The Yorkshire Evening Post can reveal the average salary of a secondary school head in the city is almost £85,000 and one so-called super-head is being paid £126,000.

That salary is more than five times the average Yorkshire wage of just over £23,000.

It is also more than that of the chief executive of regional development agency Yorkshire Forward who is in charge of a £350m budget. Tom Riordan, who is also responsible for attracting investment and securing jobs, earned around £112,000 last year.

And it is higher than Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust's chief nurse, whose role attracts a salary of around £115,000. She is responsible for patient safety at hospitals across the city and manages 4,000 nursing staff.

Today, watchdogs at the TaxPayers' Alliance questioned whether well-perfoming heads should be rewarded with such high sums when other some schools were struggling to meet standards.

Chief executive Matthew Elliott said: "There's nothing wrong with paying a good wage for good work, but some of these sky-high salaries are becoming excessive.

"When many schools are still failing to provide a good education in core subjects, it is wrong to dish out such massive pay packets.
"Sadly, the teaching unions have refused to accept pay based on performance."

According to Education Leeds's own pay scales the maximum achievable for a head is £103,000. A head taking on extra responsibilities, such as being an "executive head" of a second school, however, would be able to negotiate more.

National Association of Head Teachers local council member and Leeds primary school head Stephen Watkins was surprised that a Leeds headteacher earned so much.

He said teachers, especially those who worked in more deprived areas, were often given "incentive payments" by their board of governors to get them to stay.

Education Leeds said it was unable to name the teacher on the most money but defended the wages its heads.

A spokesman said: "A headteacher's pay is set by a school's governors but adheres to national government guidelines."

The figures were obtained by the YEP under the Freedom of Information Act.