Teachers in England get two-year 6.6% pay rise but schools to foot part of bill

Teachers in England will receive a 3.5% pay rise from September and a further 3% next year, with extra school funding to meet most but not all of the higher wage bill, the government has announced. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said the government would accept the pay recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which were substantially higher than the government’s initial proposals. The Department for Education said state schools would be given an extra £1.8bn over two years to partly fund the pay rises for teachers and for support staff, who have been offered a 3.3% pay rise back-dated to April. Phillipson said: “This multi-year deal, backed by significant additional investment, shows the immense value we place in our teachers, while giving schools and colleges certainty over pay and their budgets.” Phillipson had asked the STRB to support a 6.5% award spread over three years, from 2026-27 to 2028-29. But the independent committee instead recommended the equivalent of 6.6% over two years. Education unions said they were happy to see teachers’ pay rise above forecasts for inflation but were concerned that schools needed to fund nearly a third of the wage increases from existing budgets. Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Schools are being asked to find £460m from budgets already at breaking point. This is the equivalent of 8,300 school staff – 3,900 teachers and 4,400 support staff. …