The Student Room Group

how much do secondary school teachers earn?

is this a respectable profession to enter?

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Reply 1
It's a respectable profession, certainly, but the wage isn't that good, although it's still decent.

Regardless, your primary concern when choosing a job shouldn't be money, it should be whether you enjoy it or not. :smile:
Reply 2
ee
Reply 3
abdelb
is this a respectable profession to enter?

http://www.mysalary.co.uk/average-salary/Teacher_3025

This site suggests the average wage in 2008 was £39,393. I would think it is substantially lower than this - almost £40k just seems too high.

James
Work in Singapore... my teacher's earn loads, so much so that my tutor is building a holiday home in Australia.

Also the holidays would be awesome.
Reply 5
M_E_X
http://www.mysalary.co.uk/average-salary/Teacher_3025

This site suggests the average wage in 2008 was £39,393. I would think it is substantially lower than this - almost £40k just seems too high.

James


That doesn't seem right, The teachers in my school earn between 25-30k, a little more if they're deputy head, even more if guidance staff/management staff.
Depends what areas you're teaching in and some subjects which are in demand for teachers get paid more.
Reply 7
yosrush
That doesn't seem right, The teachers in my school earn between 25-30k, a little more if they're deputy head, even more if guidance staff/management staff.

How do you know?
Reply 8
M_E_X
How do you know?


We ask, very relaxed atmosphere in our school.
in the uk not so much - but i know quite a few who have gone abroad to teach and are raking it in.

However in britain in ranges from about £20k-40k. With SMT earning about £40-55k, then headteachers about £60-80k
as far as i know it starts at around 19k and then moves up each year as you teach more and then obviously being head of department etc. will earn you more
Reply 11
yosrush
We ask, very relaxed atmosphere in our school.

And have you asked every teacher? :s
Seems kinda crazy to be able to say "the teachers earn between X and Y" without any sort of figures or anything to back it up.
yosrush
That doesn't seem right, The teachers in my school earn between 25-30k, a little more if they're deputy head, even more if guidance staff/management staff.


what do you mean guidance staff? deputy heads are probably going to be the second highest paid in the school on roughly £50k ish.
I believe they all start on approx £20,000 pa, moving up over the next 6 years to about £30,000. After that they can go up to £35,000 but have to justify this with performance reviews etc. If they're management, they get more depending on the responsibility.

SMT get far more - I their lowest is £35,000 which can potentially go up to £100,000 (here).
Essentially its a salary in the twenty thousands if you're just a teacher.

The starting salary is £20,600 at the moment (outside of London). There's London weighting for fringes, outer and inner London, inner London is £25,000.

Going off the outside London teachers, they are on a payscale from £20,600 to £30,100.

You get more money if you get other responsibilities, head of department, head of year, responsibility for pastoral care or sections of the curriculum etc. Those positions have salaries of their own of a few thousand which go on top of your other pay.

Senior management get paid higher, possibly £40-50k for deputies, headteachers going up to £100k.

Headships pay well and its a goal of many teachers to get there however for job security it's like being a football manager, any slippages or problems with the schools performance and the LEA tend to have a quickfire approach to headteachers. I remember talking to a few of the teachers at my school about what they thought of it as a career and they said that they'd gone in hoping to end up as a head but when they'd seen what the head's job involved they were happy to stay out of it.

In comparison with other professions teaching is similar to other public services - police/fire service/ armed forces/ navy. Its going to be lower than lucrative private sector professions like finance and law. On the other hand the job security is better especially if you are a teacher of a shortage subject (Maths/Science/Modern Languages) and you get a good pension. The holidays are also obviously much longer than most others, out of 365 days in a year teachers work 195 days, 190 days the school is open and 5 training days.
My Mum is a teacher so I know a little about this...
You get an average salary when you start a job. And then you get extra bonuses depedning what else you do.
So for example, if you're head of a subject you get more. Then you get extra for taking on other responsibilities.

My Mum is a head of year and a normal teacher and gets just over £40k.
My friends Dad is a headteacher and he earns over £100k a year and its not even a private school.

A starting salary for a new teacher coming out of training is just above £20k. This slowly goes up and an average salary is between £25k-£32k. Then you get any extras on top of that.

Plus, teachers get very good pensions and very good holidays.
Reply 16
M_E_X
http://www.mysalary.co.uk/average-salary/Teacher_3025

This site suggests the average wage in 2008 was £39,393. I would think it is substantially lower than this - almost £40k just seems too high.

James


This is where averages can be misleading. That figure is probably the mean teacher's salary, but this will include head teachers, heads of year, teachers at private schools etc.
If you want to know the avaerage for a secondary school teacher with no special responsibilities, I belive it's around £25,000, for an NQT it's a bit lower however.
my headteacher earns something like 70K

and teachers from about 25K
It really depends on their role at the school. Head of maths for example will earn a lot more than a newly qualified teacher who has no extra responsibilty. And your pay goes up gradually anyway. A head of department who has been working for a while can earn up to around 55k. Head teachers can get around 100k or more.

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