Recruiting to the blackboard jungle

Crowthorne School has struggled to recruit

By the PM programme's Ian Pannell

A couple of the new children were in tears this morning, it was their first day at "big-school", enough to induce a certain lip-wobble into even the most precocious four-year-old.

The fact that this is Crowthorne Primary in Berkshire helps. It's a small school with a warm welcome and the ready application of a soothing cuddle to the distressed.

There are 197 pupils at Crowthorne and there should be seven full-time members of staff. But last autumn the Year-Five teacher resigned.

At the end of the half-term, in the first week of November, the school began to advertise locally and nationally as well as on the internet.

Area "too prosperous"

Crowthorne is a trouble-free school which has had good Ofsted reports and gets enviable exam results. It should be an ideal job but by the start of this term there had not been a single application.

Barbara Gellatley, the head teacher, had to devote half her working week to teaching and just squash in her other duties.

Louise Allen, a mother of two children at the school and the Chair of Governors says the problem is that the area is simply too prosperous.

School has excellent reputation

"The issue is the standard of living. People around here get paid an awful lot and the house prices are astronomical. Teachers cannot afford to live in this area" she says.

At morning Assembly Barbara Gellatley leads the prayers. "Dear God help us to do what we can to improve what we can and do what we can to our best". Her prayers may just have been answered.

Following PM's broadcast about Crowthorne's plight, the school received a number of applications and have just appointed a new teacher. Other schools are hoping for similar luck.