United Learning Teacher Pay Scale Explained (2026/27)

United Learning is an unusual case in this section of the site, because for once the pay question has a real answer. Most academy trusts will not tell you what they pay until you have an offer in your hand. United Learning publishes a point-by-point pay structure, sets it out next to the maintained-sector figures it is competing against, and advertises the differential on its recruitment site. That is close to unheard of, and it deserves credit before anything else on this page.

It also means this page can be more specific than most. What follows is built from United Learning's own Teachers' Pay Policy — version 12.0, dated September 2024, published by Glebe Primary School as one of the trust's academies — from its Teach With Us careers pages, and from a well-documented industrial dispute during 2025 that tells you a good deal about how the trust thinks about total remuneration. Where a figure is our arithmetic rather than United Learning's, we say so.

What United Learning actually is

United Learning is the largest multi-academy trust in England by number of schools, running a mixed group of academies and independent schools under a single central organisation. Its academy network spans primary and secondary phases and a wide geographic spread, from Inner London to the North East, with 23 academies falling inside its London pay arrangements — 15 Inner London and eight Outer London, listed by name in Annex D of the pay policy.

Size matters here in a way it does not for smaller trusts. United Learning has the scale to run a genuinely bespoke pay structure with its own band names, its own progression rules and its own annual negotiation with recognised unions through a Joint Negotiating Committee — an infrastructure that a ten-school trust simply could not afford to maintain. It is also large enough that its decisions set a reference point for the rest of the sector, which is why its 2025 pension proposal attracted the attention it did.

That £36,400 figure is worth holding onto. For comparison, the illustrative 2026/27 national M1 point used elsewhere on this site is £34,069 — see our teacher pay scales guide for the full national structure. The gap between a United Learning starting salary and a maintained-school starting salary is, on any reasonable set of assumptions, the largest trust-level pay differential available to a new teacher in England.

The headline: 5% above national scales

United Learning's recruitment site states plainly: "We pay an average of 5% above national scales – the best rates of pay in the sector." It quotes starting salaries of £43,680 in Inner London and £36,400 nationally. That claim is corroborated independently — a Tes investigation into trust pay recorded United Learning at the top of the range it found across England, at approximately 5.6 per cent above national pay and conditions figures on average, with around 9.5 per cent at the lowest band.

The single most useful thing to understand about that 5 per cent is that it is an average across the whole scale, not a uniform uplift applied to every point. This is a genuinely different structure from, say, Ark Schools' flat 2.5 per cent, which is applied consistently across the main range. United Learning's differential is front-loaded: very large at the entry point and much smaller — in one Inner London case, marginally negative — at the top of the experienced band.

PT, EPT and Leading Practitioner

United Learning does not use M1–M6 or U1–U3 at all. If you move to the trust from a maintained school, the vocabulary of your payslip changes, which in practice makes it harder to compare offers and easier to lose track of where you actually sit. The structure is:

• Professional Teacher (PT1–PT6) — the equivalent of the Main Pay Range. PT1 is the standard starting point for a first-year ECT, though the policy allows previous teaching and other relevant experience to be taken into account when setting the starting point.
• Experienced Professional Teacher (EPT1–EPT3) — the equivalent of the Upper Pay Range. Entry is by threshold-style application, but with a notable difference from the national system: anyone who has completed at least one year on PT6 is automatically considered for progression into the EPT band, without having to apply.
• Leading Practitioner — a band above EPT with, in the policy's words, no upper limit. Starting rates in the published 2024 structure were £53,603 nationally, £56,929 in Outer London and £62,273 in Inner London. This sits alongside rather than inside the leadership structure.
• Leadership Band — separate again, also with no upper limit, and does not attract a TLR.
• Unqualified Teacher scale — published in Annex C as "guidance only", which is a meaningful qualifier: the trust is explicitly not fixing these points across its academies.

The fixed-versus-guidance distinction runs right through the structure and is the detail most likely to catch someone out. PT1, PT2 and PT3 are fixed points. Progression through them is incremental and applied annually on 1 September for teachers meeting expectations. PT4, PT5 and PT6 are labelled "guidance pnt" in the trust's own Annex C, meaning individual academies may set a different figure. The same applies to EPT3, which the policy describes as a guidance point that headteachers have discretion to exceed "in exceptional and clearly defined circumstances".

