School in Swinney’s seat calls for help in maths

ONE of the largest schools in Education Secretary John Swinney’s constituency has sent a letter to parents asking for help teaching maths.

Blairgowrie High School, which lies in Mr Swinney’s Perthshire North Holyrood seat, experienced chronic staffing problems just weeks before students sit vital exams.

Headteacher Bev Leslie told parents that a maths teacher was absent from school whilst another recently left.

She added that the school had had no success recruiting replacements and were forced to make the “highly unusual” request of asking parents to help.

Mr Swinney recently came under fire for nationwide teacher shortages and announced funds to train an additional 371 teachers last month.

Last week’s letter said: “Any parents with a maths or maths-related degree who would be interested in supporting our pupils in the short-term, please contact either myself or Mrs Hill.

“This is a highly unusual request I am sure you will appreciate, given the current circumstances, we are looking at creative short-term measures.”

A spokesman for Perth and Kinross Council said: “The request from the headteacher for parental support is not a request for parents to teach a class or provide classroom support; their help would be limited to after-school support study activities only.”

The Government said Mr Swinney, who is also the Deputy First Minister, had invited “a number of new routes into teaching to be developed to increase the availability of quality teachers quickly”.