Job loss fear as schools merge
Amalgamation of support teams leads to rumours over redundancies
JOBS could be at risk as part of a restructuring following a primary school merge in Ickenham, it has been claimed.
The infant and junior schools at The Breakspear School, in Bushey Road, Ickenham, were recently combined to form a single primary school.
The school is now looking to amalgamate the support teams at the two former schools which, it is believed, could result in redundancies.
An anonymous letter to the Uxbridge Gazette claimed at least four employees were facing redundancies and all support staff had been invited to re-apply for their jobs.
The writer also claimed morale among teaching staff was low, with ‘a record nine teachers resigning’ and fears they would be replaced by less experienced newly qualified teachers.
However, headteacher Duncan Greig, who took over earlier this year, said the consultation had only just started and nobody had been given notice of redundancy. He said it would be inappropriate to comment further on details of the consultation this stage.
“There’s a restructuring in process and the unions are involved but nobody has been given notice of redundancy. The
at consultation’s not long started,” he told the Gazette.
“When the two schools amalgamated there were two support systems in place. We’re now one primary school and we need to make sure all our resources are equitably distributed across the whole school rather than having two separate systems running in parallel.”
Mr Greig also refuted the claim about resignations. He said a number of employees were retiring at the end of the year and one was moving abroad, but it was not accurate to say nine teachers had resigned.
The Breakspear School was rated ‘good’ following its last Ofsted inspection, which took place in December last year.
Inspectors praised then head teacher Philip Rutter for ‘working hard’ to bring the infant and junior schools together so the ‘ethos of high expectations’ was consistent all years.
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