The good news is that our school has been given extra money to employ another key stage 1 teacher from January under the government initiative to reduce class sizes. I expect you can guess the bad news. We have advertised, of course, but the response was thin and unimpressive. The words barrel, bottom and scraping come to mind.
Our friendly local supply agency offered to come to our aid - they can procure us a teacher from New Zealand for two terms. All they want is 25 per cent of her salary. The words barrel suggests itself again as in “They’ve got you over a...”
It was quite difficult to persuade our headteacher to turn down this tempting offer. The teacher was well qualified, had excellent references and relevant experience. She was also all we could get. My horrified protest about blackmail, highway robbery and modern-day slave trade failed to convince her.
I had to point out that as we were already overspent this year, an extra pound;4,000 to buy a New Zealander would mean cutting KS2 staffing next financial year, with resulting class sizes of 35-plus.
There has to be an answer to the recruitment crisis, but profiteering by teacher agencies surely isn’t it.
