If you had 10 years experience in a different career before becoming a teacher...

[questions2008]

...were you able to negotiate starting on a higher pay grade than the very first one for your first teaching role (NQT after PGCE at academy)? Or is it just standard practice and can't be negotiated?

[Holidayshopping]

It certainly used to be the case that would happen, but budgets are quite stretched now, so it would probably depend on how much they wanted you and if they thought you might get more money elsewhere if they didn’t snaffle you quick!

If you’re a maths graduate, you’d probably have a fair amount of wiggle room!

[questions2008]

Thanks for the reply; whilst not a Maths graduate I will be a Maths teacher, if that helps...

Not sure how much to push back, first mention of salary only came with the contract so first opportunity to negotiate.

[noblegiraffe]

How would your experience in a different career make you a better teacher? What extra would you be bringing?

[CatAndFiddle]

My school had zero interest in my career before teaching. There was no wiggle room in negotiations. Budgets are tight. Budgets for actual teaching, that is, they always seem to find the money for the next Director or executive role in the MAT...

[Acopyofacopy]

I didn’t start at the bottom of the pay scale. Ask confidently and don’t sell yourself too cheaply!
The head immediately said ok to my question, which obviously meant I should have gone in higher...

[Phineyj]

Possibly, read the pay policy carefully. I teach Economics and experience managing budgets and running my own business was considered relevant. If you don't ask, you certainly won't get. You will never have as much negotiating power with them as you do now...

[astuz]

I started on M3 (chemistry) - the time to ask is during the interview, when they ask you "will you accept this job if we offer it you", at that point you say "yes, but I'd like to discuss the possibility of starting on higher than M1, ideally I need to be earning a salary of M4, and I have xxxx experience which is relevant to this teaching role"

I assume you're past that stage but definitely still try to negotiate higher anyway. However, strictly speaking, you've already accepted the job on their terms.

[Rosieposy4]

In first job ( fixed one year contract) no, but in my next school i got bumped up a year

[MsJaneAusten]

I negotiated a higher starting salary, but that was ten years ago and at the interview stage. I think if you've waited until the contract came, you've already verbally agreed to take the job and have left it too late to negotiate. Sorry! To be honest, budgets being what they are, you'd have probably struggled to get a higher salary anyway. However, the shortage of maths teachers also means you'll be able to look for promotions/TLRs etc very soon so your salary might rise quite rapidly anyway.

[tomhazard]

I trained 9 years ago but in one of my placement schools there were two guys who came from industry into maths jobs and they both negotiated M3 starts. But in the current budget climate I can imagine schools would be less negotiable on this.

[PETRONELLAS]

Is the experience relevant? How good are you? I don’t mean that I’m a goady way at all. Where I worked an NQT asked and everyone thought it was cheeky. Yet in the real world asking would be seen as ballsy.

[CuckooCuckooClock]

I didn't but I know of people who did. They were better at negotiating than me and were men

[Phineyj]

This thread makes me despair. Ask what the pay policy is when they make the offer! It is well known that women are less likely to negotiate on pay. Who cares if it's a bit uncomfortable. Long termite could make a big difference what point you started on. Schools could modernise too by being transparent about their pay scales and providing this info to candidates. I hope everyone is aware there is a gender pay gap in education. It's worst in academies (there was a TES article I think).

[Phineyj]

Long term! Although long termite would certainly alarm the other side.

[ps1991]

I asked to start higher than M1 after my NQT year. My head said if I wanted to start higher I needed to go to a different (inner city) school. The school I work at is a lovely, large, village secondary school with very few behaviour issues. I’m maths :)

[qumquat]

No. My experience wasn't relevant to teaching.

[Fallulah]

Yes, and I applied to go through threshold as soon as I had the evidence, didn’t wait til I was top of M. I took a big pay cut to come in to teaching and am almost now back earning what I earned before after five years. If you’re willing to put extra effort in and actually ask, you can get paid fairly for what you do.

[CraftyGin]

My first school gave me one year of teaching experience for every four years of industrial experience.

[MT2017]

I am support staff but previous career in business. Job was advertised between 2 amounts, so I said I expected to be on the higher amount (I always negotiate, rude not to in my book).

I was told I would start on the lower salary stated, and after 6 months would be on the higher one. And that was it - no negotiation at all!