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After sitting at home doing practically nothing for weeks before being "gifted" a summer holiday, I for one am glad to have been rewarded with a pay rise for my efforts in the garden basking in the sun during the COVID lockdown. Just a few points for people to consider:
Number one: Teacher have been setting and marking work. Some have been teaching live lessons, others have been caring for key worker pupils and others have been doing a mix of the two. I have also been in work everyday for the last 4 weeks teaching returning pupils
2) The payrise that has been gifted to us by the conservative government reflects the recommendations of the pay review boards which were published in January. This payrise reflects the hard work teachers do all year round and is not really a reward for our lockdown efforts
3) Teachers are not paid for the summer holidays. Our pay is calculated on the months we work and stretched over 12 months so that we do recieve an income during the break but really, it is money that is owed to us from thoughout the academic year
4) One of the main reasons for the teacher retention crisis is that the workload is so heavy that thousands of people arrive at the conclusion that there is not an equitable work life balance for teachers and leave. Those that stay work both before 8am and after 6am most days.
I became a teacher in my late 20s and therefore have plenty of "real world experience" of normal jobs. Teaching is the hardest profession I have ever worked in; it is the most stressful, the most time consuming and with significant unpaid overtime. I do it because I love it
