Online Schools

[Peoplejustdomuffin]

Wondering if any online teachers out there. I am considering moving online coming off mat leave, but the school I'm thinking of has all their teachers on freelance contracts. Is this normal/legal? From what I can see there's not much wiggle room for flexibility or working anywhere else so this feels sort of precarious. Is this the same for all online schools?

This is commonplace in the sector. Many new or smaller online schools don't offer salaried employment. It's skirting around the edges of legal in some cases - because the hours are not flexible and you don't set your own rates (both required under the definition of self-employment). I worked for one such school and they weren't in a financial position to offer employed status. I was never entirely comfortable with the set up, especially when it came to doing tax returns. I now work for one of the more established online schools with a proper salaried teaching contract. These do exist but competition for roles is now high due to the exodus from mainstream - gaining online experience as a stepping stone in the self-employed one may not be a bad move if you can afford the risks of being self-employed. One of the bigger DfE accredited schools contract their teachers this way so it must be legal. There is also a lot of work tutoring online to top up if it doesn't work out (depending on subject).

Interesting, thank you. I asked on another group and they mentioned IR35 hence why I wasn't sure if it was legal. With teachers being timetabled etc it seems like it might be a bit of a grey area. I've since heard bad things about the school I was looking at that they have to basically beg to get paid every month so decided to stay well away but hope I find something with one of the better schools, hopefully on payroll!

That sounds like a massive red flag - glad you managed to find that out before committing. The two schools I've known who employ teachers in that way have, to be fair, always paid staff on time and been up front about the terms. It doesn't feel right though. It's not a flexible self employed contract, staff are timetabled fixed hours and told their wage, and like you said it does not fit with IR35, they are employees in all but name. I do wonder if this will be clamped down on with the increases to employer NI contributions as that's a big reason employers would seek to use the self employed workaround. Good luck finding a better school, more and more are popping up, it's a fast growing sector.