The Department for Education (DfE) has extended the time period for schools to receive a one-off payment to support newly qualified teachers (NQT) whose training has been disrupted by Covid.
Under the updated guidance, all state-funded schools that have or had an NQT who completed their induction between the summer term of 2021 and the spring term of 2022 will receive the cash to “further support” their development.
Previously, the DfE said the money would be available to schools with NQTs finishing induction last summer.
As before, schools will receive up to £1,500, which will cover an additional 5 per cent of time off timetable (equal to 44 hours) for the 2021-22 academic year.
The DfE said this is to ensure these teachers will have “additional time to invest in their development”.
Last month, schools reported continued disruption owing to Covid, with some forced to send year groups home.
Under the announcement today, NQTs will qualify for payments of £1,200 in schools outside London, £1,300 in the “fringe area”, £1,400 in outer London and £1,500 in inner London.
The time off-timetable remains non-statutory and can still “be grouped together in different ways, for example, taken as whole days or half days off”.
Despite the change, the date of the one-off payment will remain unchanged, paid in arrears in summer 2022.
The allocation of the funding will be “based on school workforce census returns and the employing school’s funding region”, the DfE has said.
The DfE also previously announced separate funding under which schools would receive up to £1,500 for each of their early career teachers to cover time spent training away from the classroom.
