Bridget Phillipson has accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body recommendations on teacher pay rise and pay scale, giving teachers in England a 3.5% rise from September and another 3% next year. The settlement comes after the government backed a two-year award worth 6.6% in total.
The Department for Education said the increase will take the average school teacher salary to more than £52,800 from September and more than £54,400 from September 2027. It also said school teachers would have a cumulative 17% pay increase since the last election.
School Teachers’ Review Body
The government had initially proposed a 6.5% award spread over three years from 2026-27 to 2028-29. The School Teachers’ Review Body recommended the equivalent of 6.6% over two years instead, and Bridget Phillipson said the government would accept that advice.
Phillipson said: “This multi-year deal, backed by significant additional investment, shows the immense value we place in our teachers, while giving schools and colleges certainty over pay and their budgets.” The Department for Education said state schools will get an extra £1.8bn over two years to help fund the rise for teachers and support staff.
National Education Union
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said schools are being asked to find £460m from budgets already at breaking point. He said that is the equivalent of 8,300 school staff — 3,900 teachers and 4,400 support staff — and warned that ministers cannot claim to want more teachers while overseeing such a reduction in numbers next year.
That leaves school leaders to split the rise between government support and their own budgets. Based on the figures announced, the £1.8bn funding does not cover the full wage bill, which is why unions are pressing the pay deal as a funding issue as much as a salary rise.
Colleges and trusts
The Department for Education also said colleges and other further education providers will receive an extra £485m over two years for staff retention. David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said he had feared a “potentially very low or even zero pay award recommendation” and that the government had been listening to the case made by the sector.
For schools led by multi-academy trusts, the department said academy executive pay will be capped at £174,000. It said about 1,000 multi-academy trusts already pay more than £200,000 salaries to senior staff, putting new limits around the highest-paid posts while the teacher award feeds through from September.
School leaders now have the numbers for the first year of the award: 3.5% from September, a further 3% next year, and partial funding that still leaves them balancing wages against everything else in their budgets.
