We are used to incremental drift from teachers gaining experience points: now there are new scales beyond the threshold, and for the new management group - senior staff, deputies and heads.

Incremental drift is about to become a landslide. Decisions about annual pay levels lie, you’ve guessed, with governors. Is the expectation that every teacher will move up the scale year by year? I have scoured performance management guidance and the school teachers’ pay and conditios document for clarification, in vain. It is clearly stated that increments cannot be given unless performance targets have been set and met, plus that handy little get-out “sustained excellence of performance”.

Nowhere does it state unequivocally that we must give a pay rise if these conditions are met. The Government wanted all eligible teachers to pass the threshold and provided the funds. Once this was clear, a head I know (not my own) “assessed” all his staff’s applications in 10 minutes. I would love all teachers to have an annual rise - but will the money be there for the next five years? Will the Government?

Joan Dalton