Britain's highest paid primary teacher given £85,000 second job 'to stop him quitting'

Greg Martin, 56, received more than £155,000 last year for his two roles at Durand primary school in Stockwell in south London.

Mr Martin is on a salary of around £70,000 as director of education and development at the 900 pupil school.

But figures show he also received at least an additional £85,000 last year as head of a private firm, which manages flats and leisure facilities owned by the school.

Jim Davies, the chairman of the governors, defended the sums saying Mr Martin is a "fantastic teacher" and "great businessman", who the board feared would "walk away" unless he was better remunerated.

Mr Davies said: "The most difficult task for any board of school governors is finding and retaining capable headteachers.

"Greg Martin has presided over fantastic education results at a school with children from challenging backgrounds. We wanted to keep a hold of him. The reality is that he has had a lot of offers.

From private schools, from schools in the Middle East. He could be earning half a million pounds a year and there's no way we could match that."

Mr Martin was headteacher at the 900 pupil foundation school for the majority of the last 19 years before he became director of education last year in a position specially created for him.

There are a block of apartments, a swimming pool and gym on the site, which have been built by the school's commercial arm London Horizons to generate additional income and offer leisure activities to pupils.

Around £300,000 was brought in last year from rents on the flats and gym and pool charges from the public.

Mr Martin is sole director of the firm responsible for managing the facilities. His company, GMG Education, received £146,000 last year for its services.

Accounts show GMG made an £85,000 profit in the year ending last November.

Mr Davies said none of the "additional income" received by Mr Martin had come from the "public purse", adding GMG had only been established for tax purposes.

"It was the most economical way. We are generating money for the school, a registered charity and we didn't want it to be subject to Corporation Tax.

"Running the school is a big job, but Mr Martin has such huge energy. Apart from the extra income made to reinvest in the school, we also have access to a swimming pool for the pupils, which is worth around £60,000 a year and a number of the flats are rented by teachers."

The school's most recent Ofsted report found it "outstanding" in literacy and numeracy with above average results despite half the annual intake struggling with language difficulties when joining the school.

Mr Martin was unavailable for comment last night. The board of governors said he is no longer responsible for the day to day running of the school, which is left to new headteacher Mark McLaughlin, but takes a more "strategic" approach.

He is currently overseeing the development of a £3m early years centre for pupils ages three to nine.