Pay of Katharine Birbalsingh at Michaela free school rose at least 10 per cent last year, say trust’s accounts as they warn of risk of its teachers being harmed by pupils from other schools

One of England’s most prominent headteachers saw her pay rise by at least 10 per cent last year, her academy trust’s newly-published accounts have shown.

Katharine Birbalsingh, of Michaela Community School in Wembley, north London, saw her salary increase from £100-£105,000 to £115-£120,000 in 2019-20, with her employer’s pension contributions also increasing, from £15-£20,000 in 2018-19 to £25-£30,000 last year.

Birbalsingh’s salary increase was therefore in the range 9.5 to 20 per cent, depending exactly where in the published bands her pay was.

The figures come as Michaela’s accounts also warned that a risk that the academy trust running it faced was that its teachers might be “harmed by pupils from other schools while out in the street”.

Birbalsingh’s total pay and pensions package increased by the largest amount of any academy leader, among seven sets of published accounts for 2019-20 I have seen so far.