SIXTH-FORM teachers have secured contractual rights to protected time to plan, prepare and assess as part of their 2025/26 pay round with the Sixth Form College Association, the National Education Union (NEU) has announced.

Limits on the level of cover they can provide for absent colleagues have also been added to their terms and conditions, alongside agreed principles on directed time and workload.

Separate joint guidance on class sizes and contact hours in sixth form colleges will also be developed, said the union.

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “Our members were unequivocal that they needed genuinely protected time to plan, prepare and assess, while demands on college teachers to cover were constant in many instances.”

He added the new workload principles “will go a long way toward ensuring that teacher workloads are fair and balanced,” describing the directed time provisions as an “important step in the right direction for the sector.”