How teacher pay works

In short

Teacher pay in England follows national pay scales, with higher pay in and around London (the London weighting). The median teacher salary is around £51,000, rising to over £62,000 in Inner London.

Most teachers are paid on nationally-set ranges, progressing up the scale with experience and responsibility, with separate higher ranges for leadership roles. Schools have some flexibility, but the framework is national, which is why the median teacher salary is a single figure (£51,048 in 2025/26) across all regions except London.

London pays more to reflect living costs: a median of £62,496 in Inner London and £56,154 in Outer London. Pay is one of several levers – alongside bursaries, workload and development – that affect whether schools can recruit and keep teachers.

📊 See pay and pupil-teacher ratios

Sources & how this was made

Key official sources: the Department for Education’s Get Into Teaching and Teach in Further Education services, and GOV.UK guidance on initial teacher training, qualified teacher status, FE initial teacher education funding and the Early Career Teacher Entitlement; the Society for Education and Training on QTLS; and DfE statistics (School Workforce in England, the ITT Census, Teacher demand and postgraduate trainee need, and the Further education workforce releases) on Explore Education Statistics, under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Last reviewed: 15 August 2026. Teacher training rules, funding and figures change – always confirm current details with Get Into Teaching and GOV.UK.

How this was made: developed and cross-checked with AI assistance alongside expert human review by tutor2u. It is an independent, plain-English guide, not official DfE guidance.