Head of year or pastoral lead

A head of year leads the welfare, behaviour and attendance of one year group in a secondary school, manages the form tutors and is the main link with families. In some schools it is a teaching post with a teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) payment. In others it is a non-teaching support staff role, often called a pastoral lead or progress leader, paid on the council pay spine. The work is similar either way, but pay, hours and contract terms are quite different.

What the role covers

The head of year deals with anything affecting pupils in their year that is too big for a form tutor. A typical week includes:

• following up on behaviour incidents, including detentions, internal exclusion and suspensions
• tracking attendance and lateness, and meeting families when it slips
• running year assemblies and tutor time programmes
• meeting parents, sometimes several times a day
• liaising with the SENCO, the attendance team, the safeguarding team and outside agencies
• managing a team of form tutors

The job is reactive. Fights at lunchtime, social media disputes that spill into school and pupils in distress tend to interrupt whatever was planned. Depending on the year group, heads of year also lead on transition into year 7, options choices in year 9 and exam-year support in year 11.

Safeguarding

Heads of year often hear about safeguarding concerns first. Under Keeping Children Safe in Education every member of staff must pass concerns to the designated safeguarding lead, and heads of year are often trained as deputy safeguarding leads so they can act on concerns directly. That can mean strategy meetings, child protection conferences and multi-agency work. Our profile of the designated safeguarding lead explains how that responsibility is shared.

Teaching post with a TLR

A teacher who is head of year keeps a teaching timetable, usually reduced, and is paid on the teachers’ pay scales plus a TLR. From 1 September 2026 the ranges accepted for England are TLR2 at £3,651 to £8,913 and TLR1 at £10,531 to £17,819. Heads of year usually get a TLR2, since they line-manage form tutors. The exact value is set in each school’s pay policy, and academies can set their own rates. See TLR payments for how they work.

Teachers in the role still work to the directed time of 1,265 hours a year, but the pastoral load spills into evenings. The main complaint about this version of the job is fitting a teaching timetable around pastoral work that cannot be scheduled.

Support staff pastoral lead

Many schools now appoint non-teaching heads of year. They do not need QTS and do not teach, so they are free all day to deal with incidents and families. They are paid as support staff, usually on the NJC pay spine through the employer’s grades in maintained schools, and academies often do the same.

The 2026/27 NJC award added 3.3% from 1 April 2026. Pastoral lead posts are generally graded well above teaching assistant posts. For a sense of the range, here are some full-time, full-year values (calculated from the 2025 spine plus 3.3%):

Spine point	Full-time salary 2026/27
SCP 17	£32,046
SCP 20	£33,673
SCP 23	£35,570
SCP 26	£38,510

Support staff pastoral posts are often term-time only, sometimes with an extra week or two, so the salary paid is a percentage of the full-time figure. On the NJC advisory example, 39 weeks with a 36-day leave entitlement comes to 86.778% of full-time pay. See term-time-only pay, and use the take-home pay calculator for the net figure.

Support staff are in the Local Government Pension Scheme and follow council-style leave and sick pay rules. Teachers are in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme and follow the Burgundy Book. That difference can matter as much as the salary.

Comparing the two contracts

A teacher weighing a non-teaching pastoral post, or the other way round, should look beyond salary.

Sick pay differs. Teachers under the Burgundy Book build up from 25 working days’ full pay in the first year to 100 days’ full pay and 100 days’ half pay from the fourth year. Support staff under the Green Book get one month’s full pay in the first year, rising to six months’ full and six months’ half pay after five years.

So does notice. Teachers in maintained schools can only leave at fixed points in the year, with notice by 31 October, the end of February or 31 May. Support staff can give notice at any point in the year, for the period in their contract (the legal minimum is one week once you have worked there a month).

Hours are the third difference. A teacher’s directed time is capped at 1,265 hours a year, although real hours are longer. A support staff pastoral lead has contracted hours, often a full school day with no marking to take home, but is expected to be available throughout the day.

Who gets these jobs

Teachers usually move into head of year roles after a few years as a form tutor, having shown they can handle difficult conversations with pupils and parents. Non-teaching pastoral leads come from roles such as learning mentor, pastoral manager, youth work, social care or the police.

Interviews often include a role-play with a parent, a safeguarding scenario and a student panel. Experience of leading restorative conversations, running interventions and keeping clear records helps. Vacancies for teaching heads of year are under teaching jobs, and non-teaching pastoral posts under school support jobs.