Shoreham schools: 'Heads will roll'

West Sussex County Council has begun recruiting for heads for three new primary schools due to open in Lancing and Shoreham in September, 2008.

The council said there was no guarantee the jobs would go to any of the head teachers of the six schools being replaced and added that some of them might not find a position at all.

A spokeswoman said: "The existing heads will be able to apply for the headships of the new primary schools.

"If they are unsuccessful, they will be supported to try to find other positions, offered early retirement if appropriate and then, finally, if they cannot find another post, there could be compulsory redundancy."

The three new primary schools will replace The Willows First and Oakfield Middle in Lancing, Freshbrook First and Thornberry Middle in Lancing and Kingston Buci First and Buckingham Community Middle in Shoreham.

Freshbrook First will close and merge on to the Thornberry school site, while Kingston Buci First will also shut and merge on to the larger Buckingham school site.

The changes were intended to bring the area's schools in line with the national model of primary schooling until age 11.

The heads of each of the first schools are considered to be most at risk from the job cuts, as their middle school equivalents have more experience, with the challenges of dealing with larger schools.

A fourth new school is expected to be formed by a merger of Fishersgate First, Manor Hall First and Manor Hall Middle schools in Southwick, which should be confirmed in April.

Fishersgate head teacher Andrew Morris, a key figure in the fight to keep a school in the area, could lose his job.

Campaigner Elaine Ross, who helped make sure the Fishersgate building would not be shut down, said: "He's a fantastic head and it would be very sad if he ended up going. Whichever of the heads are lost would be a great shame and a waste." The county council said there were likely to be fewer teaching positions available as a result of the mergers.

The spokeswoman said all teaching and support positions at the new schools would be ring-fenced so that only staff currently employed in the area could apply.

She said: "The changes won't take place until September, 2008, so some staff are likely to retire or move before then. Hopefully, redundancies will not be necessary."

Teachers at the six closing schools will be able to apply for positions with similar salaries and hours at the three new primaries.

If they are unsuccessful, they will be able to apply for other vacancies in the ring-fence. None of the positions will be advertised generally until governors are sure no more of the existing staff want to apply.

West Sussex's school organisation committee is due to meet in April to decide whether to go ahead with a merger of Fishersgate and the Manor Hall schools, with buildings on both sites.

A government schools adjudicator rejected an earlier plan to close Fishersgate altogether.