« November 2007 | Main | January 2008 »
Sean came across this cool version of Tetris called Stateris. This would be great for Geography teachers. I was amazed how difficult even the easy version of Europe Stateris is to play!
Another cool game is Free Rice, which tests your knowledge of word definitions. For every word you get right, 20 grains of rice get donated through the United Nations to help end world hunger.
In the news today is details of the three year pay deal for Scottish teachers. There will be a pay increase of 2.25% in April 2008, 2.5% in April 2009, and 2.4% in 2010.
I'm sure everyone in teaching is happy about this, but the first question we all think is "so how much will I get paid then?" None of the usual online sources have produced tables yet, so to save you all the hassle I have chucked this year's pay scales into Excel and worked it out for you: *
| Unpromoted Teacher | ||||
| Point | April 2007 | April 2008 | April 2009 | April 2010 |
| 2.25% | 2.50% | 2.40% | ||
| 0 | £19,878 | £20,325 | £20,833 | £21,333 |
| 1 | £23,841 | £24,377 | £24,987 | £25,587 |
| 2 | £25,260 | £25,828 | £26,474 | £27,109 |
| 3 | £26,697 | £27,298 | £27,980 | £28,652 |
| 4 | £28,245 | £28,881 | £29,603 | £30,313 |
| 5 | £30,036 | £30,712 | £31,480 | £32,235 |
| 6 | £31,707 | £32,420 | £33,231 | £34,028 |
| Chartered Teacher | ||||
| Point | April 2007 | April 2008 | April 2009 | April 2010 |
| 2.25% | 2.50% | 2.40% | ||
| 1 | £32,688 | £33,423 | £34,259 | £35,081 |
| 2 | £33,792 | £34,552 | £35,416 | £36,266 |
| 3 | £34,566 | £35,344 | £36,227 | £37,097 |
| 4 | £36,000 | £36,810 | £37,730 | £38,636 |
| 5 | £37,437 | £38,279 | £39,236 | £40,178 |
| 6 | £38,868 | £39,743 | £40,736 | £41,714 |
| Principal Teacher - Job Sized Scale | ||||
| Point | April 2007 | April 2008 | April 2009 | April 2010 |
| 2.25% | 2.50% | 2.40% | ||
| 1 | £34,566 | £35,344 | £36,227 | £37,097 |
| 2 | £36,000 | £36,810 | £37,730 | £38,636 |
| 3 | £37,437 | £38,279 | £39,236 | £40,178 |
| 4 | £38,868 | £39,743 | £40,736 | £41,714 |
| 5 | £40,311 | £41,218 | £42,248 | £43,262 |
| 6 | £41,742 | £42,681 | £43,748 | £44,798 |
| 7 | £43,179 | £44,151 | £45,254 | £46,340 |
| 8 | £44,616 | £45,620 | £46,760 | £47,883 |
| Principal Teacher - Conservation Scales | ||||
| Roll | April 2007 | April 2008 | April 2009 | April 2010 |
| 2.25% | 2.50% | 2.40% | ||
| < 301 | £35,766 | £36,571 | £37,485 | £38,385 |
| 301 - 600 | £36,951 | £37,782 | £38,727 | £39,656 |
| 601 - 800 | £38,151 | £39,009 | £39,985 | £40,944 |
| 801 - 1000 | £39,324 | £40,209 | £41,214 | £42,203 |
| 1001 - 1300 | £40,536 | £41,448 | £42,484 | £43,504 |
| > 1300 | £41,724 | £42,663 | £43,729 | £44,779 |
| SEN | £36,240 | £37,055 | £37,982 | £38,893 |
* subject to bad calculations and mistyping - don't sue me, work it out yourself first before spending your pay increase too soon!
I will be blogging lots about the mobile project soon, honest. I have recently been reminded about what a great offer we got from Gaist / O2. We got the new TyTN II phones for around £150 and insurance and web monitoring/filtering for £36 a year.
My old vario ii phone got stolen on Saturday (almost nine months pregnant I'm a slow easy target for pickpockets, especially with the lousy pockets in maternity clothing!). My phone insurance costs £5.99, although it should have been the £7.99 rate for data devices. So far I have paid £96, and I will also need to pay a £30 excess charge. At the higher rate I should have paid the company £158.
I think in future I will give the insurance a miss and just put money aside into a "new phone" fund, especially as this is the only phone I have had stolen or lost in more than 10 years of having one.
Fortunately I have a spare PAYG sim and a school phone that I fixed over the weekend. For £2.50 I have five days unlimited internet use. Hopefully I should get my replacement sim and phone by then.
