School advertises for £100,000 head

A London school is looking to appoint Britain's highest-paid state sector headteacher after publishing the first job advert for a £100,000-a-year headship.

The school, one of the Government's flagship city academies, plans to offer its head a package of up to £120,000.

The head will receive "in excess" of £100,000, plus benefits worth up to £20,000 for running the new city academy, a state-funded independent school in Ealing, west London, sponsored by the millionaire businessman Sir Alec Reed.

Headteachers said that although there were probably a couple of state school headteachers on six-figure salaries, this was the first time a post had been advertised at this level.

Sir Alec has given the academy £2m in sponsorship towards its £10m capital costs. The school is due to open in September 2003.

City academies are allowed to vary teachers' pay and conditions and modify the usual state school curriculum; the Ealing academy will focus on "enterprise". The new academy will replace a struggling comprehensive, the Compton High School and Sports College in Northolt, where 21 per cent of pupils achieved five good GCSE passes last year, compared with a national average of 50 per cent.

Sir Alec said: "Somewhere out there is a headteacher with the spark, the creativity and the experience we are looking for, who can rise to the challenge of this high-profile role."

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said it was appropriate for heads of large secondary schools to earn such high salaries. "This is an appropriate salary for a chief executive of a school of this size and type," he said.