Published at 11:11, Thursday, 16 February 2012

WHITEHAVEN School paid more than £200,000 to supply teachers – one of the highest amounts in the county.

The figures were revealed by South Lakes MP Tim Farron, following a Freedom of Information request to Cumbria County Council.

It showed the total amount paid to supply staff in Cumbria by 76 schools in 2010/11 was £1.7million – down on the previous year when it totalled more than £2million.

According to the figures, the largest costs incurred for supply teaching were in the west of the county, with Whitehaven School paying £203,716 and Bransty £100,502.

The lowest levels were logged at Monkwray, in Whitehaven, which paid nothing.

Whitehaven School headteacher Lynette Norris said hers is a large school and encountered “the usual absences due to illness”.

“The larger the school, the larger the staff team, hence the figure for cover follows,” she said.

“It is worth remembering that many of our supply teachers earn their living through this business and all agencies that are able to offer good jobs to employ people should also be viewed as a positive.

“Other time covered by staff outside of school are for maternity and paternity leave – which all new parents are duly entitled to.”

The school paid £280,000 in the previous year, so the latest figures represented a drop of more than a quarter.

The headteacher added that supply teachers did a good job “often at the shortest of notice”.

“In an ideal world, schools would have sufficient funds to accommodate times of increased pressure on staffing resources, but with funding cuts and falling rolls nationally this is not possible although we do employ our own cover supervisors so that they can get to know our students individually,” she added.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk