Education letter: Money for old hope

WHILE NOT wanting to hype up the fixation of Ofsted boss Chris Woodhead with figures for failure rates, it is true that his latest annual report is much more critical of management than of classroom teachers.

Thus, the recent pay rise of up to 9 per cent for headteachers and only 3.5 per cent for the classroom practitioners is performance-related pay of a kind. Rather like the Government's supposed policy on intervention in schools, the size of the increase is in inverse proportion to success.

NIGEL DE GRUCHY

General Secretary

National Association of School Teachers Union of Women Teachers,

London