I am a teacher at the top of the pay scale for a standard classroom teacher and yet earn well under the 'average' quoted by the media. Teachers undergo extended studies to gain their professional status and that includes learning teaching skills. Most teachers spend as much time working out of the classroom as they do in it and face very stressful situations on a daily basis. If they get children to work hard and pass exams the media will say the exams are getting easier but if kids don't pass its the teachers that are blamed - can't win!
Tabster you have perhaps answered my question as to why I wasn't asked to vote. I am still listed as a supply teacher although I am now on a temporary contract. NUT members at the school where I work made the decision to support the strike and so I have been at home today. Do I think the kids will miss out? Its one day every 22 years! Although local authorities make a big fuss over unauthorised abscences in reality it is only the children who perpetually miss days or take extended holidays that really have problems keeping up.