Which five Southend schools raised their headteachers' salary after they converted to academies?

Chase High School increased its headteacher’s salary by £15,000 when it converted last year, while their were pay boosts at St. Bernards High School, Shoebury High School, and grammars Westcliff High School for Boys and its Girls counterpart, Freedom of Information requests have revealed.

The schools have said the extra accountability of being free from local authority control justifies the extra fees.

However a former teacher has blasted the process of claiming management profit from converting to academy status.

Pat Barron, the former head of St. Bernard’s High School, also saw a big increase from a maximum of £88,000 to £95,000 when the girls-only Catholic school converted to academy status.

The remaining six schools in the borough did not inflate their heads’ wage when converting, while Futures Community College is now the only secondary under Southend Council control still.

Chase High School in Prittlewell Chase, was taken over by the Brentwood Academies Trust last April, with Andrew James taking over from outgoing head Victoria Overy, with the salary rising from £88,102 to £103,060.

Mr James, who was deputy headteacher at Brentwood Academy, said: “The academy structure gives great freedom to schools in determining its curriculum and use of resources, but with those freedoms comes much greater accountability as academies work without the safety net that is offered by councils to its own schools.

“At a time when the world of education is struggling to recruit teachers, never mind headteachers, it’s not surprising that accountability comes at a cost.”

He cited a recent report from headteachers training charity, the Future Leaders Trust, which argued that increasingly, head teachers are becoming hard to recruit nationally.

But last year, delegates at the Association of Teachers Conference warned headteachers against the “rot of greed” as salaries soared for academy bosses nationally.

Former headteacher Ric Morgan, who taught in several Essex schools, said: “After over thirty years in state education I cannot see any benefit to students in a school leaving local authority control and becoming an academy.

“The salaries of senior staff are a different matter, as are their career prospects.

“Essentially, schools become academies so that heads and their deputies can make more money and governors can swank about.

“Many of the latter are councillors and therefore too cowardly and ignorant to keep the heads in check.”

Southend Independence councillor Lawrence Davies, a teacher, said: “Academies with their private employment model and more freedom to recruit to their needs may have many advantages but it could be that nationally we are heading towards the top heavy banking model where huge salaries are being pocketed by bosses while the customer facing workers are undervalued.”

The salary of Dr Paul Hayman, who is headteacher of Westcliff High School for Girls went from a maximum of £88,102 to £97,128, on conversion in 2011, but the grammar said that was because he became an executive headteacher of three other primary schools.

The former headteacher of Westcliff High School for Boys, Andrew Baker, had his salary increased from £102,734 to £105,097 when it became an academy in September 2010, but the grammar said this was in line with inflation, and nothing to do with the conversion.

Similarly at Shoebury High, headteacher Mark Schofield said the increase was down to performance management, and not academy status.

Andrew James, headteacher at Chase High School

A look at the schools who increased their salaries:

Chase High School
Headteacher: Andrew James
Converted in 2014 Salary before conversion: £88,102
Salary after conversion: £103,060 (Andrew James took over from Victoria Overy)
Justification: Greater accountability and higher demand for headteachers

St Bernard’s High School
Headteacher: Tony Sharpe
Converted in 2011
Salary before conversion: £ £83,000 - £88,000
Salary after conversion: £ £90,000 - £95,000 (under former head Pat Barron)
Salary now: £85,000 - £90,000 (Tony Sharpe took over in January 2016)
Justification: None given

Westcliff High School for Girls
Headteacher: Dr Paul Hayman
Converted in 2011
Salary before conversion: £76,053 to £88,102.
Salary after conversion: £83,892-£97,128
Justification: Dr Hayman became the executive head of three primary schools in the in the multi-academy trust

Shoebury High School
Headteacher: Mark Schofield
Converted in 2011
Salary before conversion: £88,102
Salary after conversion: £91,187
Salary now: £97,128
Justification: The increase was made in 2012 following a performance management review, which was separate to the school’s conversion

Westcliff High School for Boys
Headteacher: Mike Skelly
Converted in 2010
Salary before conversion: £102,734
Salary after conversion: £105,097 (under previous headteacher Andrew Baker)
Salary now: £88,984
Justification: The pay increase was down to inflation, which was set at 2.3 per cent, and coincidentally happened on the day the school converted. (September 1, 2010)

High turnover at Futures Community College

Stuart Reynolds (r), head of Futures

ALMOST 60 teachers left Futures Community College, with only half that amount recruited in a turbulent two-and-half years at the school.

