Over the last week, the membership of NAHT, the school leaders’ union, has been consulting on the pay offer received by the teaching profession from the employing authorities in Northern Ireland.

Jackie Bartley, the NAHT NI president said: “This vote begins to close a difficult period - we have undertaken a full member consultation to ensure that our next step would be decided democratically across the Northern Ireland membership.

“The consultation closed today, at 5pm, with the majority of members voting in favour of accepting the offer.

“On this basis, we will engage with the employing authorities to formally submit our decision to accept the offer."

Dr Graham Gault, NAHT's Northern Ireland national secretary said: "Our members have decided to accept this offer, to ensure that the starting wage for teachers is more favourable to recruitment and that the overall pay structures are more favourable to retention across every point in the scale. This marks a welcome step towards proper pay restoration. However, many issues remain outstanding for school leaders, particularly around the issue of workload.

“While we are pleased that our democratic processes have given us the mandate to close this dispute, we recognise that there is much to be done to deliver working conditions for school leaders to ensure that it is a safe and sustainable role going forward.”

The offer will see the starting salary for teachers in the region rise to £30,000, equating to a 24.3% increase and making it equal to England. A cumulative total of 10.4% plus £1,000 will be applied to the other teachers’ and leadership pay scales.