To be jealous my nursery teacher friend is on more than me

[Nurseryh]

I'm a nursery manager on £23,000; have a been in the job a couple of years. My friend is a nursery teacher and comparing wages, I'm shocked. After having a chat, we literally do the similar things. I feel a bit put off by it but I suppose I'm the stupid one for not qualifying.

What is it with the UK government and loving to have staff on the cheap? Why am I on so much less for literally the same job apart from the different name??

O.P you could actually get a job in the nursery (kindergarten) part of a private school as you don't technically need a teaching qualification to work in a private school. If you are as experienced as you say you are and are lovely with the children etc you really never know!
Don't be afraid to try for a job in a private school, the people who work there are very normal. It's many of the families who are wealthy, not the staff so np need to feel intimidated, not saying you would or should be. Defintiely not.
You should keep your eye out for kindergarten teaching Jobs in a prep school...

Definitely not a new trend, our head did a PGCE 30 years ago and the rest of us have been there between 4 and 20 years. Many PGCEs.

Your wrongly equating the tasks you both do to her knowledge base that she gained through education. Her depth of understanding will be different to yours because of her education in the field.

It is shit, and they are similar roles. I trained as a nursery nurse (didn’t finish) and the amount of observations, interventions, planning, EYFS curriculum knowledge needed and requirements from ofsted are basically the same.

It is the governments fault because private pre school is ghastly expensive with extremely underpaid staff, and state preschool is not readily available, and doesn’t include wraparound care. Not a single school in my area has a preschool attached to them, unless it’s supplied by a private provider.

I ended up sending my son to a private nursery that had 2 qualified early years teachers in the preschool room and it was was £25 more per day than I was previously paying in his old preschool.

OP you're right that it isn't fair. Nursery staff are held to exactly (if not higher) standards by Ofsted and the curriculum is identical. If your friend was in a private nursery she probably wouldn't be on much more than you. In the settings I'm involved in we've had a few teachers take on manger roles thinking it would be easier. In fact they haven't lasted long because you're expected not just to be the teacher but also manage a team, run it as a viable business and everything else in between.

For you, if you want to work in a school and earn similar you could go down the Early Years Teacher Training route and your setting will get funding towards it.

Whenever I see adverts for an EYFS Teacher with QTS the wage advertised seems less than that of other adverts for, say, a "primary school teacher".

From what I understand, an EYFS Teacher is only qualified for Nursery-Reception, but a qualified Primary teacher can take on more year groups and seem to be paid more.

Public sector benefits.
I worked in a private nursery it was awful, long hours, unfair wages, holiday entitlement was rubbish. I was only Level 3 qualified.
I went and did an undergraduate degree and then a PGCE. It is a lot of hard work and knocks the wind out of you (particularly the PGCE and QTS). The rigorous audits and observations from tutors to check you can meet the teaching standards.
Go and do all that and then maybe your wage won’t be so unfair.

Not that I know of. I did my PGCE 25 years ago. Anybody who did a certificate in education has probably been retired for a while.

Has anyone mentioned becoming an Ofsted registered childminder? I work primarily with EYFS children (plus offer before and after school care). I do all of the roles mentioned, following the EYFs curriculum exactly as a nursery would. The beauty of it is I have total autonomy over how our days are run. Yes I run my business from my home, which is not everyone’s cup of tea, and I’m self-employed. But the last few years I’ve earned £35k before tax. I absolutely would not do this job for nursery wages.

Just do a EYFS QTS

www.ucas.com/teaching-option/early-years-initial-teacher-training-eyitt-0

If you got onto the course by September you could be qualified by this time next year

In a state school, the pay scale is exactly the same whether you teach nursery or Year 6.
"EYFS teacher" is just the job title, like 'KS1 teacher' or 'KS2 teacher' - the salary is the same, they are all primary teachers.

That is not true. I was on the same pay scale as all other teachers including secondary. You don't get paid more for teaching older children. My daughter is a teacher in a school nursery class now and could be asked to teach anywhere. In a previous job she taught year 6.

Regardless of what anyone else is being paid, I would think your job is worth more than the salary you’re getting. Keeping preschoolers safe, happy and learning - as well as managing staff and resources - is a lot of responsibility (and exhausting I bet). It’s the same with the care sector - it’s shameful how little people working in nursing/care homes are paid.

Just to add, I don’t have a degree or PGCE, I did do my level 3 qualification.

Nope, an EYFS teacher can be qualified to teach in any year group as long as they hold QTS (qualified teacher status). This is necessary for a nursery/reception teacher in maintained schools.

There is such a thing called EYTS (Early Years Teacher Status) which isn’t really worth it as you can’t be an early years teacher in maintained schools/private nurseries don’t want to hire you as you’re worth more than an early years practitioner.

I’m 35 and did PGCE

This course isn’t as valuable and worthwhile as Qualified Teacher Status.

EYITT is very limiting.

Many primary teachers have a degree then a PGCE. There are education degrees that include QTS, but I think most these days do a PGCE or a school-based QTS programme.

teach in any year group as long as they hold QTS (qualified teacher status). This is necessary for a nursery/reception teacher in maintained schools.

There is such a thing called EYTS (Early Years Teacher Status) which isn’t really worth it as you can’t be an early years teacher in maintained schools/private nurseries don’t want to hire you as you’re worth more than an early years practitioner.

EYTS is what I meant, rather than Early Years Teacher "with QTS", I couldn't remember the acronym. I meant that they can only work with up to 5s and the job adverts for those with EYTS like a "Nursery Teacher" do seem to have less pay. But as others have pointed out, this is because they won't be working in schools. All seems a bit pointless

Maybe. I’d say it was worthwhile to someone who knows they don’t want to work with over 5s

If you want to earn more, you have to go and get a job that pays more! You might not like it as much but I'm of the belief that I go to work to earn good money and 23k is less than I earned as a graduate in 1999.

You are young enough to change careers so just do it!

"Not that I know of. I did my PGCE 25 years ago. Anybody who did a certificate in education has probably been retired for a while."

I was at uni 25 years ago and at that time anyone I heard of going into primary teaching was doing a degree in education apart from those, like OP potentially, who already had a degree.
I did say 'older ones' for the certificate.

Whenever I see adverts for an EYFS Teacher with QTS the wage advertised seems less than that of other adverts for, say, a "primary school teacher".

Any teaching adverts I have seen have never specified a fixed wage, it just gives the teacher pay scale range. The salary will be negotiated according to experience and where the teacher currently is on the main pay scale. It doesn’t matter what the teaching role is - a teacher is a teacher. I started at my latest school as a PPA cover teacher, I’ll be honest that was a pretty easy year. I still got paid according to where I was on the scale at my previous school.

I qualified with BEd(Hons) a 4 year course, in 1985. The Cert Ed finished a few years before that.

It doesn’t matter what the teaching role is - a teacher is a teacher.

Yeah but I got confused and was talking about QTS Vs EYTS