Do you think teachers are paid too little?

Exactly. I didn’t leave teaching due to the pay. That’s ok. Not great if you’re not in the upper range, but it’s ok. I couldn’t go to the toilet whenever I wanted. Morning breaks were non existent. I barely had time to eat lunch as I had to work through lunch. You have to stay late for parents’ evenings and school events. There’s not enough support for children who are neglected/abused or SEN.

There is so much scrutiny so you can’t teach how you’d like to teach. You’re watched like a hawk and not trusted. It’s all a tick box exercise to make Ofsted happy.

That doesn't sound right. Is he in a union? (If not he should join one yesterday) He should check with them. I'm not sure what the rules are re pay if he's at an Academy, but I would've thought they couldn't pay him less...

Starting salary is fairly good. Main scale teacher, after several years who chooses not to move into leadership, etc - not so great when compared with other professions which require a degree and post grad qualifications, and ongoing CPD. We need main scale class based teachers. Not everyone wants to move into leadership.

Regardless of what individuals feel - teaching recruitment and retention is in crisis. This is very much the case in certain subjects at secondary, but is also affecting primary (previously seen as more able to attract teachers and keep them) these days. Why is this? Pay and conditions are clearly an issue.

And re: strikes

Pay hasn't risen inline with inflation, let alone additional rises, for years.
And now the Government aren't even funding most pay increases - so pay has to come out of school existing budgets.

Is it fair that our children will have less money for resources such as books and stationery because the Government won't fund schools accordingly?

I am currently not working, due to return shortly after a break partly forced by a move and by caring responsibilities, but also for mental health reasons caused by my job.

Ever heard of part time?

I don't hate teachers at all. I just get pissed off with their constant whinging and moaning and insistent that they face unique challenges and pressures at work, as if pretty much everyone else doesn't face the same things in one way or another.

It depends.

My ex's DD is on about 30k. She has a 3rd in Psychology and did her PGC because she couldn't find another job that paid more. No I don't think she's underpaid. If she sticks at it for a couple of years, gets some experience and shows a bit of commitment, then she'll be worth the money.

My dsis, 1st in Chemistry, then B.Ed, then M.Ed, plus 28 years experience, yes, she was underpaid for the effort she put in. Now retired and in her 70s but still doing supply for the local primary in an emergency.

Astonishing really then that so many of them seem to find the time to be commenting on MN threads in the middle of the day...

Ah gotcha, your education suffered because of the actions of other children and the failure of maybe a dozen or so teachers when you were at school. Now you hate all teachers everywhere due to your own bad experience. Explains a lot tbh.

Maybe you should use some of your initiative and fill in those gaps yourself. Hell, you could even spend some of that time learning a little bit about the subjects / topics you comment on before, well, commenting.

I am not sure they are paid a low wage for what the job was back in the day. I’m not a teacher and not spoken to any personally about the strikes but I wonder if part of it is that the job is different now. Children are so badly behaved that there should be danger money attached to the salary. Of course it’s not all children and I am generalising but often the badly behaved children are not tackled because the parents are pretty scary!

then there is def a funding problem so I imagine with a reduction in support staff and TA’s the job has become bigger.

I have seen how a one for all schooling model also means teachers have children in classes which doesn’t always work, often through no fault of the child or staff, and again this increases the difficulty of the job. We have enormous schools which we need to enable the funding model to work but then the staff pay for the fact that these types of schools don’t work for everyone and are increasingly hard to manage in terms of behaviour.

I think you’d be surprised by how much the situation has deteriorated in that time around workload. The number of pupils with SEN and mental health issues has shot up.

Recruitment has collapsed too. The number of trainees this year and next is actually horrifying. And of course the job of picking up the pieces of there not being enough teachers falls to those still in the job.

And you left four and a half years of pay cuts ago.

I left teaching because it was too little pay for the amount of work I was doing. It wasn’t necessarily too little for a reasonable lifestyle as I don’t live in an expensive city but the stress and long hours were not for me.

@Annabel073 my opinion is that bright, motivated people are attracted to professions where they are fulfilled, not just by the salary. However, I think the salaries of teachers and nurses are now beyond comprehension, considering the work they do.

Please do tell us what professions you think attract bright motivated people. I'm interested.

I think they are largely underpaid for what they are required to do. I couldn’t do it. If their wages aren’t going to increase then the workload should so they do fairer hours for the pay they do get.

@noblegiraffe 4 1/2 years ago.

That would vary widely depending on their individual qualifications, personality, interests, location, long-term life goals - I can think of many and I'm sure you could too.

But @Annabel073 is saying it has very little to do with the salary. I'd like to know what she means by this.

Its a good salary for the job i imagined teaching to be before I worked in school admin. Its a crap salary for the job it actually looks to be, now I have seen what its like in person.

@Annabel073 can you name a profession that you think bright motivated people more are likely to be attracted to?

Very few 'bright, motivated people' will go into teaching and that has very little to do with the salary.

Unfortunately yes, this is currently true - the current pay and conditions, and the state of the education system, means that exactly those people who should be going into teaching are not choosing to do so.

This is obviously catastrophic for the future education of the country’s children, and its long term prosperity.

What can we do about it? Improve job conditions, including pay, and really focus on putting in the political will, energy and funding to improve the education system.

Do you think teaching should attract bright, motivated people, or do you think that parents should be happy with their child having an inadequate teacher or no teacher at all?

No I was at school trying to learn, getting pissed off with bad kids misbehaving and teachers too often being weak and ineffectual in preventing them from disrupting the lesson.

Some of those, yes.

I think the current deal Scottish teachers have is probably about right although I think other ps workers should be brought in line with teachers

The holiday are good. But the contracts (in England) are shit as is the workload if done right.

So overall could be better

They are paid too little. Teachers are leaving the profession in droves & it will cost far more to replace them than to pay them more. 1 in 3 leave in the first 5 years. And the proposed pay rises are not funded. They have to come out of existing budgets.