Top teachers ‘could boost salary to £70,000’

A report published today by the Policy Exchange welcomes the changes which came into effect in September.

It says that while pay is not the primary motivator for teachers, those who perform best should be rewarded.

It recommends the system include an evaluation based on several measures, not just test or exam scores. Financial rewards should be based on increases in base salary, rather than through bonuses, and performance-related pay must be used as a real reward for excellence and not as a way of holding down the overall pay bill, it said.

Under a performance-related pay system, rather than a time-based system, it says top teachers could earn as much as £70,000 a year without leaving the classroom within five to eight years.

The paper claims this could attract more graduates to the profession, It also found that despite vocal objections from the unions, most teachers welcome the principle behind it. A YouGov poll for the report found that 89 per cent of teachers want to be paid based on the quality of their teaching.

Another report published today claims that more than a million pupils across the country are enrolled at schools that have taken children’s fingerprints .

School privacy row: Page 6.