“A main-scale teacher entering the profession in 1997 on pound;14,280 would in September receive pound;30,339 at level one of the upper pay scale, a real-terms increase of 75 per cent, or pound;28,005 if they failed to pass the threshold and remained at level six of the main scale, a real-terms increase of 61 per cent.”

The Government makes its case to the review body for a 2 per cent rise:

“Teachers’ pay now compares favourably relative to all other non-manual and graduate workers, except in London and the South east.

The real-terms improvements ... over recent years... , structural changes, and the improvements ... to job quality through workload reform, have improved the competitiveness of the teaching profession with other graduate professions.”