'Superhead' appointed with pay and perks of £120,000-a-year

Britain's highest-paid state school headteacher was appointed yesterday on a salary and benefits package worth £120,000 a year.

Alastair Falk, 48, the head of an east London city technology college, will run the new West London Academy, one of the Government's flagship city academies.

Mr Falk is the headteacher at King Solomon High School in Redbridge, north-east London, where he is credited with boosting pupils' GCSE results to 50 per cent beyond expectations.

Yesterday Mr Falk said he was "excited" but "somewhat overwhelmed" by the news that that he is to become the highest paid head in the country. "To me the attraction was the job, not the salary," he said. "The chance to run a city academy is such an exciting opportunity. There is a sense of creativity and energy surrounding the whole project."

Mr Falk will be paid £100,000 a year plus a benefits package worth £20,000 that includes a pension, private healthcare and a car. Headteachers believe that although a handful of state school headteachers now earn six-figure salaries, Mr Falk's job was the first to have been advertised at this level.

Mr Falk said the "magic dust" behind his success as a school leader was in creating an environment in which students believed their school was interested in them and cared about their success.

The academy will be a state-funded independent school in Ealing, west London, sponsored by the millionaire businessman Alec Reed, which will focus on "enterprise". The school is due to open in September 2003. Mr Falk begins his new job in April.

Professor Reed, the founder of the employment agency, Reed Executive, has given the academy £2m towards its £10m capital costs.

Yesterday Professor Reed praised Mr Falk for his "passion for education" and "great depth of experience".