Now that you plan to hold a members meeting, you can take the next step in sending your headteacher our model letter.

The model letter calls on the school to commit to ensuring that all eligible staff receive the correct pay progression.

Complete the form informing us that you will send our letter. A copy of the model letter will be sent via email for you download, you can also see letter below.

Dear

The Covid-19 crisis, and partial closure of schools, has placed enormous pressure on all school staff and we welcome the support you have shown for your teams during this difficult time.

Under the current circumstances, we are unable to complete meaningful Performance Management reviews for the academic year 2019/20 and so annual pay reviews cannot be carried out in the normal way. Objectives for the academic year 2019/20 were set in the context of the normal operation of schools and will be linked to factors that are not measurable due to the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

We are confident that you share the view expressed by the DfE, local authorities, academy employers and unions that staff must not be penalised due to the impact of the pandemic when pay progression decisions are made. The principle of no detriment means that eligible staff, including school leaders, must not be denied pay progression.

We are writing to ask you to confirm that all staff will receive the pay progression for which they are eligible – this includes all points on the Main, Upper, Leadership, Leading Practitioner and Unqualified Teacher pay ranges and support staff pay scales.

We accept that there may be some exceptions to this where staff who, prior to "lockdown", were subject to a formal capability process and there is a genuine belief that the support offered may not have been completely successful in improving performance. We believe that staff in this position should be given a further period to address the concerns that were raised.

If it is possible for these positive and fair decisions on pay progression to be made in time for the September pay run this would, in our view, help raise staff morale in our school.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,