Why not five separate subscriptions?

You can, but a group organisation is usually cheaper and cleaner. Seats are shared, someone who works at three schools still counts once, and analytics roll up. XL covers up to 250 staff at £349 a month, or £3,490 a year.

Can each school keep its own rota style?

Yes. Each site has its own school-type profile, duty areas, weekly template and daily board. Central staff switch schools without logging out.

Is this only for MATs?

The same model fits federations, local-authority clusters and international school groups. The maths uses English leadership pay because that is the published benchmark. Your local salaries will differ.

UK multi-academy trust

Five schools, one seat pool, and three days a week of time back

A five-school trust mixes two small primaries, a larger primary, a junior school and a secondary. Each site is at least at the 5-hours-a-week primary floor, then a central officer chases PDFs. One SchoolRota organisation on the XL plan replaces about 35 hours a week of scattered work.

1,638 hoursback every year, about 252 school days
£86,346net saving after the XL plan
25.7xreturn, paid back in about 2 weeks

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9.8x faster152 hours a month becomes 15.5

35 hours a week across five schools, for £3,490 a year

Across five schools and the central team, roster work costs the trust £99,696 a year in leadership and operations time.

Cost per hour saved

£2

193 staff on the XL plan

Time back each month

136.5 hours

Straight back to pupils and leadership

Who can run it

The office

Rules and the assistant hold the expertise, not one person

The school

Who this is modelled on

A mixed-phase MAT in England (outside London). Two small primaries, one two-form primary, one junior school and one 11-16 secondary. One hundred and ninety-three people appear on rotas. A few TAs and supply staff work across sites, so they should count once. Each school already spends at least 5 hours a week on the rota. Larger sites and the secondary sit higher. Central operations spend another few hours a week chasing whose sheet is current.

These figures are modelled on published pay and typical duty-roster practice, not taken from one named school. Pay is School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document 2025 (England excluding London, 2025/26). The full workings are set out at the bottom of this page.

The morning

Same absences, two very different mornings

This is where the hours actually go. Not planning, but reacting before the gate opens.

07:30Five offices work in parallel with no view of each other.Each school records absences on its own board in one portal.
08:00A shared TA is double-booked across two sites.One seat, one record, so a cross-site clash is visible.
08:20Central asks each school to email the current sheet.Publish status for all five schools is on one screen.
Month endA Friday afternoon of copy-and-paste for the board pack.Group analytics roll coverage and duty load up in minutes.

The numbers

Time and money, side by side

Hours on the rota each month

Specialist time spent building the rota, covering absence, rebuilding sheets and sending them.

Spreadsheet and email152 hours
SchoolRota15.5 hours

What that time costs each year

Loaded pay for the person who owns the rota, next to the annual SchoolRota plan.

Cost of doing it by hand£99,696
Cost with SchoolRota£9,860
XL plan, per year£3,490

Where the 152 hours go

The work that disappears when the rota runs from rules and a published board.

Same-day cover at five schoolsEvery site solves the same problem separately55 hours
Five separate weekly rotasDifferent formats, different owners, no shared rules52 hours
Rebuilding and reissuing sheetsEach change is a new file at each school28 hours
Central chasing and board reportingWhich version is current, and what do we tell trustees17 hours

Hours saved each year, school by school

Local leadership time, plus central operations no longer chasing versions.

Village primary240 hours
One-form primary264 hours
Two-form primary306 hours
Junior school282 hours
11-16 secondary378 hours
Trust operations168 hours

Hours and cost by school

Loaded cost of rota time at each school and at the centre
Site	Who owns the rota	Seats	Hours a month, by hand	With SchoolRota	Saved a year
Village primary	HeadteacherLeadership L13, Group 1 mid-range	15	22	2	£14,436
One-form primary	SENCOLeadership L5	22	24	2	£13,015
Two-form primary	Deputy head / SENCOLeadership L10	36	28	2.5	£17,099
Junior school	Deputy headLeadership L8	28	26	2.5	£14,982
11-16 secondary	Assistant head (operations / cover)Leadership L16	92	35	3.5	£24,531
Trust operations	Trust operations leadSchool business / operations grade	-	17	3	£5,773

Today, by hand

Why only a couple of people can do this

Five different spreadsheets, five local habits, and no shared view of cover pressure.
A TA who works Monday at the junior school and Thursday at the secondary is duplicated, or missed.
Central reports for the board are a Friday afternoon copy-and-paste.
Expertise sits in individuals. A new office manager cannot safely run cover in week one.
Calendar and email practice differs by school, so staff who move sites get different instructions.

With SchoolRota

What changes after setup

One organisation, per-school boards, and a single seat pool. Cross-site people count once.
Group analytics show coverage and duty load for the trust or for one school.
School login and staff sync can be set once, then mapped to sites.
Each school keeps its own duty areas and school-type profile. A secondary is not forced into a primary template.
After setup, site staff can run the day with the assistant. Central roles still see every board.

Feedback

What leaders say about this change

We did not buy this to save a few hours in one office. We bought it so a head leaving in July does not take the entire duty system with them.

Trust operations lead, five-school MAT

The secondary and the primaries finally look comparable. I can take cover pressure to the board without five different Excel files.

Chief executive, small mixed-phase trust

Feedback is composed from reviews of this workflow with school leaders. It is representative rather than a quotation from one named school.

Questions this study answers

Why not five separate subscriptions?: You can, but a group organisation is usually cheaper and cleaner. Seats are shared, someone who works at three schools still counts once, and analytics roll up. XL covers up to 250 staff at £349 a month, or £3,490 a year.
Can each school keep its own rota style?: Yes. Each site has its own school-type profile, duty areas, weekly template and daily board. Central staff switch schools without logging out.
Is this only for MATs?: The same model fits federations, local-authority clusters and international school groups. The maths uses English leadership pay because that is the published benchmark. Your local salaries will differ.

How the numbers are worked out

Pay is England excluding London for 2025/26, using the spine points named above. Teaching roles add the 28.68% Teachers' Pension employer contribution and 15% employer National Insurance above £5,000. Operations roles use a 35% on-cost. Loaded pay is divided by 1,650 hours, a full leadership year rather than 1,265 directed hours, which keeps the hourly rate on the low side.

Manual hours cover the standing roster, same-day absence cover, rebuilding sheets and sending them. A small primary starts at 5 hours a week. Larger schools sit above that. SchoolRota hours cover publishing, reviewing and the odd exception. The subscription is the XL annual card plan (£3,490, two months free) for 193 staff on the roster, and net saving is time cost saved minus that plan. Calendar sync and automatic PDF delivery add no cash value here, so the real return is higher.

Sources and next steps: School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document 2025 on GOV.UK, current plan prices, what the Today board does, and the other studies. Assumptions last reviewed 17 August 2026.

Other schools, same maths

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Five schools, one seat pool, and three days a week of time backFive schools, one seat pool, and three days a week of time back

35 hours a week across five schools, for £3,490 a year35 hours a week across five schools, for £3,490 a year