Working term-time only

A term-time-only (TTO) contract means you work only during school terms, usually around 39 weeks a year, and you are not expected to work in the school holidays. Your annual pay is a percentage of the full-time salary for the post, covering the weeks you work plus the paid holiday you are entitled to, and it is usually spread across 12 equal monthly payments. Most teaching assistants, school office staff, midday supervisors and many other school support staff are on these contracts.

How the pay is worked out

Councils and schools that follow the NJC Green Book generally use the model set out in the NJC’s Part 4.12 guidance. It starts from the full-time salary for your spine point and adds up:

• the weeks you actually work, typically 39, which matches the 195 days a year schools are open to staff
• the paid leave you would get if you worked all year, worked out pro rata: your contractual annual leave, 8 bank holidays and 2 extra-statutory days

The total is then shown as a percentage of a full year. The NJC worked example, with 39 working weeks and a 36-day leave entitlement as the comparator, comes out at 86.778 per cent of full-time pay. If your weekly hours are below the full-time 37, the figure is reduced again in proportion.

Say you are a teaching assistant on SCP 5, which is £26,427 full-time from 1 April 2026, working 32.5 hours a week for 39 weeks, using the NJC example percentage. That works out as £26,427 × 86.778% × 32.5/37, roughly £20,144 a year, or about £1,679 a month before deductions. Your contract may show this as an “actual salary” next to the “FTE salary” of £26,427. FTE salary vs actual salary explains why both appear on adverts.

Some employers, especially academy trusts that set their own terms, use other methods, for example paying 52 weeks’ worth of pay for a fixed number of weeks or counting different leave entitlements. Results can differ by a few per cent. How term-time-only pay is calculated goes through the variations.

Holiday on a term-time contract

You have the same legal right to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday as anyone else, and for most Green Book staff the contractual leave is more than that. The difference is when you take it. On a TTO contract, your paid holiday is deemed to be taken during the school holidays, which is why it is built into your annual pay rather than booked day by day.

That means you cannot normally take leave in term time. Schools may allow unpaid leave for a good reason, such as a family wedding, but they do not have to. Bank holidays that fall in term time, such as the early May bank holiday, are usually built into the calculation too.

As your length of service increases, your leave entitlement under the Green Book goes up from 23 to 26 days after five years’ continuous service. On a TTO contract that shows up as a slightly higher percentage of the full-time salary, so check that your pay increases when you reach the five-year point.

What to check in the contract

Look for the number of weeks you are contracted to work and whether it matches the school’s term dates plus training days. If the school asks you to attend extra days, such as an additional training day or a summer school, those should be paid on top.

Check the hours per week, and whether they include an unpaid lunch break. A 32.5-hour contract and a 27.5-hour contract can look very similar on an advert. Check the spine point or grade and the percentage being used. If the advert gives a full-time salary and an actual salary, the actual one is what you will be paid.

If you work for an agency or on a casual basis, the rules are different. You will usually be paid only for the hours you work, with holiday pay accrued at 12.07 per cent of hours worked, sometimes added to each payment as rolled-up holiday pay. Agency workers’ rights has more.

Pensions, sick pay and benefits

Term-time staff in council-run and most academy schools are in the Local Government Pension Scheme. Contributions are based on your actual pay, not the full-time equivalent. On £20,144 a year you would pay 5.8 per cent in the main section in 2026/27. Sick pay and maternity rights are the same as for other staff, worked out on your actual pay.

Because the salary is spread over 12 months, you are paid in August even though you do not work. That helps with budgeting and with any benefit you receive, such as Universal Credit, which looks at monthly earnings.

Outside schools

Term-time-only work also exists in further education colleges, some council services linked to schools (such as home-to-school transport and school crossing patrols), and occasionally in the NHS, for example in school nursing teams or for staff who agree annualised hours. The principles are similar, but the calculation depends on the employer’s own terms. If you want to move a current full-year job onto a term-time pattern, that is a flexible working request, which you can make from your first day.

For a sense of what you will actually receive each month after tax and National Insurance, see take-home pay for a teaching assistant.