SCHOOL leaders are warning that the body which recommends pay offers in the education sector has a “last chance” to assert its independence amid widespread industrial unrest over wages.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) union said that the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) needed to recommend a pay deal for the coming year to help solve the “crisis” in education.

Teachers in the National Education Union in England and Wales are going on strike next week and other unions have balloted for industrial action over pay.

The NAHT said the government’s own figures showed that around a third of senior school leaders leave their post within five years of appointment.

In evidence to the STRB, the union added that more than half of those go on to leave the state-funded school system entirely.

NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said: “This report shows the very real consequences of the government’s driving down of school leaders’ pay over the last decade.

“The profession is haemorrhaging experienced and talented teachers and leaders who we desperately need, and we are losing them for good.”

The NAHT said the number of school leaders leaving their post within five years had risen sharply since 2011.

More than one in four primary school leaders and more than one in three secondary school leaders leave within five years of appointment, said the NAHT.

Mr Whiteman continued: “These are leaders who are not at the end of their careers, who previously would have expected to continue leading their schools for decades more.

“Instead, they are being forced out and are finding jobs that pay and treat them better.

“Even if we could recruit enough new teachers to fill these gaps, that still wouldn’t replace the knowledge and experience these people have built up.

"The government is refusing to face the very worrying question of where the head teachers of the future will come from.

“The STRB process has failed the education profession. Under their watch, school leaders have suffered a significant pay erosion that has led us to this damaging recruitment and retention crisis.

“This is the last chance for the STRB to listen to the evidence, assert its independence, regain the confidence of the profession and recommend a pay deal that will begin to solve the crisis and ensure a stable supply of great teachers and school leaders for the future.”