PARENTS have criticised a move to cut the number of senior staff at an overcrowded primary school.
Hillhead Primary School's parent council is concerned about moves to cut either two principal teachers or one deputy headteacher. They say the usual complement is three deputy heads and three principal teachers.
The council says this comes on top of the removal of three temporary positions - an acting deputy headteacher and two acting principal teachers installed over the past two years.
They say that when the headteacher applied to have these posts advertised and made permanent, he was rejected on the basis that the school "did not have sufficient points". The council allocates points to schools for the purposes of calculating management size, based on the numbers of pupils.
The parent council has written to Glasgow City Council asking for the decision to be reconsidered, and also to Education Secretary Mike Russell, asking him for to take action in the face of the "ever increasing number of constraints" being placed on headteacher Francis Donaghy and his staff.
Ruth Downes, parent council chairwoman, said the move "creates the absurd situation that the school is being asked to manage a roll of 680 children with less management personnel than when there were 550 on the roll."
A council spokeswoman said: "We are sympathetic with the views of the parents and the school but we have introduced, in consultation with unions and staff, a management points system for primary schools which mirrors the points system we have in secondary schools. We need to work within the agreed approach."
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