Please allow me to have a rant.
I received an email recently advising of a job vacancy for an ex pupil of crown woods school as mentor.
Clearly, this could be an important role and potentially hugely beneficial to the students.
Unfortunately, they are looking for a graduate and offering a paltry 15k. Ok, so you get school hols off but FFS, what standard of applicant do they expect?
After graduating from uni, why would any self respecting candidate go for this? If they employ a poor one, the students suffer, if they employ a good one, they will be off as soon as a decent job turns up and the students suffer.
Also, why is a graduate needed? I would have thought it would be useful to consider an ex pupil with few exam passes who went on to do well. Particularly as uni was only taken up by a very small minority in years gone by.
My sister is an ex teacher who has been scathing at the way education has been heading for years. I know this is just a small issue in the scheme of things but seems to be indicative of a worrying malaise as a result of cuts in the wrong places.
Well thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
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My ex-employer was a firm believer in mentoring. Both at work and in the community. That meant that us volunteers went off and mentored in our lunch breaks at schools. We enjoyed it, the schools always said their pupils enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. (And it cost the schools nothing). Mentoring at work was done on the basis that the mentee got to choose their mentor. I ended up with six. (That might have been because I did most of my mentoring down the pub. Which worked even for a young Muslim employee as she loved the pub's cheesy chips!)
Anyway, the bit I've highlighted above. I'd also have thought experienced (and free) workers doing a bit of volunteer mentoring would actually bring more to the table than a new graduate (albeit a cheap one.)
In the city on average a new grad will get somewhere between 22-25k.
If school hours i.e. 6 hours x 5 days x 38 weeks = 1140 hours. A 9-5 office job is 1820 hours. So the £15k is equivalent to £24k, that's far more than a qualified teaching assistant earns! They get about £12k.
We start our graduate trainees on a minimum of £23k - in Stoke! That City figure surprises me.
as an example: https://jobs.lewisham.gov.uk/schools/support-staff-class-prendergast-school-teaching-assistant/15176.job
27.5 hours a week, term time only, this one is 39 weeks (as they pay the 5 additional days/1 week) so 1072.5 hours.
On graduates it does depend on the role, having just spoken to HR generally only a handful get more than £25k starting which are usually trainee actuaries with a 1st in maths. That said a successful grad will be £40k+ within 3-5 years if the continue with studies.
I think part of what's kept salaries low (not sure if this is just London or my field) is the sheer number of applicants, we easily get 500+ for every role.
Also under the £21k figure that means no tuition fees need repaying.
I use to mentor in local schools when I worked in London, enjoyable for the few hours I put in, certainly didn't expect any money for doing it.
https://www.tes.com/jobs/vacancy/key-stage-5-graduate-mentor-greenwich-520632
Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy Job Description
Post: Key Stage 5 Graduate Mentor Reporting to: Head of Sixth Form Basis: 38 weeks per annum (Term Time), 35 hours a week
Role Purpose: To work specifically in the Sixth Form with individual students and small groups of students to enhance their learning and pastoral experience To work closely with the Head of Sixth form and the Sixth Form team together with individual subject teachers
Key Areas of Responsibility:
Deliver timetabled academic skills and SMSC materials on a daily or weekly basis
Supervise the Sixth Form Study rooms, administer attendance and follow up any concerns/nonattendance
Implement intervention and monitoring strategies with underperforming students to set up targets, personalised action plans and study plans
To coach and mentor identified sixth form students
To support tutors in communication with parents, especially parents of underachieving or vulnerable students
To lead on Student Voice and manage the Student Council To offer pastoral support to students
To assist students through the University application process (UCAS) offering advice and guidance for choosing courses and universities
To offer advice, support and guidance to students not going to university
To assist with the year 11 application and transition programme into Sixth Form
Attend parents evening and sixth form open evenings
Assist with A level results day, promotional events and enrolment days
Attend weekly school briefings and attend and contribute to tutor meetings
To work with the sixth form leadership team to implement sixth form procedures
To assist all members of the Sixth Form Team with any reasonable task To undertake any reasonable request from the Head of Sixth Form
This job description will be reviewed on an annual basis and, following consultation with you, may be changed to reflect or anticipate changes in the job requirements which are commensurate with the job title and grade.
Person Specification
Degree (essential)
Ability to communicate accurately and concisely (essential)
Possess an understanding and empathy with 16-19 year olds (essential)
Ability to work as part of a team (essential)
Experience of working with children or young people (desirable)
Experience of working in a School or Sixth Form (desirable)
Ability to offer an extracurricular activity (desirable)
Signatures
Signed:____________________________ Date:___________________________
There are lots of implications in what I set out here, for example private sector child experience verses state Education, also that opting to pay for private child care or supervision does not have to happen, but schooling of some sort is compulsory.
My starting point is that you have a child, and you want another person (adult) to look after them for an hour, and you will pay a fee for that to happen. Not a million miles from the principle of paying taxes for schooling.
I have used the fees from this child activity centre in Colchester.
http://www.childsplayadventureland.co.uk/times-and-prices.php#.WV1DE9MrKV5
We have:
5.70 per child for two hours. which is £2,85 per hour.
£85.5 for 30 kids for an hour.
Now pause to imagine an average junior school teacher, with the holidays taken in to account you work 195 days a year.
Imagine your contact time with a class of 30 kids is four hours per day for those 195 days.
If the money parents are prepared to pay per hour for the services of the teacher is the same as the adventureland fee (I am leaving out the costs of the infrastructure and all that goes with it), then the teacher would be commanding the princely sum of
4x£85.50x195
Which makes
£66, 690
Now lets imagine the average annual pay for a Junior school teacher is £28,690.
By my calculation that would leave £38,000 for everything else, the buildings and all attendant education type stuff.
My conclusion is that in terms of basic child supervision alone, from a parents point of view sending them to school is an absolute bargain compared to the private sector looking after your kids.
This issue is very stark when for example parents no longer pay nursery fees but can start sending their children to school.
My other observation is how cheap the costs of the teachers actually are.
If the cost of the childsplayadventureland went straight into the pocket of the play supervisor, they would be pulling in said £66,000 odd quid a year for 195 days work. Yes of course they have overheads too I get that.
You could construct a case to say that highly qualified, skilled and experienced teachers are paid less that playgroup supervisors in the private sector.
Having an education service measured on the basis of child care alone, disregarding the actual education is very cheap compared to private provision.
Now I teach in the uk and am poor
...our education system is in a bad state
...salaries in the uk are more and more of a joke- especially public sector
Have you seen how much people make in leading industrialised nations?!?!?
I don't know anyone that hasn't racked up 35 hours by Thursday lunchtime.
I also note that every school car park is, virtually, empty by 4pm.
As for why do they want a graduate? Well if 40% of the population go to University these days what do you expect to get if you ask for someone without a degree? and how can you expect the sixth-formers to respect them?
£15k a year with 14 weeks holiday and knocking off at 3:30 for a trainee sounds like a dream come true for someone that is 21, and doesn't have a mortgage.
It's kind of like extending the Student Life only with £260 a week to spend on beer.
Would it be harsh to suggest that if students can't do this unaided, it's probably better that they slap in an application to flip burgers somewhere rather than trouble their brains attempting a degree course?
Did you really mean to write that?
I could also note that every school car park is, virtually, chock a block full by 6.30am every day
It's none of my business what hours they work but I was making the point that school teachers do not all work the same hours as many people on offices and/or factories.
Maybe the truth is that teachers work a lot of hours but at different times...like bakers maybe.