Learning Mentor Payslip Explained 2026/27: Pay, Tax & Pension

NJC pay and how term-time-only pro-rata works for a learning mentor

Learning mentors in maintained schools and most academies are paid under the National Joint Council for Local Government Services (NJC Green Book) agreement, the same framework covering teaching assistants, caretakers and other school support staff. The role is typically evaluated at between SCP 9 and SCP 17 - roughly 27,254 to £31,022 at 2025/26 rates - depending on the level of responsibility, whether 1:1 intensive casework is involved, and local authority job evaluation outcomes. A senior or lead mentor in a larger school might sit at SCP 18 to SCP 21, equivalent to around 31,537 to £33,143.

The 2025/26 NJC settlement (effective 1 April 2025) added 3.2 percent to all SCP values, with SCP 2 deleted from April 2026. For 2026/27, verify the confirmed NJC settlement from the current-year circular - pay awards are settled by annual negotiation and must not be assumed until the circular is published and accepted. Track your payslip around April each year to confirm the increase has been applied from the correct date.

Learning mentor contracts are almost universally term-time-only (TTO). The pro-rata calculation works like this: take the full-time equivalent annual salary at your SCP, multiply by the fraction of the year you work, then add your statutory holiday entitlement for those weeks. A typical 39-week contract (38 teaching weeks plus one INSET week) attracts around 4.2 weeks of paid holiday, giving 43.2 total paid weeks. Dividing 43.2 by 52 gives a fraction of approximately 0.831. If you also work fewer than 37 hours - say 30 hours per week - there is a second fraction: 30/37. Both fractions are multiplied against the full SCP annual rate to produce your actual annual salary.

Schools should spread the resulting annual salary equally over 12 monthly payments. This means your August payslip shows the same gross as your October one, even though no work happens in August. That is correct and intended - your holiday entitlement is built into the calculation. If your school pays only for actual term days worked each month, the method is non-standard and you should ask for the equal-payments approach to be applied instead.

What a learning mentor payslip looks like

The payments block shows basic pay as a single line - your annual pro-rated salary divided by 12. There should be no separate "term-time fraction" or "holiday pay" line if the standard spreading method is used; those adjustments are already done at the annual calculation stage. If you have worked additional hours or covered for another colleague, these should appear as separate lines below basic pay.

The deductions block lists PAYE income tax, Class 1 National Insurance and your LGPS pension contribution. For a full-time learning mentor at SCP 12 (£28,598 FTE, but around £23,760 actual after the TTO fraction), tax and NI will be deducted, though at lower amounts than the full-time FTE rate would suggest. The LGPS contribution at the relevant tier reduces taxable pay before income tax is calculated.

The year-to-date column shows cumulative gross, tax and pension from 6 April. In March, when the tax year closes, the year-to-date gross should closely match your actual annual pro-rated salary. If it is higher, check whether an error or an additional payment has been processed; if it is lower, check whether a month's pay was missed.

Some learning mentors hold a small SEN supplement or a pastoral lead allowance paid on top of the basic SCP. This should be a named separate line in the payments block and should be included in pensionable pay for LGPS purposes. If you receive such an allowance verbally or by local agreement but cannot see it on the payslip, raise it with payroll.

Learning Mentor pay bands (UK 2026/27)

Gross figures reflect typical national pay-scale and ONS ASHE 2024 levels. Net figures are a simplified estimate using 2026/27 PAYE bands and a 5% pension assumption. Your real pension rate and tax code may differ - see the pension section below.

