Each year, the independent School Teachers Review Body (STRB) receives submissions about pay from the government, unions and others. It then makes recommendations to ministers, who ultimately decide how much to award.
The DfE’s submission proposed a 6.5% pay award over 2026-27, 2027-28 and 2028-29, with “the level of awards weighted towards the latter part”.
It said higher awards in the last two years would give schools more time to “plan for changes to their operations, provisions or staffing”.
The STRB’s report has not yet been published, and so a final pay offer has not been announced.
However the NEU said “early reports” suggested it would not be enough “for schools to prevent redundancies and rises in workload”.
An informal indicative ballot held already this year, with a turnout of 48.6%, suggested 90.5% of teachers who are members of the NEU would be prepared to take industrial action over pay.
NEU members went on strike over pay in the first half of 2023, forcing many schools to close on eight days of action.
The NEU called off further action after the government revised its 2023 offer to 6.5%.
Teachers were then given a 5.5% rise in 2024 and a 4% rise in 2025.