Teacher pay

But they don't get holiday pay – they are only paid for directed hours across 195 days. Their salaries are stretched so they are still paid monthly though.

Thankyou to all the posters who kindly explained why you can't just repeat the same work year after year. I had no idea the curriculum kept changing. I just assumed the curriculum had been the same for decades 🙈

But they still get 7 weeks more holiday than me so 280 more hours of holiday a year? My point is that even if teachers work half of their holidays and do some extra hours every week, they are still only doing the same as a nurse or midwife.

There is also the emotional exhaustion comes with the nature of the job as well. A good teaching is energetic, deeply engaging and be on the toes ALL the time, to make sure most kids are following, involved in, to manage behaviours etc along the way… Even without the admin, marking and lessons plan, teaching itself is emotionally exhaustive. It is not just your regular desk job and teachers deserve to be paid and treated so much better!

So she gets seven weeks more holiday than you if you do a 40 hour week so 280 hrs. If she works those 280 over her 39 weeks at work that would be about 7 extra hours a week. From what teachers are saying that doesn't cover it.

So no I don't think a 60 HR week compensates for 7 weeks holiday.

To be clear I don't know how many hrs a week teachers are paid for, I suspect it is fewer hrs so the discrepancy is even worse.

They are home-schooled by someone who was taught by a teacher. Also they are born with the help of nurses and doctors who were taught to be nurses and doctors by teachers.

I can carry on!

Sorry, just realised you do state you also work some evenings... my bad!

9 hours a day - not bad! So you teach in the private sector? May I ask what subject and approx class sizes? If I found a teaching job where I didn't need to do any work in the evenings or weekends, I'd never leave!

Probably your aggressive and sarcastic tone? That might explain it. And yes, I really do think a lot of myself. Well done for having the ability to notice 🤭

@Holdonforsummer bless you. I’ve apparently been on holiday for the past 4 days (not counting bank holiday). I’ve actually been in schools for 3 of them, running exam clinics. So have v many others. I’ll break up on 23rd July, have 3 weeks to recover and then start writing the new SOW for next year. I’ll be in for both results day. So those holidays are not really days off - I probably get 5 weeks off.

Teachers don't get paid for holidays. They get paid for 195 days only but their salary is split across 12 months.

I don’t work 7 days a week nor do I work 12 hour days. I get to school at 8 and leave at 5 latest. Sometimes I work in the evenings (but it’s rarely marking; usually planning or data) but I don’t mind getting my laptop out and my husband works way longer hours at home than I do in the private sector.

I’m not saying teachers’ pay is amazing, but I get around 60k when you consider holidays and pension, and although I find my job stressful, it’s a good stress and surely would be the same in any other job of a similar level? I think in the right role and school, it’s okay.

And my husband earns twice what I do so my perspective of a decent wage certainly isn’t anything above national average. I’ll happily take a pay rise but equally I plan to climb higher to increase my pay myself

This.obvioisly they won't be informing you that your child is being taught Maths by the PE teacher, or Spanish by the Geography teacher (who knows not a word of Spanish), or Physics by someone who isn't even a qualified teacher (ie not attained QTS) but this is happening everywhere. Parents just don't know (and usually pupils don't know either).

@ridl14 ‘worked at a crazy pace through the day, all through lunch and tended to do 7.30-5pm.’

This is me! Other than results day, where as SLT I have to work, I do no work at weekends/holidays - but there’s hardly time to breathe during the working day. Not had lunch for years!

But you're assuming the holiday is actually 'holiday' (ie time off from work). This is half term and I've worked at least 20 hours this week (and will be working a lot of this weekend too). Just trying to catch up on marking and admin! The amount of emails I've had is ridiculous too. Sure, I could wait until next week to reply... but then I'm putting myself under even more pressure - I barely have a spare second in the school day as it is! Then, as soon as results day hits in Mid August, I'm basically back in anyway (I'm a Head of Department) - sooooo many questions from parents and pupils re results, data to analyse... for GCSE and A Level. Anyone who things teachers get all the holidays 'off' are very very naive.

At the moment your children will often be taught by any warm body a school can find. Teachers were told to ‘leave if you don’t like it’. And they have. In their thousands. Recruitment is so bad. Want a good teacher then you’ll need to make it a career that is attractive to graduates. Currently it is not.

This. Plus there is constant change to exam specs. For instance, OCR are removing Measure for Measure from its A Level English Lit spec at the end of this year, meaning I need to spent all summer preparing to teach Hamlet instead. Okay, I could wing it and do a terrible job, but I actually care about my students and therefore want to teach it well. Unfortunately, for A Level, this requires an enormous amount of work. Everything I've prepared and developed over the past 6 years on that is now irrelevant.

Not for those that are homeschooled. You can also say those teachers wouldn't have been born without the help of nurses and doctors. But another chicken and egg theory.

I’m not a teacher but work in a primary school and aware of their pay scales, they are paid enough and are looked after by SLT and unions.

of course I agree teachers do good work but at the risk of being controversial, surely they get paid to work 60 hour weeks during term time because they get so many weeks of holiday off? I am a nurse/midwife and get paid the same as my teacher sister (almost exactly based on FTE). I get 6 weeks of annual leave including bank holidays, she gets 13 weeks. So I assume she works longer during the term time to make up for the astounding amount more holiday that she gets. Otherwise, it makes zero sense?

Well ask the government that, they are the ones responsible for making decisions on public sector pay. I'm now £300 better off with the new pay increase, that’s annually not monthly.

I think if the wider public knew how bad things are in schools they would be horrified but there seems to be a general resentment towards teachers and our 'cushty' holidays or a smug attitude of "oh I wouldn't want to do your job"

This is so true. And not just in terms of the conditions of teaching jobs, but also in terms of pupil experiences. Schools obviously don't advertise how dire the situation is, but I know of schools where the pupils haven't been taught GCSE Physics by anyone with a Science degree... or who have had a patchwork of long-term cover for the past 6 months... or who are being taught Maths by their Drama teacher because there just aren't any Maths teachers... or who have been put together with two other classes (so around 90-100 pupils in one) and been 'taught' (supervised) in the lunch hall in place of their English lessons due to teachers' long-term absence. Unless the kids realise what's going on (school plays it down, and this is becoming normal there days) and go home and inform their parents, their parents never know. And in my experience, the kids rarely do.

I’m not a teacher but I think that their pay is ridiculously low fir what they do

My OH is a primary school teacher and absolutely agrees with this. He feels he's paid well but god he'd love some respite from the insane workload, behaviour issues and entitled parents who treat and speak to him like he's their paid skivvy.

Why would you think that I am angry at a random on a forum?
You do think a lot of yourself.