teachers

[sunflower68]

Do all teachers really start on �19k, as the ad states?

[Gef]

Yes, it's that low I'm afraid.

[miss_chase]

After you have qualified (degree + PGCE or Teacher Training degree), yes and its more if you work in London. If you have a related work history, you might be able to negotiate payment higher up the scale. 

I think teachers get paid well!! I'm now on �29K after 2 years teaching and my other half is on �38K after teaching for 7 years (including management and other responsibility points). We both teach in London.

Personally I don't think many teachers leave teaching because it doesn't pay enough, they leave because of other issues eg work/life balance, beaurocracy, not being valued/trusted as professionals, pupils behaviour (and lack of systems to deal with it)... 

Go to NUT (teacher's union) website www.teachers.org.uk to read more about pay and conditions of being a teacher.

[Mrs_Pegasus]

Agree with miss_chase.  The career path of a teacher is very structured and I feel fair.  The recent introduction of the workforce remodelling means teachers teach and are no longer dragged down by administration and non-teaching tasks.  I wish my first job had attracted such a generous salary in comparative terms after I studied the same amount of time.

[silly moo]

That's higher than a lot of starting salaries for graduates, and at the risk of upsetting all you teachers out there, it seems to be the less bright teenagers I know who go into teaching these days.
I don't include those who have always wanted to teach and are naturally good at it.

[Scarlett]

Don't bother teaching in FE then- the pay is abysmally low. I have been teaching in a college since 1998 (I qualified as a teacher in 1994 and worked in a school before that) and I am on something like �22,000 pro rata. (I am part-time.) It is dreadful how FE Colleges pay so much less. If the job was (as people think) teaching small groups of nice A Level students, that would be fine, but it is not! This year all my classes are 30, include 16 year olds and 70 year olds, include ALL abilities, include ex-cons, recovering alcoholics and drug addicts, and schizophrenics. Many have learning disabilities such as dyslexia and dyspraxia, and asperger's syndrome. (I teach on a Music BTEC so there are no formal entry requirements.) The ONLY reason the College take all these people on is because they are paying customers.

Working in a school was hard work, but I felt supported and thought the system was fair. I may well go back to it...

[twiglet4frog]

Low??? Gef, if i was to start a career at the very bottom on �380+ per week then i would be happy! Try telling its Low to all the uni graduates that are stuck in dead end jobs on �200 because there are no positions available in their field!!

[Gef]

Sorry twiglet but they should have thought of that before they did their degree. Perhaps they should look at teaching if they have a suitable degree. Teaching is not an easy option.

[sunflower68]

By the way, have to agree with Twiglet.  I just have memories from the 80s and 90s of the lowly-paid teachers.  It has improved a great deal, by the looks of things and deservedly so in my opinion.