Schools battle for relief staff

‘‘There have been a couple of times this year when our classes have had to double up . . . ’’

Steve Zonnevylle South Canterbury Primary Principals’ Association chair and Gleniti School principal

A lack of relief teachers is starting to have a negative impact on Timaru schools as they struggle to fill staffing gaps.

Waimataitai School assistant principal Nikola Vincent said the school had been forced to double up classes when a teacher could not be replaced or split classes across other year levels.

Vincent said staffing had not become an issue until this year and she believed stressed out teachers leaving the profession and graduates who could not find jobs heading overseas were two of the big contributors.

Though Waimataitai had access to a pool of 15 relievers it had to share them with other schools, she said. Earlier this month the school addressed the issue in its newsletter, telling parents and caregivers ‘‘this term is has been very difficult to get relievers on some days’’.

The newsletter went on to explain children would be spread around other classes or across the school if a relief teacher could not be found.

‘‘This is not ideal but it avoids us asking parents to keep the children home, which is hugely problematic for families.’’

Vincent was hoping recent industrial action which led to better conditions and a higher pay rate for teachers would attract some back into the classroom.

South Canterbury Primary Principals’ Association chair and Gleniti School principal Steve Zonnevylle said the teacher shortage made it a lot harder to book a reliever. ‘‘There have been a couple of times this year when our classes have had to double up as we haven’t been able to find someone,’’ Zonnevylle said.

The major problems arose when a reliever was required at short notice, he said.

‘‘It is when teachers are sick, or their own children are sick, and they need a reliever at short notice that we notice a difficulty.

‘‘This is really frustrating because it can mean that teachers are double guessing as to whether they are sick or not, and are choosing to come along to school unwell when they shouldn’t be.’’

Pleasant Point Primary School was also having more difficulty finding relievers than it had in the past, principal Mark Creba said. ‘‘At times when a reliever cannot be found, a member of the leadership team will cover in classes or, as a last resort, a class may need to be split (with appropriate work to complete) across the school.’’

Though Grantlea Downs had a reasonable pool of relief teachers to call on, principal Stephen Fennessy attributed the tough retraining required as a hurdle for teachers returning to the profession after having a break.

Also there were more fixedterm roles within the school for teachers who wanted to work only a day or two a week which was preferable to being called in randomly, he said.

Smaller schools spoken to appeared to have fewer issues.

Timaru Christian School principal Bethany Rentoul said that if they could not find cover, then they filled with part-time teachers or senior leaders.

Woodbury School principal Mike de Joux said the country school was fortunate to have only five teachers. ‘‘I don’t mind going in a few days a term and we have a couple of mums who are registered teachers and don’t want fulltime work, so are usually available.’’

Gleniti School was planning to use an app-based relief teacher booking system as it had the potential to share a larger relief teacher pool throughout the Timaru area.

‘‘This won’t solve the whole problem though. There just isn’t the pool of people out there like there used to be. We would like to see the Ministry of Education be proactive in encouraging past teachers back into the relief teaching pool,’’ Zonnevylle said.

Ministry of Education acting deputy secretary early learning and student achievement Pauline Cleaver acknowledged the struggles schools were having finding relief staff.

The ministry was actively trying to remove barriers for teachers returning to the profession by covering the cost of completing the Teacher Education Refresh, a course required by the Education Council for relief teachers, Cleaver said.

The Government had also put money into teacher supply three times since the $9.5 million injection in December 2017. They were: almost $20m through Budget 2018, $10.5m in October 2018, and $95m in Budget 2019, Cleaver said.

‘‘These initiatives aim to support more graduates into permanent teaching positions, encouraging experienced teachers back into the profession and recruiting new graduates into teaching.

‘‘Early uptake figures suggest these initiatives have been popular overall.’’