Main responsibilities
- Lead and develop a team of teachers and support staff.
- Lead the curriculum, assessment or pastoral work in their area.
- Monitor the quality of teaching and pupils' progress and act on what they find.
- Contribute to whole-school improvement planning and self-evaluation.
- Line-manage, appraise and support colleagues, including ECTs.
- Teach their own timetable.
Statutory duties and official sources
England. There is no statutory "middle leader" role; the STPCD sets the pay conditions for TLRs in maintained schools. Academies follow the STPCD where contracts adopt it. Paragraph references below are to the 2025 STPCD. The 2026 edition was published on 16 October 2026; its Order comes into force on 6 November 2026, with Section 2 taking effect from 1 September 2026. See the pay guide for 2026 figures and paragraph references.
- A TLR may be awarded for a sustained additional responsibility focused on teaching and learning, requiring professional judgement, leading a subject or curriculum area or pupil development, affecting pupils beyond the teacher's own classes, and developing other staff. Source: STPCD 2025, paragraphs 20.1–20.4.
- A TLR1 additionally requires line management responsibility for a significant number of people. Source: STPCD 2025, paragraph 20.5.
- TLR3s are fixed-term payments for time-limited school improvement projects or one-off externally driven responsibilities. Source: STPCD 2025, paragraph 20.3.
- Teacher professional duties include directing and supervising support staff and, where appropriate, other teachers. Source: STPCD 2025, paragraph 50.10.
- Middle leaders who are ECT mentors or induction tutors take on duties in the induction guidance. Source: Induction for early career teachers (England), paragraphs 2.42–2.45.
The NPQ in leading teaching, leading behaviour and culture, leading teacher development, leading literacy and leading primary mathematics are voluntary specialist qualifications aimed at middle leaders.
Key dates in the school year (2026 to 2027, England)
- Autumn: appraisal objectives set under the school's policy.
- 10–13 May 2027: key stage 2 tests (Primary assessments: future dates).
- 21 February 2027: GCSE and A level entries; 10 May–23 June 2027: planning window including the 23 June contingency day; candidates must remain available until then; candidate results: 12 August 2027 (AS/A level) and 19 August 2027 (GCSE) (JCQ key dates). Use awarding-body timetables for subject dates and exceptions; see Ofqual’s contingency guidance and candidate results days.
Common challenges and good practice
- Time to lead. A teacher with leadership or management responsibilities is entitled, so far as reasonably practicable, to a reasonable amount of time during school sessions for those responsibilities. No fixed national number of hours is prescribed; agree the allocation locally (STPCD 2025, paragraph 52.6; 2026, paragraph 53.5). See pay and workload.
- Accountability without workload creep. Use existing data and work rather than extra monitoring paperwork.
- TLR values. Since 1 September 2026, existing and new TLR1 and TLR2 payments must reflect the proportion of the full-time-equivalent responsibility undertaken, not automatically the teacher’s teaching-hours fraction. TLR3 remains separate: the pro-rata principle does not apply (STPCD 2025, paragraphs 20.7–20.8; 2026, paragraphs 20.6–20.7). See TLR1, TLR2 and TLR3 payments for current ranges and the worked example.
