Defiant heads veto all staff appraisals

HEADTEACHERS VOTED yesterday to boycott appraisals of staff, one of the key elements of Government attempts to introduce performance- related pay to schools.

The National Association of Head Teachers threatened to derail reform of pay in a rebuke to Tony Blair, the day after giving him a standing ovation at its annual conference.

Heads said they would refuse even to start training to carry out annual appraisals on which teachers' pay increases will be based from next year.

Delegates in Cardiff backed calls for the Government to accept 10 "non- negotiable" minimum conditions before they would co-operate with the scheme, outlined in the Government's Green Paper on the future of the profession.

Headteachers want a guarantee that pay will not be linked to pupils' exam and test results. They also want concessions on the bureaucracy generated by the new system.

Any boycott by headteachers would in effect prevent performance-related pay from being implemented.

Ministers want heads to give teachers an annual MoT-style appraisal to confirm pay rises. Heads would also be responsible for regulating the proposed performance threshold, which would trigger 10 per cent pay rises and access to higher pay scales for those who pass.

Margaret Morgan, past president of the association, told delegates: "Without the consent and the willing and fruitful labour of the heads and deputies of this country the proposals, and the Government is all too aware of this, have absolutely no chance of success."

Mr Blair won applause on Wednesday after promising schools a multi-billion- pound investment after the next elections. But he said that pay reform was vital to justify a pounds 1bn increase in schools' wage bills.

Brian McNutt, head of Eastway Primary School in the Wirral, said: "Mr Blair has given us the big picture. Most of us can see the big picture but it is a very poor artist painting it."

Jim Price, head of South View Primary School in Crowland, Lincolnshire, added: "Just as we cannot expect something for nothing so this Government cannot expect something for nothing from us."

Phil Buckley, head of Tong Moor Primary School in Bolton, said: "I do not mind my performance being measured, but I do object to the fact that my performance would be measured against the performance of my six-year- olds."

The National Union of Teachers, Britain's biggest teaching union, will launch a boycott of the appraisal system next week, and all other unions have expressed disquiet.

Joy Millar, head of Earlswood Infants and Nursery School in Surrey, said she would not go against the wishes of her staff. She said: "I am not prepared to step over the line and go against my colleagues."

David Hart, the association's general secretary, added: "I have told the Department for Education and Employment officials and I will continue telling them that the NAHT's 10 points are not there to be negotiated. They are there to be met."