Considering teaching in Devon?

You’d be right to – we’ve got plenty to offer you, from a beautiful location and active lifestyle to lots of support and opportunities to help you make the most of your career.

Dawn Stabb, Head of Education and Learning at Devon County Council, says: “Whatever sort of school you want to teach in, Devon has it; from the smallest village primary to the largest urban secondary. Our schools provide so many challenges for teachers who want to develop their careers in the classroom or take the first steps to leadership or management. And that is all set in one of the most beautiful counties in the UK with two coastlines, two national parks and an unsurpassed environment perfect for individuals and growing families.”

Making a difference

Emily Simpson-Horne, Head of English and Literacy at Dartmouth Academy, recently relocated to Devon.

“I trained as an English teacher via the Teach First route and worked for three years in an inner-city Coventry state school. I knew that I didn’t want to remain living and working in a city and wanted to relocate to Devon. When I began researching options for work, it quickly became apparent that there was a desire in the South West to make rapid, enduring change to the educational experiences that children had. This was hugely appealing; I knew that I wanted to work within a school and Trust which had, at its core, a commitment to supporting all children to reach their potential and overcome barriers that they face. School leaders here are committed to making the best decisions for their pupils and drawing on a range of secure, researched strategies in order to do so.”

Support to succeed – for both teachers and children

We offer good support for teachers here, with well-established federations, employer engagement, university links, multi-academy trusts, teaching school hubs and research school networks. There are creative partnerships both across and within phase so you’ll never be short of someone to network with, provide further training or seek advice from.

“There’s a shared desire to maximise collaborative opportunities in order to share best practice and provide the best possible education for the pupils we teach,” says Emily. “It has been a real pleasure to network with practitioners outside of my own school and build on the exciting things we are implementing. This is also a really fantastic network established in Devon between major trusts and their schools, which has a significantly positive impact both on practitioners and on the children they work for. There’s a clear prioritisation to invest in staff and retain them where they can have the maximum impact on the communities they work with.”

It’s not just the brilliant opportunities for teaching and career progression. The lifestyle has a lot to offer too. Emily adds: “I live a five minute walk from the beach; in terms of wellbeing, it doesn’t get much better than that for taking a few moments to reflect on a day.”

If you want to make a real difference to some of the 90,000 children in our education system, take a good look at our current teaching vacancies and start inspiring our children and living the Devon dream.