Head's successful shopping trip

Schools are still struggling to recruit staff

A head teacher who looked in his local supermarket to solve his staffing problems has recruited four teachers.

David Wilmot, the head teacher of Cams Hill, a top school in Fareham, Hampshire, spent two days at his local Sainsbury's store trying to recruit teachers.

The unusual recruitment campaign led to Mr Wilmot filling four of the five vacancies he had at the school.

Sending pupils home

Mr Wilmot told the Daily Telegraph: "I am in no doubt that if I had not gone into Sainsbury's I would still have a recruitment problem."

He said many of the shoppers who expressed an interest in teaching were not suitable.

But he followed up all the leads and eventually found nearly all the staff he was looking for.

He had feared that some of the school's 1,000 pupils might have been sent home this term, but now says that will not happen.

Team effort

Mr Wilmott was helped in his supermarket sweep by pupils, governors and teachers from the school.

He took the action, he said, after spending two days every week last year trying to recruit staff.

He says his problems are echoed across the country.

Last summer the chief inspector of schools Mike Tomlinson said the teacher shortage was the worst for decades.