So, back at the whiteboardface and I get an email yesterday from my old Head of Department at the boys school I did my teacher training at; she gave me the heads up about a job opening at a school that has a lot of potential- Head of Art at a grammar that is needing to be dragged into the modern age. School looks good, sensible policies about workload, good way to ease myself in to being an HOD – which I never thought i’d want to be – so all-in-all very promising.
BUT… the school is located in a small town that appears to have little that appeals- an hour away from London, one cinema, post-war estate housing, below Conference-level football, without a Wagamama, FIVE times smaller than where I live now. To further my career and possibly have a more satisfying job I would need to put my life outside work aside. I’d be living solo in a town that doesn’t even have a John Lewis. How would I survive???
On a more serious note… Moving to this new place would not be like exchanging hope about my personal life for satisfaction in my job, but at times over the last couple of days it seems like that. I think the small town is the sort of place that would be great if you’ve got a young family but for a single person I don’t know how much there is on offer. If I lived there would I come to regret moving for the sake of my job and then start resenting the job?
Anyway, I figure it would be a good challenge away from the norm to apply and see what happens. Trouble is, i’ve already been recommended to the Deputy Head by my former boss. Urk. However, as Leia Ewok Village says, “interviews are a two-way process” and she is totally right. Even if I did get offered the job I could turn it down and take the experience and confidence from it, gaining something that I might not have done if I don’t apply.
Argh to such decisions…
