When to move to UPS

[halfdeer]

Hi everyone,

Come September I will have been on M6 for 2 years (one year at previous school, one year at current school).

When do you think is an appropriate time discuss a move to UPS? I've consistently met my performance targets and already lead a subject. I've heard contradicting advice with some saying UPS should be the natural progression from M6 as it's designed to keep experienced teachers in the classroom. However, I've also read that schools now expect you to take on more of a mentor role/leadership to 'earn' the UPS grade.

I'm a bit stuck if it's the latter as although my school is lovely it's a bit stale - the same people have been doing the same roles for years and it's hard for new staff to be given any extra responsibilities!

There's also Covid-19 to think about... Does anyone know if the pay progression will go ahead in Sep/Oct as the last year was so disrupted?

If I'm honest I'll be a bit gutted if I'm not moved to UPS come September. I already lead my subject without a TLR which involves a lot of extra work with limited release time.

I suppose I'm just asking for some experiences/advice to arm myself with for when I speak to my Head!

Thanks!

Go and ask in Sept!

Leading your subject is enough at secondary to be whole school responsibility. What subject is it if you don't get a TLR?

My place wanted evidence of the UPS standards to put me up. If they ask just write a list of everything you've done, it will be HUGE!

Thank you! Will definitely ask in September, just want to be as prepared as possible!

I lead science and computing (with a HLTA for computing) across the school. It's a one form entry, rural primary so every teacher is expected to lead a subject and no one gets a TLR...

Which is very different to my last school. I was on a TLR 2b at my last school for being EYFS lead!

We have to write a letter to apply to cross the threshold. I did mine after my appraisal had been done, citing evidence from my appraisal.
No one is going to offer it to you so definitely ask for it!

Thank you for the advice!

Sorry if I'm being silly but if I write my letter after my appraisal this September then does that mean I'd go to UPS1 the next year (Sep 21) or would they accept it from this academic year onwards? Should I write the letter and bring it to my performance management meeting?

Do I also write my letter citing the Teachers' Standards? I read on my union website that it's in relation to the standards but it didn't say which ones!

Sorry for all the questions, just never done this before and I want to get it right!

Can you read your school’s pay policy? I had trouble moving to UPS. For about 6 months before I was due to move up I kept asking SLT what I needed to do. We’d had a change in management (very long story) and no one seemed to know so I kept getting fobbed off. Our pay policy was incomplete so was no help in my case. It turned out that I didn’t move up until the following year which really pissed me off as it wasn’t my fault.

@halfdeer in my school it would be backdated to September if you "passed". Our appraisal cycle finishes in October so I think people tend to get their backdated pay by Christmas. We have the standards as part of our appraisal documentation so the appraiser always has to comment on those anyway. As I recall, my letter cited the fact that I met all of the standards at a high level as per my appraisal, that I was doing certain whole school things, and requested to be considered to move to UPS. It was very short!!
There are no different UPS standards any more - but your pay policy may well set out things that are expected of UPS teachers. One of ours is to make a "substantial and sustained contribution to the wider life of the school". I'm a form tutor, so that's what I always write for that one. I won't do clubs because I don't have time.

For me, I had to declare my intention to apply for UPS at the start of the appraisal cycle before my application. When it came time, there was an official application form in which I had the explain the whole school level impact that I had already had over at least the last two years and how I would continue to impact on whole school development in the future. Your usual subject leadership was not enough to qualify you for this - it had to be more.