8:49pm Wednesday 17th January 2001
After a series of warnings, a shortage of permanent teachers is wreaking havoc in the borough's schools. MATTHEW NIXSON asks what happens next.
The five South African supply teachers due to start work in North Finchley this week deserve the warmest of welcomes.
In essence, the four men and one woman are all that stands between Christ Church School and its potential closure.
Their arrival which still leaves three posts at the school unfilled gives management at the Warnham Road school time to draw breath.
It does not, however, solve a staffing crisis that is crippling Christ Church and severely worrying many other headteachers in the borough.
A survey by Barnet's local education authority (LEA) on Wednesday last week put the number of teaching vacancies in Barnet's 21 secondary schools at more than 50.
Until then the council had no record of the exact number of unfilled posts though estimates put the figure between 30 and 40.
Hendon MP Andrew Dismore raised the matter in the House of Commons on Thursday, leading to a panic in the LEA. "It's incredible they don't even know how many vacancies there are in schools," one headteacher told the Times Group as council officers frantically rang round asking for information.
News of shortages could hardly have come as a surprise. In December headteachers from all Barnet's primary and secondary schools had written to parents warning of "deep concerns" over staffing shortages in the new year.
Yet only now was the borough making moves to find out how far the underlying problem went.
In a statement on Friday, education spokeswoman Alison Moore finally admitted: "In some subjects adequate supply teachers are not available.
"The use of supply teachers is of course not ideal and the council regards it as a priority to recruit permanent specialist teachers for specialist posts."
She added, somewhat confusingly: "Most primary schools tell us there are no vacancies this term although a number of these schools have vacancies."
National attention, and Mr Dismore's Commons' questions, had followed the results of a ballot of members of NASUWT (National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers) at Christ Church School on January 8.
They voted overwhelmingly not to cover for unfilled vacancies which made up nearly one-fifth of the total staff effectively closing the school should no new teachers be found.
Council leader Alan Williams told the Times Group: "The real issue at Christ Church isn't to do with teacher shortages why would it only affect Christ Church and not every other school in the borough?
"Christ Church has some very difficult problems that we're trying to work with the school to resolve and that's what's impacting on its ability to attract teachers."
He added: "If the union says they are only there to try and help the school then I don't think anything they have done has done that."
But Alan Holmes, secretary of the union's Barnet branch, defended its actions.
"Our members simply could not cope any longer after covering for the whole of last term," he said. "It is quite likely that the politicians would not have fully appreciated the depth of the problems had this action not been taken."
The unions have won backing from Barnet's Tory education spokesman, Councillor Kevin Edson.
He said: "It doesn't matter how it [the council] dresses it up, the crisis is there. The proof of the pudding is when you get sensible unions like the NASUWT taking the action they have taken."
While Mr Williams blamed Christ Church for its staffing problems, Ms Moore pointed to wider issues. "We recognise there are problems in teacher recruitment across London and we are doing all we can to support our schools to recruit and retain staff."
However, her comments are dismissed by headteachers. They point to last May's council budget settlement, which saw spending on schools increase by 2.4 per cent or one per cent less cash in real terms.
In September, heads released figures showing up to 50 posts had gone as they had warned in May because of the settlement, something the council refused to acknowledge.
"Barnet schools continue to receive among the highest spending per pupil in the country and our agreed education budget has remained well above the amount recommended by Government," said Ms Moore at the time.
Mr Edson disagrees: "The council is looking at the spin and not the reality and the reality is that we are in a crisis in teaching and funding."
With the national staffing crisis unlikely to improve at least in the short-term, all eyes in Barnet are now on how much money is allocated to schools in this year's budget settlement.
Unless Barnet can find extra money, headteachers talk will be of a meltdown in services and the loss of more teaching posts.
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