Councillors in Moray have united in a pledge for a more “positive message” in an attempt to solve the region’s teacher recruitment crisis.
Education staff in the area have been struggling to fill posts with some vacancies having to be advertised up to four times before attracting suitable candidates.
Meanwhile, Applegrove, Kinloss, St Sylvester’s and East End primary schools all have acting depute head teachers due to issues recruiting permanent employees. All of those schools currently have permanent heads teachers.
Yesterday, teachers in Speyside were praised for developing a solution to cover the maternity leave of Glenlivet Primary School’s only teacher.
The class will be covered by the current head teacher at Tomintoul Primary School while a deputy takes up the day-to-day running there.
Speyside Glenlivet councillor Derek Ross said: “The team there have gone above and beyond what is expected to come up with a solution.”
During yesterday’s meeting of the council’s children and young people’s committee, members were encouraged to have a more positive outlook for the region.
Ahead of the talks, senior management revealed that discontinuing classes in some schools and reviewing the long-term viability of the entire school estate remained options if vacancies continued to mount up.
Secondary school representative Susan Slater said: “We need to change the narrative to encourage people to come here.
“If I had the choice of authority then I would think twice about coming to Moray if I saw the negative reporting about closing schools and the state of the school buildings.”
Council convener Shona Morrison said: “One of the things the new administration is eager to do is blow our trumpet about how wonderful the region is.”
Forres councillor Clare Feaver agreed a more positive message could be successful but stressed improvements were essential first.
She said: “You can’t change the narrative unless the facts back it up.”
