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?

I have a HOD in my family and they don’t earn anywhere near £47,000.
Yet, they devote their lives to their jobs and seem to be working all of the damn time.
Are you London based for that much? (Sorry if that’s been asked already).

OP you are being disingenuous at best.

Most teachers don't earn £47k and you know this.

It’s more of a rhetorical question but I do think a lot of people and most of them are female end up stuck in schools where they aren’t well treated or well paid because there’s this lack of confidence and fear of moving on. That’s what I am getting at.

In primary it can be very difficult to move jobs, particularly when you are at the top of the payscale. There isn't a Primary shortage in a lot of areas.

Moving on isn't as easy as it sounds. In a non shortage subject your options are limited. Luckily I'm a Maths teacher in English shortage area so could easily leave. However a short commute, knowing the routines etc means that moving on is t just a financial decision.

I'm a teacher, when I worked in a mainstream school I was on about 23k, which worked out as about £1,500 after tax, NI and pension contribution. I calculated that it was about £5 per hour for the hours I worked. I once saw an ad for a trainee bus driver for £22k, that would probably have offered a better work life balance. £47k is a senior leader's salary, a teacher would have to work a minimum 10, probably 15-20 years to reach that. The UK teaching force is generally quite young thanks to poor retention rates so most teachers are probably on £25-30 k.

I have a HOD in my family and they don’t earn anywhere near £47,000.

UPS 3 is about £40k. A HoD TLR is about £6k. That’s before tax though.

How long has it taken you to reach your current salary level?

I suspect if you have any friends who went into the professions they are earning considerably more than you.

I believe teachers are overworked rather than underpaid. I don't think higher wages solve the problem. More staff at various levels would be more help. Office staff and Support staff have been cut over the years at my dds school. Less paper work.

This with bells on.

As for the disillusioned "why stay a class teacher" remarks in Primary, at least, it is because there are very few promoted posts.
In Scotland not all primarys need a depute head, it depends on the pupil numbers. Where I teach has one head and two principal teachers. A previous school had one head and one principal. A further school had one head, one depute and one principal.
That's 8 promoted posts and around 30 odd non promoted posts, 'just class teachers'. Each of those in the promoted post had around 20+ years until retirement. They were/are happy with their role and don't want to move. There simply isn't enough promoted posts for 'most' class teachers.

Did you want to start the first angry teaching job thread of the year OP? Wonder who will start the nursing one. Or nursing vs teaching one

FWIW I think all teachers should be on that after a few years of doing it. Primary and secondary. Damn hard vital job -teaching kids and supervising them so we can work.

I know someone who's the loveliest person you could meet, Primary teacher for almost 10 years, and the resources and funding was cut and cut and cut so much, and her workload piled higher and higher that she had a breakdown because of it and said she'd never ever do it again.

When I was HOD I’d spend at least part of New Year’s Day working as there was little else to do and everyone else was having a lie-in. Could your SOW and/or lesson plans do with a little attention, OP? Any mock exams to mark? Now would be an ideal time.

What's up OP? Decided there hadn't been a thread slagging off lazy teachers for a while so decided to start on yourself? How odd.

FWIW , I earn a bit more than you and , if I was SLT would earn more but I work in a very large school. Most primary teachers would be heads or maybe deputies to earn what you do around here. That's a lot of responsibility.

I am happy with what I earn but would rather have a more fulfilling responsibility.

But statistically fleming that doesn’t match.

In 2017, 3 out of every 4 teachers were female. That means really 3 out of 4 schools should have a female HT.

If you think you’re lazy piggy then sort it out, as I haven’t accused anybody of laziness. How weird.

Are teachers well paid compared to jobs in the gig economy or such as call centre workers, yes.

Are teachers well paid considering the valuable work they do, the workload and the lack of support from some parents? No.

I wouldn't do it!

And, believe me, I have tried to move on. SLT jobs are always given to younger people than me, usually male and often of a subset of certain subjects!

Primary and secondary pay scale is the same
But not as many opportunities for mlt and slt in primary. Plus, as pp have said, Many schools (especially smaller and not at capacity schools) can not afford top of the pay scale teachers.

I didn't say you had OP . But you have started one of those threads that always ends up in one of those bunfights. It just seems an odd discussion for a teacher to open up.

Although primary and secondary teaching salary scales are the same, secondary teachers earn ON AVERAGE more than primary teachers. This is because there are significantly fewer opportunities for promoted posts. We don't have Heads of Departments, Heads of year/phase are only found in larger primaries, TLRs are very few and far between! In my previous school, I was the only teacher on anything other than main scale.

I earn the same as the OP as 2nd in large core dept in nw. However, as I didn't want to switch schools chasing promotions this took 12 years of waiting for colleagues to move on.

I love the responsibility of being 2nd as I am listened to, in a position to make positive changes and stand up for my colleagues, most of who earn much less than me but work just as hard. Whilst I feel that my pay reflects what I do I can't say the same for them. Then again I don't know anyone who chose teaching for the pay.

Don't even get me started on the pay of our support staff - without who we couldn't do our job. The TAs, office staff, cleaners and lunch supervisors. They are all worth their weight in gold but get paid peanuts.

I think the pay is fair. My husband is a teacher. He is part time (3 days) and earns around 20k.

The pay is fine, the holidays are great. The terms and conditions are absolutely dreadful! My husband is part time because the extremely long hours and relentless workload of being a full time teacher made him ill and our family life shit. He went back part time (years ago) and we have never looked back.

He is top of main pay scale but never goes for crossing threshold as he doesn't want "extra responsibilities" AKA an extra grand or two but loads more work to do.

I don't think pay is the main problem with teaching because the people that go into it know what the pay will be and still choose to go into it - sometimes leaving other careers to do so. It is the dreadful workload/ terms and conditions that make so many people leave the profession.

@PurpleDaisies

There is no longer automatic progression to UPS 3 and to get to UPS 3 you need to have been in teaching quite some time.

My relative has been in teaching and progressed after just a few years. He’s just said he gets a TLR 2a for his HOD, which is about £2800.

Jesus In you should have seen my last HOD timetable, seriously.

Great. You're happy with the wage you get for the work that you do.

Agree with others re. Class size, type of school, how many years service etc.

I think teachers are well paid especially compared to the private sector as the pension and job security is so much better. The holidays are also family friendly.

It has a different kind of stress level compared to other professional private sector roles. It is a tough role to have as you get older and your energy levels reduce.

I've got a degree and I earn £20k so I think £47k is great. I also know plenty of well paid teachers!

The introduction of no automatic increases up the scale and academies making their own scale seems to have been a green light to lots of schools to stop any movement which is not helping the teacher retention crisis.