[citation needed] In primary schools, a principal teacher may have management responsibilities for specific curricular areas (such as literacy or numeracy), pastoral care, support for learning, or development of school initiatives and policies.
Faculty heads lead a number of subject areas, which in the past would have been led by separate principal teachers.
Common examples of this include faculty heads of science who lead biology, chemistry and physics departments within the school.
[1] Scottish teachings unions have expressed concern that the replacement of groups of departmental principal teachers with fewer faculty principal teachers is being driven by the desire to cut costs, rather than about improving the management of secondary schools.
[citation needed] Principal teachers are paid on an 8-point scale depending on a job-sizing process which takes into consideration the management responsibilities associated with the post.