STAFF at Shaftesbury School have walked out this morning (June 17) over controversial restructuring plans – which will include some pupils attending lessons remotely.
The Sherborne Area Schools’ Trust (SAST), which oversees the school, is planning to merge the curriculum with that of Sturminster Newton High School – another of its schools.
However, parents are fearful the move will see pupils being taught by staff at the other site – meaning remote lessons, and heads of departments and years based almost nine miles away.
Parents have this week been sent a three-page letter explaining the move, but many fear their children’s education will be impacted by the changes.
And members of the National Education Union (NEU) have today staged the first of a number of planned days of industrial action in protest over the changes.
One parent, who did not wish to be named, said the changes were “deeply upsetting” and that they fear “no one is thinking about the children and the impact it will have on them”.
In the letter to parents, the trust said both schools had been “operating significantly over budget” and that the planned changes came after an independent review by a Department of Education consultant.
“The financial choices we faced were to close one or potentially both sixth forms, or restructure the school leadership teams, so that we could focus on front line teaching and keep a broad curriculum for students,” it went on.
“We strongly believe that both Shaftesbury and Sturminster Newton should have sixth form provision in their local communities. This is a crucial stage in enabling students to follow their chosen career paths, and so for us the choice was simple – we reduce leadership posts, keep a broad curriculum, and look at how we can innovatively deliver excellent education in both schools.
“Restructuring is never easy, or popular. We are pleased that we have not had to make any compulsory redundancies, and that many of the staff who have chosen to leave will take up promotions elsewhere.
“We know that local media has said that ‘the best teachers have left’ but this is absolutely not the case. Staff were invited to apply for the new leadership posts, and we are pleased to have appointed a fantastic team of Heads of Departments, who are already planning and bringing in changes.
“These members of staff are talented, enthusiastic, and driven by the desire to improve outcomes for our students. There will be a Head
of Department in one school, who is responsible for results, staff management, and department budgets, and a Lead Teacher on the other site, who will be responsible for supporting in the delivery and development of the curriculum.
“They will work together to help drive improvements in our curriculum, and by sharing resources, reduce teacher workload. Heads of Department will regularly meet with staff across both sites, and we believe this collaborative approach will deliver benefits.”
But Jon Timbrell, from the NEU, said: “Our members at Shaftesbury School remain very concerned with the detrimental impact that certain aspects of the restructure will have on both student attainment and staff development.
“The trust claims that the new structure will increase collaboration, but members worry that the solutions are financially driven and will make delivering high quality teaching even more difficult.
He added: “Highest among concerns is the proposal to merge curriculum leadership structures across Shaftesbury and Sturminster Newton.
“Leaving aside the material loss this will mean for a large number of staff, our members believe a school is at its best when it is responsive to the needs and context of its pupils and community.”
Echoing the sentiment of the parent, he said the move would mean teachers are less able to respond to the needs of individual pupils, with Shaftesbury School being left without heads of English, maths or science on the site.
“We are also concerned that the speed and scope of these changes could leave some pupils without subject-specialist teachers,” Mr Timbrell added.
“We also have unanswered financial questions from the Trust, including detail around some of the non-staffing based savings they have sought to make and the educational and financial efficacy of retaining executive leadership roles whilst simultaneously cutting front-line provision.
“Strike action is always a last resort, and we remain hopeful of reaching an agreement through negotiation.”
In addition to today’s action, further days of strikes are set to take place on June 24 and 25, and on July 1, 2 and 3.
Not a good situation my twin boys will be going into sixth form in September,they were both impacted by Covid learning remotely in their last year of primary school I feel remote learning will not be beneficial at all.Also the excellent teachers that are leaving has caused a sadness and it’s a shame that the SAST team do not value the ethics of school learning as pupils as people and not just statical evaluations.From a very unhappy and demoralised parent.
Yes, it should be about the children and the Soldiers on the ground, that know and understand what needs to be done. The people at the top, sitting in their counting offices in their ivory towers are not in touch with the real world.
It would be far better to run one 6th form. Close the other and bus all the 6th form students to the one 6th form. Travelling to go to lessons on different sites during the day means students arrive late to a lesson and have to leave early to get back to the other site. No where near enough work is covered and it is disruptive to everyone. Students should come for the whole day!
Senior mgmt are not losing their positions ie deputy heads. If it is such a good idea why do you need a head of each school and an executive head? One overall head is enough surely and it would save loads of money to be spent on pupils learning.
Class size is increasing in classrooms that are already too small. It leads to more disruption. Small classes enjoy a much better learning environment..
Ridiculous- good luck
How are the unions getting on with their industrial strike action?? Adding more dates and little else. Still some nice weather for the striking teachers to enjoy because they’re not to be seen on the picket line. All the meanwhile the only people suffering are the children being denied an education altogether by the continuing strike action. Is this really about the childrens education, I’d say not given no work has been provided for the strike days. Selfish action, announced very quickly after the proposals so a lot of time was spent seeking alternative actions.
Money in schools is tight but SAST has a central team on huge salaries who never meet students or parents. To fund this team they are removing subject leaders from school which will devastate the quality of education and lead to good teachers moving on as there are few promotion prospects. The money should be being spent on frontline teachers to preserve choice in the curriculum and sensible class sizes. I heard from a teacher that none of them like SAST and all feel demoralised by the lack of any say in their own working environment.