The latest pay deal made little impact on prospective teachers visiting the Teaching in London event at the Olympia conference centre.
In fact, it was hard to find any who were even aware of last week’s announcement of a 3.5 per cent increase. New starting salaries of pound;19,671 for outer and pound;20,733 for inner London left people largely unmoved.
Louise Kelly, 21, has just graduated in drama and theatre studies from St Mary’s College, London. She had heard about the pay rise and the higher starting salaries but they were not her key concern.
“The pound;6,000 training bursary is very good, but it’s not really enough. That will cover just your costs but materials and travel, things like that, won’t be covered. I do think we should get more in the bursary in London.”
Sally Rawson, 22, a postgraduate trainee at Warwick University (right), agrees. She is looking for a job in London after her course. “You can’t manage anywhere else on pound;6,000, never mind here,” she said, adding that a 3.5 per cent pay rise was “not enough for the people teaching at the moment, because of the hours and stress”.
Her friend Navneet Rai, 26, on the same course at Warwick but originally from London, thought a free travel card for London students would be a brilliant idea.
That idea was put forward by Bob Vertes (below), of St Mary’s College, who believes it would make a huge difference to his students.
“They could get around to school placements and have a bit of a social life. It works in Budapest, where I was born. I’m sure it would make a difference in London, and it might work in other cities,” he said.
Classroom experience rather than cash incentives have drawn Spencer Guainiere (top, right), 34, into considering a career in teaching. He has been a classroom assistant working with children with emotional and behavioural problems for 18 months - an unexpected but enjoyable career change for a sound engineer graduate, he says.
He was expecting to be paid pound;17,000 topound;18,000 as a newly-qualified teacher in London, so was pleasantly surprised by the higher figures.
“Pay wasn’t really a factor, but it’s better than what you earn as a classroom assistant. It helps,” he said.
Gora Seck, 30, a languages graduate from Senegal, was one of dozens of people queuing for more information about the Graduate Teacher Programme, the on-the-job training route which pays up to pound;13,000 in salary. “I think the experience I will get from school will be more practical, rather than going to university and getting lots of theories,” he said.