United Learning pay scale 2026/27

United Learning has not published an updated Annex C since 2024, but its own adverts show what the scale is now. Vacancies across the trust list "£36,400 – £53,040 ULT Teachers' Pay Scale", which is the 2024 PT1 and EPT3 national rates plus exactly 4%, and at least one 2026/27 post is advertised at £37,674, which is £36,400 plus exactly 3.5%. Applying those two uplifts to every point gives the table below. These figures are our arithmetic, not a published United Learning table, so confirm the point you are offered in writing.

Source: Our arithmetic from United Learning adverts (£36,400–£53,040 in 2025/26, and £37,674 at PT1 for 2026/27), applying 4% then 3.5% to the trust's published 2024 scale. Maintained figures are the 2026/27 national (rest of England) points.

The shape is unchanged from 2024: PT1 is about 10.6% above M1, while EPT3 is 3.9% above U3. In Inner London the top of the scale is closer still: EPT3 at £65,230 against a maintained U3 of £64,684.

The published comparison table (2024)

Here is Annex C of United Learning's Teachers' Pay Policy (version 12.0, September 2024) — the trust's own figures, set against the maintained-sector comparison figures the trust itself chose to publish alongside them. The final column is our arithmetic, not United Learning's: the percentage gap between the trust's national rate and the maintained national rate on the same row.

Read the "Gap" column top to bottom and the shape of the offer becomes obvious. At PT1 the trust pays 10.6% more than the maintained M1 — a difference of £3,350 a year before tax, which is a serious sum for a first-year teacher. By EPT1 the gap has narrowed to 3.0%, worth £1,354, and by EPT3 it is 3.9%. The Inner London columns tell the same story more sharply: PT1 at £42,000 against M1 at £38,766 is a gap of 8.3%, while EPT2 at £58,400 sits £262 above the maintained U2 and EPT3 at £60,600 sits just £508 above the maintained U3 of £60,092 — nothing resembling a 5 per cent premium.

Allowances published in the same annex, for the same year: TLR1 £9,782–£16,553, TLR2 £3,391–£8,279, TLR3 (fixed term) £675–£3,344 and an SEN allowance of £2,679–£5,285. The TLR figures are generous against the national ranges, and for anyone holding a substantial responsibility post that is likely to be worth considerably more than the scale differential itself.

How progression actually works

United Learning runs a Contribution Based Pay scheme rather than automatic annual increments across the whole scale. The process is set out in reasonable detail in the pay policy, and it is more structured — and more clearly time-bound — than many trust arrangements.

Two provisions are worth flagging because they cut in the teacher's favour. First, failure to meet every objective does not automatically mean no progression where significant progress has been made, or where the shortfall was due to reasons beyond the teacher's control. Second, anyone who has completed a year on PT6 is automatically considered for the EPT band — you do not have to apply, though teachers below PT6 can apply, by written notice to the headteacher by 30 September with evidence from recent reviews.

Cutting the other way: progression can be withheld or delayed where informal support interventions are ongoing, and the policy states explicitly that a "no progression" determination can be made without going through the trust's separate Capability Procedure. That is a lower bar than some teachers will expect. Appeals go to the headteacher in writing within ten working days, are reviewed with a governor not involved in the original decision, and the decision at that point is final before the matter becomes a grievance.

There is also a non-consolidated recognition award scheme: one-off payments headteachers can make to individuals, teams or a whole academy, also subject to moderation panel approval. "Non-consolidated" matters — these do not fold into your salary, do not raise your scale point, and do not follow you forward.

The pension plan that was abandoned

This is the most important section on this page, and it is the reason we would tell anyone considering a United Learning post to read their pension terms with unusual care — not because the trust currently offers anything unusual, but because of what it tried to do in 2025 and how close it came.

During 2025, United Learning developed an alternative pension arrangement: a defined-contribution scheme that teachers could take instead of the Teachers' Pension Scheme, in exchange for a substantially higher headline salary. Schools Week reported the trust would offer starting salaries of up to around £45,000 in Inner London and £38,000 outside it to teachers who opted out. The logic from the trust's side was straightforward: employer contributions to the TPS are a very large cost, and redirecting part of that into salary makes the headline offer look dramatically more competitive against other graduate professions.

