Letter: Unfair criticism of teachers

LETTER: I would like to correct Mr Thomas on the scale for teaching – this can be variable depending on experience and where you teach – and is not always £600 a week as he stated in his letter.

As a hard-working deputy head in a challenging, but very rewarding school, I would like to express my upset and disgust at his letter.

The profession does not receive enough recognition and views such as these make it harder each year to recruit good teachers.

Teaching is an extremely difficult, demanding and intellectual profession – it requires a passion, commitment and love for the job.

The hours we work are most certainly not 9am to 3pm and the 12-week "holidays" are not time for us to sit at home.

As most teachers will tell you they spent their half- term holiday writing class reports, analysing data to ensure they had planned personalised learning, marking books and a doing multitude of other tasks.

At our school all our teachers are there at least until 6pm each night, take work home and are there during holidays too – getting their classroom ready.

Please Mr Thomas consider talking to teachers to gain the facts.

A little respect and giving us the time to do this job and not comparing us to politicians who have "played a system of expenses" would be appreciated.

Carla Whelan

Telford