During Bill Clinton’s successful first presidential election campaign there was always a big sign up in all his headquarters which simply stated ‘It’s the economy stupid’. He wanted his staffers and volunteers to focus on the key issue of the campaign. I meet a lot of headteachers and you will find we are all obsessed with staffing, particularly in the Summer term. For schools ‘it’s the staffing stupid’. Despite government’s reassurances that the bad old times of teacher shortages are no more we still have great difficulty getting candidates for many posts but particularly for Maths, Science and Technology. Recently several heads locally have also included English. A national problem is made worse by the high cost of housing in St Albans and our proximity to London where teachers can earn up to £6000 more for the same job. So we are particularly pleased to announce that we are fully staffed with qualified, specialist teachers in all posts from September 2008. A number of teachers are moving on to promotion, retirement, travelling or returning overseas. Two of our longest serving teachers Mrs Burrage (Sociology)and Mrs Dixon (Humanities) are retiring. Verulam veterans Mr Jones and Mr Osborne (both Humanities) are also going, although the latter is promoted just down the road to Beaumont! Mrs Gardner, who helped run so many trips and Mrs Nicholls, our German specialist, are moving on to challenges in new schools. Mr Harpham has been promoted to Deputy Head at Stoke Newington school in North London.
Mr Anderson (Head of English) and Mr Shibli (Head of Science) are moving to higher grade posts in new schools. Dr Harnett is moving into a pastoral role at Sir John Lawes and Dr Bentley is going to Roundwood Park. A number of fantastic Australian teachers who have contributed several years to the school are returning south - Ms Piavanini, Ms Huggins and Mr Harrington. Mr Thomson from Drama is moving to a school closer to home and Ms Oppenheim is going travelling. Mr Gibson who taught some A level Maths is retiring. I’m sure parents will join me in wishing all of them the best of luck. The number of staff leaving is more than last year but is similar to our partner BSV consortium schools. Our new publication ‘The Verulamian Magazine’ published in September will contain pictures and short biographies of those staff leaving.