The logic from the teacher's side is much less appealing, and this is the part worth understanding properly. The Teachers' Pension Scheme is a career-average defined-benefit scheme: it promises a guaranteed, inflation-linked income for life, with the employer carrying the investment and longevity risk. A defined-contribution pot does not promise anything — it promises a pot of money whose eventual value depends on markets, charges and what annuity rates look like on the day you retire. Trading the first for the second plus a salary bump is, for almost any teacher with a full career ahead of them, a substantially worse deal in total-remuneration terms, even though the monthly payslip looks better immediately. Our guide to the 2015 scheme sets out what is actually being given up.

The reaction was substantial. Schools Week ran legal commentary on the proposal, and the NEU vowed to fight it, raising the prospect of industrial action. Unions lodged a joint collective dispute in May 2025. On 2 July 2025, the trust confirmed the plan would not proceed — reported by Schools Week with reaction from both leadership unions. NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said the proposals "would have undermined efforts" to protect teachers' retirement provision, describing them as dangerous; ASCL general secretary Pepe Di'Iasio said simply that the union was "pleased this plan will not now be going ahead."

Directed hours: what the policy doesn't say

With Ark and Harris there is documented reporting on contracted hours to weigh against the pay uplift. With United Learning there is a gap in the record, and we are going to be explicit about it rather than fill it with inference.

United Learning's published Teachers' Pay Policy makes no mention of directed time, the 1,265-hour annual limit, or the 195-day working year at any point. We searched the full document. The policy governs pay determination and progression; conditions of service are evidently set out in separate contractual material that we could not find published anywhere. So: no evidence was found that United Learning deviates from the national directed-hours cap, and no published confirmation was found that it applies it. Both statements are true and neither should be read as implying the other.

The one adjacent provision in the pay policy points, if anything, in a favourable direction. Section 2.2 sets out what the trust expects of teaching staff, including a contribution to the life of the academy outside the classroom — and then adds that where staff make such contributions, "it is done so on a voluntary basis and is not part of the contractual obligation". That is an explicit statement that extra-curricular contribution is voluntary, which is a stronger protection than many teachers get in writing, and it is a useful line to be able to cite. It is not, however, a directed time cap.

Education Uncovered's February 2025 analysis of above-scale academy contracts suggested United Learning appeared to be paying less per contracted hour than the national deal, alongside similar arguments about other trusts. We would treat that as a question raised rather than a finding established, precisely because the underlying contractual hours are not in the public domain. Ask at interview. Specifically: what are the contracted hours, is there a directed time budget, and how many hours a year is it?

Beyond salary: the rest of the package

United Learning publishes a fairly detailed benefits list on its careers pages. Several items have real cash or time value; a couple are more equivocal than they first appear.

• Eight INSET days — five standard plus three extra planning days. This one genuinely cuts both ways. Three additional non-teaching days a year is meaningful time back if they are protected for planning, and meaningful time lost from the summer if they are scheduled as additional attendance beyond the standard 195. Ask which.
• At least one guaranteed paid personal day a year. A day of leave for personal business that does not require you to justify it or take it unpaid. Small, but unusual in the sector and genuinely useful.
• Health cash plan — money back towards routine medical treatment such as optician and dental costs.
• Free counselling and a wellbeing programme that the trust describes as covering legal, financial, family and housing support.
• Staff discount scheme covering shopping, gym membership and holidays.
• Opportunities for flexible working, which the trust's chief executive has publicly linked to its pay position as part of the same recruitment and retention argument.
• Centrally produced curriculum and resources, plus a bespoke development plan and subject-specific expert advice. For a large trust this is a real workload lever — centrally written curriculum materials remove a substantial amount of planning — though some teachers find prescribed curricula constraining. It is a question of fit, not quality.

On the pension: standard Teachers' Pension Scheme membership, following the abandonment of the alternative arrangement described above. Confirm this in writing at offer stage anyway.

What it's like to work at United Learning

The evidence here is weak, as it is for every large employer, and we would rather present it as weak than dress it up. United Learning's Glassdoor profile shows approximately 62 per cent of reviewers saying they would recommend the employer to a friend, with work-life balance rated around 3.1 out of 5 and culture and values around 3.3.

