Can't work my salary - help!

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Hi, I'm starting a new job as a learning mentor in a school. My contract says that my salary will be £17,500 per annum. I'll be working 4 days a week, 26 hours. What does this mean my actual take home pay will be? I'm confused by 'per annum'.
Any help will be much appreciated. Thank you

Your take home pay will depend on your tax code, per annum means per year

Well I’d think that would be it , as per annum literally means per year , any less then that is minimum wage territory and they can’t pay less than that .
you can usually earn 12,570 tax free so you’ll be paying very little tax ( 20% over this figure )

Per annum means every year so it’ll be 17500 total
salary across the year presumably divided by 12 when paid.

unless it says something like FTE - full time equivalent - or term time only.
If it says fte then it’ll be 80% of 17500.

if it TTO there’s usually 38 weeks a year so 17500/52*38

Per annum means per year.

Is £17,500 your salary for 26 hours a week or is that based on full time hours and will be pro rata?

You can expect to knock off about a third for tax, NI and pension.

£17,500 / 12 = £1,458.33 gross per month
So you’d probably take home about a grand a month.

use https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php

for the take home

do remember pension contributions as
you should be opted into something equivalent often to the local authority scheme

You’ll be paying less than £100 per month tax , but not including NI or pension , you should clear around £1300

Can’t be based on full time hours as significantly less than min wage ( 12.21 an hour , rising to 12.71 April )

Assuming you’re working term time only as in a school , so might actually be less as only work 38 weeks a year, forgot that !

Tax free allowance , you pay no tax on 12700
you will get 1343 per month, depends what pension is to reduce that

On the original job advert, it said £29-31,000 FTE

I'm a teacher but have taken a step back to do a support role so I'm unfamiliar with this kind of salary.
It was easier as a teacher because I was on m6 whatever school it was.

I know this job is going to massively lower in pay but the stress of teaching can be a high price to pay

It is term time only

1️⃣ Pro-rata for 26 hours (vs full-time)
Full-time is usually 37 hours per week (sometimes 35–40, but 37 is most common)
26 ÷ 37 = 0.703 (70.3% of full-time hours)
So:

• £29,000 × 0.703 ≈ £20,387
• £31,000 × 0.703 ≈ £21,793

This would be your salary if you worked all year.

2️⃣ Adjust for term-time only
Term time is typically 39 weeks per year (out of 52).
39 ÷ 52 = 0.75
Now apply that:

• £20,387 × 0.75 ≈ £15,290
• £21,793 × 0.75 ≈ £16,345

✅ Estimated Take-Home Salary
Around £15,300 – £16,350 per year (gross)
Monthly Equivalent (spread over 12 months)
Approximately:

• £1,275 – £1,360 per month (before tax)

So your £17,500 is after the pro rata.
Divide it by 12 and this is your monthly salary before tax and pension etc.

Usually term time plus approx 5 weeks paid holiday

The £17k must be what you will be paid given that NMW is about £24k pa, also that there's a significantly higher FTE stated in the advert.

Then use a salary calculator to work out take home, but it might be lower for a while if you've earned more as a teacher this financial year.

FTE means "full time equivalent". You'll be working term-time and part-time, so it is pro-rata'd down to £17,500 gross (pre-tax etc). You can use the salary calculator website to work out your net (take home) pay after tax, NI, pension etc.