All teachers in England, Brown included, will tell you that salaries are inadequate - even though they're getting a 3.3 per cent pay rise in April - and they look with considerable envy at what their Irish counterparts are earning. The current starting salary for a British teacher, at both first and second level, is £15,537 sterling, which rises to a maximum of £23,193 sterling after seven years. In England, you stay on this pay scale for as long as you remain in the job, unless you take on a post of responsibility.
In contrast, Irish teachers with primary degrees start on point two of the pay scale at £15,334 per annum, while the annual starting salaries of those with postgraduate degrees is £15,859 (1999 figures). With annual increments, teachers can expect to earn a basic salary of £27,803 after 25 years. On top of this, they are eligible for a number of annual allowances, including £283 for a pass HDip, £591 for a first or second class honours HDip, £881 for a primary pass degree and £2,351 for a primary degree with first or second class honours.
Like their counterparts in Ireland, the only way teachers in England can gain extra pay is by taking on posts of responsibility. Special duties teachers in the Republic get an extra £1,802 annually. Sadly for such teachers in England, there are no national guidelines on special duties' payments. Here teacher salaries are paid by the local education authorities (LEAs) and now that schools are responsible for their own budgets, it's up to the individual school to determine how much is to be paid for extra duties. According to a spokesperson for the National Union of Teachers (NUT), some teachers take on extra responsibilities but receive no extra payments.
News of the recently announced £2,000 performance related pay thresholds has divided the staffroom in Brown's school, with younger teachers saying they'll go for it and older ones asking Why bother? - it only means more paper work and more bureaucracy.
In order to qualify for this cash, which will be awarded on top of the 3.3 per cent general pay increase for all teachers, applicants will have to complete a six-page application form. Depending on the school, principals, deputy principals or heads of department will assess an applicant's suitability for performance related pay (PRP).
Meanwhile, a private assessment company, which is currently recruiting inspectors, will conduct external assessments. At school level, there are fears that the process will be divisive and cause problems for principals, particularly in large schools.
According to draft threshold standards, which were released two weeks ago, performance will be assessed in five areas. These include teachers' knowledge and understanding of the teaching of their subject, their teaching and assessment methods, pupil progress, their wider professional effectiveness and the professional characteristics they display - team-building, inspiring trust, engaging and motivating pupils, for example.
The unions are particularly concerned about the measurement of pupil progress. "The scheme is a return to payment by results, linking pay to pupils' test and exam results," according to a NUT spokesperson.
Informal consultations with the key players in education on the threshold standards are currently underway. It is unlikely, however, that there will be any major changes to the draft. In recent years, our Department of Education and Science has made much of the fact that all major educational initiatives involve a widespread consultation process with the partners in education including the teacher unions, parents and employers. In England, the unions say, the type of broadly representative consultative committees, to which we have become accustomed are unusual.
"Usually the consultation process is just a paper-based exercise with no face to face meetings," comments a spokesperson for the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers. "Documents are issued as consultative documents, but when we respond we see very little change."
All the signs are that Amy Brown is coping well with her workloads. But for how long? In terms of her working conditions - small, relatively affluent school with motivated parents and pupils and a dynamic principal - other teachers would say that she has a charmed life. But in terms of the time she spends at her work - away from her family, social life and opportunities for personal development - other teachers argue that she's in danger of burnout.
"The demands of the job are such that you can't do it for 25 or 30 years and not suffer," is the comment of a spokesperson for the National Association of Scholmasters Union of Women Teachers.
