Blog by Flexzo
Permanent vs Temporary Teaching Jobs
The distinction between permanent and temporary teaching jobs is not just about duration. It affects your employment rights, income, and the kind of working life you can build. This article sets out what each contract type means in practice and how to decide which suits you.
What Permanent Teaching Jobs Involve
A permanent teaching contract is an open-ended employment contract with a specific educational setting. There is no fixed end date. You are employed as a member of staff with the full range of employment rights that entails.
In maintained schools, permanent teachers are paid in accordance with the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document, with salary progressing through the Main Pay Range and into the Upper Pay Range over time. You contribute to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. You receive statutory sick pay, maternity and paternity pay, and paid annual leave within the school year structure.
Permanent employment also gives you continuity with learners, colleagues, and the setting itself alongside structured CPD, performance management, and clear progression pathways.
The trade-off is commitment. You are contracted to a specific setting, working within directed time, with annual leave confined to school holidays. The workload (planning, marking, reporting, pastoral responsibilities) is sustained and significant.
What Temporary Teaching Jobs Involve
Temporary teaching jobs cover a wide range of arrangements, from day-to-day supply through to fixed-term contracts lasting a full academic year.
Day-to-day supply involves working in a setting for a single day or a few days at a time, often at short notice. You deliver pre-planned lessons, maintain order, and leave handover notes. Planning, marking, and administrative responsibilities are minimal.
Short-term placements typically cover a few weeks — illness cover, training absences, or bridging periods while a setting recruits permanently. The responsibilities are closer to those of the absent teacher, though the duration limits the depth of relationships formed.
Long-term placements cover a term or more, often for maternity or extended sick leave. These carry the full responsibilities of the post including:
The experience is closer to permanent employment, with the key difference being that the post has a defined end point.
Fixed-term contracts are formal employment contracts for a specific period — a year, two terms, or a defined project. They carry more employment protections than day-to-day supply, including access to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme if employed directly by the setting, and redundancy rights after two years of continuous service.
The defining characteristic of temporary work is that it ends. That uncertainty affects financial planning and employment security, but it also creates genuine flexibility — over when you work, where you work, and how intensively you commit.
Employment Rights: The Key Differences
This is where the practical differences between permanent and temporary work matter most.
Permanent employees have full employment rights from day one, including unfair dismissal protection after two years, redundancy rights, statutory sick pay, and maternity and paternity entitlements. They are employed directly by the setting and benefit from the full terms of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document.
Directly employed temporary teachers (those on fixed-term contracts with the setting itself) have similar protections, though their rights to redundancy pay and unfair dismissal protection depend on their length of continuous service.
Agency supply teachers have a more limited set of rights. They are employed by the agency, not the setting. Their placement can end with very little notice. However, after 12 weeks in the same role at the same setting, the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 entitle them to the same basic pay and conditions as a directly employed teacher doing equivalent work.
Understanding which category you fall into before you start is important. Being employed directly by a setting versus being placed through an agency has significant implications for your pay, rights, and pension access.
Who Permanent Roles Tend to Suit
Permanent teaching tends to work well for those who want income stability and a predictable salary, find professional meaning in long-term relationships with learners and colleagues, and are ready to commit to a specific setting and community. It is also the clearer path for anyone looking to progress into leadership or specialist roles, or who has financial commitments that depend on a guaranteed income.
Finding the Right Role
Whether you are looking for short-term cover, a long-term placement, or a permanent post, Flexzo Teach connects education professionals directly with educational settings across all role types and provision sectors — without agency intermediaries.
You set your availability, your rate expectations, and your preferences. Settings contact you directly. There are no margins taken on what you earn, and no transfer fees complicating the move from a temporary placement to a permanent offer.
If you are weighing up your options and want to understand what is available to you, the why join Flexzo Teach page sets out how the platform works and what it offers education professionals across both temporary and permanent roles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Get in Touch
If you have questions about education roles or want to understand how Flexzo Teach can support your next placement, the team is happy to help.
Visit our contact page or register as an educator to get started.
