Miscellaneous desk
< February 28	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 1

Why are teachers in the UK so well paid?

Closing invitation to debate, per WaltCip's suggestion. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:32, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

I am a sixth form teacher, and am a bit puzzled as to why salaries are so high.

Whilst I agree that the work loads can be high, my bemusement is thus.

First, holidays are long: this is a massive asset.
Second, and perhaps most germanely, the academic demands of the job are quite low, and I fail to see why it constitutes "skilled" work. As such, it is not obvious to me why teachers should expect to earn such high salaries.

My contender explanations are as follow.

That I am exaggerating the importance of academic skills in determining salaries of jobs. Maybe the soft skills of the job are valuable and less-than-ubiquitous.
That I am exaggerating the academic demands of similarly/higher paid jobs.

But, is there something that I am missing?

--Leon (talk) 13:31, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You're griping that you're getting paid too much? Come to America for a while. Your comments say nothing about your students. Do you find it easy to deal with them all day, every day? If so, you should write a book on how to do that. If not, consider any extra to be like "combat pay". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:44, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This comparison (from 2015) does not suggest that teachers in the UK are particularly well paid in a global context. Mikenorton (talk) 14:05, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This compares graduate starting salaries by profession and also doesn't suggest that teachers are doing that well. Mikenorton (talk) 15:37, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

"the academic demands of the job are quite low, and I fail to see why it constitutes "skilled" work", maybe that's because you're doing it wrong. --Jayron 32 14:28, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I contend that I am not doing it wrong! Perhaps I should explain more.

I teach A-level Maths and Physics, and prepare students for STEP. Whilst these are perceived as "hard" courses, the level of difficulty is not graduate level: there are but a handful of graduate-level topics (Laurent series being the most obvious) that I have ever discussed in any detail to my students. As such, I don't see why one needs graduate-level education to teach these topics.--Leon (talk) 15:48, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

There are many jobs where you will find that most of your graduate skills are not used. The advantage of having a degree in the subject you are teaching is that you are less likely to be caught out by tricky questions. (Of course, it is possible that your employers have made an error in calculating your salary, but it's maybe better not to ask about that.) Dbfirs 16:00, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, and they haven't made an error in the sense I believe that you mean!--Leon (talk) 11:10, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I also think you're confusing the rigors of the academic discipline from the rigors of pedagogy. Designing, implementing, and assessing lessons is more complex than just telling people facts that you know, and that's what I meant by "maybe you're doing it wrong". I suppose you could take a pay check for just walking into a classroom and talking about your subject for few hours each day (many teachers do this), but there's a lot more to good teaching that makes the art of pedagogy itself acacemically demanding and is a skill unto itself. --Jayron 32 16:03, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

We'll I'm graded (internally) as a "good" teacher, and I don't see what's so academically demanding about pedagogy. I'll add that I only teach sixth form, if that's relevant.--Leon (talk) 11:10, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Supply and demand comes into the equation. Bricklayers earn a huge amount (not saying it's not skilled work) because there's a construction boom and they are in short supply. 92.19.174.150 (talk) 17:08, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed: perhaps More teachers leaving profession than joining for second year running (June 2017) has some bearing on the matter. Alansplodge (talk) 20:24, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

And I agree, in a way, but I'm coming at it from a different angle.

I'm a little puzzled why that's true. I'm not contending that everyone should want to do it; however, given the other remarks I've made it seems like an obvious profession for many who didn't like/weren't so strong at their subject at university.--Leon (talk) 11:10, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Because not everyone can deal with teaching/managing/supporting/disciplining/caring for/guiding children on a daily basis. That's a whole set of skills and abilities that not everyone is cut out for. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 11:15, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

"High" is a relative term. Tell us what you're comparing UK teachers' salaries with. Other occupations in the UK? Teachers' salaries in other countries? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 18:20, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The former, for similar levels of what I believe skill to be.--Leon (talk) 11:10, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This ref desk question is a request for debate or opinion. We do not and should not answer these.--WaltCip (talk) 12:08, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You're right. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:32, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

crematoriums isle of sheppey

Hi all, I am a support worker with Grace Eyre in Sussex. My current task is to locate the ashes of the daughter of a young lady whom I work with. I cannot find the names or the phone numbers for the local crematoriums. Are you able to help? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.66.129.148 (talk) 15:42, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Are you looking for ALL crematoriums in Sussex? Do you want to narrow it down to, say, Brighton? Then, you would have The Downs and Woodvale. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 15:58, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I think he's look for a list of crematoria on the Isle of Sheppey, which is in Kent. 81.187.116.230 (talk) 16:31, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

https://www.swale.gov.uk/cemeteries/ is the local government website for the area, but the ashes could be anywhere there is no requirement to bury or scatter ashes at the place of cremation they can be taken away and put anywhere. I would suggest you probably need to find out the funeral director who dealt with the cremation who may have an idea what happened. MilborneOne (talk) 16:39, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The most likely crematorium for the Isle of Sheppey is the Garden of England Crematorium, in Sittingbourne [1] (there isn't one on the Isle of Sheppey itself). If you know the date of death and/or the date of the funeral they should be able to say whether the ashes were returned to the family or the undertakers, held at the crematorium, or scattered on site (most have a garden specifically for such purposes). If that isn't the right one, putting Kent + crematorium into Google will give you a complete list of every one in the county. Similarly, putting Undertakers + isle of Sheppey into Google gives you a list of the four firms of undertakers on the Isle - though there is no guarantee that one of them would have been used. Wymspen (talk) 23:15, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Who arranged the funeral? Was it the girl's mother? 92.19.174.150 (talk) 14:41, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]