Over a third of private school teachers have another job

The National Education Union have carried out their largest every survey of union members working in independent schools, with the first of the findings revealing that a third of teachers have needed to seek additional work to supplement their teacher income.

A survey of 4,000 teachers and 750 support staff members in independent schools across England and Wales revealed that 32 per cent of teachers and 29 per cent of support staff say the cost of living crisis has forced them to take on additional work.

Of these, 9 per cent of teachers and 29 per cent of support staff took on overtime. 35 per cent of teachers and 56 per cent of support staff had a second job, and 64 per cent of teachers and 20 per cent of support staff were involved in private tutoring.

The problems faced by support staff in particular are also exacerbated by the fact a majority (55 per cent) are paid for term-time only.

Pay increases in private schools flags behind pay in the state sector. In the current academic year (2024-25), just 12 per cent of teachers in private schools received an increase that matched or bettered the state sector pay award of 5.5 per cent.

The most common cost of living pay increases for teachers this academic year was two per cent, with 34 per cent of teachers receiving this increase. 24 per cent of teachers got no increase at all, with only 0.5 per cent teachers receiving over even per cent.

Almost half of support staff (45 per cent) that work in independent schools received less than the state sector minimum of 2.5 per cent. The large majority (89 per cent) received less than the state maximum of 5.7 per cent.

Almost all of teacher respondents (93 per cent) said that the cost of living crisis has affected their standard of living, with 39 per cent saying by ‘a lot’. Among support staff, this number was higher, at 50 per cent.

The recent introduction of VAT on frees has already had an impact on staffing at independent schools, which includes redundancies as well as a freeze on recruitment. Schools have also used the change as an opportunity to depress payments to both teachers and support staff.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, commented: “Staff in private schools are seeing their standard of living eroded by the continuing cost of living crisis. That is why members have become so energised by campaigns launched by the NEU in recent years, which have taken on workload, attacks on pensions and ‘fire and rehire’ strategies designed to undermine the workforce and worsen pay and conditions.

“Employers will use the government’s VAT policy as an excuse to continue with more of the same. They must not make the mistake of thinking they have carte blanche to do as they wish. The NEU will take on those employers and will robustly defend our members, as the largest union of teachers and support staff in the independent sector."