Salaries and opportunities for advancement

The attractions of a career in teaching are many, but teachers do not enter the profession in order to get rich!

In a first post at a typical age of 22 the salary would be about £17500 - but some independent schools might pay up to about £3000 more than that. Classroom teachers can expect to progress to about £25500 after 5 years. Then, subject to satisfactory performance, the upper pay scale adds about another £7500 over time. Heads of department and so called Advanced Skills Teachers, who have a role sharing good practice with others, can earn over £40000 in exceptional cases.

Promotion within schools and colleges often involves spending less time in the classroom, either by specialising in pastoral matters or in school management. A career with a pastoral emphasis might involve becoming a head of year, then a head of section of school and then a deputy head with overall responsibility for pastoral matters. Management posts include administration of examinations and timetabling. There is also plenty of scope for statisticians to get involved in analysis of examination results and other performance measures throughout a school. Promotion through the academic ranks might include becoming a head of department, a head of faculty and eventually deputy head with responsibility for curriculum.

Deputy heads can earn over £40000 in large maintained schools, substantially more in some independent schools. Beyond that, the head teachers' scale extends to about £80000 for the largest schools.

Many teachers also work for examination boards, usually beginning as markers for GCSE or A-level papers (or the equivalent in Scotland). This can lead to higher responsibility: co-ordinating teams of markers, deciding on the awarding of grades, setting and checking examination papers, and developing new syllabuses and assessment methods. Those with considerable experience as senior examiners may be invited to work with one of the government bodies that monitor academic standards set by the examination boards, such as the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.