No shortage of heads here

OLDHAM appears to have bucked the trend of primary schools struggling to recruit new head teachers.

A report found that more than a third of vacancies in England (37 per cent) had to be readvertised in 2007-08.

But none of the 12 vacant primary school posts in the borough in the last academic year had to be readvertised, Oldham Council confirmed.

The study by professor John Howson said that inner London schools found recruiting head teachers easier than those in Yorkshire and the Humber, the South-East and the South-West.

Faith schools struggled more than other state schools, with both Catholic and Church of England schools seeing an increase in re-advertising rates last year.

And Prof Hudson suggested that the problem could be solved by putting a cap on the number of years a person could remain as a deputy headteacher.

Tony Harrison, joint branch secretary of Oldham National Union of Teachers, said it was a national problem which could be disastrous for some schools

He blamed the stress of the job and added: “Head teachers are expected to do so much more than they used to because they are the manager of the school, whereas before there would be much more co-operation with the local authority.

“Now the responsibility is absolutely phenomenal, it has become much more than an education job. “There is also that much pressure on schools to achieve and heads are judged on league tables which are a very false way of gauging how good a school is.

“The key stage 3 Sats in secondary schools have been dropped and we would want to see that replicated in primary schools.

“They take up a lot of time and in our view that stops children getting a good education.”