A DELEGATION of head teachers and the town’s MP have called for help in recruiting and training teachers in Slough – due to the shortfall of talent being attracted to the area.

Slough MP Fiona Mactaggart led a group of school leaders to the Department for Education in London to press the minister for education Nick Gibb over the issue.

The meeting, on Thursday, September 15, allowed the teachers and Ms Mactaggart to discuss a shortage in the number of teachers in the area, as well as the possibility of removing some of the barriers to recruiting foreign teachers from countries such as Canada.

Ms Mactaggart said: “We have great schools in Slough they work well together but good learning depends on great teachers, at the moment with rocketing house prices and competition from London boroughs who pay more, schools are struggling.

“The minister spent time listening to the challenges faced by Slough schools I look forward to his response which I hope will help our schools tackle this difficult problem.”

She added that the minister resisted their requests to give Slough schools the same resources as similar schools who pay London weighting for teacher salaries, and a number of ideas were presented to him to help recruit and retain well trained teachers.

The delegation included John Constable, head teacher of Langley Grammar Academy; Jo Rockall, head teacher of Herschel Grammar; Debbie Richards from Arbour Vale Special School; Nicky Willis, head teacher of Cippenham Primary; and Paul McAteer from Slough and Eton Church of England School.

Ms Rockall said: “Recruiting to posts that are vacated by people that have retired or been promoted is difficult, particularly in areas of maths and physics.

“We were trying to point out that there are regional variations to the national situation. If you look at the Department for Education with its initial teacher training, there are probably enough teachers being trained across the country. But that doesn’t necessarily show where the demand is.

“We were trying to draw the minister’s attention to the Slough specific issues. We have a particular issue about the recruitment of English teachers which may not be the case in other parts of the country.

“My school is fine at the moment as we worked really hard in the summer to make sure that we are staffed for September, but there are vacancies across the town.”