To already be fed up with teachers/eduaction workers posting about their long holiday!

[Freshlysqueezed]

Facebook is swarming with people saying how much they deserve it and other people patting them on the back. It seems like the world and his wife are in education or SAHM's with 6 glorious weeks ahead of them. Apart from a one week holiday I have a juggling timetable of various childcare arrangements to run to and fro from.

wideopen -just that, the salary isn't pro rata.

So in real terms, a teacher salary of 25k is worth more than that because they get 12 weeks annual leave iyswim.

£25k / 40 weeks (worked) x 47 weeks (standard in other jobs) turns into a salary of more like £29k iyswim?

soup lots of professions get bitches about. I think people are however more likely to notice comments about their own. I know I have a tendency to pay more attention to anything criticising my own profession than others, only natural.

I don't think many if any professions are criticised in the same way as teaching is.

I disagree, different criticisms perhaps but same level and same damage to morale for those being criticised.

I think Health Visitors and Social Workers get more than their fair share of criticism. Very few MNers have anything nice to say about them.

No I still think that teachers get more stick and bile than just about any other profession, sorry.

Agree with sooty, because everyone has been to school and therefore knows everything about teaching and how it should be done.

JadeJaderson

But it is unpaid leave.

Jade, but the teacher gets £25k in their pocket, not £29k, so I'm not sure what your point is?

It's not a difficult concept surely?

My salary is £25k. For 47 weeks a year. A teacher's is £25k. For 40 (39?) weeks a year.

Yes, we get the same money in the bank but as a teacher is working less weeks than me, their salary in 'real' terms is more. If i only worked 40 weeks of a year, my salary would be pro-rata'd down.

I can't believe 2 days later this is still going on...

I understand what Jade means. If I saw I job advertised as £25k p/a I would assume that person is working for the full 52 weeks of the year (less normal normal levels of annual leave ie approx 25days). If you advertised a teacher's job as you would most other jobs, you'd gross up the salary to approx £29k pa (with the knowledge that it was being pro-ratad down to the salary the teacher actually receives due to the additional time off).

It's not a 'difficult concept' no Jade - but what's your point? That teachers ear too much and their salary should be less, or that their salary should be advertised differently?

So, Jade, you are pissed off because a teacher is on a higher daily rate than you? It's irrelevant as they still only get £X to live on.

Jade

Teachers get paid for 39 weeks spread out over 12 months. It isn't pro-rata it is for contracted hours worked.

It is not pro-rata because its full time hours on full time pay, not part time hours on pro-rata pay.

I'm not pissed off

I'm clarifying a point I was questioned on. I don't think teachers salary should be pro-rata'd down or advertised differently. Just that it's something to bear in mind when talking about the...value/benefit of a teaching role...that the salary is actually 'better' for hours worked than would initially appear.

Jade has been very complimentary about teachers and hasn't said they should be earning less. This thread is full of people missing the point and arguing against things which were never said in the first place. Apart from a few trouble-makers at the start nobody is saying that teachers should be paid less or should be made to work more. All we are saying is that you get a very good salary with some wonderful perks (as with many other jobs), which is great and you're entitled to that and we don't begrudge that in itself because we all have perks of some form or another in our job...but taking all this into consideration, it doesn't sit very well with us when we mostly hear negativity from teachers and stories about how hard you have it, because we (as a generalisation) don't do the same, or certainly not to the same extent.

2 points:
First The salary is equivalent to £29k. If I work two days a week and earn £20k - yes I only earn £20k in my pocket so less than my colleague who is earning £50k!!! BUT she is working 5 days a week, not 2. Not a difficult concept.

Just as I can do something else with my "free" days, (other work, childcare, hobby, money-spinning crafts...), so can teachers. (I have teacher friends who work over the summer running summer holiday clubs, tutoring, doing paid walking holidays in Italy ... etc)

Teachers work their hours, they work hard and do a good job. They are paid for their hours - not for doing nothing over the summer. Don't be so resentful. I am sure you al get paid for the hours you work, whatever thy may be, and you all take holidays.

Secondly - other professions DO get criticism. In fact it is horrible the way people speak about social workers, doctors receptionists, health visitors, any HCP, estate agents, letting agents, bankers - to name but a few.

that the salary is actually 'better' for hours worked than would initially appear.

Can you quantify this? how many hours do you think that teachers work?

For my contracted contact hours my rate per hour is very good, for actual hours worked its about half (possibly less) of that.

Yes, we get the same money in the bank but as a teacher is working less weeks than me, their salary in 'real' terms is more.

I see what you are saying, but if you compare the actual hours a teacher spent working over the year, rather than the contracted hours, then they would come out much the same as a 9 to 5 job.

Yes the hourly rate is better if you look at the contracted hours of 9 - 3.30.

Sorry - just seen Flat's post - agree - other professions don't tens to say how hard they work all the time.

I was a letting agent for a while. (Wouldn't expect much sympathy on here though!). I worked so very hard. I arranged appointments after hours, I returned items people had left in houses, I did my absolute best for desperate tenants and worried landlords - but everyone works hard if they are that sort of person - whatever job they are in.

Flatwhite put it perfectly.

Already are posts...it averages out to a 9-5 with all the extra work, hourly rate isn't very good considering actual hours.

It's just tiresome. I know many wonderful teachers and am grateful to those at my dc's school that have done such a wonderful job.

But the constant bleat of stressful job/underpaid/taking work home grates.

Teaching is a decent enough profession to get into, in most cases adequately paid (IMO) and with some lovely perks. Some bad bits and stresses, just like every other professional role.

I wouldn't hurt to hear some teachers say it now and then.

JadeJaderson

"But the constant bleat of stressful job/underpaid/taking work home grates."

The constant bleat is not a bleat,whine, moan etc. it is teachers explaining how the job works.

TBH, you wouldn't get the "bleating, whining or moaning" if people didn't post such bollocks about the job.

If it's that great, why aren't people queueing up to join the profession? Why are so many teachers quitting?

Jade - I don't say it because I haven't ever been a doctor/lawyer/estate agent and therefore I am not in any position to make accurate comparisons.

DH is a management consultant. Across the year, we probably work very similar hours. His are constant and mine are split up into shorter intensive bursts.

His perks include a car, a massive bonus and expenses if he has to travel or stay overnight. Mine include being able to leave school at 3.30 if I choosd and scheduling my own evenings to finish work, long holidays and the joy of working with the kids I teach.

He earns 3x what I do.

I would not be so arrogant as to assume I know what other jobs involve. That's why I get so pissed off on these threads. Why does anyone who is not a teacher assume they know exactly what a teacher does and how they feel at the end of the summer term? In exactly the same way, I think it's arrogant for others to assume they know exactly how a doctor/midwife/chef feels.

Well said Boney and noble

Personally speaking I wish every teacher and TA plus other school staff a fabulous summer. You deserve it.

My DS has really struggled this year but he wouldn't have achieved half the things he has without the amazing teachers and TAs who support him so well.