Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how much a head of department earns?

80 replies

Weallknowfrogsgo · 26/04/2024 17:56

In a school just in case that wasn’t clear.

dm’s friends daughter just got a role as a head of department in Greater London. Fantastic.

Had one of those convos with dm, you know the kind when the relationship is fractious and toxic and every other comment is a dig lamenting how successful X was v me. I was going to go into teaching but changed my mind. Basis of the dig

i think I’m doing alright, mid 30s earning mid 50s. Out of idle curiosity how much does a head of department earn, google told me about 45k but DM was insistent she was earning around 100k because ‘that’s what head of department earn’

OP posts:
NeverDropYourMooncup · 26/04/2024 18:06

No chance. She's made that up. It's around £60-70k for an Assistant-Deputy Head, which is Leadership Scale - a middle leader, which is a department head, is more like to be on or around £40-50k. Maybe a fraction more if they're in a very large, extremely well funded school and they're doing shitloads of extra duties on top of a huge amount of experience and great results at both GCSE and A Level.

So you now know she's an idiot and can ignore anything else that comes out of her mouth.

CormorantStrikesBack · 26/04/2024 18:02

My mum was like this, just used to smile and nod while internally chanting “you’re talking total bollocks”.

theresapossuminthekitchen · 26/04/2024 18:01

Nothing like 100k unless in some super-prestigious private school (and even then, very, very unlikely!)

Max basic salary would be ~£47k and then add ~£15k (absolute max) for HoD but only if HoD of e.g. science or possibly English/maths where they would be in charge of a large number of other members of staff (£8k much more realistic for a modest sized department).
Academies can pay more because they don’t have to follow the rates, but in practice most pay less!

cansu · 26/04/2024 18:00

Nowhere near. Head of a core subject around 50k if they are already at top of scale for teaching.

JacquiDaytona · 26/04/2024 17:59

Could be a huge range dependent on school. I work in a small school of 300 kids and our HODs have nothing extra than UPS salary, maybe a small TLR for whole school responsibilities like English and Maths.

In a bigger school, probably a TLR on top of UPS. London get a little more allowance.

a HOD in a school will get nowhere near 100k. Ever. Even a lot of headteachers aren’t on that.

Swipe left for the next trending thread