Sue Peach is an English and drama teacher at Danetre School in Daventry, which is seeking two or three redundancies.

“The procedures my governors have proposed are extremely ageist, but they are covertly ageist. They are looking at qualifications but only those with a Certificate in Education score zero points. Those on the main pay spine 0-8 get 10 points, the top, which means the young teachers. Those on point 9, the older teachers like myself who have been stuck there for years, get fewer points.

“I am in my 40s. I can’t afford to take a drop in my salary voluntarily because I have a mortgage and I have children in university. It is simply not practical. At the same time it is the people my age, in their mid-40s, who are ripe for redundancy, who can’t get jobs and who have another 20 years to work.”

Richard Kemp, deputy head at the Northamptonshire school, said: “We are looking for two or three fewer teachers from September, but we are hoping to achieve that without redundancy. People are being driven to these extremes because the government has failed to recognise the need to invest in the future.”