Up to £35k bursary and early career payments for new teachers

Trainee teachers in these subjects are set to receive £26,000 during training, with an additional £6,000 to be paid across the first four years of their career, from 2020/21. For those working in high need areas, these additional payments will rise to £9,000.

Teachers in three subjects – chemistry, physics and modern foreign languages – will receive these early career payments for the first time, while trainees in maths have benefitted from phased bursaries for the last two years.

The government has committed more than £250 million in financial incentives to encourage talented graduates to enter the classroom, and remain in the profession, building on a pledge in the Department’s Recruitment & Retention Strategy to ensure the bursary system focuses more heavily on the retention of teachers.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

The inspirational role of a talented, dedicated and committed teacher can never be understated and is the one constant that all of us can remember from our time at school.

I want both the brightest and the best talent to be drawn to the teaching profession and for schools to compete with the biggest employers in the labour market.

The bursaries we are announcing today, along with the 2.75% pay rise for all teachers and school leaders this academic year, will do just that, while ensuring that those who stay in the classroom will benefit most.

Trainee teachers in Art & Design and Business Studies are also set to benefit from new bursaries of £9,000.

Each year, the Department reviews bursaries to decide the offer for trainee teachers, tacking account of both recruitment to date and the future need for teachers in each subject.

Changes to bursary amounts may mean that trainees starting one year may receive a lower incentive when compared with trainees starting another year. However, being able to change the incentive amounts provides flexibility to respond to recruitment need and other government priorities.

In the next academic year, school teachers and leaders are set to receive an above inflation pay rise, after the Education Secretary accepted all the recommendations from the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), to raise the upper and lower boundaries of all pay ranges by 2.75 per cent.

The increase in pay will be supported by an additional £105 million to be paid through the teachers’ pay grant, on top of the £321 million already committed for the 2019-20 financial year, and is equivalent to a £1,000 increase to average classroom teacher pay and a £1,620 increase in the average pay of school leaders.

Teachers’ starting salaries are also set to rise to £30,000 by 2022-23, under government plans for the biggest reform to teacher pay in a generation.

This will make starting salaries for teachers among the most competitive in the graduate labour market, building on the above-inflation average pay increases for teachers in the last two years.

The Teacher’s Pension Scheme is also one of the most generous on offer. From September, the government will be fully funding increased contributions into the scheme, so that school leaders can focus as much of their resources as possible on the front line. It means teachers will get an employer contribution of 23.6% on top their salary towards their pension every year to ensure the scheme is fully funded.

Announced in the Department’s Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy earlier this year, the Early Career Framework will provide new teachers with the foundations for a successful career in the profession through a two-year package of structured training and support.

This will include a reduced timetable to allow teachers to make the most of their training, alongside high-quality materials for new teachers and their mentors that underpin each area of the Early Career Framework.