Blog by Flexzo
Full-Time vs Part-Time Teaching Roles
Many education professionals assume that teaching is a full-time commitment by default. In practice, part-time teaching is a well-established and legally protected arrangement across maintained schools, academies, and other educational settings.
This article sets out what full-time and part-time teaching roles each involve, what your rights are in each arrangement, and how to work out which fits your circumstances.
What Full-Time Teaching Involves
A full-time teaching role in a maintained school in England is governed by the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document. Full-time classroom teachers can be directed to work up to 1,265 hours per year, within a 195-day working year. Within that, you are entitled to a minimum of 10% timetabled teaching time for planning, preparation and assessment.
In practice, full-time teaching extends well beyond those contracted hours. Marking, planning, reporting, and pastoral responsibilities regularly push the working week beyond what is formally directed — one of the primary reasons many experienced teachers move towards part-time arrangements at some point in their careers.
Full-time roles provide income stability, access to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, statutory sick pay, and a clear progression pathway from the Main Pay Range into the Upper Pay Range and beyond. They also tend to offer more consistent access to in-school CPD and career development structures.
What Part-Time Teaching Involves
Part-time teaching is not a reduced version of a full-time role with some duties removed. Under the STPCD, part-time teachers are entitled to exactly the same terms and conditions as their full-time colleagues, calculated on a pro-rata basis.
Pay is calculated according to the proportion of the school’s timetabled teaching week that the part-time teacher works. If the full school timetable is 25 hours per week and you teach 15 hours, your salary is 60% of the full-time rate at your pay point. The NEU’s guidance on part-time teachers’ pay and conditions confirms that PPA time, directed time, pension contributions, pay progression, and TLR entitlements all follow the same proportional principle.
One area that regularly causes confusion is INSET days and meetings that fall on days when a part-time teacher does not normally work. The STPCD is clear: a part-time teacher cannot be directed to work on those days. They may attend by mutual agreement with the headteacher, but that time must be compensated separately — it cannot be absorbed into directed time.
The Legal Protection for Part-Time Workers
Beyond the STPCD, part-time teachers in all settings are protected by the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000. These regulations make it unlawful to treat a part-time worker less favourably than a comparable full-time worker without objective justification.
In practical terms, a part-time teacher should not be excluded from training opportunities, passed over for progression, or treated differently in redundancy selection simply because they work reduced hours. If you believe you are being treated less favourably, you can request a written statement from your employer explaining the reason, which must be provided within 21 days. If unsatisfied, you can bring a claim to an employment tribunal.
Who Part-Time Roles Tend to Suit
Part-time teaching is a considered choice for many education professionals, not a concession or a stepping stone. The following circumstances commonly lead people to part-time arrangements:
None of these represent a lesser commitment to the profession. In many cases, part-time teachers bring a level of focus to their timetabled hours that full-time colleagues, stretched across a much larger workload, find harder to maintain.
Requesting Part-Time Working
If you are currently in a full-time post and want to move to part-time hours, you have the right to make a flexible working request from day one of employment. Following changes that came into force in April 2024, employees can now make two such requests in any 12-month period.
Your employer must respond within two months, and they must consult with you before refusing. They can refuse on specific business grounds but must explain their reasoning in writing. You have the right to appeal, and if the refusal was unreasonable or discriminatory, you can bring a claim to an employment tribunal.
Supply and Temporary Arrangements
Not all part-time working in education involves a permanent contract. Supply, short-term placements, and fixed-term contracts can all be worked on a part-time basis, offering a different kind of flexibility — around when you work as much as how many hours.
It is worth understanding how these arrangements differ from a part-time permanent post before you decide which suits you. Our article on permanent vs temporary teaching jobs covers the key differences in rights, pay, and stability across contract types.
Finding Roles That Fit Your Hours
Part-time teaching roles exist across all phases and provision types — primary, secondary, SEND, alternative provision, and further education — though they are not always easy to find through standard job listings, which tend to default to full-time.
Flexzo Teach connects education professionals directly with educational settings across all role types and hours arrangements, including part-time placements and flexible working agreements. You set your availability and preferences, and settings contact you directly, without an agency intermediary.
Frequently Asked Questions
Get in Touch
If you have questions about full-time or part-time teaching 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.
