Headteacher shortage hitting smaller schools

High workloads, form-filling and other demands are driving some heads out of the profession, while putting new ones off coming in, according to the Ripon and Leeds Diocese.

The problems have already seen three schools amalgamated under one head in the Diocese of Bradford, and the Ripon and Leeds Diocese says it may have to follow suit.

Church leaders in the Ripon and Leeds Diocese, which has 95 church schools in an area running from south Leeds to the borders of County Durham, will meet next week to discuss ways of tackling the shortage.

The Diocesan Synod will be asked to support proposals to encourage training and recruitment of new heads, as well as backing measures to try to slow the current exodus of headteachers from the profession.

The Rev Clive Sedgewick, the director of education for the dioceses of Bradford and Ripon and Leeds, will be speaking at the debate at the David Young Community Academy in Leeds next Saturday.

He said: "To run a small school, heads need to fill in just as many forms as in a large school while being expected to teach a class for up to fifty per cent of the day, go to every after-school event, and face the vagaries of Ofsted inspections when over a two-day period their work is judged and that judgement made public."

The synod is also expected to hear calls for pressure to be put on the Government to scrap school league tables at primary level, which Mr Sedgewick says are considered by most professionals to be "meaningless".

He said in a small primary school the tables can be wildly affected by a single pupil having an "off-day", but they add to the pressure on heads in a small community where parents "demand instant answers and are not slow to make their views known".

Mr Sedgewick said another discouragement to potential new heads was the year-long mandatory training course, which does not lead to a guaranteed local job.

Mr Sedgewick said: "The diocese is working actively with the National College of School Leadership to address the problem of continuity of leadership."

Other items on the agenda will include the development of pioneer ministry, team ministry in parishes and the approval of an environmental policy for the diocese.

The meeting, from 9.30am to 12.30pm, is open to the public.

A leading headmaster has meanwhile said that state sixth-formers should be offered funded places at private schools.

David Levin, the new chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, suggested fee-paying schools could seek bursaries from the business sector to help fund places for talented pupils in areas such as science, maths and languages.

He has already approached bankers to raise funding.

In an interview Mr Levin, who is also headmaster of City of London School, said he was optimistic he could gain the support of the banking community.

He said pupils would be offered "deeply discounted fees", adding that as the places would be for sixth-form, after the end of compulsory schooling, "we don't think we can be accused of poaching them from the state sector".

He said: "If you offered just two or three places per school and you got 200 HMC schools and, say, 50 from the Girls' Schools' Association to take part, you would be getting on towards supplying 1,000 places."

He added: "A lot of departments – in science and languages – have closed at prestigious universities and the Government has recognised we need to give these subjects a boost.

"If we believe we're a major part of the national education service then we have got to take every chance to make a positive contribution and enable as many children as possible to take up these subjects which are so vital to the future of our country."