Teacher specific staffing allowances

This page outlines the eligibility criteria for the various teacher specific staffing allowances and provides further information on the application process. Applications for teacher specific allowances must be received prior to 30 November each year.

Level of compliance Main audience Other

Inform
  • Principals and Tumuaki
  • Administrators
  • Boards
  • Teachers and Kaiako

Principals and administrators should be aware of any teacher specific staffing allowances and understand the criteria they need to meet to receive the additional staffing. 

Eligibility for teacher specific staffing allowances

Allowances are only for teachers employed from teachers’ salaries (TS) and who remain employed from TS. Boards are liable for any relevant allowances for teachers employed from the bulk grant (BG).

Allowances are provided as additional non-permanent staffing, and will be removed from the date the teacher ceases to meet any of the criteria.

Beginning, overseas and retrained teacher time allowances

Beginning teachers

Beginning teachers are teachers with less than 2 years’ experience, who are also employed at a minimum of 0.5 full-time teacher equivalent (FTTE) in New Zealand.

The allowance applies whether the teacher is trained and has taught in New Zealand or overseas.

The length of time the allowance is allocated for depends on how long the teacher has been teaching, up to 2 years. The allowance is for the balance of the 2 years. Once the banking staffing year is closed, any eligible but unclaimed allowance is considered forfeit. 

Beginning teacher (first year)

A beginning teacher (first year) is a teacher with teaching experience of less than 12 months, for part- and full-time teachers, 0.5 to 1.0 FTTE.

A beginning teacher (first year) includes overseas-trained teachers who have fewer than 24 months teaching experience overseas. In this situation, fewer than 24 months overseas experience means overseas teachers are assessed as first year teachers in New Zealand.

Full-time teachers (1.0 FTTE) 0.2 FTTE for up to 1 year
Part-time teachers (0.5 to 0.9 FTTE) 0.1 FTTE for up to 1 year
Part-time teachers (less than 0.5 FTTE) Ineligible

Example:
A teacher has been teaching full-time, one FTTE, for 9 months

 The school receives 0.2 FTTE for 3 months. That’s the balance of the first year of the teacher’s experience.

Beginning teacher (second year)

A beginning teacher (second year) is a teacher with teaching experience of between 12 and 24 months — this allowance is only available for full-time teachers, 1.0 FTTE.

A beginning teacher (second year) includes overseas-trained teachers with teaching experience of between 12 and 24 months in New Zealand. An overseas-trained teacher is eligible for the second-year allowance in the situation that they meet the following criteria:

  • Fewer than 24 months overseas teaching experience
  • Full accruement of the first year beginning teacher time allowance entitlement
Full-time teachers (1.0 FTTE) 0.1 FTTE for up to 1 year
Less than full-time Ineligible

Example:
A teacher has been teaching full-time for 18 months

 The school receives 0.1 FTTE for 6 months. That’s the balance of the second year of the teacher’s experience.

Overseas teacher time allowance

  • Overseas trained in first job since arriving in New Zealand, or
  • New Zealand trained, with no teaching experience in New Zealand, returning to New Zealand.
  • An overseas-trained teacher with fewer than 24 months teaching experience overseas is assessed as a beginning teacher. They will be entitled to the beginning teacher time allowance. 
Full-time at primary, intermediate, and special schools 0.1 FTTE for up to 10 weeks at primary, intermediate, and special schools
Full-time at composite and secondary schools 0.1 FTTE for up to 20 weeks at composite and secondary schools
Less than full-time Ineligible

Retrained teacher

A retrained teacher is one who has completed, or is about to complete, a course of teacher retraining approved by the Secretary for Education and has less than 12 months’ teaching experience after retraining.

Full-time (1.00 FTTE) 0.2  FTTE for 1 year
Part-time (0.5–0.9 FTTE) 0.1 FTTE for 1 year
Less than 0.5 FTTE Ineligible

Application forms for beginning, overseas, and retrained teacher time allowances

Beginning teacher time allowance [DOCX, 46 KB]

Overseas teacher time allowance [DOCX, 49 KB]

Retrained teacher time allowance [DOCX, 49 KB]

Rules and monitoring for beginning, overseas, and retrained teacher time allowances

The Resourcing Division monitors teacher specific staffing allowances. Allowances are withdrawn if the teacher ceases to meet the eligibility criteria. This is backdated to the end of the pay period in which eligibility ceased.

Allowances may not be deferred.

Definition of teaching experience for these allowances

The beginning, overseas, and retrained teacher time allowances are for boards employing teachers who have less than a specified amount of teaching experience.

For the purposes of these allowances, teaching experience includes at least:

  • any employment of at least 0.50 FTTE or more 
  • payment from teachers’ salaries 
  • for a full term or 10 consecutive teaching weeks.

This is regardless of whether the appointment is permanent or long-term relieving. However, it excludes employment of less than 0.50 FTTE and day-to-day relief work.

Eligibility for beginning, overseas, and retrained teacher time allowances

To be eligible for these allowances, teachers that the board employs must:

  • be paid from teachers’ salaries (TS), or 
  • be relieving for a teacher who has been granted a Ministry of Education National Study Award and is paid through the National Study Award funding code (MQ) — in this case, charge the teacher who’s relieving for the beginning teacher to the National Study Award funding code (MQ) up to the value of the beginning teacher time allowance (0.1 FTTE or 0.2 FTTE), instead of charging the beginning teacher time allowance
  • be appointed to a position of at least 10 weeks, or 1 term, or more
  • have completed a course of teacher training, retraining, or New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) equivalent, recognised by the Secretary for Education.

