Don't reward teachers indiscriminately says Ofsted head

Teachers should be refused pay rises if they cannot inspire their pupils and improve their performance, the chief inspector of schools said yesterday.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, who last month took up his post as head of Ofsted – the education standards watchdog – said only committed and hard-working staff should be rewarded.

At present, all teachers are in line for a pay rise of up to £5,000 a year once they reach the top of the profession's pay spine if they perform well enough against set criteria.

However, Sir Michael said that the standards were not tough enough.

At present, 92 per cent of all staff are awarded the rise – whereas Sir Michael recommended it be limited to the 40 per cent whose lessons are classified as good by inspectors.

Sir Michael, making his first public speech since taking office at the Royal Society of Arts, said many good teachers were “irritated2 by weaker colleagues receiving pay rises.

“Teaching is a noble profession,” he said,. “The thing that irritates good teachers, people who work hard and go the extra mile is seeing people that don’t do that being rewarded.

“I know from my own experience that heads need to performance manage their staff properly. This means only promoting and increasing the pay of those who are committed, teach well and show the desire and capacity to improve.

“It means not rewarding everyone indiscriminately. I want Ofsted to focus more sharply on how well heads are doing this.”

Since taking office, Sir Michael has announced he plans to abolish the term “satisfactory” to describe schools replacing it with “requires improvement”. In addition, he has outlined that “no notice” inspections – whereby inspectors arrive at schools unannounced will be the norm from September.