Maternly

Maternly: parental leave planning for teachers in England and Wales

Maternly is a digital platform designed specifically for teaching staff in England and Wales who need to calculate and compare their pay during maternity leave and Shared Parental Leave (SPL). The tool takes the school holiday calendar into account to estimate whether SPL could generate additional weeks of full pay and to calculate the financial difference.

How it works and personalised results

The service is based on a short questionnaire tailored to the education sector. Using the details entered and the school holiday dates, it generates a free result showing the potential additional weeks of full pay and an estimate of the difference in gross pay. According to the information on the website, 1,923 teachers have already generated a personalised SPL result with Maternly, and more than £7,130,000 in potential additional gross pay has been identified for the profession.

The tool lets you see a monthly breakdown of pay during leave, compare standard maternity leave with SPL options, and view a recommended plan that may include periods such as the Easter holidays, the May half-term break or the summer holidays.

Plans and pricing

Maternly offers a free initial result. From there, the user can choose between two one-off payment plans:

• Teacher Support (£25): includes all free features, a full comparison between maternity pay and SPL, monthly breakdown, all calculations, figures and dates for the forms, generation of SPL intention and booking notices, and AI assistance chat throughout planning.
• Teacher Support + (£40): adds human review before submission, assistance with all maternity and SPL forms and policies, up to two expert reviews, KIT/SPLIT support and priority email support. Users who already have Teacher Support can upgrade for £15.

The website indicated limited-time promotional pricing for early users.

Referral programme

There is a referral programme for teachers: when you recommend another teacher, you both get a code for 10% off your first paid plan. Each code is single-use and the discount applies to both the referrer and the person referred.

Coverage and legal basis

Maternly is designed for teachers in England and Wales. It applies the Burgundy Book maternity pay scheme where it forms part of the terms and conditions, and allows a custom policy to be entered for academies or independent schools. The tool does not cover Scotland or Northern Ireland. The company recommends checking the estimate against your contract and current school policy.

Forms and document management

The platform generates SPL intention and booking documents, and on the Teacher Support + plan it offers assistance with all maternity and SPL forms, including your school's own templates. Maternly never sends documents directly to the school; the user reviews and signs before handing them over.

FAQs and legal aspects

The website addresses common questions about SPL: the need to confirm school holiday dates, the possibility of improving pay by ending maternity or adoption leave early, eligibility when your partner does not take leave, the impact of your partner claiming ShPP (Shared Parental Pay) on the pay available, and notification deadlines (usually eight weeks). It also explains that maternity leave is not delayed by school holidays and that, if you are already on leave, you can end it early to use SPL within the first year, with the usual notice of at least eight weeks.