Are teachers paid in the holidays?

[Emmas85]

Hi,

I'm currently looking for my first nqt position and on job adverts the salary is written. I understand this is pro rata as would be term time only. Are teachers paid during the holidays? As in the salary is split over 12 months? Thanks for any information.

[PotteringAlong]

Yes. We are not paid for the holidays but we are paid in the holidays - your august salary is the same as your September salary.

[Emmas85]

Thank you for your quick reply, that's helpful thanks 😊

[BluebellsGreenbells]

You get 4 weeks paid holiday - but this is split like you say over 12 months

So 39 weeks plus 4

[Lunde]

Is it a short term contact position? Maternity cover or similar? Because some schools are cheap and will only pay for term time so the short term contract ends on July 31 or similar. If it is a maternity cover then the post holder can choose when to return to work.

[ChiselandBits]

be prepared for lots of misunderstandings around this and comments from non-teacher friends about your time off and short days etc. Previous posters are correct - 9/13 weeks are unpaid and your 3.15 or whatever "finishes" obviously won't be.

[Stevenage689]

Basically, the salary advertised is the salary you get. It isn't pro rata from there - effectively the pro rata step has already been done.

[FrippEnos]

You are paid for 1265 hours (+plus any other hours required to do the job), spread over 195 days, which is split in to 12 separate payments.

[Howshouldibehave]

Assuming it’s a contracted role and not supply, yes you’re paid each month and no, it’s not pro-rata.

[Emmas85]

Thank you everyone. It's a permanent full time position.

[WellTidy]

@Stevenage689

Basically, the salary advertised is the salary you get. It isn't pro rata from there - effectively the pro rata step has already been done.

I’m not a teacher, so I’d be grateful if someone could explain to me how this differs from other jobs. When I apply for a job, the salary stated is the salary I get too. The advertised salary is paid monthly, so I get one-twelfth of that each month regardless of when in the year I have holiday. Is this the same for teachers? Having never worked in the field, I don’t understand how it differs.

[fussychica]

If it's to start in September ask if there's any chance you can start when your PGCE finishes which will mean you'll be paid during the summer holiday rather than from September. DS was fortunate enough to do this, starting in June, when he got his first teaching post.

[Musmerian]

@WellTidy - it’s a technicality really. You get paid for term time but they divide it over twelve months so the outcome is the same really. If we were paid the same rate for the holidays our salaries would be higher than they currently are.

[Stevenage689]

Maybe it's me that has misunderstood. In teaching, I see part time jobs advertised as pro rata. So it might say £33,265 p.a. or whatever on a role that is 5 days a week (full time). And you'd get that amount (less tax of course).
But it would also say £33,265 on a part time role, 3 days per week. That person obviously isn't taking home all that money, but 3/5 of it. That's what I thought pro rata meant.

[Howshouldibehave]

With teacher jobs, you’re paid by the salary quoted. In most cases though, the salary isn’t quoted and they either write ‘NQT/ECTs welcome’ (usually means-we have literally no money in the budget and a cheap NQT is all we can afford), or it’ll be MPS or UPS (main or upper pay scale) and then if the job is part time, they’ll quote eg 0.6 for 3 days. The actually salary is often determined later when they see what you were on previously.

The pro rata problem comes in more when TA jobs are advertised-it’ll be advertised as eg £19k which doesn’t sound too bad, when then that’s based on a 37 hour week and working all year. When it’s worked out on 30 hours and 39 weeks, the take home pay is very different!

[WellTidy]

@Musmerian thank you. Isn’t that the same for everyone though? I would imagine that my employer would knock off the time I’m not there in the holidays before advertising my job at the salary that it is paid at. Not trying to be today at all, I think there must be something I haven’t grasped.

[WellTidy]

Today = goady

[Hercisback]

@WellTidy
You aren't missing anything, that's how it works.

The difference with a 'salaried' position elsewhere is the 1265 directed hours that you can be told what you are doing and where to do it.

[Troublesometooth]

@Stevenage689

Basically, the salary advertised is the salary you get. It isn't pro rata from there - effectively the pro rata step has already been done.

This!

People always say teachers aren’t paid for the holidays which isn’t really true.

We are salaried and contracted to teach 195 days a year for that salary. The advertised salary is the salary you will get.

Other school jobs such as TA’s the salary is pro-rated, but this doesn’t happen for teaching staff.

You will get the exact quoted salary, split into 12 monthly amounts.

[Twospaniels]

@PotteringAlong

Yes. We are not paid for the holidays but we are paid in the holidays - your august salary is the same as your September salary.

So if you work full time, 37hrs, do you get the whole salary?

[Hercisback]

@Twospaniels Teachers do yes.

[ihavechangedmyname54321]

I don’t quite understand how that isn’t being paid for holidays then, as pp have said.

Not trying to be goady either I just genuinely don’t understand, when relatives and friends who are teachers say they don’t get paid for the holidays, I assumed the advertised salary/salaries on the bands were pro rata, so less to take account for the holidays.

I am paid £40k. I work part time, 32 hours a week, so my salary is pro rata’d and my take home is therefore of course less than £40k. But I also get 35 days holiday. The holiday isn’t deducted as well? The salary is as stated, unless the person is part time.

[Hercisback]

We aren't paid for the holidays. We're paid to teach 195 days a year, and this amount split over 12 equal payments.

[GuyFawkesDay]

Yep, but effectively the salary is for 195 days plus 4 weeks holiday.

Which leaves 9 weeks which are effectively "unpaid" but in reality your 195 days is just split over 365 (simplified but hope it's clear)

[Hercisback]

Ahh yes forgot the 4 weeks holiday pay. It is complicated to people on normal contracts!

[Siddalee]

A belief that teachers don't get paid in the holidays is the biggest misconception that many teacher's hold. For some reason, some teachers believe that they are only paid to work 195 days and that this pay is then spilt into 12 equal payments over the year meaning that they get no holiday pay

By law, in the UK full time workers must have 5.6 weeks (28 days) holidays per year. If you work part time, you are entitled to the part time equivalent e.g. if you work 0.5 you get 14 days per year.

Teachers work full year- unlike most support staff who work pro rata and so their holiday entitlement who work full time must be entitled to at least 28 days.

However, if we only received 28 days holiday pay, then when ever we moved jobs those 28 days would have to be identified and accounted for.