Harris Federation ends practice of paying Jamaican teachers as “unqualified,” regardless of their experience

Move announced as strike action affecting 18 academies had been looming.

England’s second-largest academy chain has effectively ended its practice of recruiting teachers from overseas and then paying them as unqualified, regardless of their experience in their home countries, in the face of looming strike action from the biggest union.

The Harris Federation is now paying a “top-up” to overseas teachers who are initially put on the unqualified teacher scale before gaining qualified teacher status. This means they are paid in line with what a UK-trained teacher with the same level of experience would earn, on the main scale.

Overseas teachers at Harris, many of whom have been recruited from Jamaica, are also to be given the right to start the process of gaining qualified teacher status (QTS) as soon as they successfully negotiate their probation period, which usually lasts four months. This ends the scenario whereby some teachers have waited years to be put on the path to QTS.

Harris has also pledged to introduce other changes for all staff, including, for teachers, ending performance-related pay in its schools and having a guaranteed 12 per cent of their working time devoted to planning, preparation and assessment (PPA).

The moves come with Harris having faced the prospect of what would have been the biggest ever strike action against the practices of a multi-academy trust, with the results of a ballot in 18 of its secondary schools and sixth forms due to be disclosed on the day the changes were announced.