It had become clear that secondary schools and I had had enough of each other, so I've called time on teaching - with nothing else lined up and the small matter of a family of seven to support.
My wife is changing jobs at the moment, from childminding to First Aid training, and neither of us is sorry to be moving on from jobs that were swamping us. We have no savings yet do have a peace about our situation; the reasons behind that probably belong on a separate thread.
My Plan A was to look for a role within education that's not on the frontline. So far my applications have met with 'you don't fit the profile'; after more than 20 years in the classroom I'm aware of my deficit of experience elsewhere. There seems to be exceptionally keen competition for roles that offer anything close to what I was on before.
So, Plan B is to do something I love and I'm good at, that won't require an interview. The bulk of my posts on OTF are in the crossword thread, and last Christmas my gift to the family was a set of customised puzzles - crossword, double acrostic, word search and others - that were well received. I'm wondering whether there's a market for this kind of bespoke gift, hence I'm seeking your unimpeachable wisdom.
The main issue is whether/what people might be prepared to pay for a personalised crossword. For comparison, it costs £25-£35 for a newspaper from a certain date, and the only other customised puzzle site I've found does crosswords only and charges £100. Generally crosswords and double acrostics take me 3-4 hours to produce, and the other puzzles take 1-1 1/2 hours; I hope it doesn't sound sniffy that I reckon I'm at least as good as the £100 setters.
Plan C is to take the offer of some short-term, minimum-wage temp work and see whether the puzzles idea gains some traction.
For a flavour of my work the embryonic PickaPuzzle Facebook page is here.
My wife is changing jobs at the moment, from childminding to First Aid training, and neither of us is sorry to be moving on from jobs that were swamping us. We have no savings yet do have a peace about our situation; the reasons behind that probably belong on a separate thread.
My Plan A was to look for a role within education that's not on the frontline. So far my applications have met with 'you don't fit the profile'; after more than 20 years in the classroom I'm aware of my deficit of experience elsewhere. There seems to be exceptionally keen competition for roles that offer anything close to what I was on before.
So, Plan B is to do something I love and I'm good at, that won't require an interview. The bulk of my posts on OTF are in the crossword thread, and last Christmas my gift to the family was a set of customised puzzles - crossword, double acrostic, word search and others - that were well received. I'm wondering whether there's a market for this kind of bespoke gift, hence I'm seeking your unimpeachable wisdom.
The main issue is whether/what people might be prepared to pay for a personalised crossword. For comparison, it costs £25-£35 for a newspaper from a certain date, and the only other customised puzzle site I've found does crosswords only and charges £100. Generally crosswords and double acrostics take me 3-4 hours to produce, and the other puzzles take 1-1 1/2 hours; I hope it doesn't sound sniffy that I reckon I'm at least as good as the £100 setters.
Plan C is to take the offer of some short-term, minimum-wage temp work and see whether the puzzles idea gains some traction.
For a flavour of my work the embryonic PickaPuzzle Facebook page is here.
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