This new head will almost certainly be worth it, and I know people earning more in the profession. For instance, my father. He is one of the country's best "Consultant head teachers", and commands considerably more than this guy, plus expenses. So bear in mind that my response will be written from a particular angle
Remember that a head teacher (as in any profession) will only get these kinds of salaries if they are sh*t hot at their job. You can't just get your PGCE, do a couple of years and decide "I'm going into consultancy". Chances are this new head-teacher has brought schools back from the brink of closure, and has no doubt brought exam results way up in schools.
I think seeing as the impact of a GOOD head-teacher (such as one who can command £100K+) will affect so many lives for the better, it is worth it. For instance, my father has touched at least 6000 lives in his 35 years in teaching. He has improved many of these lives, remember a GOOD head teacher does not restrict himself to just dealing out detentions and such. It is not a job, it is a vocation.
Now, find me one of these £90K plumbers we hear so much about, who has provided 1% of the benefit to society that such head-teachers provide.
If you can, you will also find 1000 more just like him who can do the job just as well. Tradesmen can command massive earnings and still be sh*t at their job. That would not happen in teaching.
Remember that 95% of head-teachers are on £30-£40K. Not really a lot when you consider that your children's future rests with them. Yes, 6 weeks holiday in summer would be nice for all of us, but they earn it. Would
you want to put up with
your children for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 40 weeks per year? And make them behave properly? And teach them? Times 30 all at once? Let alone the really messed up problem kids. It's not their fault, it's the parents. But somehow that ends up being laden on the teachers too, and yes that does filter up to the heads. In secondary schools it FINISHES with the Head.
masona said:
I think what david & julie are saying is how do they justify £100,000 plus to headmaster when his life is not threaten compared to being to a copper or the boys fighting in Iraq. Shouldn't the police force, army or any high risk job deserved to be on a higher salary than a headmaster ?
When I was 10, I went in to work with my father. Whilst he was out of the office doing headmasterly things, I had a look in his drawers and found 3 air pistols, several daggers, knuckledusters and a couple of flick knives. That was back in 1990. I dare not think what he confiscates in 2004. Murdering a policeman seems to earn a much stiffer sentence than murdering a head-teacher... and policemen are allowed to be armed when they do their job. My father has had death threats, including a couple where a pupil had murdered another pupil (it only makes the news when it is a white middle-class school, and it happens on school property), and was "on the run", and during this time had made threats against him.
I know that few people have a proper perspective into teaching. Even fewer into head-teaching. But as one with the gift of this view, I say don't slate the teaching profession, they do a
much more important job than any of us.