Hundreds of Bradford's middle school staff and a number of staff at other schools still have no idea what jobs they will be doing after the summer holidays. Many admit to feeling demoralised and downhearted about the uncertainty. Lyn Barton and Jan Winter report.

AT THE age of 55, Eccleshill Upper School head teacher Neil Donkin feels he is too young to turn his back on a profession he loves.

But, Eccleshill is to shut in the summer and he has not been offered a job leading another school.

Taking early retirement - which has been offered to heads and deputy heads of closing schools - now seems to be his last resort.

"It's not what I would have chosen or would have wanted, but it seems the only option available," said Mr Donkin.

"I wanted to keep going, I love teaching and I feel I have a lot to offer."

Only two jobs as heads of secondary schools came up under the reorganisation; at the new Immanuel Community College in Thackley and the new Parkside Secondary School at Cullingworth.

Mr Donkin said he has not made any plans about the future yet, although he is determined to make sure the last few months of the school are the best in its lifetime.

"I am concentrating more about the school than myself. I am still deciding what I want to do."

Bradford Education Director Diana Cavanagh has admitted staff who have not been placed at other schools are in a position of "extreme uncertainty" but she has pledged that the redeployment process will be completed within weeks.

The Council has also agreed that there will be no compulsory redundancies although non-teaching staff could be offered retraining for jobs elsewhere in the Council.

"The vast majority of staff are placed in a permanent job and will start on September 1," she told the Telegraph & Argus earlier this month.

"All the remainder will be placed temporarily on a supernumeracy basis to support a split-site situation, for example. They will know about this by Easter and all of them have been seen individually. We are still in the process of placing permanent staff as well."

But a teacher with 20 years' experience, Alan (not his real name) feels middle school teachers have borne the brunt of the schools shake-up. He says many are depressed at way redeployment is being carried out.

"We very much had the feeling of being scapegoated and that this whole exercise was a smokescreen for other feelings," he said.

"At the time, the example held up to us was Leeds and how it works. And now they have received a damning Ofsted inspection report.

"There was no discrimination about the quality of middle schools, it seemed the baby was being thrown out with the bath water. Some of the very best schools in Bradford happen to be middle schools. There is no acknowledgement of middle schools' achievements," he said.

"All the emotional and psychological burden of the changes have been put on to middle school staff, despite reassurances from the authority that all would pull together towards these changes. Only the middle school staff seem to have faced the uncertainty.

"There have been constant changes in job lists, schools' groups, deadline dates, to a point where people began to ignore them. The kids even can't believe that we don't know where we're going.

"There has been a constant stream of vague platitudes which has left staff bewildered and confused.

"We raise valid concerns and all we get back are answers like: 'I hear what you're saying' and 'It's too soon to call'!

"At all staff levels, many of the LEA statements have been greeted with great hilarity - some new statement comes out about the changes and we're falling about laughing!"

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