Salary scale - teachers

[Inspiron]

Hello,
Anyone know what the salary scale is for teachers in ECE, primary and Secondary school?

Right now, I am Looking into ECE - kindergarten in particular. I am going for a graduate diploma program (1 year if you have an existing degree). I have no experience in this field, I suppose that makes a difference in pay rate.

Thanks!

[pleccy2000]

I am not a teacher, but my OH is. A couple of things to be careful of...

- I have heard (but someone else needs to confirm if it's true or not) that GDP is not recognized here by the NZQA? I know PGCE is.

- I don't think that you can choose whether you work in a kindy, pre-school or primary - it's determined by the age group that you study in your teacher training. My OH can ONLY work in Primary here, where in England she could choose/switch between the different age groups

- I think starting pay is about $43-$46k but don't quote me on that.

Again, I'm not really qualified to answer your questions, just things I think are worth investigating

[JandM]

More hearsay from me. I know that other forumites have said that ONLY the ECE qualifications available from NZ institutions are recognized in NZ, so do please check this out.

[Inspiron]

Thanks for the replies. What is "GDP" and 'PGCE"?

[LesleyS]

Thanks for the replies. What is "GDP" and 'PGCE"?

Don't know about GDP but PGCE is a post grad certificate in education in the UK

[pleccy2000]

GDP - graduate diploma program, which i think is an alternative to doing the PGCE

[icemaiden]

The GDP is a diploma programme which you undertake whilst actually working in a school. Depending on the University which runs the programme there is an inordinate amount of work to do and on top of everyday teaching it can be extremely stressful. One of my colleagues at school is almost at breaking point doing it and I don't think that any teacher would undervalue it against a PGCE. However, I have also read that NZTC doesn't recognise the qualification.

[mojo]

I hope its okay to jump in on this thread. I am confused in working out exactly were on the New Zealand teachers pay scale a UK PGCE starts you at (as it would be called in the UK main pay scale 1). I am unsure if it is equal to salary step 5 or 7 (G5 or G7 I have seen it written as). In addition, am I right in my understanding that you progress on the pay scale in the same way as the UK one ‘rung’ of the ladder per year? Or do you have to do higher level qualifications to gain access to the top end of the pay scale or is the pay progression based on any form of assessment? If any one does know this would be a tremendously helpful.

Also to add to the GTP information, I have read pieces about it not being accept (from research into overseas teacher training methods) as it lacks the academic part of PGCE training undertaken at university. Although the irony with GTP is as others have mentioned it is the harder training method in many ways to PGCE, as they are up to nearly full time table before Christmas with less support in many cases (and I do know some teachers that have thrived on the GTP system, benefited from the better wage package and felt greater freedom from having their own classes for the whole year). I know that I welcomed the Jolly’s off to Uni, waving good bye to the kids in class, knowing full well that cheap student beer awaited me! In addition to that I did read a snippet about the new PGCE’s which have accompanying masters credits, being classed at a higher standard and therefore preferred, although it did not imply that this would have any employment benefits e.g. salary or chance of employment.

[JandM]

I hope someone will be along soon who knows some answers for you. Just wanted to say - of course it's all right to join in a thread anywhere. The only thing to be aware of while you're exploring is that if you find something that interests you, but it was posted some time ago, the people concerned may not still be around. Even so, it can be worth posting and bringing such a thread up the list, as current members will do their best to help.

[beanbeanz]

Not sure how much help I can be as I believe the transferring UK credentials may be different from North American ones.

If you're not already at the top of the salary scale you do move up a step on each anniversary of service. With a four year undergraduate degree (or 3 year undergrad plus 1 year of teacher training) you start on step 7 - this is for primary teaching...not sure if this is different for ECE or secondary though.