Local authority “executive headteacher’s” pay rose more than 10 per cent last year, to �176,900

The pay of the leader of a federation of four local authority primary schools and a centre for children with autism rose by more than 10 per cent last year, to �176,900.

The increase for Christopher Toye, executive headteacher of the Wyvern Federation, in Lambeth, south London, took his salary to nearly £80,000 above the usual salary limit for running a school or schools in the maintained (non-academy) sector.

Toye’s pay in 2017-18 was well above that of the Prime Minister, and made him one of two local authority school leaders in Lambeth – the other was Sir Craig Tunstall - who between them received more than £400,000 in salary that year.

This seems to confirm that high leadership salaries are not confined, in English state education, to the academies sector, although pay at this level in the maintained sector is highly unusual and even Toye’s package is eclipsed by many academy leaders.

Toye’s remuneration for running Ashmole, Herbert Morrison, Vauxhall and Wyvil primary schools – all Ofsted-outstanding – and Aurora House, a centre for primary-age children with autism, was disclosed in Lambeth council’s 2017-18 accounts.