“IF you can keep red pens, when all about you are losing theirs and pinching them off you,” is the opening of a revised version of Kipling’s If, aimed at attracting new recruits to Flegg high school in Martham, Norfolk.
Headteacher Cherry Crowley decided to try a different tack in her job adverts after struggling to find applicants.
“There are earnest, worthy adverts, plugging Investors in Peopl and schools curriculum awards, but it hasn’t worked for us. So I decided there was nothing to lose,” she said.
”(Recruitment) has always been a problem in rural Norfolk, but now, in this situation, it’s harder than ever.”
Purists might find fault with the school’s first efforts (see TES secondary job adverts), she says, but its poets have already improved on that.
Karen Thornton
