How much do heads of departments in schools earn (private and state)?

[AskingQuestionsAgain]

DH is a HOD in a school, but he doesn't have qualified teacher status so can't be paid a proper amount (long story!)

He has no idea what the proper amount is - we've googled, but the long chart with all the different teaching job roles is just so confusing neither of us can understand where 'head of department' fits in.

He might apply for a new job at a private school (Director of Subject) but has no idea what a reasonable salary would be for this role.

Can anyone help?

It's very difficult to get him to apply for other jobs, but he's woefully underpaid, if I could give him an idea of potential salaries it might help motivate him!

You'd think wouldn't you?!

He may well be an experienced actor, but does he have any pedagogical training? To be honest, I think he's very lucky to be paid £36k as an unqualified 'teacher'.

Thanks for all the various comments, links and suggestions.

For those of you commenting that he's an actor, not a qualified teacher - last year his A-level pupils came out with A*s and As, and his GCSEs were mostly 7s and above (with one 6, the majority were 8s and 9s). He's also substantially increased subject take up, and various other achievements that I won't go into as it might start to become quite outing. So no need to worry on the academic side!

Fortunately after chatting to an old contact I've found out that doing QTS while working is quite easy and not a massive workload as DH had feared (he'd thought he had to do a dissertation) so he's now going to apply for the QTS assessment ASAP.

Won't he need to top up to a full degree to get qts?

But I thought you said he didn’t have a degree?

If his institution is now accredited there may be a way round that. Worth investigating.

I said that he had a degree equivalent qualification. To explain further - his course was given degree status the year after he left (the course he did at drama school was then awarded BA status with no changes to course content).

As per my previous post the QTS assessment person at our nearest uni had eventually said he could apply.

How much extra a HoD is paid generally depends on the size of the subject area and how many staff they will have under them. So a small subject like drama will tend to be on the lower side. Take a look at the drama adverts on tes.com and you'll see that the allowance for Head of Drama ranges from 3k (probably more realistic) to 11k (for head of creative arts faculty which could also include dance/art/music etc. and involve line managing those heads of subjects along with all the other staff.

My husband earns about £50k as a HOD in a prep school; he's being teaching for about 10 years

Also worth noting that there are two teachers here, one without QTS (or even a PGCE) and another one without even a degree... I do know they are on much lesser salaries though, however I have no idea if that's due to their teaching qualifications

HOD of core subject in small secondary SEND school. I earn UPS2 plus £5k for TLR2 and SEN Allowance. About £55k in total.

Even if the private school were to employ him they are also likely to pay him as an unqualified teacher. He needs to get QTS.

Competitive indies use teacher degree status as part of their promotion.

Local indie HoDs get between £54k and £75K depending upon subject.

He would get to the interview stage without QTS in my area. All the drama depts are getting top grades.

One of my friends teaches RE & Philosophy at a very good indpendent school. She's not got QTS. but does have a degree.

I’m a HoD with five years’ school experience in a large selective private day school. Not a qualified teacher either (but do have a PhD). I earn roughly £75k, but my more senior colleagues will be on £80 or 90k.

The big private schools don’t really care about QTS if you have good subject knowledge (rare these days) and show you can teach.

£36k is low for a HoD even unqualified although I don’t know any unqualified HoDs…

I have been a HoD since 2020 and my starting salary back then was £55k - I’m now on £67k. I’m the top of our scale.
I did step up to AHT on an interim basis in 2022 and my salary went up to £75k. It had an impact to my life outside of work and didn’t really have much of a WLB - not that I do as a HoD but it is more manageable. I was only getting just over £400 a month extra as a AHT.

@MN2024 sounds like we are in similar roles on similar salaries. Would you mind letting me know approx where in the country you are, and a vague description of school type (eg large, small, boarding, day, co-ed, HMC...) Many thanks.

Is this in the south, @bpeeters ? Thanks.

Drama/theatre ALevel isn’t really about acting (for those who have commented that the acting experience would be amazing). There obviously is some performance but it’s more like English lit in a theatre context than about acting. Very little of the acting is assessed rather it’s about analysing their processes.

I'm head of Welsh (as a first language - mother tongue) in a Welsh-medium secondary school) and earn £63k. It counts as a core department in Welsh-medium schools in Wales. I have one more year before reaching top of the scale - so will be around £68k when top of scale next year assuming they give the usual uplift (inflation) of around 3-5%) with the rise on the scale.

Diolch!