UPS in Primary Schools

[EdithGrantham]

Can I ask what extra responsibilities you are asked to take on to move from M6 to UPS1 then any others to get to UPS2? Trying to work out what my head teacher can reasonably request.

Hopeful bump

I am curriculum lead for the whole school, which involves leading a team of 7 subject leaders and leading two subjects myself. I also lead on online safety. I also lead my year group team.

Unfortunately the 'reasonable' bit is down to your own school's pay policy in which it they can and should define this in detail for progression to UPS.

Basically you must be 'highly competent in all the teaching standards' and your contribution to the whole school should be 'substantial and sustained'. Obviously this leads to wildly different interpretations.

But the criteria your school sets should not confuse UPS responsibilities with having a TLR - which is above and beyond what is expected of a class teacher, UPS or not. A TLR gives teachers the responsibility and accountability to 'lead, manage and develop a subject or teaching area' or 'manage pupil development across a curriculum area' and 'lead, develop and enhance the teaching practice and training of staff'.

The STPCD says that 'subject leadership' eg. classroom teachers, UPS or not, should mean that you 'contribute to curriculum development by sharing your expertise and advise on effective practice', but you do NOT have responsibility for a subject or the management and training of other staff.

So for UPS you can 'lead' a subject area by helping develop it and you can share your expertise in a way that contributes to the whole school (so leading CPD in a staff meeting, being observed by colleagues as you teach, helping develop curriculum plans etc) but you aren't responsible for training or results. Other ways to contribute are often things like leading School Council/Pupil Voice, mentoring an ECT or sometimes being a Year Group lead, or Key Stage lead, but again this doesn't make you responsible or accountable for results - that's a management or TLR role.

The whole thing is a bugbear of mine (Can you tell? ) as often the smaller the school the meatier and more 'work load' dependent your UPS expectations are, which is hugely unfair.

For my UPS1 requirements I 'lead' RE, PHSE and RSE, am the RWI and early reading/phonics lead and crunch the data for KS1 Pupil Premium/interventions. I think this is too much, but am currently in negotiations with my Head!

@thebookeatinggirl
Couldn't agree more about the policies varying by school.
In the interests of full disclosure, I do also have a TLR but that covers the team lead element of my role. My own 2 subjects and year group leadership came with my UPS.

In my previous school, UPS was contingent upon making a whole school contribution (but responsibilities were only ever given on a KS or part-subject basis) over a period of 'several' years (nobody would ever define 'several'). It made it impossible to argue for UPS. It's one of 'several' reasons why that is a previous school 😉

Thanks both, I'll have a look at my school's policies. I am subject lead for Science which I was before moving in to UPS then as part of my UPS was asked to oversee subject leaders and support them with having files organised, curriculum visions written up, that sort of thing. I've expressed an interest in taking on more responsibilities as ideally I'd like to be a phase leader at some point in my career and the head has said they'll look into what more I can do as part of my UPS. I was a bit about this as I thought she was trying to get out of paying me (or whoever else would need to take on extra responsibilities) TLR but it seems like the two can overlap a lot.

I agree about smaller schools - no signs of any TLRs around here! They won't even put you up to UPS unless you lead a core subject at my school (one form entry). Science lead is stuck on M6 - budget won't allow for any more on UPS.

Interesting to hear what other schools are like. It sounds like we're in a very fortunate position as I can't see my head would deny people UPS if she could help it.

It's not that he wouldn't put people up out of spite. It's that if more people were on UPS, glue sticks and pencils would be even further rationed, they'd probably stop buying colour for the photocopier completely, we'd never have a pack of card in the cupboard etc.

But it's a lovely school so people stay and stay on M6 for years with no hope of getting anything more and no desire to go elsewhere.

I'm a bog standard class teacher on UPS2. Small school - 2 UPS teachers, one on M3ish. I don't really know how we afford it but I'm told we are in a good financial position. We're not even at capacity in terms of pupils in roll.

Stuck on M6 for YEARS as my school will only award ups if you lead a core subject or phase. It's shit. In a small primary I lead 2 non core subjects, transition, organise SATS, am responsible for year 6 and through school grammar. It's one reason why I am considering changing back to secondary where I was a deputy HOD within years.

I guess it's sometimes worth it for the right school, rubbish if it's not though!

Isn't it awful though that budgets are so tight that people don't get pay rises for years for this reason!
Pay portability is awful now too. I was UPS2 at my last school, took two years off to have kids. When I applied for jobs at other schools, no school would offer me more than M6, so my hard won pay gain was lost. I don't have time/energy to go through it all again!

Absolutely :( I went to look round a school a few years ago when I was on M6 and they said that the most they'd be able to offer was M4, I didn't apply for that reason but now I think if I wanted a new job it'd be unlikely I'd get taken on at UPS1

I went from UPS2 (where I'd been stuck for some years) back down to M6 when I moved schools a few years ago. Very very few schools were offering any UPS roles in local primaries, and the few that were came with significant responsibilities (often roles that would have come under a TLR or AHT in bygone days). I'm now back on UPS1 having ground my way back up, but it's still a lower pay scale than I was on 12 years ago, with a larger workload than I've ever had. Very demoralising.