Those are middling numbers — clearly better than the worst in the sector and clearly not outstanding. The work-life balance figure being the lowest of the three is the familiar pattern across trusts of this type, and it is the one that most obviously connects to the unanswered directed-hours question above. A trust paying 10 per cent above scale at the entry point and reporting 3.1 for work-life balance is describing a recognisable trade, even if no single document in the public record spells the trade out.

On the union side, United Learning negotiates its annual pay review with recognised unions through a Joint Negotiating Committee, and the pay policy lists the outcome of that negotiation among the factors determining the annual award — alongside affordability, headline inflation, and the STRB-proposed maintained-sector award. NASUWT publishes member guidance on United Learning pay awards, and GMB maintains a United Learning Trust page for support staff members. The existence of standing negotiating machinery is a real point in the trust's favour — and, as the pension episode demonstrated, machinery that has been used to effect.

United Learning and the academy pay floor

Under the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, academies will be required to have regard to the STPCD and to meet a statutory minimum pay floor set by reference to it. The timing is widely misreported: Section 59 and Schedule 3 commenced on 29 June 2026, which gives the Secretary of State the power to make a minimum remuneration order. Academies are only actually bound once that order is made, and the Department for Education has said that will be no earlier than September 2026; no order had been made at the time of writing. The September 2027 date often quoted alongside this Act is for a separate provision — QTS becoming a requirement in academies — not for the pay floor. A government amendment during the bill's passage confirmed the Act establishes a floor and not a ceiling, so United Learning's above-scale structure is not at risk from the legislation and existing contracts do not have to be unwound. On the trust's own published figures it clears the floor comfortably at every point.

United Learning nonetheless campaigned against the policy more vocally than any other trust. In December 2024, Schools Week reported that chief executive Sir Jon Coles had written to staff warning about the proposals, telling them that "my responsibility is to do all I can to defend your terms and conditions" and that "there is no reason for government to intervene". The trust's argument was that its freedom to set pay is precisely what allows it to pay above national rates, and that constraining that freedom risks the differential rather than protecting it.

Whether you find that persuasive probably depends on your prior view of academy freedoms. The narrow factual position is that the floor-not-ceiling amendment addresses the specific concern Coles raised about pay. The genuinely open question — as with every trust that sets its own terms — is the conditions side. Having regard to the whole STPCD includes having regard to its directed time provisions, and how that interacts with a trust whose published pay policy does not mention directed time at all is not settled. That conditions limb — paragraph 6 of Schedule 3 — was carved out of the June 2026 commencement and awaits its own regulations, expected no sooner than September 2026. It is the thing to watch.

How to verify current pay yourself

Everything above is assembled from public documents, the most detailed of which is now two years old. Before accepting any post, check the position for the specific school and the specific role.

• Ask for the current Annex C. United Learning publishes a point-by-point structure, so unlike most trusts there is a specific document to ask for. Request the current year's Teachers' Pay Policy and its Annex C pay structure. Check the version number and review date on the front page.
• Ask which PT or EPT point you are being offered — not the band, the point, with the figure in writing. "PT scale" in an advert covers a spread of roughly £10,000.
• If you are being offered PT4, PT5 or PT6, ask the academy to confirm its actual rate. These are guidance points and individual academies may deviate from them.
• Confirm the pension in writing. Teachers' Pension Scheme, standard terms, standard employer contributions. Given the 2025 proposal, this is not a paranoid question at this trust — it is the obvious one.
• Ask about contracted hours and directed time explicitly. The published pay policy does not address this, so the only way to find out is to ask. What are the contracted hours? Is there a directed time budget, and how many hours is it?
• Ask how the INSET days are structured. Eight days is above standard — establish whether the three additional days are within the normal working year or added to it.
• Check a live vacancy. Adverts on Teaching Vacancies and Tes Jobs quote real figures for real posts starting soon, and United Learning adverts typically state "United Learning pay scale" plus any TLR explicitly. This is the most current source available to you.
• Ask whether there is a recognised union rep at the school, and if so, speak to them. The trust has national negotiating machinery; whether it is active at your school is a separate question.

You can model what any of these figures means in the hand with our take-home pay calculator — worth doing before treating a gross differential as a reason to move, since income tax, National Insurance and pension contributions take a substantial share of it.