How term-time-only pay is calculated

Term-time-only pay is your full-time salary scaled down twice, once for the weeks you work and once for your hours. Under the NJC model used by most councils and many schools, your paid weeks are the weeks you work plus a pro-rata share of annual leave and bank holidays. That total becomes a percentage of the full-time salary, paid in 12 equal monthly instalments. For a 39-week contract with 36 days’ leave as the comparator, the NJC’s own example comes out at 86.778% of full-time pay before any adjustment for hours.

The three numbers that decide your pay

Three things feed into the calculation:

1. The full-time equivalent (FTE) salary for your grade and spine point. On the NJC spine from 1 April 2026 this runs from £25,614 at SCP 3 to £56,293 at SCP 43.
2. The paid weeks or days, which are the weeks you actually work plus your holiday entitlement worked out pro rata.
3. Your weekly hours compared with a full-time week of 37 hours.

Adverts for school support jobs often quote the FTE figure, the actual figure, or both. The FTE salary vs actual salary guide explains the wording.

How holiday gets folded in

A term-time-only worker cannot book a week off in October, because the school holidays are when they are off. The entitlement still exists, so the NJC model works out how much leave a full-year worker would get and gives the term-time worker the same proportion of it as pay.

Under the Green Book, a full-year council employee gets at least 23 days’ basic leave (26 after five years’ continuous service), plus 8 bank holidays and 2 extra-statutory days. That is 33 days, or 36 days after five years. The NJC Part 4.12 advisory model takes this leave comparator, works out the share that matches the weeks the term-time worker is employed, and adds that share to their working days.

The NJC worked example

The NJC’s published example takes a worker on a 39-week contract, which is 195 working days, using a 36-day leave comparator:

• 195 working days plus 31.239 days of pro-rata leave = 226.239 paid days
• 226.239 ÷ 260.71 (the working days in a full year) = 86.778%

That person is paid 86.778% of the full-time salary if they work full-time hours during term. Below 37 hours a week, the figure is scaled again for hours.

A hypothetical example: your job is on SCP 5, which is £26,427 full time, and you work 32.5 hours a week for 39 weeks with a 36-day leave comparator.

• £26,427 × 86.778% = £22,932.82 for full-time hours over the term-time year
• £22,932.82 × 32.5 ÷ 37 = £20,143.70 a year
• £20,143.70 ÷ 12 = about £1,678.64 a month before deductions

With fewer than five years’ service the comparator is 33 days, so the percentage is a little lower. Your employer’s figure should come from its own calculation, using its own leave entitlements.

Why your employer’s figure may differ

The NJC model is advisory. Employers can use it, adapt it or use their own method, and many count weeks or days slightly differently. A job that includes holiday-club or exam weeks, for example, has more working weeks than a standard term-time contract.

Other differences come from:

• whether the leave comparator includes the 2 extra-statutory days
• whether long service has been reached and the leave uplift applied
• how the employer treats bank holidays that fall in term time
• whether training days are included in the working weeks

If your figure looks wrong, ask HR for the calculation in writing, showing working weeks, leave days and the resulting percentage. Your union can check it if it still looks wrong, and ACAS gives free advice on pay disputes.

The legal minimum for holiday pay

Whatever model is used, you must get at least the statutory minimum holiday. For irregular-hours and part-year workers, in leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, holiday accrues at 12.07% of hours worked, and rolled-up holiday pay is allowed for them. Whether that rule applies to you depends on how your contract is set up. A contract that pays below the statutory minimum is unlawful, though contracts based on the Green Book usually pay well above it. The holiday entitlement guide covers the statutory rules.

What happens to pay rises

An NJC award goes on the full-time salary, and your actual pay changes by the same percentage. The 2026/27 award is 3.3% from 1 April 2026. The calculation uses the same multipliers each year, so a 3.3% rise on the FTE salary is a 3.3% rise on your actual pay.

If your weeks or hours change part way through the year, the percentage is recalculated from the change date. The working term-time only guide covers contracts and holidays in practice, and the take-home pay calculator works out net pay from your actual annual figure.