Cutbacks blamed as school gives teachers their jotters

Published on Wednesday 14 May 2008 10:36

COUNCIL cutbacks have been blamed for a secondary school losing two teachers from a department regarded as its best.

Leith Academy is to cut the staff in its creative arts faculty, which is expected to be singled out as the "best performing" by HMIE inspectors in an official report due to be published soon.

A city council spokeswoman said the art and drama teachers had to go because of a smaller number of first-year pupils expected to start at the school later this year. She described the two members of staff as part-time.

A document obtained by the Evening News from a recent meeting of the Leith Academy Council reads: "As a consequence of a one and a half per cent budget cut and a reduction in next session's S1 intake to 160, Jack (Simpson, the headteacher) has had to make two staff surplus to requirements for next session. They are in the creative arts faculty. Council procedures are now being followed."

Leith councillor Gordon Munro said he felt the decision was the result of needless financial cuts, despite assurances from the city council that the teachers' jobs would have been safe if the intake from the next academic year was the same as in previous years.

He said pupils would lose out and that parents and staff at Leith Academy were furious.

"The budget has been forced on the headteacher and he has a decision to make," he said.

"The pupils will suffer as a result of this. HMIE inspectors have taken time to praise the department recently, and it's generally regarded as the best performing in the school.

"These cuts have been forced on the school by a bad political decision. They need not have happened.

"However this impact was predicted when put forward in the city council's budget. Parents will rightly question why this was allowed to happen."

The document also states that a recent diversity day staged by the creative arts faculty was "well regarded" by the same HMIE inspectors.

A council spokeswoman said: "Schools routinely have to make teaching staff surplus depending on the number of pupils that they have and the subject choices that pupils make.

"Surplus staff are normally redeployed to vacant posts in other schools in line with their contracts."

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