AIBU to be confused about how teachers' salaries are paid?

Primary teachers often work more as they don’t get the quieter weeks when year 11 finish, year 13 finish, work experience etc… but varies between subjects. I taught creative subjects which meant each key stage 3 class did a block of 6 weeks so I could reuse plans and adapt them to the needs of the class.
key stage 4 I would have two year 10 and two year 11 classes who again I could use same plans for.
Primary I think people have a belief that it’s all lovely- nativities, sports day etc…a disruptive primary aged child can be far worse than secondary as less resources, space , options and can be impossible to reason with
secondary behavioural issues are more intimidating and low level disruption is more common but primary schools really struggle to manage, move disruptive kids. And in secondary you’ll often have a couple of difficult classes but you won’t be teaching them constantly, so you’ll get the really nice classes as well. A disruptive kid in a primary school class can make every lesson difficult.

@MrsHamlet The unions are pretty rubbish in my experience.

@Drivingselfmad I am not disputing for one second both primary and secondary teachers work their socks off.
But having had experience of both I would say on average primary teachers work more hours.
Both work too many hours for sure!
All teachers are supposed to get PPA but realistically that doesn't always happen.

@Shinyandnew1 I'd say Primary work more hours as a general rule. They also of course teach across the curriculum which requires planning and don't have frees.

Who do you think works more hours?! 😜

@MyLimeGuide There is also a difference IMO between primary and secondary.

Primary school teachers frequently have to do a classroom swap at the end of the year- this entails moving furniture, moving all the books and resources, completely changing display boards, alongside doing any deep cleaning we want to happen. We can't safely do any of that with 30+ children in the room, so we spend the first week or two of the summer holidays doing it.

Yes, but that's only 1265 plus 40% = 1771 hours a year - still in line with or less than most professionals working at a similar salary

DH swipes in at work. At the end of the year they get data of their working hours. He does 140% on site. He also takes phone calls at home and answers emails.
His pay has been comparable to a teacher without the holidays, which is why people in his profession try to make the switch.
He doesn’t get overtime. When he has cancelled a/l or gone in on a weekend he sometimes gets a voucher 😂

Let's pretend that teachers only work the hours they are paid for (1265).

The average classroom teacher earns £40k.

That's £31ph.

Over 37 hrs a week, 52 weeks a year, that's £60k.

Is £60k a great salary for the mid-level of a career that requires 4 years of university level education?

That's a bit disingenuous, because 1,265 + 780-1,000 hours is roughly what most people work in professional roles paid at the same salary as teachers. So it's a fairly equivalent deal.

And the teaching contract says 1,265 plus the other hours necessary to do the role. You are not doing these "other hours" for free, they are part of the normal job role and in your contract.

But you're just describing a normal professional job. For everyone in professional roles the work is literally never done.

I would strongly encourage all teachers who can take a bit of a pay cut to go into tutoring.
It's been transformative for me.
Do I get paid any holidays? No.
Sick pay? No
Teacher pension? Also no.
Is it one of the best decisions I ever made for myself and my family? Absolutely.

Teachers are contracted to work 1265 hours over 195 days. So a teacher on £35k a year is being paid £27.66 an hour. If you then include 6 weeks holiday pay that would bring the rate down to £24 an hour. Most teachers on average work an additional 10 hours per week over their contracted hours plus at least 1 day per week in the school holidays. So now we’re talking around £20 per hour pay.
the average hourly rate for a cleaner in my area is £20 an hour,

It's ridiculous and something the unions keep banging on about when they are arguing for a payrise. It does them no favours as it's just so silly.

Teachers' salaries are set at an annual rate and they are paid the same amount every month. All the stuff about not getting paid for holidays or whatever is by the by, all teachers in Scotland will be getting their salary at the end of July even though many schools closed yesterday, just as teachers in England will be getting their salary in August.

Agree with every word of this! I've never seen a bunch of professionals who are slagged off as much as teachers since my DP retrained to become one after a career doing something else. It's been mind-boggling to witness.

And yes, the cons of being a teacher are constantly overlooked. My DP has missed so many school events for our DC because he's teaching other people's kids. He even missed a huge play performance because his school had parents' evening scheduled for the same day and that had to take precedent. He cannot take calls during the work day so it's left to me to sort out most of our life admin. He couldn't even take the call when his brother was rushed to hospital seriously ill. He works evenings and weekends on marking and lesson planning and he never has a single day off to himself because our DC is always at home during the holidays too. Every appointment for doctor/dentist etc has to be scheduled outside of his directed hours. He regularly wakes up on a Saturday morning to ranting emails from parents who think nothing of encroaching the slither of personal time he still has.

But hey, the holidays! 🙄

I am desperate for him to leave and return to his old profession, but he actually likes the teaching bit. He likes seeing kids make progress in their learning and achieving and exceeding their goals. If all the other shit went away – especially the entitled parents – he'd teach for life. Instead, he won't, and instead future parents can reflect on why past parents chose to slag off teachers instead of supporting them when their kids are admitted into 40+ classes because there aren't enough teachers to go round.

Do you put in 780-1,000 extra hours of unpaid overtime across the year? If so, then yes, your work situation is exactly like a teacher's.