Band	Gross / year	Net / year	Net / month
Lower (25th percentile)	£24,400	£20,180	£1,682
Median	£26,900	£21,855	£1,821
Upper (75th percentile)	£30,200	£24,066	£2,005

Pay and additions on a learning mentor payslip

Basic pay (term-time-only pro-rated)Your annual NJC SCP rate multiplied by your TTO fraction (typically around 0.831 for a 39-week contract) and your hours fraction if part-time, then divided by 12. Request the written breakdown from payroll when you start - it tells you the SCP, the two fractions and the resulting annual salary.
SEN or pastoral supplementIf this line is absent from your payslip but you support pupils with complex needs as a defined part of the role, it may have been omitted at contract set-up. An SEN supplement linked to a local evaluation point should appear as a regular named line and be included in pensionable pay. A one-off or ad hoc payment should be clarified with your employer - it suggests the allowance has not been formalised in the contract, which matters for pension accrual and sick-pay calculations.
Additional hours / overtimeGreen Book overtime rates apply to hours beyond the contracted week. Summer transition visits, results-day attendance and whole-school INSET days outside your term weeks are a grey area: check whether your contract includes these or whether they attract separate payment at your daily rate. If you regularly attend outside term without seeing an extra line, you may be working hours that should be paid.
Sick payGreen Book occupational sick pay is staged by service: one month full pay and one month half pay in year one, rising to six months full and six months half after five years. The amounts are calculated on your actual pro-rated salary, not the FTE rate. In half-pay periods the gross line drops sharply; check that LGPS contributions also recalculate on the reduced pensionable pay rather than carrying forward the full-pay amount.
Annual incrementSome schools operate automatic annual progression through SCP points within a grade; others require a performance review. If you are due to move from, say, SCP 11 to SCP 12, your April payslip should show the higher rate. If it does not, raise it in writing - increment dates and pay award dates sometimes collide and one can accidentally cancel the other.

LGPS and what it means for a term-time-only learning mentor

Learning mentors are eligible for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), a career-average defined-benefit scheme administered locally by pension funds across England and Wales. Each year you build up pension equal to 1/49th of your actual pensionable pay for that year. On a TTO pro-rated salary of around 23,000 to £26,000, that annual accrual is roughly 470 to £530 of annual pension - modest, but it accumulates over a career and is index-linked in retirement.

Employee contributions are tiered by annual pensionable pay. Under the approximate 2026/27 LGPS bands, earnings from roughly 22,801 to £37,100 attract 6.5 percent; the band below that (up to roughly £22,800) is 5.8 percent. Verify the exact current thresholds with your pension fund. A mentor with a pro-rated salary of £24,000 - falling in the 6.5 percent band - pays approximately £1,560 a year in pension contributions, or about £130 a month. That deduction comes off before income tax is calculated, so after basic-rate tax relief the real cost to take-home is roughly £104 a month. The employer contributes substantially more - around 20 percent or more of pensionable pay - which is a significant hidden part of your remuneration.

A common misconception is that opting out of LGPS is an easy way to increase take-home pay. You do recover the employee contribution, but you lose the employer contribution and the index-linked defined benefit. For most learning mentors, opting out is a false economy unless extreme financial pressure makes it unavoidable. The 50/50 option - paying half the rate for half the accrual - is a middle ground worth discussing with your pension fund.

Deductions on a learning mentor payslip

PAYE income tax. Calculated cumulatively against your 1257L tax code. On a TTO pro-rated salary in the low-to-mid 20,000s, most of your earnings fall in the basic-rate band after the personal allowance. A small portion may be nil-rated if you have unpaid leave periods, but the cumulative system corrects for this automatically over the year.
Class 1 National Insurance. At 8 percent above the primary threshold. Your monthly gross is lower than the full-time FTE rate suggests, so the NI bill is correspondingly smaller. Check that your NI category letter is A unless you have deferred NI for a multiple-employment reason.
LGPS pension contribution. Deducted before tax. Under the approximate 2026/27 LGPS bands, a pro-rated salary up to roughly £22,800 attracts 5.8 percent; from roughly 22,801 to £37,100 the rate is 6.5 percent. Most full-time learning mentors on a 39-week TTO contract will fall in the 6.5 percent band. Confirm the tier on your payslip matches your actual pro-rated annual salary and verify the exact thresholds with your pension fund.
Union subscription. UNISON, GMB and the National Education Union (NEU - which covers support staff as well as teachers) all operate in schools. If you chose payroll deduction, the monthly subscription appears as a fixed line. Union subscriptions are not generally eligible for individual tax relief in HMRC's standard scheme, unlike certain professional registration fees.
Salary sacrifice. Some schools offer cycle-to-work or childcare voucher schemes (legacy schemes for existing members). These reduce gross pay before tax and NI are calculated. If you are in a salary sacrifice arrangement, the reduction appears before the PAYE line and means your gross on the payslip is lower than your headline salary - which is intentional, not an error.

