Overpaid “leaders” and fleeing teachers

On Monday The Times reported concerns about excessive salaries for some head teachers while today, November 13th, The Guardian tells of teachers fleeing from: excessive workload, stress, a lack of work-life balance, funding cuts, a dread of Ofsted, an obsession with paperwork, accountability measures, poor behaviour, children bringing weapons to school and high staff turnover.

It appalls me to learn how some school heads are paid salaries that would fund the employment of several additional classroom teachers. When I ran a very successful maintained school my deputies and I kept our salaries towards the lower end of the permitted scale so that newly qualified teachers who earned the respect of colleagues could receive a modest boost to their salaries.
Do these so-called super heads ever find time to teach or do they spare themselves the discipline of preparation and teaching, and giving an account of their stewardship to parents? 
Leading medics and lawyers continue in practice and pilots who no longer fly lose their licences to do so. Why do teachers continue to follow colleagues who have left the profession?

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