He told headteachers they were the "praetorian guard" of the education system, but ministers needed "heads ready to respond to a new challenge, heads willing to take risks to bring about real change".He said: "People may laugh at £100,000 salaries, but some schools are no laughing matter."Why not borrow good ideas from the private sector? Why not give these particular heads performance-related rolling contracts with a minimum term of three years? Why not provide a pay and benefits package that recruits, retains and motivates? Why not a performance bonus at the end?"I am not talking about fat cat, private sector excesses. I am saying that if successful heads can be found to take up the challenge, the life chances of thousands of pupils will have been radically changed."At present, headteachers in the largest secondary schools can earn up to £76,000 a year, although the average is about £55,000. Primary school heads earn an average of about £35,000 a year. Mr Hart said he expected most secondary headteachers to earn about £70,000 within three years, with a handful earning more than £80,000. Average salaries for primary heads would rise to about £40,000.Ministers are planning to recruit "superheads" to oversee up to five schools in deprived areas, but Mr Hart said higher salaries were needed for all heads willing to take on failing or difficult schools.Staff who went to underperforming schools were risking their careers, he said, and had to be rewarded with salaries in line with those paid to accountants, doctors, lawyers and senior executives in industry.Total pay packages for headteachers in the most challenging schools could sensibly reach £120,000.

He said: "How do you encourage successful heads holding down their posts with no difficulty at all, running highly successful institutions, to leave those schools and take on this challenge?". The biggest teachers' union yesterday lifted the threat of a one-day strike over performance pay. The biggest teachers' union yesterday lifted the threat of a one-day strike over performance pay. Leaders of the National Union of Teachers rejected a vote for strike action by left-wing delegates passed at the union's annual conference in April. Militants provoked a storm of protest after they staged a walk-out during a speech by Estelle Morris, the School Standards minister, in protest at plans to offer teachers a £2,000 pay rise if they pass a performance "threshold".Doug McAvoy, the union's general secretary, ruled out industrial action yesterday, saying teachers should not alienate the public. "This union's campaign against payment by results, performance-related pay, goes on.

But it goes on against a background of a Government which has a large majority and remains popular. We must not alienate the very people whose support we need by disrupting teaching."A survey of NUT members found three out of five were in favour of staging a strike ballot, but union leaders claimed the 30 per cent response rate indicated a lack of support for the action. The union's national executive also warned that any stoppage would leave the union isolated.Mr McAvoy said: "The union is now free of the distraction of a one-day strike. The union's aim is to achieve a united profession behind a campaign for fair and competitive salary levels for all teachers." He said the union would hold talks with the rival National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) to draw up a joint campaign on the issue. The NASUWT has concentrated on "industrial action with a halo", boycotting red tape and out-of-class meetings.The NUT is also taking legal action to stop teachers being forced to "snoop" on their colleagues by giving references for performance-related pay rises.David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, called the legal action "arrant nonsense" But he welcomed the unions' decision not to strike.. We can all imagine paying for things in euros and cents. The Independent would cost about 75 cents (1.50 euros on Saturday) and the average house about 160,000 euros.

The British might heave a sigh of arithmetical frustration over the conversion, but we are probably less attached to our chunky coins and wishy-washy notes than the Eurosceptic sentimentalists would have us believe We can all imagine paying for things in euros and cents. The Independent would cost about 75 cents (1.50 euros on Saturday) and the average house about 160,000 euros. The British might heave a sigh of arithmetical frustration over the conversion, but we are probably less attached to our chunky coins and wishy-washy notes than the Eurosceptic sentimentalists would have us believe. What is much harder to imagine is what it would be like to be part of a political union with Estonia, Poland, Slovenia and Cyprus. By 2010, the European Union could have nearly doubled its number of member states, to 28, and its population, to 600 million. What is the point of it all? Where will it end? What difference will it make?These are the great questions of the early part of the new century, and it is disappointing that, after a promising start, the Blair government seems largely left behind by the debate.Not that there is much of a debate, in fact, but at least last month's speech by the German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, is proof of some sputterings of life in the engine-room. The engine-room of the EU, of course, continues to be the Berlin-Paris relationship.