Common learning mentor payslip errors

The mistakes that genuinely show up on this role's payslips, and how to spot them.

Incorrect TTO fraction applied at set-upIf payroll uses 38 working weeks instead of 39 (missing the INSET day week), or uses the wrong hours divisor, the annual pro-rated salary is wrong from day one. A few pounds per month error compounds to over a hundred pounds a year. Ask for the calculation in writing when you start, and again when you move SCP or change contracted hours.

NJC pay award not applied in AprilSmall schools sometimes apply the pay award late or apply it only to the FTE value without recalculating the pro-rated amount, so the monthly pay rises by less than it should. Compare your April payslip against March; the gross should be about 0.27 percent higher per month than before (3.2 percent annually, divided by 12 - the monthly increase is approximately that fraction applied to the monthly salary).

SEN supplement missing from pensionable payIf a learning mentor receives an SEN or pastoral supplement but payroll excludes it from pensionable pay, the pension calculation under-reports and the mentor accrues less pension than they are entitled to. Check that the total pensionable pay figure on the payslip or pension statement matches basic pay plus any regular supplements.

LGPS tier not updated after pay riseWhen an annual increment or pay award moves a mentor across an LGPS contribution band threshold, the tier must be updated. If the old lower tier is still being applied, contributions are too low and arrears build. The correction comes as a catch-up deduction, which can be a shock if the error ran for several months.

Holiday pay paid separately as a lump sum rather than spreadA small number of schools attempt to pay holiday pay as a discrete lump sum each July rather than spreading it through the annual calculation. This is both non-standard and potentially problematic under the Working Time Regulations. If your payslip structure varies significantly by term or shows a separate "holiday pay" line in July, ask payroll to confirm that the method is legally compliant.

Emergency tax code on a new postStarting mid-year without a P45 often triggers an emergency code (1257L M1 or 0T). On a TTO salary, this can overtax the first months substantially. Check your code on the first payslip and, if it shows M1 or 0T, register the employment with HMRC online or by calling to get a cumulative code issued promptly.

Your learning mentor payslip checklist

1.Request the written TTO pro-rata calculation from payroll and verify the hours fraction and weeks fraction
2.Confirm monthly gross times 12 equals the expected annual pro-rated salary
3.Check the April NJC uplift has been applied by comparing March and April payslips
4.Verify any SEN or pastoral supplement is present on the payslip and included in pensionable pay
5.Confirm LGPS contribution tier matches your actual annual pro-rated salary using the 2026/27 bands
6.Check your tax code is 1257L cumulative - not M1 or 0T - if this is your main or only employment
7.Look at the year-to-date gross in March and check it matches your expected annual pro-rated salary
8.If you have a second job, confirm how HMRC has allocated your personal allowance between the two

A worked example for a learning mentor at SCP 12

Take a full-time learning mentor (37 hours per week) on SCP 12, which is £28,598 at April 2025 NJC rates, working a 39-week TTO contract. The holiday pro-ration gives approximately 4.2 paid weeks, so total paid weeks are 43.2. The annual TTO salary is 28,598 multiplied by 43.2/52, giving approximately £23,755. Monthly gross is about £1,980.

Deductions from this monthly gross: LGPS at 6.5 percent (the approximate 2026/27 band for an annual salary around £23,755) is approximately £129, reducing taxable pay to around £1,851. PAYE tax using 1257L: the monthly personal allowance is £1,048, leaving around £803 taxable at 20 percent, so approximately £161 in tax. Class 1 NI at 8 percent on earnings above roughly £1,048: approximately £75. Total deductions of around £365 leave a net take-home of approximately £1,615. These are illustrative figures using April 2025 NJC rates, approximate 2026/27 LGPS bands and standard 2026/27 tax/NI rates - your actual figures depend on your specific circumstances. Verify the LGPS band threshold with your pension fund.

