London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

English secondary school headteachers among best paid in the world

English secondary school headteachers among best paid in the world

School leaders’ pay soars, but teachers’ salaries are falling further behind
Headteachers in England are among the highest-paid in the world, and the gap between school leader and teacher salaries is one of the widest, new analysis has revealed.

A report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on state secondary school heads’ salaries in 36 countries shows that top earners in England are paid more than £102,000 a year, with only heads in Luxembourg and Mexico receiving more. Heads in England also have one of the highest pay premiums, taking home on average 136% more than secondary school teachers. The average differential across OECD countries is 49%.

Principals in English secondaries top the salary satisfaction table, with 80% indicating they are happy with their remuneration.

The Education Indicators in Focus findings, based on 2019 data, is likely to ignite the debate around excessive pay for academy heads and the chief executives of multi-academy trusts, some of whom earn far more than the levels indicated in the OECD report.

It comes as teachers in England face a pay freeze this year, which the government claims is necessary to avoid “deepening the disparity” between public and private sector wage rises.

England’s highest-paid headteacher of a single school is Colin Hall, at Holland Park School in west London. He received between £280,000 and £290,000 in 2019-20, according to recently published school accounts, compared with between £270,000 and £280,000 the year before.

Academy chain heads are also earning salaries in excess of a quarter of a million pounds.

Sir Kevin Satchwell, the executive head of the Telford City Technology College Trust, was paid between £290,001 and £300,000 in 2019-20. The trust runs Thomas Telford School and sponsors Thomas Telford Multi-Academy Trust, which has five schools in the West Midlands.

Brampton Manor Trust, which has two schools in east London, paid its executive principal, Dayo Olukoshi, between £250,001 and £260,000 in 2019-20, up from £220,000- £230,000 the year before.

The top earner by far, however, is Sir Dan Moynihan, chief executive of the Harris Federation, which runs 48 primary and secondary academies. He has seen his salary increase to between £455,000 and £460,000 in 2019-20 – a £5,000 increase on the 2018-19 salary band. A second senior staff member of the trust, not named in the Harris Federation accounts, received between £300,001 and £310,000.

National pay scales for England, published at the end of last year, indicate that headteachers on the top pay range can earn between £81,942 and £117,197 (outside London). As academies are not part of nationally set pay structures, trusts are left free to set remuneration as they see fit. The latest academy accounts show that an attempt by the government to rein in excessive pay, by writing to trusts with senior executives on more than £150,000 a year, has had little impact.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said a number of academy heads and chief executives were paid “wholly unjustifiable sums”.

“Pay for school leaders in England has been deregulated for many years and now some academy heads and CEOs are paid wholly unjustifiable sums from taxpayer funding,” he said. “The NEU wants a review of the system which restores objectivity and pays leaders according to the demands of the job.”

Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of NASUWT, said: “School leadership is a challenging job, but the excessive salaries that the leaders of some academy trusts are receiving appear difficult to justify, particularly at a time when teachers are facing a freeze in their pay.

“We have repeatedly called for greater transparency on the finances of academy schools and multi-academy trusts. Millions of pounds of public money are being spent without detailed and open scrutiny.”

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said at the end of last year teachers’ pay increases would be paused this year, following a 3.1% rise in 2020. However, public sector workers who earn below £24,000 will receive a pay rise of at least £250 in 2021. The government has committed to setting the teacher starting salary at £30,000 by 2022.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×