oooh. BT, if you stick around long enough, I might see you there.

Hivemind question (crossposted)

I'm looking at teaching jobs,and I (finally) found one that looks possible in the UK. Among the things I don't know, though, is whether the wage they're offering will be enough for me to live on. I'm scouring the Interbunny, but it'll be somewhere 16-17k, living in Watford, Herts.

Anybody know stuff?

Am-chau currently lives in Watford, so you might want to track her down and ask her. But I don't think the cost of living is dramatically high there; it's an hour outside of London.

If you're a qualified teacher working in a "public" (US Speak Public, that is) school, you should really be getting the standard pay scale stuff. Watford falls into Band C (London Fringe) on the pay scale.

Presently the lowest salary on the spine (ie for newly qualified teachers with no previous experience to be taken into account) for Band C is 20,082 sterling. For 2006 I believe it's supposed to be 20,586.

Is the 16K the gross salary? Or the net? Are they providing free accomodation, or other perks that would bulk it up in real terms? Because the cost of living is pretty high in London - outstrips Tokyo now, apparently. Which isn't to say don't do it, though - you could have a really fabulous time. But I'd find it hard to live in London on 16K; I was on that money when I lived in Outer London 6 or 7 years ago, and I enjoyed myself enormously but I was invariably broke by the end of the month.

BUT, if you're interested in teaching jobs in the UK have you tried VIF? My roommate's friend is an American teacher who got her job through them (iirc), and she's in her 5th or 6th year in the UK now, really enjoying it. I'd have thought that an organisation like that would really help to make sure you were being paid an appropriate wage & not screwed over.

Meanwhile, check out www.tesjobs.co.uk for all the teaching jobs available in British schools abroad and in the UK.

I'm in Watford, DebetEsse. If you want to e-mail me (profile addy is good), I probably know the school in question. Cost of living isn't that high here-- we're just on the edge of London, inside the M25 but (as SA says) an hour from the centre. Property prices are relatively high, though.

A quick glance at the ads in the local newspaper revals that £16k pa is fairly average for a local job offer. I'd say that yes, you should be able to live on that. I could find out more if you like-- my father's also a teacher, so I could ask him how it measures up.

ETA: alternatively, listen to Fay, who posted while I was typing and knows much more about teacher's ay than me.

Hey, does anyone know of a job site in the UK or Ireland that would be comparable to craigslist.org here in the States?

Happy St. David's Day to all!

Daffodils for everyone!

When I was job hunting, SA, I used fish4 a lot.

Around here in Boston, it's Find Out Which Of Your Coworkers Is A Practicing Catholic Day.

Around here in Boston, it's Find Out Which Of Your Coworkers Is A Practicing Catholic Day.

Heh, I was talking to a friend at lunch about this.