The education secretary Nicky Morgan has called for more flexibility in how teachers are paid, with the chance to drop down payscales and the introduction of a bonus scheme chief among her proposals.

Ms Morgan has asked the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), the body tasked with reviewing teachers’ pay for next year, to look at the plan as a way to make sure that schools are able to reward teachers for good performance and offer bonuses as incentives to achieve. 

She also said that there should be a consideration from the organisation that looks at the way stress is dealt with in schools. By giving teachers the chance to move down payscales, schools would be able to help them lower their responsibilities in stressful situations, which can help with staff retention, an important issue at the moment. 

It was recently reported that as many as 50 per cent of teachers in the UK could quit their jobs in the next two years thanks to stress and a lack of support in the classroom, so the chance to lower the stress teachers feel can only be a positive in the long run. 

A spokesperson for Nicky Morgan told Schools Week: “We want to make sure the review body is looking at how, within the fiscal context, we can make teaching as attractive as possible and keep the best teachers by encouraging and rewarding them."