In its response to the Green Paper on reforming the teaching profession, the Secondary Heads Association says appraisals for performance pay as outlined by the government are "unmanageable in secondary schools" and are "more likely to depress teacher morale than to improve it".

The union's general secretary, John Dunford, said that there should be "a much less bureaucratic system of evaluating teacher performance and a less intrusive role for the external assessor".

SHA General Secretary John Dunford wants less bureaucracy

The union also told the government that if the appraisal system was introduced to decide which teachers deserved extra pay, the £1bn set aside for performance-related increases would be insufficient.

There is also criticism for the proposal for a "school performance award", in which the government wants to provide a bonus payment to be be divided among all staff at schools that are judged to have performed particularly well.

Rejecting the introduction of the school performance award scheme, the union's response says it would have "little credibility until robust value-added criteria have been established".

However the union does accept the general principle of headteachers needing to manage the performance of their teaching staff and that appraisals can play a part in this.

The union also welcomes the government's intentions to raise teachers' salaries, improvents to working conditions in school and the proposals for a National College for School Leadership which would provide training for headteachers.