Eligibility for overseas teacher time allowances

Boards applying for an allowance for overseas-trained teachers recruited from overseas must have seen a copy of the teacher’s NZQA assessment report. This must confirm that the teacher’s qualifications are comparable to the educational level of a Diploma of Teaching from a New Zealand teacher education provider or other recognised training provider.

If this assessment is not available, still submit the application for support when the teacher begins employment. When you get the NZQA documentation, if it fails to confirm the teacher’s qualifications, the allowance will be withdrawn.

An overseas-trained teacher with fewer than 24 months teaching experience overseas is assessed as a beginning teacher. They will be entitled to the beginning teacher time allowance.

U1 and U2 first time principal release allowances

The U1 and U2 first time principal release is to enable principals to improve their management and professional learning leadership capability.

The Ministry can provide development release staffing support to U1 and U2 school boards employing first time principals. It’s available for every day up to 10 days that the first time principal is out of the classroom within the first 18 months on professional learning opportunities.

The daily FTTE will be 0.14 for one pay period for each qualifying day. This release time can only be applied for retrospectively and will not be provided in advance.

Download and complete the following form.

Application form for U1 and U2 first time principal release allowances [DOCX, 60 KB]

Allowances for specialist classroom teachers and specialist teachers

Secondary and area school boards may apply for a time allowance for a teacher designated to provide professional learning support to other teachers in the school, including beginning teachers, to enhance quality teaching practices.

Specialist Classroom Teacher Application (secondary) form [DOCX, 52 KB]

Specialist Teacher Application (area and composite) form [DOCX, 52 KB]

Specialist classroom teachers work in secondary schools. Specialist teachers work in area schools.

Specialist classroom teachers – secondary schools

Specialist teachers – area schools

Eligibility

To be appointed as a specialist classroom teacher, a teacher must:

  • be permanently appointed and registered

  • have had at least 6 years’ total teaching experience, in New Zealand or overseas

  • have 3 successive successful attestations against the experienced teacher standards in the Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement

  • be a full- or part-time teacher with a significant classroom teaching load (as a guide, 12 hours a week).

To be appointed as a specialist teacher, a teacher must:

  • be permanently appointed and registered

  • have had at least 6 years’ total teaching experience, in New Zealand or overseas

  • have 3 successive successful attestations against the experienced teacher standards in supplement one of the Area Schools Teachers’ Collective Agreement

  • not hold any permanent units and hold no more than 1 fixed term unit

  • meet other criteria in the agreed guidelines.

Allowances and units 

Permanent specialist classroom teacher roles

Permanent and fixed term specialist teacher roles
Appointees to permanent specialist classroom teacher roles must relinquish all permanent salary units.

Fixed and permanent roles

They may hold one fixed term unit if the school:requires continuation of a specific responsibility
chooses to extend the purpose and functions of the role and provide further recognition.

U6 and above schools

Appointees to permanent and fixed term specialist teacher roles in U6 and above schools must relinquish all permanent salary units. They may hold 1 fixed term unit if the school:

requires continuation of a specific responsibility
chooses to extend the role and functions of the specialist teacher position and provide further recognition.

U5 schools

Upon application, a U5 composite school board may be able to have some flexibility in the limit of holding 1 fixed term unit together with the specialist teacher allowance.

U1 to U4 schools

Specialist teacher appointees in U1 to U4 area schools can't hold more than 2 permanent units and hold no more than 1 fixed term unit in conjunction with the specialist teacher allowance.

Allowances for teachers holding study support grants

A time allowance of 0.16 FTTE is available to secondary and composite school boards that employ a teacher who holds a Study Support Grant awarded by the Ministry.

Te Atakura time allowances

Te Atakura time allowances are provided to boards to recognise that the main role of these teachers is teaching Māori language.

The time allowance applies only to those teachers who were trained and qualified up to 1992 under the ‘Te Atakura Scheme’ approved by the Secretary for Education.

Te Atakura time allowance

These Māori language teachers were also trained to:

  • give guidance and support and be positive role models for Māori students
  • liaise between the school and the Māori community
  • assist with developing and implementing taha Māori in school programmes
  • act as a resource person for the staff of the school.

The allowance is limited to the contact time engaged in these duties. This engagement will appear on the Te Atakura teacher's individual timetable. The allowance will end if the Te Atakura teacher:

  • ceases to be employed from teachers’ salaries
  • resigns
  • alters their employment designation
  • is granted leave without pay
  • goes on approved study leave.

The time available within the teacher's timetable for performing the other responsibilities on this page will depend on the requirements of the Māori language programme. Performing these other responsibilities must be consistent with the Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement or the Area School Teachers’ Collective Agreement.

Eligibility for Te Atakura time allowances

A time allowance of up to 0.5 FTTE is available to secondary and composite school boards employing Te Atakura teachers full-time from teachers’ salaries, to enable these teachers to perform their duties.

Applying for Te Atakura time allowances

Download and complete the following form.

Te Atakura Teacher Time Allowance form [DOCX, 51 KB]

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