seen a few posts on here about money / holidays..
Speaking as someone who has been a teacher (but not in the UK), UK teaching salleries are lower average at best.. they can rise with more responsisbility.. but whilst they were a really good option 10 years ago, they have risen well below inflation for the past decade, and are now quite poor.
Holidays are good, but you have to remmeber: whilst you get more time off, its always in peak holiday times, so teachers frequently get hit with badly inflated holiday prices.. it does not sound like much, but if you have a family of 4-5 people, then it can take 2k extra out of your pocket easily on a big holiday.. Also as another poster mentioned, with the exception of summer, holidays can be easily filled with work..
I come from a family of teahers - I have been a teacher abroad, my sister is a secondary art teacher, my mum taught history, my aunty, uncle, cousin, cousins girlfriend.. all teachers, and none of them are exactly swimming in time off. half terms are easily filled with marking and planning.. evenings get filled with meetings and planning.. the only truely decent break is the summer, and even that is more like 4 weeks realistically, then the 6 many believe it will be.
All in all, teaching for me, is a great job - but only if you love teaching.. trying to justify it in any other way just does not work.. Its not worth it for the money. Its not worth it for the holidays.. its not worth it for the students (unless your very lucky, the will spend most of their time pissing you off) - its only worth it for the love/passion of what you do.
And most of all, dont just do it beacuse its an easy option.. this is by far the most common reason I see teachers quit. They did it because its a safe and easy route to a 20k+ job straight after graduating.. only to then realise that actually its very hard work, and not at all the easy ride they thought it was..