What teachers would do for £1,000 (or not)!

10k update

This summer, EVERY TIME we hit 10,000 responses, we’re sending one lucky Tappster a mystery merch bundle to celebrate. The highest number of daily responses last week was…

>> 9,885 <<

That’s only 115 short of 10k, so make sure you keep tapping (and tell all your teacher mates too!) If you spot a 10k day, pay extra attention to the space under the Daily Read to check if we send you a winner’s message.

Now, onto this week’s results (literally!)

Qualifications

We are well into results season with A-levels, T-levels and VTQs out last week, and GCSEs coming up this week (students in Scotland have known their results since the beginning of the month!)

The cohort who got their results last week have had a rocky time when it comes to assessments as they are the TAG GCSEs crowd. But did you think the way their A-levels were decided this year was fair?

Our results revealed a 3-way-split: a third of you agreed that they were fair, a third disagreed, and a third sat in the middle. We don’t always report 3-way-splits, as they often just indicate that there’s a spread of opinion. BUT what is striking about these findings is how different they are to the last two years…

Compared to your responses in 2021 (the year of the TAG) and 2022 (the year of grade redistributions) around twice as many of you felt that the way A-level qualifications were decided this year was not fair.

As students were celebrating results (or not), we also checked if you think the UK should move toward a system of post-results university applications or offers. More than half of you think this is a good idea; the same proportion as when we last asked (2021). BUT the propoprtion that strongly agree has risen from 24% to 29%… Manifesto issue anyone?!

While we’re talking about qualifications, what quals do YOU hold? As a graduate profession it’s unsurprising that 96% of teachers have an undergrad degree, but did you know that 27% of teachers have a Masters qualification? The subject group most likely to hold a Masters are Humanities teachers (37%) and 11% of science teachers hold a Doctorate.

You clever clogs!

If you had your time again, would you do it the same way? Not necessarily! Nearly 1-in-5 of you would now choose a degree-level apprenticeship after A-levels, up from just 7% in 2021.

Can money buy you happiness?

We’ve been asking those pesky hypothetical questions again!

First off: is a free lesson on Friday period five worth £1,000? Nope! These are hard times and most of you (87%) are willing to power through and not lose out on the cash. Interestingly this is not a cost of living finding… we saw the same response in summer 2021.

Next up, more money or more holiday? Cash on the table is still around a grand, and this time just over half of you took 2 weeks extra holiday. Those on the upper pay scales (heads & SLTs) were most in favour of the hols. BUT the proportion taking the cash has gone up to 45%; it was only 39% back in 2021 – even despite inflation.

School uniform

School uniform was in the news last week, and the reporters were using information that YOU had shared on Teacher Tapp! The media were following up on 2021 legislation aiming to ensure school uniform costs do not become excessive.

One thing that can raise the price of uniform is logos. So are there fewer logos on uniforms this year?

Not really! In fact the proportion reporting logos on blazers has actually gone UP slightly since 2021. There’s a small decline in the requirment for logos on jumpers, but that’s about it.

However primary schools are changing a little. In 2021, 20% of primary teachers reported no branded items; this has now risen to 30%. Over in secondary schools, the proportion has doubled… from a measly 2% to a paltry 4%!

If you’d like to hear Teacher Tapp co-founder & CEO, Laura McInerney discussing the findings you can ‘listen again’ on The Today Programme via BBC Sounds.

Ups and Downs

On the rise

📈 School holiday adulting: Visits to the dentist this school holiday are up at 26% (18% in 2021) and visits to the doctor are up at 29% (22% in 2021)… At leaset we hope this is more adulting and not more sickness 😷

📈 Planning on electronic devices: up at 36% (compared to 34% in 2021)… That’s still a majority sticking with paper though

Heading down

📉 Writing a lesson outline in your planner: 42% wrote outlines in 2021, but it’s down to 36% in 2023… More of you are just writing the title or the topic now

📉 Commuting time: the ideal commute time from home to school has dropped; in 2021 24% of you were prepared to travel for 45mins to an hour; this is now 19%. Conversely, 25% wanted a 15-30min commute in 2021; this is now up to 33%