Posted on: 2 December 2025

Dear Members,

Following the rejection of this year’s Ark pay ballot, we wrote to the employer to request an urgent meeting to discuss the results and to seek an improvement in the original offer.

The trust responded on Tuesday morning to say that, unfortunately, due to significant financial constraints and challenges that are being felt nationally across the education sector they are not in a position to offer anything further at this time.

The trust has said they remain committed to continuing national level discussions to explore ways to improve benefits and working conditions.

GMB officers from across regions have met to discuss the response from the trust, the rejection vote and the percentage turnout and there was a consensus that all those factors combined fall short of what is required to go forward to a full formal postal ballot and, reluctantly, it was decided to accept the full and final offer which will now conclude this year's pay negotiations.

Thank you for your engagement in this year’s pay ballot, and welcome to those new members who joined us as we engaged you in this year’s pay negotiations.

If you want to become more involved in next year’s campaign or to campaign on an issue in your school, please get in touch by emailing schools@gmb.org.uk.

Thank you

Stacey Booth

National Officer for Schools and Academies

Posted on: 28 November 2025

Dear Members,

The Ark Schools 2025/26 pay ballot has now closed. Thank you to everyone who voted, and welcome to those who joined during the ballot period.

Members have voted to reject the offer. Please see the results below:

Accept – 40.54%

Reject – 59.46%

We have informed Ark Schools and have asked for a meeting. We will be in touch with next steps once we have them.

This pay offer is for all Ark members not covered by TUPE arrangements, this means those members who are contractually employed on Ark pay and conditions.

Kind regards,

Stacey Booth

National Officer

Posted on: 7 November 2025

Dear Members,

We have received a final pay offer from Ark Schools for 2025/26.

This offer is for those members directly employed on a Ark contract. If you are on a TUPE contract this offer does not apply to you.

The 2025 Ark Schools Support Staff Annual Pay offer is for one year and is as follows:

This offer is for those members directly employed on an Ark contract. If you are on a TUPE contract this offer does not apply to you.

The 2025 Ark Support Staff Annual Pay offer is for one year and is as follows:

• With effect from 1^st September 2025, a 3.2% increase on all support staff salaries.

• The removal of spine point two from September 2026.

For a summary of the employer’s response to our pay claim, and for details of the pay ballot, please read this bulletin: ark-ballot-comms-to-members-online.pdf 

Kind regards,

Stacey Booth

Posted on: 8 May 2025

Dear Members,

Thank you for your engagement with the Ark staff survey. This year’s pay claim has been compiled and submitted to the trust today based on the feedback you provided.

You can read the pay claim here: ark-support-staff-pay-and-conditions-claim-2025.pdf. 

This pay claim is for all Ark members not covered by TUPE arrangements, this means those members who are contractually employed on Ark pay and conditions.

Ark and the joint trade unions (GMB and Unison) will be meeting to discuss the claim in the coming weeks and any further updates will follow in due course.

If you have received this information in error, it might be that we do not hold accurate data for you and would strongly advise that to, prevent any future issues, you update your details through the My GMB section of the website, by logging in at Make Work Better | GMB Union.

If your employment has changed you will be unable to amend that online and would advise that you contact your GMB regional office. You can find your office’s contact details here: GMB Regions | GMB Union.

Finally, if you have any other questions or concerns, please e-mail schools@gmb.org.uk and we will respond to you directly.

Thanks,

Stacey Booth

GMB National Officer for Ark

Posted on: 15 May 2024

Dear GMB Member,

The Joint Union pay claim has been submitted to Ark Schools Trust for their consideration. You can read the pay claim here: ark-support-staff-pay-claim-2024-final.pdf

This pay claim is for all Ark Schools Trust members not covered by TUPE arrangements, this means those members who are contractually employed on ARK pay and conditions.

Ark Schools Trust and the Joint Trade Unions will be meeting to discuss the claim in the coming weeks and any further updates will follow in due course.

If you have received this information in error, it might be because we do not hold accurate data.

Please complete this short survey to tell us what contract you are on: https://forms.office.com/e/B0K...

In order to keep our records up to date please can you update your details if there have been any changes by logging into your GMB account

If there have been changes to your employment, please update your details by contacting your GMB regional office.

Thanks

Stacey Booth

National Officer