers (during September to November) to join your school for the Spring Term. If your school or trust has the capacity to over recruit earlier in the UK School year, you can minimise problems with trying to get fully staffed after May 31st. Recruiting on the ‘off beat’ can have excellent long-term gains for schools. Over the space of 1-2 years you will notice your retention rates increase, as you are out of sync and not competing with the rest of the schools around you for the same teachers.

Registered Teachers from Australia and New Zealand can also gain QTS automatically. Read more here.

Save your school money by selecting teachers on the Youth Mobility Scheme. This is a two-year visa that can now be extended to a third year for Australian and New Zealand Teachers. This visa is now available to teachers 35 years or less. There are no hidden costs for schools as the teacher applies and pays for their own visa. Read more here.

In our experience the teachers on this visa are usually offered positions mid to late September (for January), as they are in high demand.

We tour NZ and Australia sourcing teachers

While the UK Schools are on summer holidays we fly to New Zealand and all over Australia to meet, interview and pre-vett candidates. Our trip includes visits to Universities, Information Sessions and 1:1 interviews with teachers that are already committed to making the move over in December to start a new job in January.

The three Directors at Point to Point are ex-teachers/school leaders and have years of experience in profiling and interviewing teachers (EY, Primary, SEN and Secondary).

Recognised and proud to have been preferred suppliers to the DfE (2018 – 2021) for the provision of STEM and MFL teachers. Meeting and exceeding DfE recruitment targets and compliance deadlines was something we did with pride and dedication.

Increasing and attracting more applicants to your school or trust

Many of our client schools have applied for and now successfully offer Sponsorship. This is not as daunting as it once was. It certainly opens you up to be able to meet and appoint teachers over the age of 35, and also from many other countries, such as South Africa, Jamaica, USA and Canada.

It is cheaper to apply for (and manage) your own license and takes less than an hour to do. https://www.gov.uk/uk-visa-sponsorship-employers/apply-for-your-licence

By doing it yourself, it would be £536 for the license and £500 for the priority service (10-day decision). Standard processing is approx. 8 weeks.

After that, the Certificate of Sponsorship for a teacher would be £239 and the immigration surcharge £364 (per year) based on a small organisation.

We also have a strong connection with BIC Immigration. They offer our client schools and teachers discounted rates and are very efficient and professional along the way.

The best contact to organise a free consultation is Dirk van Niekerk: dirk@bic-immigration.com (make sure to mention my name).

Timelines and Pace

We recruit all year round. This means if you find yourself in need of a teacher at short notice, we are likely to be able to introduce you to a suitable candidate within 24 hours.

When you receive a teacher profile from us it means they are interested in your school and location and are available for an interview.

We can book the interview the next day and you can decide within the following 24 hours. When you book the interview, the teacher is exclusively with you and your panel for that time, so you can make a quick decision. In this climate we cannot hold the teacher longer than 24 hours as they may miss out on other opportunities.

What does a teacher profile include?

You can expect to receive an introduction video, CV, references and a blurb highlighting the teachers background, experience, visa and qualification status.

It’s a great time to plan for 2025!

Email Carly; carly@pointtopointeducation.com to arrange an online Teams or to book a face-to-face meeting.

We look forward to working with you in the coming months.