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Working in an academy

Academic questions

With the number of secondary academies increasing and primaries being forced to convert to academy status, Sandra Bennett looks at teachers’ terms and conditions in these schools.

The NUT campaigns to defend state education and remains opposed to the Government’s academies programme. But the coalition’s determination to press ahead with its academies and free schools initiatives, and forcing schools to convert against the wishes of heads, teachers and parents, means academies now make up half of all secondary schools and a small but growing proportion of primary schools in England.

The NUT supports the many members who find themselves working in an academy.

Traditionally, teachers in state-funded schools have been employed by the local authority or the governing body of a voluntary aided or foundation school. As a teacher in an academy, you will be employed by the school governing body, or by the academy trust if the school is part of a chain of academies, such as those run by AET or E-ACT.

Your terms and conditions

If you are newly appointed, it will be your employer who determines your pay and conditions.

If you transferred from a maintained school under Tupe (the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations) you will keep your former pay and conditions – pay scales and working time will be set by the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) and other conditions will be governed by collective agreements negotiated by the NUT, and by the Burgundy Book, the teacher’s employment manual.

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