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School service: Initiative is good news for villages
AT a time when the village way of life is coming under increasing threat with the axing of post offices, pubs and public transport, it is heartening that one large Yorkshire secondary school is helping to keep the smaller schools around it thriving.
St Aidan's School in Harrogate has already earned plaudits for its place as Yorkshire's best performing non-selective school. Now its headteacher Dennis Richards is to be further commended for pioneering an approach which could help to preserve village schools for years to come.
The school is providing supply teachers to small primary schools in the Dales where headteachers are swamped with balancing the demands of the classroom and the increasing bureaucracy which Whitehall heaps upon them.
In an ideal world this would of course not be necessary. But thanks to very far from ideal circumstances facing all schools, and especially those in rural areas which also struggle to retain staff, it is a model
that others should consider.
A worrying half of headteachers in schools in North Yorkshire are only 10 years away from retirement. If this initiative proves a success, it could make their positions more attractive to new recruits by freeing them up to carry out the time-consuming, and some might say often pointless, managerial tasks they face in schools today.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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