Benefits of working in a school

The pension is the biggest benefit of a school job. Teachers join the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, with the employer paying 28.68 per cent of salary on top of your own contribution, and support staff join the Local Government Pension Scheme. After that come the school holidays, occupational sick pay that grows with service, and family leave terms that beat the statutory minimum. Salaries are lower than in many graduate jobs, so the package matters when you compare offers.

Pensions for teachers and support staff

Teachers in England and Wales are enrolled in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS), a defined benefit scheme. Your pension is worked out from your earnings each year and uprated annually, and investments play no part. From 1 April 2026 you pay a tiered rate based on your actual pensionable pay:

Annual salary rate	Member rate
Up to £36,198.99	7.4%
£36,199 to £48,727.99	8.9%
£48,728 to £57,776.99	9.9%
£57,777 to £76,572.99	10.5%
£76,573 to £104,413.99	11.6%
£104,414 and over	12%

The employer rate is 28.68 per cent until 31 March 2027. A new rate is due from 1 April 2027 after the 2024 valuation. On M1 outside London (£34,069 from September 2026), the school pays roughly £9,770 a year into the scheme for you, while you pay 7.4 per cent. The Teachers’ Pension Scheme guide explains how benefits build up.

Support staff (teaching assistants, office staff, site teams, cooks) join the Local Government Pension Scheme instead. Member rates run from 5.5 per cent on pay up to £18,400 to 6.5 per cent between £29,001 and £47,300. There is also a 50/50 option where you pay half and build up half the pension, which some part-time staff use when money is tight.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own teachers’ schemes with different rates.

School holidays

Teachers in England are directed to work 195 days a year: 190 teaching days and 5 other days, with 1,265 hours of directed time. The rest of the year is paid leave, and your annual salary is paid in 12 instalments. Many teachers do work in the holidays (marking, planning, exam results days, catching up), so the holidays give you flexibility over when you work more than a long stretch of guaranteed time off.

The trade-off is that you cannot take holiday in term time without permission, and leave of absence is usually unpaid. Holidays cost more in the school breaks, which is a real cost for families.

Support staff are often on term-time-only contracts. You are paid for the weeks you work plus a pro-rata share of annual leave and bank holidays, spread over 12 months. Under the NJC advisory model, 39 weeks with a 36-day leave entitlement works out at about 86.8 per cent of the full-time salary. The guide to term-time-only pay goes through the calculation. Staff on all-year contracts, such as business managers and site staff, get the Green Book leave of at least 23 days rising to 26 after 5 years, plus bank holidays and 2 extra days.

Sick pay

Teachers in maintained schools get sick pay under the Burgundy Book, which rises with service:

• 1st year: 25 working days full pay, then (after four months’ service) 50 working days half pay
• 2nd year: 50 days full, 50 days half
• 3rd year: 75 days full, 75 days half
• 4th year onwards: 100 days full, 100 days half

Support staff get the Green Book scale, which runs from 1 month’s full pay in the first year up to 6 months’ full pay and 6 months’ half pay after 5 years. Both are well above Statutory Sick Pay. Teachers’ sick pay explains how the days are counted.

Maternity and family leave

Teachers in maintained schools get occupational maternity pay under the Burgundy Book if they meet the service conditions, on top of Statutory Maternity Pay. The terms and the requirement to return to work are covered in teachers’ maternity pay. Support staff get the Green Book maternity scheme. Statutory rights apply to everyone: 52 weeks’ maternity leave, day-one paternity leave, shared parental leave and unpaid parental leave.

If you have children of your own, school hours and term dates usually line up with theirs, which saves holiday childcare costs. That is one of the most common reasons people move into school support roles.

Smaller perks

These vary from school to school and trust to trust:

• Free or cheap lunches on the days you supervise or eat with pupils
• Cycle to work and other salary sacrifice schemes, run by the council or trust
• Employee assistance programmes with free counselling
• Paid training, including national professional qualifications funded by the DfE
• Discount schemes, depending on eligibility

Teachers in maintained schools also have continuity of service when they move between maintained schools and councils, which protects sick pay and maternity entitlements. Moving into or between academy trusts can break this unless the trust agrees to recognise it, so ask before you accept.

What the package does not include

Teachers get no overtime pay, no car allowance in most roles, and no performance bonus. Pay progression in England is linked to appraisal. Workload is high, and the teacher workload guide is a fair account of the hours. If you are comparing a school offer with a private sector one, add the employer pension contribution to the salary to get a like-for-like figure.