If you're a teacher how much do you earn?

[Sefty]

Apologies for the intrusive question but what I can find online seems to differ from what I'm sure I've read on here a few weeks ago. I'm considering retraining as a teacher but not sure if my degree is relevant enough to quality for any kind of training degree. I have a 2:1 degree in Communications from a good university.

I have friends who are teachers, admittedly they are heads of departments and have been in the role for almost ten years, and are on pretty high salaries, £50k plus. This is central London.

I know I'd be starting from scratch but is this kind of salary typical after working your way up?

I'm in Scotland and the top of the pay scale for a teacher is £36,480. A head teacher could reach £88,056.

Here you can find the pay scales for England, Wales and London:
www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/pay-pensions/pay-scales.html

OH is teacher - 5th year qualified. £28k. Not much scope for much more increase without taking on far more work and we don't see the point in that as he already spends bloody ages at home doing planning at wkends. He loves the teaching hates the beaurocracy and probably wouldn't have chose to retrain if he had the choice today.

I'm HOD. 47k. Two lots of FT nursery fees don't leave much change though

I was a teacher for 4 years and on about £24k (not central London). 50k is probably what an experienved HOD in London gets but not everyone gets to that position (otherwise who would they be managing?)

Depending on the subject you might get a training bursary. Mine was £20,000. After deductions I was actually paid more during my training year than any of the 3 years I worked full time as as teacher

My partner is M5 so, about £32k.

I'm a HOD, teaching for 14 years. On just over 38k.

Also, we don't take home as much as other people on a comparable salary because of pension deductions. My take home pay is £2500

It’s hard to move up the pay scale now, especially at some schools. I’m on m6 and anticipate staying there for some time- school can’t afford our pay rises so give us ridiculous appraisal targets that are impossible to meet.

Not much scope for much more increase without taking on far more work

That's the problem, actual teachers who just teach earn a pittance. The high wages that are often quoted mean less teaching time, more admin and responsibilities.

The main problem is with teaching - you get “stuck” at the top of a scale. Unless you are happy to be on SLT you are topped out in the late 30s range of pay. If you take on management responsibility another 4k for a tlr.
I don’t know anyone on over 40k unless they are senior leadership. You have to go into leadership if you want the good money.
Also once you are expensive you sometimes get managed out as nqts are cheap. Tis a tricky one.

I'm top of the pay scale after 22 years but no additional responsibilities due to being part time. Pay if I was full time is c 38k gross.

Thanks for the link @JennyBlueWren does anyone know what the "L23/ L24/ L25" numbers mean?

Leadership

I know I'd be starting from scratch but is this kind of salary typical after working your way up?
There's inner and outer London weightings for teacher salaries. The rest of England and Wales is lower.

Out of London £50,000 is more a Senior Leadership post in a secondary school than anything else, unless you are top of upper pay scale (so over 10 years in) with the highest TLR for leading a large department or faculty.

I wouldn't be going into teaching with the view of getting a 50k salary. Over 50% of new teachers leave within 5 years, at which point you're looking at about £28,000 if they have no leadership roles.

There are progression routes available, but i would make the decision about retraining based on being a mainscale teacher.

I'm on m6 £35,000 ish and I'm 26 so not bad. I don't really want any additional responsibility as I want to focus on family so might be on this now for a while.

@bobfosil4 you have the right to disagree with your targets, it's supposed to be a discussion which you both agree.... if it's unattainable you should say that.

Currently only working part time, but I'm at the top of my pay scale with 16 years experience, leading 2 subjects, so I would be on £32K if I worked full time. Not central London.
Definitely don't do teaching for the remuneration.

My friend is head of science in an inner London school, and another is head of languages at an inner London academy so that probably explains their high salaries?

I wouldn't be expecting to earn that kind of salary I just didn't actually realise it was possible and it made me think as they have both been teaching less than 10 years.

20 years experience, top of the pay scale, smallest tlr for smt role available earning £39k

Go and spend time with the age range you want to teach before applying for any PGCE course. You might find that teaching is for you or isn't. You really need to research what subject you would be able to teach at secondary too. To be honest, if you think that you are going to spend 9 months training to walk into a 8am-3pm job earning 50K you might be a bit surprised at the reality of teaching.
Best of luck with your job search.

Russell

Do you want to teach primary or secondary? What A levels do you have?

If you want to earn the higher salaries you will need to be willing to take on significant additional responsibilities. If money is important to you then I’d advise you to look at secondary. Secondary doesn’t pay more in terms of mainscale teaching but promoted roles in secondaries tend to be higher paid from core middle management upwards, largely because secondaries tend to be larger organisations. The headteacher of an average sized primary could well be on the same salary as a deputy head in a large secondary.

41k
M6 inner London

L7 (main England scale) as HoD, plus £1000 for additional work with the local teacher training course (5 days a year) and also the option to earn additional £2000-£2500 if I do exam marking which I didn’t do last year as the weather was too nice to stay inside and mark So around £50k in the north/Midlands.
Qualified 6 years ago.

Fat fingers -should say £38K

Oh I know that @Russell19
In reality, when you want to keep your job when people are on capability or being disappeared left right and centre... you just nod and smile and take the targets. And then you think what a pushover you are