Pay review body recommends 4% pay rise for teachers - government screwed

[noblegiraffe]

It is being reported that the teachers independent pay review body has recommended a pay rise of close to 4% for teachers. The government told it to recommend 2.8%. Schools can afford about 1.3% with funding increases, anything above that will have to come out of budget cuts.

If the government reject the 4% and go for 2.8%, both main teachers' unions have said that they will immediately start balloting for strike action. If any pay rise is unfunded, strike action is also on the cards.

This is not 'teachers demanding more money', this is the independent pay review body saying that teachers need to be paid more because the profession is underpaid and in crisis.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/strb-recomments-teacher-pay-rise-close-to-4-reports/

Precisely - supply and demand.
Except for train drivers who rake it in fir a cushy job pressing buttons and keep recruitment within their own ranks due to their powerful unions in bed with Labour.

The thing is there is demand for teachers and there are supply issues. But I guess once bus routes were cancelled people noticed ?

Schools go to great lengths to cover the cracks. I wonder if every time a pupil was in a cover lesson with unqualified staff or didnt have a subject specialist at gcse, they got sent home instead of muddling through, people would start to see.

Indeed and in other countries that is precisely what happens -happened to my niece and nephew in France.

But there's a supply and demand problem in teaching. One third of new teachers leave within 5 years. One quarter leave after 3 years. If any other workplace had such a retention problem there would be scrutiny and rapid changes. Constantly handing out bursaries and retraining new teachers must waste an extraordinary amount of money.

Work conditions need to change and that is a multi-faceted problem to solve. Getting rid of Gove's curriculum would probably be a start!

But teachers are understandably nervous of accepting a below inflation/pay board recommended pay rise because they spent almost a decade getting zero pay rises and capped 1% pay rises.

But still they do the job.
I have every sympathy having recently left teaching, but while people continue to accept the conditions nothing will change.

Long term it would decrease the employment costs for teachers. It may also allow greater investment in pay rather than benefits which younger teachers may prefer.

Controversial comment here... I actually think teacher pay is good once you gain experience and take on additional responsibilities. I'm currently on 55k, have 13 weeks holiday, and approx 24% pension contributions. So add another 20% on to my pay if we compare it to many 3-4% pensions in the private sector. My workload is also manageable as Ive been teaching for 13 years. Not many jobs enable you to earn close to 50k without significant responsibility. I think we forget that other professions have worse conditions. The main problem is whether or not you are cut out for it, as it can be a great or absolutely awful job, especially now pupil behaviour is so poor. I also find that many teachers haven't done much out of education, work wise, and therefore truly can't compare to other professions. They seem to think accountants etc have easy jobs. I've worked in warehouses, building sites, retail, leisure etc, and working in a school has been one of my best jobs in terms of environment. Another issue is the type of people education seems to be recruiting, as staff seem to be getting weaker, and a good trainee is like gold dust these days.

It's not the pay, it's the working conditions imho, teachers (can see from on here) are constantly complaining about working conditions/lack of support from SLT, would that entice you to join the profession?

But, once you reach a certain level that’s it. I reached the top of the teachers’ pay scale a while ago. I’m already a Head of Department. Improving my pay now means leaving the classroom. Which is a bit silly.

@Yomummy77 you're very much in the minority.
I taught for 13 years and recently left, top of the pay scale.
I've seen the job get harder, not trainees getting weaker.

It definitely is a difficult profession, and to be honest I wouldn't choose it if I could go back. I disagree, I've seen trainees get worse, as well as the job get harder. We had a 70 year old PGCE the other year as the university cannot give places away, and this was one I applied for 15 years ago and didn't get an interview, or does that say more about me 😂

Agree to a certain extent, but I know some head of departments on 60k. Not a bad wage at all. Loads of people I work with can't leave because they'll take such a big drop in pay. A step up into senior leadership and you're close to 70k.

Agree to a certain extent, but I know some head of departments on 60k. Not a bad wage at all. Loads of people I work with can't leave because they'll take such a big drop in pay. A step up into senior leadership and you're close to 70k.

It's not like that in the primaries I've worked at. You get stuck on UPS (£49k) and there's no scope for any TLRs or anything extra unless you're the head teacher or deputy.

Is that London? Or HoDs on Leadership scale. I’m HoD of English, UPS3 and I do not earn £60k

Or did the 70-year-old get through because it's against the Equality Act to discriminate based on age?

Let's be realistic. If there was competition, he wouldn't have got a place. Simple as that. Why would you invest time etc on someone who's going to retire in a few years, unless you had little choice. He also failed. Couldn't handle the kids, kept getting lost, and was nearly nodding off every 5 minutes.

Not in London. UPS3, with a TLR 1 max. So just under 60k. That's in a mid sized school as well, so department isn't the biggest.

Yeah, different in Primary. I get so many random roles which increases the pay. Earn 4k a year just on a couple of breakfast club and lunch duties. Also use to do the bookings for lettings. So there's a lot more opportunities. Primary is extremely difficult as well, don't think I could manage it.

Because legally you don’t have a choice - you cannot discriminate against someone on their age. Do you understand employment law? Age cannot be a factor - when someone might retire cannot be a factor when deciding who to employ.