Where are all the 100,000 heads?

WHEN Alastair Falk was given a salary and benefits deal worth 120,000 a year to run the West London Academy, a new secondary school in Ealing, he became Britain's highest-paid headteacher. His salary reflects a trend towards higher pay for heads in the capital.

Yet many London schools still find it hard to get enough good people to apply for heads' jobs, particularly when they are struggling to improve and need a good head to lift their fortunes.

Eyebrows were raised in 2000 when Michael Murphy was paid 96,000 a year to turn around Crown Woods School in Eltham.

Such high salaries are more common today.

Inner-London secondary heads can officially be paid up to 94,000 a year.

Education Secretary Charles Clarke says that with discretionary payments - such as retention bonuses or performance-related pay - there is no reason why salaries should not exceed 100,000 (although he called last week for a teachers' pay freeze).

Primary heads have seen their salaries grow, too. Two large primary schools in Waltham Forest offered salaries of between 62,817 and 72,444 late last year. As a result, the private company running local schools, EduAction, said that it had three times as many applicants as it would normally expect.

Figures collected by Professor John Howson, of Oxford Brookes University, suggest that the higher salaries now being paid have made it a little easier for school governors in London to recruit, though numbers of applicants remain low, particularly in primary schools.

A typical London primary school gets just five applications, compared with six outside the capital. So 14 per cent of primary schools in the capital have to re-advertise for heads.

Even that is not the whole picture, according to John Troake, head of Hayling Manor high school in Croydon and president of the Greater London region of the National Association of Head Teachers. "I know some primary schools where they think it's a damned good thing if they get three people to apply," he says.

Mr Troake says high salaries drive up costs, particularly in schools suffering from this year's funding crisis. "When some boroughs start offering high salaries, it has a leapfrog effect. Schools in those boroughs that have budgetary difficulties aren't going to be able to pay." This means that if you live in a borough which has enough money, you'll be OK, but others won't be able to compete.

Plenty of professions find it difficult to recruit in the capital. But salary is not the only reason why headteachers are in short supply. Many schoolteachers spend their first years in the capital, but move out when they get older and want to have a family.

"We have two groups of teachers in London," says John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads' Association. "There are established people in their fifties who own their own houses. And there are younger teachers who are enjoying the buzz of the capital, but will move out when they settle down. This makes it very difficult to get heads of department and leaders in middle management."

There is an age problem, too. With nearly half of today's heads aged over 50, schools will need to draw tomorrow's school principals from the ranks of their deputies and senior teachers. Typical primary deputies can earn around 50,000 a year in inner London, with their secondary colleagues earning more than 60,000.

Yet 15 per cent of primary deputies' posts in the capital have to be readvertised, as do 12 per cent of secondary posts. "The proportion of teachers aged 35-45 is at its lowest in years, so it's not surprising that there's a problem finding middle management in schools," says Professor Howson.

The National College of School Leadership, the Government's training-school for new heads, which has largely focused on heads and deputies, is now running special courses for assistant heads and subject specialists.

Ministers hope that the courses will also produce enough people who want to go on to be headteachers.

Yet London has a more intractable problem. Unlike some professions, teachers can find plentiful jobs anywhere in the country. And unless there are substantial extra benefits, it is simply not attractive for an experienced headteacher living elsewhere to move in.

"We have a double whammy," says David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers. "Those who live in London are sorely tempted to leave and take the profits on their house. Those heads outside the capital are not tempted to move in because of the cost of buying in the capital."

The Government believes that good headteachers are essential in their drive to improve London schools. And Mr Hart believes that higher salaries may be helping recruitment generally, but something more is needed in the city's toughest schools.

In those schools the best heads should also receive a bonus of up to 75,000 if they improve the school successfully. "We are talking about heads who have successfully led two or three schools," he explains. "And they need extra encouragement to take on a new challenge rather than settle for a comfortable life before retiring.

"A lump sum like this would be very attractive to heads in their late forties and early fifties who might want to build up their pension."

Mr Hart has sent his plans to Tony Blair and Charles Clarke, though with the Government desperately trying to avoid a second budget crisis in schools next year, it may take a while before they see the light of day.

While the higher salaries seem to have helped ease headteacher recruitment problems a little this year, many London schools are anxiously looking at next year's funding settlement to see whether they have to make cuts.

For this could affect headteacher recruitment, too.

"If local budgets come under serious pressure, it could be difficult for schools to pay the higher salaries," warns Professor Howson. "And any reduction in salaries could bring back the worst of the recruitment problems."

That could undermine the Government's efforts to improve London schools. And even if London is able to compete with higher salaries, you are still left with the serious demographic problem of the missing generation of school leaders.

(c)2003. Associated Newspapers Ltd.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.