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How do you rate yourself as a teacher? And other findings this week...

28 September 2021

Is it just us, or are we all surprised that it’s still only September?  🤪

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1. Are you a top quality teacher?! 🤔

A few weeks ago someone on social media asked if we had any data on how good teachers think they are at their jobs. Reader: we do.

But we also thought it was worth running it again.

Whenever there is a question like this, there is a common trend for people to rate themselves above average, in a phenomenon known as illusory superiority.

Hence, it wasn’t entirely surprising to find that 85% of you felt you were above average. (Slightly down from 89% in 2018). BUT… who is more susceptible to believing this?

Brand new analysis this year shows that male teachers are more confident in their abilities, with 35% saying they would come in the top 25% compared to 29% of women. That said, a similar percentage of male and female teachers said they were in the bottom half of the rankings.

Last week, you may remember that we asked about performance-related pay. We found that teachers who rated themselves as highly charismatic were more in favour of a system of pay based on performance. Presumably because they felt they could charm their way into it!

Likewise, teachers who felt they would be ranked in the top 25% of teachers were happier about the idea of performance pay than those concerned about their performance.

There’s just one problem with all of this data. Does confidence in one’s teaching actually translate into results? We’re not sure yet how we could test that on Teacher Tapp. Or even if we could. But we’d love to hear your suggestions about how we might!

2. Are you having an Open Evening? (And do you get food if you have to stay late?!🍕)

Last year, 64% of schools moved their open evening to being online due to the pandemic. This included 88% of secondary schools and 39% of primary schools. (Many of the remaining primary schools didn’t have an open evening!).

It’s all change again this year as more schools are opening their doors to parents once again! 50% of schools are hosting a socially distanced open evening. We’ve also seen a decrease in the percentage of schools not having an open evening this year – from 22% down to just 12%.

That said, we forgot that schools might be offering a not-socially distanced open evening! 🤦‍♀️ Which might account for the 17% of you who responded with “Other”. We’ll re-ask this question soon with that option added in to see whether that is true!

Open evenings are generally quite different between primary and secondary schools. The majority (89%) of secondary school teachers are required to stay late to take part in open evenings. Just 8% of secondary teachers don’t stay at all, compared to 49% of primary teachers.

And even though 89% of secondary school teachers are required to stay late during opening evenings, nearly a quarter of them are not given food while doing so. 😲

Most commonly snacky food is given to sustain you throughout the evening, although 23% of secondary teachers get a full cooked meal!

Almost two-thirds of primary teachers are also not given any food and only 6% are given a cooked meal!

3. What do you expect from your job?

No one ever said teachers are in it for the money, but still we were surprised at quite how far down your list of expectations high wages comes! More important to you by far are opportunities for good quality and interesting work. Getting along with the people you work with is way up there too 🤗

Do your expectations change the longer you’re in teaching? The main change (perhaps unexpectedly) is your expectations of getting a promotion: 57% of teachers in their first 5 years have this expectation, compared to just 25% of those who’ve been in the profession 20 years or more.

As for the other items in our list, there are small changes over time… Expectations of high wages decreases, as does the need to get along with the people you work with, and attitudes toward physical working conditions. On the flip side, the longer you’re in the profession, the greater your expectations of a good pension, suggesting that sometimes, the best things come to those who wait!

Finally… we know you love the daily read, so here are the ones from last week

The most read tip this week was: 5 simple hacks to look after your money as a teacher!

And here are the rest for your reference: