Working in independent schools?

[Manchmallehrerin]

Just been offered a job in an independent school. I asked and they are offering the teachers pension scheme and the term dates are the same as the local LEA.

Please can you share your experiences of the pros and cons. Are there any questions I should be asking?

So you're not getting longer holidays? That's one of the biggest benefits! We get 18 compared to 13 state.

How does salary compare? Are you required on Saturdays? How much ppa? (Should be more than state 10%). Class sizes? TA support?

It's a SEND school and so is 'standard' days and term times. Good point about PPA. Salary is good and ratios are good. Just wondered what the pitfalls might be?

Is it a SEND school which is funded mostly from EHCPs or parents? I don’t have any experience but I have heard that can make a difference.

Independent schools don’t use the burgundy book so can have their own pay scales, number is expected hours etc... so that is worth checking. Also, what are the expectations in terms of reporting and parents evenings?

Its mostly EHCPs from what I understand. Does that make a difference in a good way?

Check salary progression. When I worked in a very small, rather crap (it's long since closed so I'm happy to say that), independent it sounded great to start with as they'd pay me where I was on main scale... but then they didn't keep up with annual scale progression (back in the days pre-academies) and so you rapidly fell behind.

Thanks Koponut will check that out. Although annual pay progression seems to be a thing of the past anyway :(