Bill Sawyer: "In the state sector no, because of the workload: paperwork, pastoral care, people management  of teaching assistant’s in your classroom and the high levels of differentiation required in lessons to meet the needs of all the children."
Rachel Garrick: "I personally found it ok but pay in London is higher than anywhere else in the UK, even though the cost of living outside the capital can be equal to that in London. I know of a few friends who weren't working in London and had to live back at their parents’ houses for the first year or so, mainly to pay off their loans that they accumulated when they were on their PGCE (qualification)."

Rachel Garrick: “Most believe that they should earn more as it wasn’t just the hours that you worked at school but also the hours that you spend at home marking and writing reports. Some of the schools in the UK have a really hardcore lot of kids which is incredibly taxing on a teacher, both emotionally and physically and the pay maybe doesn't reflect the stress on some teachers in the class and out of it with the increasing paper work that is expected of them.”

Bill Sawyer: “Inner London weighting on my pay scale helped to make it look and seem fairly decent. I was on about £26,000 with two years English as Foreign Language (EFL) teaching experience.  But yes there is resentment.”
Rachel Garrick: “The younger ones moaned but they also knew their salary was going up each year, but for the more experienced teacher, after M6 (top of the ordinary pay scale) there wasn’t really anywhere to go, so that was the top of their pay potential.”

Bill Sawyer: “No, they should campaign for more money.  But people do CHOOSE to become teachers and they know the pay is rubbish when they go into it.  I could coin it being an electrician or a plumber if I wanted to, but it is not mentally stimulating enough for me.”
Rachel Garrick: “Well you have to moan about something don’t you? And, in all fairness, teaching in some of the schools in the UK, the pay doesn’t reflect the pressures that teachers have to work with.”

Bill Sawyer:  “I think this is true for some people who are motivated by money, but it's also the workload and the responsibility that some people don't want.  There is a lot of baggage with teaching and it can be brought 'home' if you are not careful, especially teaching in challenging schools or areas and being face-to-face with abusive children or being abused by irate parents.”
Rachel Garrick: “Possibly, if they are trained in a certain area, some would choose to go for the money in another related degree job. However, I think there are a lot of people out there who are teachers who have always known that this was the profession that they wanted to enter regardless of the salary.”

Bill Sawyer: “I lived reasonably well, always was fed, could go out for a pint or a dance whenever - couldn't do all the things I wanted to all the time but I don't know many people who can.”
Rachel Garrick:  “I think most people who live in London probably don’t have all that much to spend on excessive luxuries like holidays and the like. Compared to life here (in the Philippines), then yes maybe but I was never hard up. Having said that, I only needed to consider myself and didn’t have a family to support. In that sense, things could have been a lot harder.”

Bill Sawyer: “Not at all.  I was getting increasingly more money and would probably have been able to get up the ladder soon enough.  Travel, experiencing new cultures and the chance to teach a wider variety of sports and teams were my main motivations.”
Rachel Garrick: Not at all. I just wanted a better standard of living and being here in the Philippines I get paid probably a little more than London but it goes a million times further. I was feeling very drained from the stress of work back in England but am so happy here where I feel that I am able to teach properly and the kids want to learn.”

Bill Sawyer: “Very much so.”
Rachel Garrick: “Without a shadow of a doubt. The school pays for amazing accommodation, the country is lovely, great school, the children want to learn and their parents are supportive. I really couldn’t ask for anything else.”

Bill Sawyer: “Absolutely. 'Those that can' and 'Use your head' were high profile advertising campaigns and were mildly inspiring. They pulled a lot of teachers into training but how many are still in teaching?  The drop out rate is high I believe.  The government needs to convince teachers that when you are really up against, teaching is a valuable, worthwhile job.  More money and more support are needed.  I don't have the answers and I'm not convinced that anyone in government does either.”