You work 39 weeks a year. You're paid for 44.65.

That's how term-time pay works for teaching assistants, lunchtime supervisors, cooks, caretakers, cleaners and other school support staff. Your salary covers the weeks you work plus the holiday that comes with them, spread over 12 months. These free calculators show exactly what that means for you, with every step of the sum.

Work out my pay Check my holiday pay

Calculators

• Term-time-only pay calculator

  Work out your actual annual, monthly, weekly and hourly pay from your FTE salary, hours and weeks.

• Convert FTE salary to actual salary

  The quick version: enter the advertised FTE salary and your hours to see what you will really be paid.

• Holiday pay checker

  Check your holiday pay against the statutory minimum: included in salary, rolled-up or paid separately.

• Term-time vs all-year contract comparison

  Compare a term-time-only contract with an all-year one: pay, hours worked and pay per hour.

Pay guides by role

• Teaching assistants
• Lunchtime supervisors
• School cooks
• Caretakers
• Cleaners

Guides

• How is term-time-only pay calculated?

  Your actual pay = FTE salary × (your hours ÷ full-time hours) × (paid weeks ÷ 52.143), where paid weeks are the weeks you work plus pro-rated holiday. Here's each step, with a worked example.

• Do term-time staff get paid for school holidays?

  Usually you're paid every month, including the summer, because your salary is spread over 12 equal payments. But you're only paid for the weeks you work plus your holiday entitlement, not for every week the school is closed.

• What is 12.07% holiday pay?

  12.07% is the statutory minimum holiday for part-year and irregular-hours workers. It's 5.6 weeks of holiday divided by the 46.4 weeks a full-time worker actually works. It applies to leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024.

• How much holiday do term-time staff get?

  You get a share of a full-time colleague's leave, pro-rated to the weeks you work. Under the Green Book that's about 5.65 weeks for a 39-week contract (under 5 years' service) or 6.25 weeks (5+ years). The legal minimum is lower, at about 4.71 weeks.

• Are term-time staff part-year workers?

  Probably, if there are weeks each year when you're not required to work and not paid for. Government guidance suggests most term-time staff paid in 12 equal instalments are part-year workers, but no court has decided the point yet.

• What does FTE salary mean?

  FTE (full-time equivalent) salary is what a post would pay for full-time hours, all year round. Your actual salary is the FTE salary adjusted for your hours and the weeks you're paid for. On a 25 to 30-hour, 39-week contract it's about 58–69% of the FTE.

• Rolled-up holiday pay explained

  Rolled-up holiday pay means getting your holiday pay as an extra percentage of each pay packet, instead of when you take leave. Since April 2024 it's allowed for part-year and irregular-hours workers, at a rate of at least 12.07%, shown separately on your payslip.

• Why is my term-time pay lower than I expected?

  Usually it's because the advertised salary was the FTE, not your actual pay. But sometimes the wrong weeks, hours or holiday figures are used. Here are eight things to check, with the money each one makes.

• Term-time-only or all-year contract: which pays more?

  An all-year contract pays more per year, but under the Green Book method you get the same pay for every hour actually worked. The difference is how many weeks you work, so the choice is really about time versus money.

• NJC pay spine 2026/27: what each point pays term-time

  The 2026/27 NJC pay award added 3.3% to spine points 3 to 43 from 1 April 2026, and removed SCP 2. Below are FTE salaries, hourly rates and actual term-time pay for common points.