eddie- new teachers do start at the bottom of the payscale except in exceptiona; circumstances.
Yes, the 6 week summer holiday sounds great, and it's very welcome, but teachers do go in school in the holidays- at my school we will be in for 5 days over the summer when pupils aren't in and we'll all be marking exam papers, preparing materials for new courses, planning for curriculum changes, finding out all about the new Year 7 pupils, and preparing September's lessons.
Imagine a teacher's day. Maybe 6 one hour lessons in a day. Okay, sounds quite a short day. Then think of the materials that are needed for each lesson- a lesson plan for the school records/inspectors, maybe some presentation slides, several sets of laminated cards for a starter activity, perhaps copies of some newspaper articles, worksheets for pupils (including differentiated ones for the more able and less able pupils) and then maybe a homework sheet. This preparation will take a couple of hours a day. Then at the end of the day the teacher has books from maybe 150 pupils which need to be marked. Even at 1 minute per book that's 2.5 hours of marking. And the teacher will be expected to complete a post-lesson evaluation form for each lesson.
Oh yes, then there may be a couple of parents to see, several phone calls to make and an after-school detention class or a revision class, and occasionally a parents' evening until 9pm.