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?

OP, I just went quite far into applying for a Teaching Training. I gave a 1st degree in Art and Design.

The 'Get Into Teaching' website is great for support and information. They assigned me a mentor for application before I'd even put my name in a form. They have excellent phone support too.

I did a day 'School Experience' at a local teaching School in my subject which I enjoyed.

Ultimately, I decided not to continue with my application because I wanted a part time training course and my nearest provision was 2 hours away.
There was no funding at all for my subject.
Also, my current career took a step up and I needed to commit to it 100%.

Have a chat to Get into Teaching. Your degree may well be suitable for some subjects. There are also subject retraining courses for subjects similar to your degree. For instance, I could have trained further to teach Design and Technology.

I wanted a change and am passionate about education. I just don't think I was ready to give up what I have now. Good luck to you though.

I have worked in teaching and comms. On my general impressions (not very scientific) I would say comms is less hard work for more money. Teaching is a vocation, not just another career choice, in my opinion.

DO NOT GO THROUGH TEACH FIRST. There is a recruitment crisis as it is and teach first does not provide robust enough training or support. It is important you have the support of a more experienced teacher as a mentor over a longer period of time. In teach first you don’t get this.

As far as pay scales you can google it. We are paid with public money so it must be made public knowledge. There is a London living allowance which means people teaching there get slightly high due to living costs. The main scale pay grade runs from M1 to M6 most people start on M1 as a newly qualified teacher. UPR scale runs from 1-3 and is for those teachers who have been in the profession longer and jumped through the hoops to move to the upper pay scale. The ‘L’ pay spine is for those teachers on leadership pay so additional responsibilities and often not as much as half of a teaching timetable. TLR payments are for those teachers with additional responsibilities commonly head of department roles literacy coordinators key stage coordinators etc in addition to the MPR or UPR scale. That’s the pay system in a nut shell.

Here’s the tricky bit. If a school is an academy (most are these days) they can pretty much pay what they want. One way to understand the pay system of where you work is to find out if the school adheres to the burgendy book agreement. If so it generally should follow what I have written above. Alongside this schools and the government can also recruitment and retention payments in shortage subjects often English, Maths and STEM subjects. These can be in the form of a bursery or commonly called a ‘golden hello’ and can vary in offering.

Finally teachers pay has been on a pay freeze for quite some time with the government only just introducing the pay award but then only for the top and bottom range. So 3.5% for those on M1 and M6 2% for those on U 1 and U 3 and 1% for L positions. Some schools simply did not have it in the budget to award this so some teachers have not received it. I am lucky my school has awarded the pay increase to every point on the scale not just top and bottom but I know I am in the minority.

Lastly yes I am happy with what I earn currently. I am on UPR2 and enjoy what I do. I have reached the age where I am confident enough to refuse something if I don’t think it’s in the interest of my pupils within reason! I get decent holidays and work on average 45 hours a week. I enjoy spending time with my pupils and will not be going for a leadership position as this takes me away from classroom teaching.

My final point: teaching is not a profession to enter for the pay. It’s so much more than that and if it’s pay alone you are looking for as your driving factor I strongly suggest you look at a different career.

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?

Yes. Languages is a shortage area. Inner London has a higher than average turn over of staff. Put the two together and yes, it is possible that the school is paying a premium to keep a good member of staff. Increasingly, expensive staff are being managed out because budgets are increasingly squeezed. Swings and roundabouts.

There is no guarentee of pay progression anymore. I know people who cannot get beyond M2 - M3. But they are not working in London in shortage subject areas.

About £120,000. Not in London. Was a primary head and no do something closely related but very much need to be qts to do. It opens lots of doors.

If you have maths a level you could probably do an extra course then teach maths as they are always desperate for maths teachers.

When I left teaching 13 years ago I was on £32k. This was the highest possible salary for a classroom teacher with no extra responsibilities and not teaching in London. It will have increased since then but I would think in would be less than 40k.

sleepy it hasn’t changed. That’s what I’m on now!

Principal in Ireland. €85,000

English FE college tutor, third year qualified and currently on 28k. Longest standing colleague in the English department is on 39k, he’s worked there 20 years. Tbf he has been offered more senior roles and declines because he cba .

We definitely still offer media studies at AS level in our college. You can’t teach English without an English based degree just as you couldn’t teach maths with a science degree...

