Scottish Borders Local Association

Transformation of Childrens' Services

Printed in Southern Reporter, 9 October 2008.

The opposite sides of the class war

By Andrew Keddie

The union representing more than 1,000 teachers in the Borders has set out its stall against radical changes which Scottish Borders Council wants to impose next May.

SBC's Transforming Children Services review, which is out to public consultation until October 27, recommends reducing the number of primary heads from 57 to 42 by introducing more shared headships.
All nine high schools would lose a deputy head and promoted post grades – principal teachers who currently share management and classroom duties – will be cut from 170 to 115 in secondaries and from 101 to 54 in primaries.

Meetings explaining the proposed shake-up to parents concluded on Monday at Kelso High, but the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) has now written to all teachers in the region, highlighting what it perceives as the shortcomings of the TCS review and urging them to make their feelings known by the deadline. Copies of these letters have been sent to all parent councils.

Last week, TheSouthern revealed that more than 100 senior teachers had applied for enhanced voluntary severance or early retirement packages to pave the way for the changes, which are due to be decided by councillors in November.

In the letters, the EIS slams this trawl: "By encouraging the early retirement of our most experienced and skilled practitioners, SBC will lose a huge section of its most valuable asset," claims the union.

"We have been gathering views from colleagues across the region," explained Kay Miller, Borders secretary of the EIS. "The points we are raising have been made to use by our members and parents at the consultation meetings.

"A lot of information presented on the SBC website is not easily accessible: what is lacking is evidence the proposals will deliver the claimed improvements in children's services along with the savings required in the budget."

The EIS says the rationale for shared headships, which contravenes national union policy, is that the role of a teaching head is increasingly unsustainable.

"Our view is that every school in every community deserves its own head teacher. Many heads still want to teach and, while it could be argued they should not be class-committed, it is desirable they spend part of the week teaching in their school.

"There are many ways of supporting teaching heads ... by removing unnecessary administrative tasks, so increasing administrative staff would be cheaper and more efficient.

"SBC is encouraging early retirement to reduce the number of primary heads and this will result in the loss of many good practitioners who still have a lot to offer.

"Where two schools share a head, he or she will not be in either school at least once a week because of meetings. How will the rest of the week be divided? Teachers and parents wonder who will be in charge when the head is regularly absent.”

Mrs Miller says attending two or three sets of parent council meetings on parent evenings will put an “intolerable load on head teachers”.

“Our view is the system of shared headships will not improve the service to our youngest and most vulnerable pupils.”

Mrs Miller describes cuts in secondary principal teachers as “a leap in the dark with absolutely no guarantee it will bring about improvements”.

“The project planners want the new structures in place for 2009/10 and even if the decision is taken by councillors in November, the timescale is ludicrously short given high schools must have their timetables in place well before the end of the summer term. This will cause chaos for the following year.

“Where is the research that justifies this move? The subject groupings chosen for the new model are very arbitrary and do not adequately reflect the needs of schools.

“There will be serious implications of adopting this management structure for the recruitment of teachers to the Borders in the future. The prospects of promotion for teachers will be severely limited, while the increased workload of the new-style principal teachers may well discourage good, well-qualified teachers from applying.”

On the cut in principal teachers in primaries, the EIS highlights lack of evidence and forecasts recruitment problems, adding: “There are big questions about what happens to those who do not or cannot go for early retirement and are not selected for the new posts. They may have to move, causing disrupton to schools and classes. There is no evidence this process will improve schools.”

Teachers and parents can access the EIS advice on www.borderseis.org.uk

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