Secret Teacher: I'm working full time but struggling to make ends meet
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Loading... - Agnes Johnson
- 12 Dec 2020
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I’m a primary school teacher and I love my job. Despite the long hours – 12 hours a day Monday to Friday and most of the afternoon on a Sunday – the rewards are significant. I had various jobs before coming to the profession and they didn’t come close to giving me the sense of achievement I now feel. My colleagues and I are working hard to improve the life chances of children. But the sad reality is that I can barely afford to do this job.
I’m a single parent of two young children and it’s almost impossible to sustain living near my school in London. I earn £32,000 a year, and my rent – the cheapest I could find in a one-mile radius of work – is £1,250 a month. After tax and student loans, my take-home pay is about £24,000. My rent eats up 60% of that. Then there’s council tax, gas, electricity, internet, food and clothes to pay for. With one week left until pay day, it’s quite normal for me to be able to count the number of pounds I have left in my account on two hands. Christmas is a particularly difficult time of the year.
I am well aware that this is not just a teaching issue. There are parents – in and out of work – and their children, who are living in poverty. But one of the real frustrations for me is that teachers’ pay has, in real terms, got worse.
A recent survey by the OECD showed that teachers’ salaries in England were worth 12% less in 2015 than in 2005. In other countries, teachers’ pay has gone up in absolute terms – by an average of 10% at pre-primary level and 6% at primary schools; the rate of growth is slower, but up, in secondaries. England and Scotland (where there has been a 6% decline) are the notable exceptions. It’s hard not to think teaching children isn’t valued by those in charge, especially when the pay gap between heads and teachers has dramatically widened.
At my school, the demographic of teachers is changing as more staff are forced out of London when they start their families. I’m in my 30s – I’m one of the oldest teachers at my school and the only one with school-age children. My colleagues in their 20s know there is no long-term plan for them to stay in London. In the staff room, we talk about rising rents, the increased cost of living and the fact that friends in other jobs seem to work fewer hours for more money.
Low wages and high rents are an obvious factor in teacher retention and staff instability in schools. Perhaps more long-term vision is needed here – after all, a high staff turnover and reliance on supply staff is expensive for schools.
The impact on me and my children is considerable. I want to settle in the area and put down roots – for my family and my career. I’d love to buy a house but don’t have anything to put towards a deposit. The various government schemes to help key workers or first-time buyers appear impossible to penetrate, since what’s on offer usually seems unsuitable for my family situation or unrealistically expensive.
Living day to day, pay cheque to pay cheque, has also had implications for my mental health. I don’t sleep well. I think about money all the time and there are days when the thought of getting out of bed seems impossible. I know that one bill arriving could have disastrous consequences.
This all came to a head six months ago when we had to move flats. I was riddled with debt, had ridiculous upfront fees to cover, and quickly became desperate. Luckily, I read about a teacher in a similar position to myself, who had applied for help through a charity called the Education Support Partnership. It helped me with my deposit and made a significant contribution towards my council tax. Without that support, my children and I might have ended up sleeping on friends’ sofas or going into emergency housing. In either of those situations, I doubt whether I could have been the teacher or the parent I want to be.
With a seemingly unsympathetic government, and schools juggling near impossible budgets, it’s not clear what the future is for my profession. Once again, the target for training new teachers has not been met, at a time when more teachers are needed. In discussing the recruitment crisis, there has been a significant emphasis on teachers’ workloads causing stress and anxiety, but the issue of teacher pay must not be overlooked. My job is stressful, my hours are long, and I work with children in some very desperate situations. Shouldn’t I be adequately compensated for it? Maybe if that happened, we would have motivated, settled teachers who will remain in schools.
