Early Years teachers

[playgroup1]

Does anyone in a small PVI setting employ an Early Years Teacher? What is their pay rate and what is their job description?

I'm asking because I have a member of staff about to complete her EYT and is who starting to ask what I see her role as and what will I pay her. She wanted to do this qualification but I'm not sure I can afford her or in fact need an EYT. I do all the planning, assessment and tracking myself, mostly because I enjoy it but also because I do it at home, out of hours - not something I think she would be prepared to do.

[FSFRebecca]

We have a qualified teacher leading our pre-school group. She works a teacher's timetable and contract and she is paid a teacher's salary (albeit at the bottom end of mainscale). She has full responsibility for the planning and assessment of the preschool group (49 children). I am her line manager. She has a team of 4 nursery assistants working with her during the week, she is the only one who is there every day (the others do early/late shifts as we are full day care). Her job description is a teacher's job description. She works as a teacher and is paid accordingly. I would say that if you have a member of staff who is doing the job of a teacher then she should expect to be paid for it (but that does include working at home to get things done). If she's not going to be doing the job then just having the qualification doesn't give her the salary, in my view. If your member of staff is worth hanging on to it might be time to have the conversation about the increased ratios for those with teacher status when working with level 3 qaulified staff. It might be that if you want to keep her she will wait until someone leaves and take their salary, but also their children into her ratio.

[Inge]

We always felt that someone was employed to do a specific job . 

If we needed an EYT we would have advertised and employed one but to gain a qualification while working did not automatically mean that  a job would magically appear for that qualification..

We did aim to employ all level 3  so we had an enhancement / added salary to that level. It was not much but it did encourage more training for those reluctant. 

We used to say unfortunately we did not have a job vacancy for a EYT at this time but we would consider them if one arose. Meanwhile they could apply for appropriate jobs at other settings if they wish..

 I had a job description  with everything expected of them - including working at home. I also explained that for it to happen ratios would change and someone else on the team would need to be made redundant so they would need to take on her role as well. 

[MarshaD]

I’m a qualified teacher but we won’t go into how much I get paid because it’s probably not even equivalent to minimum wage once you factor in the hours I work. I’ve just appointed a deputy teacher who would get £30k if full time but is pro rata (she is part time). However she was appointed as a teacher which is different as colleagues point out to someone completing a course of study that you didn’t ask them to while employed as something else. I don’t think you can be expected to create a role for her that doesn’t exist.

[finleysmaid]

15 hours ago, playgroup1 said:

Does anyone in a small PVI setting employ an Early Years Teacher? What is their pay rate and what is their job description?

I'm asking because I have a member of staff about to complete her EYT and is who starting to ask what I see her role as and what will I pay her. She wanted to do this qualification but I'm not sure I can afford her or in fact need an EYT. I do all the planning, assessment and tracking myself, mostly because I enjoy it but also because I do it at home, out of hours - not something I think she would be prepared to do.

what would she do extra if you paid her more? would you up the level of children so that she could have 1:13 ratio? ........if she's not going to do any more then she can't get paid more! Would she be prepared to take on extra roles....set up new services....extend hours to improve the business etc etc etc

[FSFRebecca]

This piece of research might be of interest: Early Years Teachers 'doing more work for same pay'

 

[AliceinWonderland]

This may sound harsh, but i agree with all of the above. Unless she will be expected to do more, then she can't expect to be paid more. Her contract will be based on the job she applied for originally. Of course she is free to apply elsewhere if she is not happy with how things are. I was once employed in a school as a level 2 even though my qualification was higher. It was a level 2 job that i applied for and thats the rate i got paid. In todays world of rubbish funding, you have to balance the books and i'm sure we would all love to pay staff a higher wage as they do truly deserve it but sometimes it is not possible. I have staff who have gained higher qualifications while working for me but i have not increased their wage but i also have not increased their workload.

[catma]

I agree. A qualification does not infer entitlement. To do certain things you need certain qualifications, but they belong to you, not the job you actually do.