Teacher Pay Rise 2026/27: The 3.5% Award

What was confirmed, and when

The Department for Education accepted the School Teachers' Review Body's recommendation of a 3.5% increase and published the updated STPCD ahead of the new school year. The announcement was packaged as a multi-year deal: government communications described it as teachers benefiting from a two-year settlement worth roughly 6.6% across 2026/27 and 2027/28, which implies close to 3% more in September 2027. The legally binding figure for this year is the 3.5% printed in the current STPCD.

If you want the mechanics behind the number — who recommends, who decides and why September rather than April — our guide to how teacher pay rises work covers the whole cycle.

The new main pay scale for 2026/27

Here is the full Main Pay Range for England outside London, with the previous year alongside so you can see exactly what changed.

Every other range received the same percentage uplift. The full pay scale tables list all regions, including the fringe and London allowances.

Upper Pay Range and Unqualified Teacher Range 2026/27

London and the fringe: regional values of the 2026 award

Because the award is a flat percentage, its cash value grows with the regional weighting. The table shows M1 and M6 across England's pay bands after the 2026 uplift.

When will the pay rise be paid?

The new rates apply from 1 September 2026. In practice, whether your September payslip reflects them depends on payroll cut-offs: many schools processed September before the STPCD was finalised, paying the difference as arrears in October or November instead. If your payslip still matches the old scale well into the autumn term, ask payroll which pay point you have been placed on and when arrears are scheduled — the pay rise process guide explains what to check.

What 3.5% looks like after tax

Gross increases shrink through income tax, National Insurance and pension contributions. A mid-scale teacher moving from £39,556 to £40,940 keeps roughly £70–£75 a month of the £1,384 gross rise, depending on their pension tier and student loan plan. The exact figure varies because the Teachers' Pension Scheme tiers are banded: if the rise pushes your full-time equivalent salary over a tier boundary, the marginal take-home gain is smaller for that year. The take-home pay calculator applies your actual deductions.

Progression on top of the award

Most teachers on the main range progress one point each September subject to their school's performance arrangements. Combined with the 3.5% award, that compounds: an M3-to-M4 mover in 2026 gained about £1,299 from the award component alone and finished on a point £3,839 higher than the year before once progression was included — an effective rise near 10%. Check your school's pay policy for its progression criteria, because academy trusts set their own rules even when they adopt national rates.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Wales applied the same 3.5% to its scale, which mirrors England's figures. Scotland negotiates separately through the SNCT, and its 2026/27 figures differ from the STPCD numbers above. Northern Ireland's negotiating machinery is separate again. If you work across borders or are comparing offers, compare against each nation's own published scale rather than assuming the English figures travel.

Does the 2026 award change allowances?

Yes. The published ranges for teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) payments and SEN allowances were uplifted with the award: TLR1 now spans £10,530 to £17,819 and SEN allowances run from £2,885 to £5,689. Whether your personal allowance rises depends on your school applying the uplift within the range — the specific payment sits inside those boundaries and is set by the pay policy, not automatically.

How 3.5% compares with inflation

Whether 3.5% feels like a real pay rise depends on prices. With CPI running near 2%, a 3.5% award is a genuine real-terms gain for the second year running, which reverses the pattern of 2022 and 2023 when awards trailed double-digit inflation and teacher pay fell sharply in real terms even as headline percentages hit records. Stacked across the recent rounds — 5.5%, then 4%, then 3.5% — cumulative pay has roughly kept pace with cumulative inflation since 2024, while remaining well below its 2010 level in real terms.

The practical takeaway is to judge your own trajectory rather than any single year. A teacher who was M4 in September 2024 and progressed each year has compounded three awards with three progression moves, and their salary has grown far faster than either the awards or inflation alone. Teachers at the top of the upper range have experienced only the flat awards, which is why retention arguments increasingly focus on what happens after M6 and U3.

Part-time and supply teachers

Part-time teachers on the national scale are paid the pro-rata point for their contracted hours, so the 3.5% uplift flows through automatically on the same terms as full-time colleagues. If you work 0.6 of a timetable on M4, your 2026/27 full-time-equivalent reference is £40,940 and your actual salary is 60% of it. One trap to watch: the TPS contribution tiers assess your full-time equivalent rate, not your actual pay, so part-time status changes your pension costs but not your tier.

Supply teachers engaged through agencies on daily rates calculated from the STPCD should see day rates rise with the award once agencies update their systems — chasing this promptly matters, because backdated supply claims are harder to recover than salaried arrears. Directly employed cover supervisors and teachers on daily-rate contracts at maintained schools must be paid at least the statutory daily rate derived from the new scale.

Planning around the next round

With a multi-year deal in place, the 2027/28 figure is largely signposted rather than open. That makes this a good year to plan promotion moves deliberately: crossing into the upper pay range or the leadership spine compounds every future award. Our financial planning hub sets out how the pieces fit together, and the leadership pay scale guide shows what the L-spine pays.