The worked example shows why TTO pay looks "low" compared with the published SCP rate: the 28,598 pound headline figure is the full-time equivalent, but the actual annual salary after TTO pro-rating is around £23,755 - a reduction of about 17 percent. That is not a shortfall; it is the correct reflection of working 43.2 out of 52 weeks. Run your own figures through PayslipIQ and then verify with your payroll team.

Learning Mentor payslip questions

Why is my learning mentor salary lower than the NJC pay scale shows?

The NJC pay scale shows full-time equivalent (FTE) annual salaries based on a 37-hour week for 52 weeks. If your contract is term-time-only - as almost all learning mentor posts are - your actual annual salary is reduced by the TTO fraction, typically to around 83 percent of the FTE rate for a 39-week contract. The published SCP rate is a benchmark, not your take-home guarantee.

Why do I get paid the same in August as in October?

Because your school should be spreading your annual pro-rated salary equally over 12 months. Your holiday entitlement is built into the annual calculation and distributed through the equal monthly payments. August is not a "no-pay" month; the holiday pay for summer is already in every monthly instalment. This is the standard recommended approach for TTO staff.

Can a learning mentor join the Teachers Pension Scheme?

No. The Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS) is only for qualified teachers working in qualifying roles. Learning mentors are support staff and are enrolled in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). There is no route into TPS for a learning mentor post.

My pay has not gone up since April even though there was an NJC award. What should I do?

For the 2025/26 year, the 3.2 percent award was effective from 1 April 2025 and should have been applied to your SCP and to your TTO pro-rated salary. If your gross pay in April or May 2025 is unchanged from before April 2025, the award has likely not been processed. Write to your headteacher or business manager citing the NJC circular of 23 July 2025 and the 3.2 percent rate, and ask for the back-pay from April. For 2026/27, check the most recent NJC circular for the confirmed award and use that date and percentage when making your case.

What is the LGPS contribution rate for a learning mentor?

For 2026/27, the LGPS contribution tier depends on your actual annual pro-rated salary. Under the approximate uplifted bands, a salary from roughly 22,801 to £37,100 attracts 6.5 percent; from roughly 18,301 to £22,800 the rate is 5.8 percent; up to about £18,300 it is 5.5 percent. Most full-time learning mentors on a standard 39-week TTO contract will fall in the 6.5 percent band. Verify the exact thresholds with your pension fund - the bands are adjusted each April. Your LGPS deduction on the payslip should show the percentage applied; if it does not match your pensionable pay band, query it with payroll.

Does my SEN supplement count towards my pension?

It should, if it is a permanent contractual addition rather than an occasional expense reimbursement. Pensionable pay in LGPS normally includes all regular contractual pay. Ask payroll to confirm that the supplement is included in the pensionable pay figure used for your LGPS contribution calculation. If it is excluded, you are under-accruing pension for those years.

The bottom line

The SEN supplement is the detail most often wrong on a learning mentor payslip. It is small enough to miss, but if it is absent from pensionable pay it quietly reduces the LGPS accrual year after year. Check that any pastoral or SEN allowance appears as its own payslip line and feeds into the pensionable pay figure. That one correction, if needed, is worth recovering in arrears.

Use the free PayslipIQ checker to verify your monthly gross against your SCP and TTO fractions, and raise anything that does not add up with your school's, academy's or employer's payroll team. PayslipIQ provides educational estimates only and is not tax, pension or employment advice. For a definitive view of your pay or pension entitlement, speak to your employer, your LGPS fund administrator or a qualified adviser.

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Salary estimates: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2024, full-time gross annual pay by SOC 2020 occupation. Figures rounded to nearest £100. PayslipIQ provides educational information and estimated calculations only. It does not provide tax, legal, financial, payroll, pension or employment advice, and is not affiliated with HMRC, the NHS or any employer. Always verify your pay, tax code, deductions and pension with your employer's payroll team, HMRC or your pension provider before acting.