Staffing and Curriculum Changes
March 25th 2009
Dear Parent / Carer
Details of changes to staffing and curriculum
As you will be aware The Highland Council has had to implement severe cuts to services over the last two years. Education provision has been protected until now, however the Highland Council has implemented a strategy to try and reduce over-staffing of teachers. Previous cutbacks just as rigorous and wide-ranging involving non-teaching staff have taken place behind the scenes.
Due to falling birth rates our school roll has dropped over the last few years. This is forecast to continue next session and Gairloch High School will move further into a position of excess staffing. The Council now require an immediate indication of how the school plans to manage the issue. This has resulted in some hard decisions that will affect all the pupils.
- From August we will not have a dedicated History teacher. We will deliver History as part of a combined Social Subjects course in S1 and S2. We will also make sure the S3 going into S4 will be able to finish their Standard Grade however we will not be able to run S3 Standard Grade History – at least for a year. We are planning to make Higher History available to the current S4 pupils.
- We will have a reduced complement of PE staffing however every effort will be made to preserve our developments in Outdoor Education.
- To meet the depth of cuts required I have had to identify another area of the curriculum surplus. As you will be aware in our school this equates to an individual teacher. There is no easy solution here however I have identified Business Studies subjects. This decision is based on minimising disruption to the pupils. We will try and continue courses already in place, particularly for those pupils in S3 Admin, however Administration, Business Management and Accounting will not appear on the Course Choice forms for 2009/2010.
The proposed plan, while severe, should put the school in a position to manage more effectively future changes to the roll and provide a solid foundation for re-developing the curriculum. It is my hope that we will be able to recover some of these subjects, along with Home Economics, in the future. Currently however the falling school roll combined with the economic climate does not allow the situation to continue as it has in recent years.
If any parent wishes to discuss this matter more fully they are welcome to contact me at school either in writing, email or by telephone (below). I am also available at each of the parent contact evenings. You may also wish to contact Robin Fox, the chair of the Parent Council, via the school.
Yours faithfully
JOHN PORT
Headteacher
