Holiday entitlement for term-time school staff: how it works

Every worker has a statutory minimum amount of paid holiday set by law. For staff who work only part of the year, such as term-time teaching assistants, the rules changed for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, and how holiday builds up now depends on the hours they actually work. The exact figures can change, so check them on GOV.UK rather than relying on a summary.

But that is only the legal floor. Most schools give more through the employment contract, and the contract is usually what you actually have to apply. The real risk for schools is less about the maths and more about inconsistent methods and missing records.

• ✓Using one method for everyone, without checking whether each person is full-year, part-year or irregular hours.
• ✓Pro-rating by weeks worked without knowing which rule, or which contract term, applies to that person.
• ✓Not recording hours worked, which holiday for part-year staff relies on.
• ✓Assuming every school closure day counts as leave, without checking what each contract says.
• ✓Forgetting contractual extras, such as bank holidays or additional days, that sit on top of the statutory minimum.
• ✓Mixing teachers' arrangements with support staff arrangements in the same spreadsheet.

This article is about staff who are employed permanently but only work, and are only paid for, part of the year: teaching assistants, cover supervisors, catering and cleaning staff, and many office roles on term-time-only contracts.

Teachers in maintained schools work to the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document, which is a different framework, so this article does not cover them.

Full-year workers are legally entitled to a minimum amount of paid statutory holiday each year, with a cap set in law. The 2024 reforms changed how holiday builds up for two groups: part-year workers, for example term-time only staff, and workers with irregular hours, such as casual or zero-hours staff. For workers with regular hours who work all year, nothing changed. The current figures are on GOV.UK.

The Government’s guidance defines a part-year worker as someone who is required to work only part of the year, with periods of at least a week in which they are not required to work and are not paid. It adds that this includes part-year workers who may have fixed hours. On that wording, a permanent term-time-only contract with fixed hours looks like it falls within the definition, though the guidance says the classification depends on the precise working arrangements, so check each contract.

For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, holiday for these workers builds up in proportion to the hours they actually work, rather than as a fixed block of weeks. Check the current method and figures in the GOV.UK and Acas guidance.

Because holiday builds up from actual hours worked, the method depends on having an accurate record of hours for each period worked. Some schools manage leave as time taken in the school holidays, which is a matter for the contract.

If you are unsure which approach applies to a particular member of staff, take advice before changing how you calculate. That is especially true for existing staff, where changing terms generally needs agreement rather than a unilateral decision.

Everything above is the statutory minimum. The guidance is clear that many workers have contracts giving additional paid holiday beyond it, which it calls contractual entitlement, and it advises checking individual contracts first.

In a school this matters a great deal. A term-time contract can set out leave in a particular way, for example as holiday to be taken during school closures. Whatever you decide as a matter of policy, you can only apply it consistently if it matches what each person’s contract actually says. The guidance also says that if employers change terms and conditions they must seek to reach an agreement with workers or their representatives.

• ✓List every member of staff and classify them from their contract: full-year, part-year or irregular hours.
• ✓Write down the leave method you apply to each group, and where it comes from: the statute, the contract, or both.
• ✓For part-year and irregular staff, record hours worked, so accrual is evidence-based.
• ✓Track leave taken and balances in one place, rather than in several spreadsheets that drift apart.
• ✓Keep the records for as long as you need them: see our guide on how long to keep staff HR and leave records.
• ✓Review the approach each leave year, and take advice before changing the method for existing staff.

Our guide on how long to keep staff HR and leave records covers the record-keeping side.

This article is based on the Government’s and Acas’s published guidance, last checked on 28 October 2026. Read the originals for the full detail:

• →GOV.UK: Holiday entitlement reforms from 1 January 2024
• →Acas: Irregular hours and part-year workers, building up holiday
• →Acas: How much holiday someone gets