Teachers in England to get 3.5% pay rise

Teachers in England to get 3.5% pay riseImage source, Getty ImagesByHazel ShearingEducation correspondentPublished45 minutes agoTeachers in England will get a 3.5% pay rise from September and 3% the following year, the government has said.The Department for Education (DfE) announced £1.8bn in additional funding but said schools would have to fund the first 1% of each rise from existing budgets.It also announced it was curbing pay of top leaders in academy trusts.The National Education Union (NEU), the largest teaching union in England, rejected the offer because it "still means cuts to education".Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the offer demonstrated the "immense value we place in our teachers".She added that teachers should not be "seeing executive pay rise faster than their own" and "tighter controls will mean unjustifiable exec salaries become a thing of the past".The changes mean that from September, trusts will need the government to approve any jobs advertised with salaries of more than £174,000, and executives will not be able to receive higher pay rises than classroom teachers.NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said the government had been "forced" to go beyond its original offer but still had not gone far enough."With inflation set to rise, members know this offer is not the decisive shift needed to reverse real-terms pay cuts since 2010 or restore the competitiveness of teacher pay," he said.He added that the pay award needed to be fully funded so that schools do not have to find money in their existing budgets to pay for it."A partially funded settlement still means cuts to education, and the NEU will never accept that," he said.He said the curb on executive pay was "a start" but "not enough", adding that it would not be retrospective.Teachers in England to vote on striking over payPublished9 MayWhat is happening to UK prices?Published17 JuneJessica Feat...