“Teachers get biggest pay rise in years”. 

“Hero workers to get inflation-busting rises”.

Since 2020 headlines haven’t been the cheeriest, I was quite happy to hear this news to kick off the summer holidays, at the end of what can only be described as the most depressing, unsatisfactory and downright bizarre summer term of my career.

I’ve heard and read enough negative feedback on the role of teachers during this pandemic. We all know we’re lazy. We can’t be bothered to come into school or offer online teaching. We’re being paid for loafing around at home while the parents do our job for us (and their own to boot). And so on. 

So it was quite refreshing to see that the chancellor, at least, recognises that we might actually have done a good job - one that deserves a (several years’ overdue) pay rise.

More equal than others

But, as with so many things in life, the devil is in the detail. On closer inspection, it appears that, in the eyes of the government, not all teachers are equal. Some are more equal than others. And, in this case, newer is definitely better. 

Looking more closely at the figures, it turns out that, while teachers at the start of their career will receive a pay rise of 5.5 per cent, teachers like me, who have worked their way up to the higher pay scales, will have to be satisfied with just 2.75 per cent. When you factor in our 18 per cent real-term decline in pay over the past decade, this is distinctly underwhelming. 

There are many challenges in teaching, and how much we get paid is only one of them. Everyone knows it’s not a job you get into for the money. 

Only, teachers have got to live. We have mortgages, bills, dependants. Surely it’s not unreasonable to expect that hard work and commitment are qualities that should be rewarded appropriately, as we gain skills and experience?

Less important

But experience is clearly not valued. However the government chooses to spin its rewarding of heroic public servants, the message is clearly that older teachers are simply less important to them than newer ones. 

Maybe it’s because they know older teachers are more likely to stick around - after all, after a couple of decades in the classroom, how many other professions can you jump across to? Who has the confidence - or the energy - to go looking for change?

In many ways, moving jobs is so much easier when you’re just starting out. Statistically, it’s also much more likely. Nearly one in three teachers quit within five years of starting, and record numbers are leaving before even finishing their first year.  

But for those of us with many years under our belts, the grim reality is that any talk of pay rises can be simply academic. Pay rises that have to come out of existing school budgets simply screw over the same teachers they purport to help. 

And when it comes to hiring, experienced teachers are at the back of the queue. The past two jobs I’ve taken have involved me taking a pay cut. Although both headteachers have been very apologetic in their explanations, the message is clear: “There is simply no room in the budget for experienced teachers on your pay scale. If you want to get a job, this is your only option.” 

The backbone of school communities

In what other profession would people routinely agree to be paid less to do the job they’ve already been doing? In what other profession would blatant ageism be so universally accepted? 

We are now functioning in a system where, for many schools, hiring newly qualified teachers is their only option. Almost every advert you see these days is targeted at them. A friend of mine says the last five teachers recruited to her one-form-entry primary have all been NQTs. For many schools, it’s the only way to staff a school and balance the books. 

But, once in the job, NQTs need experienced teachers to help them survive and thrive. Experienced teachers are the backbone of school communities: the heads who have steered their schools through the uncharted waters of pandemic schooling; the senior leaders who have spent hours supporting these heads, formulating plans to deliver education, helping families, keeping children learning; the classroom old guard who have been there, seen it and bought the T-shirt. 

Granted, none of us is quite old enough to have weathered a pandemic before. But when it comes to settling children back into school, I’d say experienced teachers are odds-on favourites to have the skill set to succeed. 

Do I think new teachers shouldn’t get a decent pay rise? Of course not. The NQT year is an extremely tough gig. A bit more financial reward is one way to acknowledge that. 

But will an increase in salary alone genuinely stop teachers from leaving? In my experience, one of the factors that helps keep new teachers in the profession is the support and guidance of more experienced staff. Which is why publicly devaluing them seems such a shortsighted thing to do. 

Jo Brighouse is a pseudonym for a primary teacher in the West Midlands