The Datum Report

Occupation 2321 · Professional occupations

Head teachers and principals

Half of full-time head teachers and principals in the UK earn more than £72,192 a year, and half earn less.

Head teachers and principals plan, organise, direct and co-ordinate the running of schools, colleges and other educational establishments.

How people enter it

Entrants usually possess a degree or equivalent qualification and have gained significant relevant experience in the field of education. Specialist training courses to become a head teacher are available. A DBS check may be required.

What the work involves

• sets the school's values, provides leadership to staff and helps create an encouraging environment for learning
• considers staffing, financial, material and other short- and long-term needs
• leads or contributes to decision making processes regarding curricula, budgetary, disciplinary and other matters
• monitors schools performance and sets goals for student's academic achievements
• liaises with parents and pupils
• assists with recruitment, public relations and marketing activities
• coordinates and maintains quality assurance procedures

Also called

Head master (secondary school) · Head teacher (primary school) · Principal (further education) · Rector (university)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for head teachers and principals, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 9 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Early education and childcare services managers · Education advisers and school inspectors · Education managers · Other educational professionals n.e.c