To think teachers are quite well paid?

[Newyearnewnameforme]

Not intended goadily but my salary is more than most of my graduate friends.

Obviously, it isn’t Rockefeller standards but AIBU to think it’s actually OK?

OP, as you are so interested in a genuine discussion, perhaps you could ask MN to change the title of your thread or adjust the figure you quoted for your own pay to the average UK teacher pay - that way the 2 will line up.

You can EITHER ask if teachers (which is a generic term to cover the whole profession) are well paid, giving the average or median salary, OR you can ask if YOU, with your £47k are well paid, whilst recognising you are not a typical teacher. You might say you're not capable of working in the city, but if you're capable to teach children of whatever age the curriculum they require, I'd imagine you are a capable of being able to see the difference between your thread title and your personal pay. And of course you can tell the difference, hence the multiple multiple people telling you this is goady.

Interestingly, only Op claims not to be goady whilst everyone else says she is. Even someone who isn't capable of being in the city or even being a teacher would be able to draw some conclusions about whether the labels of goady are appropriate or not based on this!

I left teaching after 5 years because of the frustration of dealing with ridiculous "initiatives" and Orwellian restrictions on calling out counterproductive busywork paperwork created to manage / create / manipulate statistics and further the careers of grey middle management.

I took a massive pay cut (over 50%) to career change to teaching after an office based career which was cut throat but at least honest and efficient. I was massively disillusioned as soon as I was through the training and NQT years and realised that 80% of what I was expected to do had nothing to do with teaching and everything to do with making the senior management team school look good "on paper". However obviously excellent teaching was also expected in case of Ofsted

The salary would be ok if there was more teaching, more teaching assistants (who should be paid at least double what they get) and fewer middle managers creating busywork for the actual teachers. Obviously that would require a dramatic reduction in political meddling.

Some of the middle management salaries could be reassigned to pay for more and better paid teaching assistants.

UPS 3 is only available to those who have spent 10 years in teaching, many schools no longer offer UPS progression too.

If you think people in the city have talent or intelligence then you aren't very bright.

Everyone doesn’t say I am actually ... just a few rather persistent posters! I will gladly ask MNHQ to edit the OP.

Who pissed on your chips OP, Piggy is making sensible points. We are not your students, so your 'put your hand down, and be quiet' attitude doesn't work here.

As others have said, people like the classroom; they might be married to a higher earner whose own job mandates the family home is in a certain place, so can't move schools or areas for promotion. They may be juggling job and family.

I went into teaching at 35, and looked at promotions, but there were none in my school, and as the set up I had with ease of doing the school run for ds, a fairly short commute, and a reasonable SLT who were supportive of my subject area and the staff worked for me, the upheaval caused in going for more responsibility wasn't worth it.

I left teaching at 40 to move abroad for Dh's career and am just back. Looking at it now, I don't want to teach again. I loved it, but I don't need the holidays for my child any more as he is 24. I don't need the stress levels, and I don't have the energy or patience to deal with the crap that goes with the job.

I don't think teachers are well paid for what they do, and like a PP, I spent a lot of my salary resourcing my classroom. Dh was also public sector and his employer would not have expected him to put his hand in his pocket to provide resources for his workplace ( mind you, torpedoes are more expensive than biros).

If I’m not very bright, my salary is even better then isn’t it, as a thickie like me can earn a reasonable amount!

@ScreamedAtTheMichelangelo is right here. The profession is so wide and remunerated very differently in different areas. I'll be very surprised if the conservatives make good on their manifesto pledge to raise nqt salaries, though.

All those things are fine scary but I still maintain 30-40k is a good salary.

As a newly qualified lawyer my 25 year old DD is on approx £57k in London. Her first year of training was about £28k and her second about £35k and now she is in her first year of qualification. This is not a magic circle firm where the first year of training would have been £40k. I don't know much about teaching salaries but as a comparison to that I'd say it isn't brilliant but especially knowing others are saying that £47k is a high teachers' salary.

Newyearnewnameforme - you are well paid for a classroom teacher (compared to other teachers), but comparatively badly paid for a manager if, as you say, £40k of your salary is for your classroom teaching and only just over £7k for all your other responsibilities. How much less time do you actually spend classroom teaching now that you have additional responsibilities? And where do your actual strengths lie, because classroom teaching and being a manager require different skillsets? It seems to me that you are in the land of not knowing which camp you are actually in and would thus find it very hard to get a job in another school on that level of pay - you would either need to take a pay cut for another school to consider you, or seek a promotion to escape your current school. And not everyone wants to be an assistant head, deputy head or headteacher, because that’s mostly not teaching, that’s running an education business, with skills required in financial management, statistics, HR, PR, etc, etc.

I've not read the whole thread, but I think 40k is a decent salary for someone who works 39 weeks a year. I know you may well be expect or have to work more than that, and you're limited to holidays at certain times, but I earn 55k and only get 4 weeks a year holiday.

Yes I have sadly come across plenty of slt who aren’t very bright. I’d say, given their intellectual shortcomings, they’ve done very well for themselves. Maybe you should go for assistant head this year OP?

You report it then phleba

Newyearnewnameforme

UPS 3 is £40,000.

I'm not sure why you are ignoring that UPS includes extra duties as laid out in the UPS teaching standards.

Not yet Cuckoo, my intellectual shortcomings haven’t been honed to their finest point yet.

Most teachers without additional responsibilities earn between 30 and 40k which I think is reasonable.

Anecdotally I'd disagree. Most teachers are 2-3 years into it on £25kish then they leave.

www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Secondary_School_Teacher/Salary

Yes OP I’m a part time teacher...12 hours a week and I take home 1400 after tax!!no extra responsibilities!

12 hours a week-is that 0.4?

I work 2 days on UPS3 and only take home 1100-where am I going wrong??

4 weeks holiday a year, plus every weekend, the vast majority of evenings, and you leave work at the door. Oh and your performance is judged by what you do, not by what uncontrollable variables do.

Debate on this thread as always shows that high earnings aren't related to intelligence.

TheReef do the maths. You get paid more per week.

It’s still classroom teacher though, Boney. We are all expected to do certain duties as classroom teacher and I do know some schools are ridiculous in this respect - I had a friend who’s HT refused to put her on UPS3 because she was part time, which was ridiculous. But this is where I do think being proactive can be helpful - if that was me, I wouldn’t accept it and I would apply for other posts where they WOULD pay me UPS3.

Oh it also shows that people make shit up on the internet.

Troll hunting is not allowed mal (and I should know, I’ve had my knuckles rapped over it.)

@fedup21 sorry I meant 12.5 hours per week! 0.4? I don’t know we don’t work it like that. I’m in Ireland where teacher’s pay is WAY better!!

• Try again

Most teachers without additional responsibilities earn between 30 and 40k which I think is reasonable.*

So now you think teacher’s pay is ‘reasonable’.

If I did a ‘reasonable’ job, then clearly I didn’t do a great or even good job.

So you agree that a teacher’s pay is neither great, possibly not even good for the majority.