Recently retired. I was a head of department in MFL: £51,000 - UPS3, TLR + Outer London weighting allowance

Primary, non class based phase leader (y1&2), some teaching, 6th year inner London. Part of 'wider' SLT on appx £41,000. Monthly pay £2,100.

HOD in an independent school. Been teaching for 6 years. 50k.

32k was top of the upper pay spine which was I think, easier to get onto then.

I teach Media at 6th form college and I love it!

TLR payments are for those teachers with additional responsibilities commonly head of department roles literacy coordinators key stage coordinators etc in addition to the MPR or UPR scale

In Primary you would most likely have to take on a subject co-ordinator role without any extra pay (in my school everyone had a co-ordinator role). I didn't get anything extra for being Foundation Stage co-ordinator. Obviously, in larger schools there are more management opportunities so a secondary school teacher will have more chance of earning more.

I believe, from my daughter's experience, it is harder to get on to the Upper Pay Scales now as schools do not have the extra money to fund it.

I respectfully disagree with @whatelsecouldIbecalled’s assessment of the support from TF and I’m sorry to hear that they’ve had a bad experience. I trained with the programme many years ago and have since mentored trainees on pretty much every training route, and co-ordinated ITT in several schools, so I have a fairly detailed overview.

TF trainees should have a designated subject mentor in schools and have weekly mentoring meetings with them. If this isn’t happening then the school is not meeting its end of the bargain. In terms of in-school support I would say that TF is comparable to SCITT. The difference is in the teaching load; like a PGCE, SCITT trainees take on a timetable gradually and only really start teaching solo after Christmas. TF start on a 60% timetable straightaway, rising to 80% after half term, and the workload is therefore much higher and more of a shock. This is reflected in the pay, of course. TF trainees are salaried from the beginning, whilst SCITT are students and pay £9k fees to train. Bursaries are available for some subjects.

I’m not sure what you mean by support over a ‘longer period of time’? Once the training year is done all NQTs are entitled to the same statutory support of a reduced timetable and an induction mentor, regardless of their training route.

You can’t teach English without an English based degree just as you couldn’t teach maths with a science degree…

One of the best English teachers I have worked with was a Psychology graduate. Whilst 50% of the English curriculum is English Language content, the majority of English teachers are English Lit graduates and an even larger majority don’t have English Language A level (I don’t, although my degree was joint Lit and Lang). Most English graduates entering the profession therefore have gaps in their subject knowledge to address. Equally, a graduate of a pure science degree, especially Chemistry or Physics, will have had a very significant mathematical component in their degree and will be perfectly capable of teaching Maths to A level. The only reason that they don’t is because the only thing in greater demand than a mathematician for teacher training is a physicist!

Media studies isn’t a gcse or a level anymore. I don’t actually think your degree would be enough for any secondary subjects-sorry. I could be wrong though.
Umm yes it is. ( lead teacher of media studies here) Not sure you can train in it as such my PGCE is drama but my degree included media so now I teach both with a bit of English thrown in for the fun of it. I've been teaching 12 years my gross with my TLR is just under 35000 but I work 4 days a week if I was full time I'd be on about 40000.

DW is secondary school head of subject outside london (SW counties), with some leadership and other non-teaching responsibilities, teaching for 17 years.

she's on about 44k.

Those holidays though. Worth more than £££ to anyone.

HOD when I left 2 years ago £50,000 state secondary school.

does anyone know what the "L23/ L24/ L25" numbers mean?

Don’t get too excited, OP! There are headteachers who aren’t on L23. That’s deputy head of a large secondary / newish headteacher of a medium secondary territory.

I am Head of Year and 17 years teaching experience so earn £44K.

I am a maths teacher on 36k. I feel my salary is ok but that is because my husband earns more and therefore I am not the main wage earner. So I'm bloody lucky. If I pour my heart into my job...more kids pass their GCSE and get onto decent level 3 courses so I DO feel my job is massively meaningful and I do far more than I have to...as do almost all secondary teachers...we really are helping to shape society and it seems a little unwise to pay us at a rate where we could not purchase a house if we are the main breadwinner. You need really good people to choose teaching as a viable career that will let them live to a reasonable standard....I teach maths...people with maths degrees have the choice of so many careers