SCOTLAND’S school leadership crisis has forced a council to put a single headteacher in charge of two of its largest secondaries.
Glasgow City Council said the creation of the new role of “executive headteacher” came after a low number of applications to a vacancy at one of the two schools.
The move means Gerry Lyons, the highly-regarded headteacher of St Andrew’s Secondary, in Carntyne, will also be asked to lead Holyrood Secondary, on the south side - one of the largest schools in Europe with 2,000 pupils.
The council said both schools would recruit a new post of “head of school” to join the senior management team with the new arrangement trialled for a year.
However, teaching unions warned the model should not be seen as a solution to the wider issue of school leadership shortages which saw 100 headteacher and deputy posts unfilled at the start of the school year.
Local authorities have increasingly asked headteachers to take over the running of more than one primary school, but the unusual move to create an executive headship in secondary is seen as a significant escalation of the problem.
Jim Thewliss, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, which represents secondary heads, said shortages were caused by factors including pay, stress and lack of support staff such as business managers.
He said: “This is a reasonable approach by Glasgow to a less than satisfactory situation, but it masks the wider difficulty in attracting suitable numbers of qualified candidates for high profile and important posts.
“In the past that sort of post would have attracted more than 20 or 30 high calibre applicants to give a council the opportunity to identify a suitably qualified candidate.
“The difficulty is applicant numbers are low because of concerns about workload, administration, stress and the issue of pay.”
A spokesman for the Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union said schools were facing challenges filling a range of teaching posts from classroom staff to leadership roles across Scotland.
He added: “This appears to be a practical short-term solution, but our view is that this move is not a future model for Glasgow or other local authorities.”
In a letter to school staff, Maureen McKenna, the council’s director of education, said the Holyrood post had been advertised in January, but had been unable to create a suitable leet for interview.
She said: “I have been working with parents to explore models of leadership for Holyrood and I am delighted to announce that from August, Gerry Lyons will be taking over temporarily as executive head of both Holyrood and St Andrew’s.
“To assist him with this we will advertise and appoint a head of school for each secondary school.
“Each senior management team will remain as they are currently. As this is a new position, we will be putting the model in place initially for one year.”
Ms McKenna said the arrangement, which will be put in place when current head Laurie Byrne retires, would be reviewed in 2018.
The Scottish Government said: “We recognise difficulties in recruiting heads in some parts of the country and are committed to supporting teachers who want to take the step to headship.”
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