MAYHEM IN CLASSROOMS - Lessons chaos as Westminster schools employ record numbers of supply teachers

Published: 2 April 2010
EXCLUSIVE by JAMIE WELHAM

SCHOOLS are employing unprecedented numbers of supply teachers, the West End Extra can reveal.

More than 150 supply teachers – each costing up to £200 a day – are dispatched to Westminster schools every day.

It amounts to one in seven of Westminster’s full-time staff and means pupils often have a different teacher in the classroom every month.

Education experts have warned that the temporary staff struggle to control behaviour and fail to match the standards of their full-time colleagues.

Jo Shuter, headteacher at Quintin Kynaston secondary school in St John’s Wood, said inexperienced ­supply teachers often allowed classes to descend into “free-for-alls” and warned of an unacceptable strain on budgets.

Over the past four years, schools have paid out £20million – £6m last year – to private agencies to cover the record number of staff absences.

Critics have accused Westminster Council’s education department of not doing enough to attract new full-time staff at a time when headteachers are under intense pressure to keep spending down.

The trend can also be partly explained by a change in government regulations in 2006 that tightened rules on allowing teachers to cover for sick colleagues on an ad-hoc basis.

It is down to schools to arrange cover directly with agencies, the biggest of which is Vibe, covering 90 per cent of short-term vacancies in Westminster.

Supply teachers are not subject to the same qualification requirements as full-time staff and recent surveys have pointed to a growing disenchantment among school leaders, although Westminster’s NUT representative said the quality of the current crop is high.

Figures obtained by the West End Extra under the Freedom of Information Act show that primary schools paid out on average £85,000 to private agencies in 2008/09 – around 20 per cent of their annual budget. 

The figure is £30,000 higher than what schools spent in 2006/07.

For the borough’s nine secondary schools the figure stands at £230,000 each – the equivalent of putting nine newly qualified teachers earning an annual salary of £25,000 in every staffroom.

Quintin Kynaston and Grey Coat Hospital in Westminster are the most reliant on temporary staff, using around seven a day during the school year at a cost of more than £3m over the past four years.

Ms Shuter set up her own agency at Quintin Kynaston three years ago in an attempt to raise standards. She trains them up to “QK standard” and sends them to other schools in Westminster as well as some in Hammersmith and Fulham. 

“In my experience what you get is such a mixed bag but a lot of them just aren’t very good,” said Ms Shuter. “On days when we have a lot of supplies in, the whole atmosphere changes and it’s a disaster. 

“Kids know it’s a free-for-all when they see a new face in front of them.”

Speaking anonymously, teachers in two of Westminster’s secondary schools told the West End Extra   they had regularly witnessed outbreaks of “mayhem”. 

“I’ve seen supply teachers break down and cry before,” one said. “Kids see a new face and know they can get the better of them.” 

Jeff Bates, head of Westminster National Union of Teachers, said agencies were having a bigger say in education in the borough because so many teachers were fed up with red-tape and stress.

He added: “Thanks to the systematic bullying of experienced teachers out of mainstream jobs the quality of supply teachers currently is very high, but because cover is supplied through private agencies quality will be subject to market forces.

“My personal experience is that agencies never provided good value in the past compared to direct appointments or council-employed supply teachers and I doubt that this will change because of a glut in unemployed teachers. 

“Teacher workload and changes in pay and conditions, inspections and league tables have pushed large numbers of teachers to breaking point.”

Angela Drizi, director of schools and learning at Westminster Council, said: “We work directly with schools to reduce the pressures on teachers, with the number of sick days being reduced by 51 per cent in the last four years.

“Schools manage their own budgets and make appropriate decisions on how many supply teachers they need to cover for staff who are sick or are on maternity leave for example.”