I thought colleagues in the United States might be interested in the pay and conditions for teachers in the UK. Somewhat naively, I assumed teachers in the US would be subject to similar conditions, and since this is not the case, here’s a brief summary of what we have here.

All teachers are employed (complicating factor here covered later) according to the Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (PCD). This is updated yearly, but generally covers the following conditions:

* 195 days per year, and cannot include weekends or school holidays (see below)
* 1065 hours over the 195 days (see below)
* “directed time” is where the head teacher / principal can specify the actual hours per day and week
* not less than 10% of timetabled teacher hours allocated as PPA (planning time) – the head teacher / principal cannot direct teachers how to use that time
* have to work “reasonable, additional hours” to fulfil the “professional duties of the role” – “reasonable” is not defined, and again, HT / P cannot say how, where and when these have to be worked
* national pay scales – divided into class teacher and leadership scales; for the latter, the first two bullets don’t apply
* national pensions scheme

The complicating factor
In the UK, charitable trusts – “Academy Trusts” can be created and if approved, can run a school as an “Academy” where the Government gives the public funds directly to the trust (instead of the Local Education Authority) to organise and spend how they wish. They don’t have to employ teachers on the PCD, but I think they all do, since why would anyone work for them? This, I believe pay and pensions may be at risk in the future, as there’s already been one school that tried to take teachers out of the national pensions scheme.

Post questions if you want to know more.