Parents get pledge on teacher staffing
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A “RIDICULOUS” scenario where a primary school class was being taught by FOUR teachers for an entire year will finally come to an end next week after fears were raised that children’s education was being jeopardised.
Anxious parents breathed a sigh of relief yesterday after it emerged youngsters in the P5 class at Conon’s Ben Wyvis Primary will be moving forward from Monday with just two teachers, instead of four.
Last term council education officials promised that the situation caused by “staffing changes” would not be repeated.
However, a week into the new school term, worried parents had to contact Kate Forbes, the Dingwall-based constituency MSP for Dingwall and the Black Isle, to raise the alarm, saying things had not improved and four teachers were still taking the class.
The MSP wrote to Highland Council’s administration calling for the situation to be urgently resolved. And yesterday, a spokeswoman at the council said things were in line for major improvement.
She said the issue was discussed with the head teacher “prior to the current interest” and she confirmed that the school had “adjusted its staffing” so that the class could be taught by two teachers as a temporary job share arrangement.
The situation at Ben Wyvis Primary was causing a lot of worry for parents.
They feared the youngsters could be missing out on the benefits of a positive student-teacher relationship, which studies strongly suggest improves learning.
A parent, who asked not to be named, welcomed the move towards a two-teacher class but said it had not come soon enough.
She said: “My child was not getting to bond with her teacher. There was absolutely no bonding there.
“You’ve got to have a good teacher-pupil relationship. But how could that happen when they had four different teachers in one week - six if you could the gym teacher and the art teacher.
She added: “Where was the respect from Highland Council? They said they would sort this out and they didn’t.
“We’re more than a fortnight into the new term and they’re only fixing this now.”
Kate Forbes said: “I appreciate that rural areas can find it more difficult to attract teaching staff.
“However, it was utterly ridiculous that a primary school class in Conon Bridge was being taught by four different teachers.
“I am not putting any of the blame on these individual staff members – I am confident they were competent in their teaching abilities.
“But I did share the grave concerns of the parents, and it was easy to see how having four separate teachers at such a young age could have a negative impact upon learning outcomes.
“I am all for flexible working, but there was very little continuity when there were four teachers involved across a five-day school week.
“The fact that this arrangement had continued for a second year, after Highland Council categorically promised it would not be repeated, rubbed salt into the wounds.
A Highland Council spokeswoman said the situation would be resolved by Monday next week.
She said: “This issue was discussed with the head teacher prior to the current interest and we can confirm that the school has adjusted its staffing so that the class is taught by two teachers as a temporary job share arrangement.
“Two teachers-job sharing is not unusual in our schools.
“The situation at Ben Wyvis Primary came about due to specific staffing issues which the council is not at liberty to share. This arrangement will come into place on Monday.
“The school is receiving a quality improvement visit this week as part of our normal improvement programme.”
