Prompted by the announced departures of Mrs. McGloughlin and Mrs. Watts, a parent wrote to us to share her observations and concerns.
She pointed out that a total of 12 teachers will have left Duke Street Primary School over the past five years :
Mrs. Callandar, Mrs. Dring, Ms. Ishard, Mrs. Larne, Mrs. Markland, Mrs. Marquis, Mrs. McGloughlin, Mrs. Poppleton, Mrs. Procter, Mrs. Quinton, Mr. Roberts, Mrs. Watts
Three teachers were deputy heads, the majority had long and successful careers at Duke Street and Mrs. Quinton was the only teacher who retired.
In comparison with other local schools and indeed national figures, staff turnover rates are excessive.
Duke Street has lost a core of experienced, committed and valuable teachers. Today, even one of the school’s management team has only 18 months teaching experience. Maybe this is the reason why Mrs. Quinton continues to enjoy her supply teacher position and that of school governor even though she retired some years ago ?
What are your thoughts ?
5 comments:
I think that after 20 years at the same school it is important to move on and experience different schools this can only be good for a teacher. New teachers are not a bad thing they can bring new life into a school. Teachers have to move on for progression as do most people in any profession.
I also think Mrs Quinton continues to work at the school because of your love of the children and her commitment to the school not because of a member of the management team only having 18 months experience.
There are still a high number of excellent teachers at the school and I am sure our children will continue with their success.
The school is now half the size that it was 5 years ago - so there must a correspoding decrease in teacher numbers
Sir Cyril Taylor says yearly school report could save parents detective work.
Alexandra Frean, The Times, Education Editor - 2 March 2009
Head teachers should publish staff turnover figures, pupil exclusion rates and numbers of applications per place, to make it easier for parents to select a school for their child, a leading education adviser has said.
Sir Cyril Taylor, who advised successive education secretaries for more than ten years, said choosing a good local school was a major challenge for many parents, who often found the experience very stressful. Ofsted inspection reports and school league tables showing exam results provided some information to help them choose between different state schools, but this alone was not enough.
“There are more important things to consider than exam results. If a school has a high staff turnover, this is often an indication that all is not well” Sir Cyril said.
I think that it's more important that the school makes every effort to keep good teachers ! Ofsted reports only reflect what was happening at that time and in this case two years ago. Now it's all different with new teachers.
I saw today thatDuke Street is advertising for another teacher. Is another teacher leaving? I worry too about the number of new teachers. When I and my sister went to school it was nice to know that the teachers seemed to be part of the school, you know like they'd been there sincethe school started. They all seemed old but it felt right and that's what I want for my girl. I liked Mrs McGloughlin and I was looking forward to her teaching my daughter.
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