Teachers demand 10% pay rise

treliac

DS has recently lost a teacher who turned to teaching having left the business world. He lasted all of 6 months (or thereabouts) before having had enough and giving up. And this is a school with behaviour generally at the better end of the scale.

It's tough work, in many cases dangerous, with a great deal of responsibility. Doesn't matter what pot teacher's pay comes out of. If they earn it, they deserve it.

If you add up all the 'out of hours' work, I wonder how many hours, on average, they do work. It's too easy for those that knock them to talk of long holidays etc.

I know I wouldn't want to teach for all the ...........

Silaqui

Agree completely Lavendyr, exam results are the worst way to judge teaching performance. We currently have to have yearly performance management with line managers which sets 3 targets to do with the school and department development plans. As a relatively young teacher without extra responsibilities, mine tend to be related to raising achievement and increasing the numbers of students achieving their target grades.
I would imagine those more senior to me would have more rigourous targets depending on their job role.
You are observed regularly, at my school you are seen by your line manager at least once each term, if you are new or they have concerns it could be more often.

I think that there could do with being some other way of montioring teachers but to be honest because we are dealing with human beings it is difficult to do so.

For example, as part of my PM targets I have put into place initiatives to raise the achievement of boys in my subject. It has worked for some - but I have one lad who is off every few days because he looks after his little brothers when his mum works. A couple who just can't concentrate in lessons because they are tired. Further probing reveals they have been up till stupid o clock watching telly. Should I be penalised for not being able to help these students? It's difficult.

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mandragora_2

55 jobs being advertised by my local council on their website tonight. Looks like there'll be plenty of applicants, judging by the responses above, from all those who think it's a doddle - which is great! I love the thought of kids getting really good teaching, as it's what they need, and those who would be great at it are welcome to train and apply

Silaqui

TEDDY
"Silaqui.
However, it does bug me (like it does most teachers!) when people slag us off because of those holidays. (Ever tried getting a cheap holiday in the school holidays!?)

LOL. Probably a good few or more people here will have kids? They too must take holidays the same time as you! LOL. What is the difference? "


There isn't one. When did I say there was? Talk about picking out one particular section of the post to suit your argument! I made the point that the holidays are a nice perk.

The truth is that many teachers do work additional hours outside of school, whether that be on planning, prep and assessment or other things such as school plays, sports teams, orchestra. For the past half term I have been offering evening sessions from 3.15 till 6pm, 3 days a week, for students who haven't finished coursework for whatever reason. This in turn means I have to spend more of my own time (evenings or weekends) doing the stuff I couldn't do while I had kids in.

Consider most teachers start work at say, 8am? So a working day is 8 till 4? I would imagine the hours worked outside this time would more than make up for quite a lot of the holidays, as Treliac said.

The government won't give in to those demands. How can they? There isn't the cash to spend on it and quite rightly too. The government are already covering the shortage of teachers by allowing unqualified staff to teach long term in schools, and that is a far more pressing issue IMO.

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1echidna

Ever noticed that it is the people who claim to work the hardest and have the most skills are most often the people who don't really have that hard a time and whose skills are not all that special?

Really2

Silaqui wrote: »

"
Consider most teachers start work at say, 8am? So a working day is 8 till 4? I would imagine the hours worked outside this time would more than make up for quite a lot of the holidays, as Treliac said.

I agree with most you have said an teachers do work of hours but I deal in to education and can state the majority of teachers rarely start before 8:30 and most are gone before 4PM.

If they did work those hours it would be great as it would mean we had more time to contact them:)

But on a serious not I think the main problem teachers have is getting sympathy for their cause.
Good, caring teachers were few and far between when I was younger and I went to a school which had "good results".
From what I have heard by class room helpers and "support" staff this as not improved with teachers not really teaching just instructing from text books while getting the "helpers" to run the classes while they get on with marking.

Difficult one but teachers can't keep having above inflation rises.

Surely a better solution would be an inflation based rise and more money put in to creating a beter working environment and geting some "respect" back in the class room.

Throwing money in becase the job is getting worse does not seem like a solution, It is just saying:
If you can stick it, It is well paid.

Silaqui

Sorry Really2 by the 8 till 4 thing I meant hours as in timewise, sorry if that wasn't really clear. I'd love to start after half 8, our registration starts at 8.25 hehe! I think some people do take advantage of being able to get away early, I know I have done on occasion but then the work that I would have done in school gets done some other time.

Your main point is exactly the reason why I do not think that teachers need a payrise. Fussing about payrises when we are already a well paid professions makes us a laughing stock, because people see 30k a year, 9-3 and 13 weeks holiday and dismiss things automatically.

There are bigger issues in education (as I'm sure you know) that teachers getting paid enough.

"From what I have heard by class room helpers and "support" staff this as not improved with teachers not really teaching just instructing from text books while getting the "helpers" to run the classes while they get on with marking."

This is probably one extreme as I'm sure it doesn't happen in all schools or with all teachers, but I fully expect that many teachers just cannot deal with the workload and end up doing this, in particular with marking heavy subjects such as English. Completely unacceptable, and another huge reason why money would be better spent NOT giving these teachers a 10% payrise (because it doesn't give any more hours in the day) but to use that cash to either employ more teachers to allow others to have more non contact time, or more behaviour/inclusion support as you said.

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TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

hmmmm, its perhaps not great timing for this to make the press, but i personally wouldnt be very happy if I knew my prospects for the next 5 years were for a less than 2.5% pay increase each year.

moneysaver12

If my oh asked his boss for a 10 percent pay rise he would get laughed at, and he does extra hours on top of his normal hours

perplexed.com

Interesting. My OH is a university lecturer with 22yrs experience and earns 38k which seems to be just about or under some teachers' salaries. they work many hours extra and have only the same holidays as everyone else, indeed I have to nag to get them to take their allocated allowance. There is a lot of work done when students are on holiday, contrary to a lot of people's expectations. There is also the research. But unlike teachers no-one really seems to care about them much so not much support from the public. Teachers are relatively better supported and paid.