She said she worked early mornings, evenings, weekends, and during school holidays when she was teaching – well beyond the hours she was paid for.
“The demand within that time was huge, so realistically, you didn’t get your work done in that time,” she said.
“If I came at 8:30am [and] left at 3:30pm, there would be so much question around my commitment to the job.”
Inflation in the UK was 2.8% in the year to May. That was lower than experts had forecast given the impact of the war in the Middle East on prices, but it is still expected to rise further.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said the offer itself was “another step in the right direction so long as we don’t see a big spike in inflation”, but the partial funding “will mean more pressure on already stretched [school] budgets”.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the pay awards but said the implications for budgets would vary.
“It will be very challenging for many schools to find money from their existing budgets in the way that is required,” he said.
Leora Cruddas, the chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, called new rules for trusts “the latest example of micromanagement from Whitehall”.
“The government appears to have rushed into these changes without consulting with school trusts to understand their impact,” she said.
The DfE also said it was giving colleges an additional £485m over two years.
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, called it a “very positive announcement” but noted that “college pay still lags a long way behind schools and industry”.
Each year, the independent School Teachers Review Body receives submissions about pay from the government, unions and others. It then makes recommendations to ministers, who ultimately decide how much to award.
The latest DfE submission proposed a 6.5% pay award over 2026-27, 2027-28 and 2028-29.
The DfE also said that, at a national level, there would be around £250m available in existing school budgets to fund some of the rise in 2026-27 and around £750m in 2027-28 – making the first year “considerably more challenging in financial terms” for schools.
In May, the NEU said 6.5% over three years was unlikely to match inflation and called the proposal an “insult”.
An informal indicative ballot held already this year, with a turnout of 48.6%, suggested 90.5% of teachers who are members of the NEU would be prepared to take industrial action.
NEU members went on strike over pay in the first half of 2023, forcing many schools to close for eight days of action.
The NEU called off further action after the government revised its 2023 offer to 6.5%.
Teachers were then given a 5.5% rise in 2024 and a 4% rise in 2025.
Meanwhile, the DfE has defended spending more than £700,000 on “influencer marketing” over the past two financial years.
In an interview with Tes magazine, Laura Trott, Conservative shadow education secretary, said the spending showed Phillipson’s priorities were “all wrong”.
But the DfE said it “allows us to reach audiences where they are” and was “much more cost-effective” than traditional marketing.
Additional reporting by Emily Holt