Record number of teachers on £100,000 a year

A RECORD number of senior teachers are earning sixfigure salaries as the rise of academy schools brings bumper pay packages.

Statistics show 1,230 teachers were paid more than £100,000 last year, up 4 per cent from 2013.

Of those on six-figure salaries, 60 per cent worked at academies, which have more freedom over wages as they are not controlled by local authorities.

The figures – obtained under the Freedom of Information Act – show 108 teachers were paid more than the Prime Minister, with salaries topping £142,000.

Chris Keates, of the NASUWT union, said: ‘The combination of increased autonomy for schools and weak governance is failing to provide the appropriate regulation and scrutiny to ensure that head teachers’ salaries are determined in an open, fair and transparent manner.

‘The opportunity and potential for abuse is significant.’

Of the 739 academy teachers paid more than £100,000, 675 run secondary schools and 64 were in charge of primaries. In local authority-run schools there were 235 secondary heads and 146 primary head teachers.

The average salary of a secondary school teacher is £37,900 at an academy and £38,900 at a council-controlled school.

Christine Blower, of the National Union of Teachers, said: ‘Teachers will be dismayed at this growing inequality while they continue to face a depres- sion in pay.’ Last year, the School Teachers’ Review Body said heads could receive up to £132,685 in exceptional circumstances, rising to £141,250 in central London.

But it said normally the maximum pay for a head in charge of ‘ multiple very large schools’ should be £106,148 or £113,000 in London. It followed a call in 2010 by then-Education Secretary Michael Gove for heads not to earn more than David Cam- eron. Of the teachers with sixfigure salaries, 915 were head teachers and almost 200 were executive head teachers, who often have responsibility for a number of schools.

Russell Hobby, of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: ‘Large schools are complex organisations with hundreds of staff, thousands of children and budgets running into the millions.

‘With that moral responsibility comes ever increasing pressure and risk, so it is right to reward head teachers who are doing a good job on a level comparable to similar-sized roles.’

A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘It is vital we have the best people to lead our schools if we are to raise standards and ensure all pupils can reach their full potential.

‘That is why we have given all schools greater flexibility to set staff pay, rewarding exceptional leaders and attracting strong leadership teams to work in the most challenging schools.

‘There is now the freedom to be able to pay good teachers more … in contrast to the old system which awarded teachers pay rises simply for time served.’

‘Opportunity

for abuse’