MORE TEACHERS ARE being recruited by Moray Council – so easing pressure on schools with staff numbers no longer at the critical levels experienced last year.
Councillors were told that the 60 vacancies that existed at the height of the crisis in August last year had now almost halved – with several high profile recruitment measures having proved successful.
The news came at a meeting of the children and young people’s services committee, where the corporate director of education and social care, Laurence Findlay, said that an extensive advertising campaign along with financial and accommodation measures had worked at reducing the recruitment shortfall.
He said: “We started the year with 60 vacancies but these have dropped to nearly half that figure – clearly, new teachers have found that working in Moray has many rewards.”
Mr Findlay pointed to such as a five-minute film featuring some of the new teaching staff at work had helped to convince teachers of the merits of moving to Moray. He added that the “proactive approach” to staffing would continue with several teachers in the region due to retire in August.
The committee discussed how the teacher shortages had affected annual reports at schools, with Keith Grammar set as an example of this where the school performance was ranked as ‘weak’ in a report last year.
This was attributed largely to the head teacher having to spend more time in the classroom rather than managing the school. Local SNP councillor Gary Coull commented that the school had seen a “vast improvement” since the September inspection.