Our Freedom of Information request has revealed that since 2013/14, 58 teachers have left the local authority-run school in Southchurch Boulevard, Southend - and only 31 have joined. However, bosses insist there are no classes being taught without qualified teachers.

In 2013/14, when the school was put in special measures by Ofsted leading to 31staff members leaving.

The school is one of 12 secondaries in Southend that have seen more teachers leave than have joined in the past two-and-a-half years, with some struggling to even find a single applicant for some roles.

Professionals say the undervalued teachers are leaving the profession, and believe the system is failing pupils, but the headteacher of Futures insists his school has recruited better staff despite its high departure rate.

Stuart Reynolds, who took over the school in 2013, said: “We have improved the efficiencies within the school. We don’t have any classes without qualified teachers in front of them at the moment.

“The staff turnover reflects the school’s improvement, we’ve become more efficient and we have replaced staff that were not so good with better teachers, but we have not needed to replace every post.

“We’ve recruited better teachers, but we’ve needed to make sure the school is financially sound, as we’ve not got a bottomless pit of money, but we are not understaffed.”

As recent as December, Ofsted criticised the school’s high staff turnover, but praised the management’s attempts to pull it out of special measures.

Elsewhere in the borough, Belfairs Academy in Leigh had 70 teachers leave since 2013, but 77 joined, while over the same period, 64 have left Chase High School in Westcliff, and 50 then joined.

Between November 2013 to October 2014, a record 49,000 teachers left the profession nationally, with critics suggesting this is down to heavy workloads and poor morale.

Southend Independence councillor Lawrence Davies, who has taught at Futures, said: “The undervaluing and poor treatment of teachers, who are essentially public workers as essential as nurses, fire or police officers, seems to have led to the best staff leaving education entirely or going to teach abroad, where discipline is better.

“Many teachers leave because they are seeing the system is failing so many pupils and this is heartbreaking.”

He added he was confident that Mr Reynolds’s team would succeed.

Belfairs, Eastwood Academy, St Thomas More High School, Shoebury High School, and Westcliff High School for Boys managed to recruit more staff than they lost.

Last month, the Echo reported that the boys grammar school, one of the best peforming schools in the country, had not had a single applicant for a maths role there.

And former teacher Ric Morgan added: “Any school with a high turnover of staff must be badly managed.

“Many teachers are discontented with the National Curriculum which is failing. Employers and colleges know this but the well-paid establishment will never admit it.

“Sadly, the teachers who leave are the most conscientious and talented while too many of the ones who stay are only interested in promotion to a fat-cat salaries and no contact with kids.”

Ray Gooding

Teaching shortage in Essex

A Shortage of teachers has seen Essex County Council looking to recruit from the north of England and Wales to help plug the gaps.

The Tory authority is planning a big recruitment campaign focused on these areas to try and fill more than 148 vacancies for both primary and secondary teachers.

Running until the end of March, it will focus on Lancashire, Chesire, and Wales, which are areas which apparently have a surplus of places.

And Southend, which is not governed by County Hall, is not faring too well either.

The Echo reported last month that Southend High School for Boys had failed to get a single application for two maths teacher roles, despite being one of the best performing schools in the country.

The county council is having to pay supply teachers up to £220 a day to help fill vacancies in the short term.

Conservative Ray Gooding pointed out that four out of five schools in Essex are ranked at least “good” by Ofsted, and that should be a draw.

He said: “Clearly a good supply of quality teachers is imperative if that progress is to continue and pupils are to receive the best possible education.”