Teacher vacancies in rural areas

Teaching jobs are available at schools in rural areas

Fresh concerns about the availability of jobs for newly qualified teachers has brought another worry over teaching into focus.

Rural and remote regions of Scotland - including the Highlands, Aberdeenshire and the islands - continue to struggle to recruit staff.

More than 100 teaching vacancies are being advertised in these areas.

Aberdeenshire has more than 90 posts - a mix of full, part-time, temporary and permanent positions.

Almost all 16 teaching vacancies with Highland Council have been re-advertised and offer relocation packages to successful applicants.

Nationally, head teachers have told the government moves to help hundreds of newly qualified teachers who are unable to find work are not good enough.

Highland, along with the islands and Aberdeenshire, have often been held up as examples of places where it was a struggle to fill vacancies.

Teachers' leaders have said it was not always that simple for staff to move to rural and remote areas from more urban parts of Scotland because of family commitments.

Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh are where many students go to study for a career in teaching, though the prospective University of the Highlands and Islands, or UHI, offer the chance to train as a Gaelic-language teachers at its sites.

Highland Council has 16 jobs available across the region.

Of those, 12 have been re-advertised and 15 come with money available to help teachers to move to the area.

They include a pupil support post based at Tain Royal Academy with a salary of between �20,427 and �32,583.

Further up the scale, there is a �49,818-a-year head teacher job at Mount Pleasant Primary in Thurso and a head teacher post covering Knockbreck and MacDairmid primary schools on Skye which comes with a �44,370 salary and a remote allowance of �1,122-a-year.

Candidates for five of the vacancies must have Gaelic, while use of the language is encouraged for all other posts.

Meanwhile, Highland councillors have been told that the authority does not have enough money to pursue the Scottish Government's goal of reducing the maximum size of classes in the first three years of primary to 18.

Relocation package

A report by Hugh Fraser, Highland's director of education, suggests 80 extra teachers would be needed at a cost of �3.12m a year.

Aberdeenshire Council is advertising more than 90 vacancies, but they are a mixture of permanent, temporary and part-time.

Four teaching vacancies are available on the Western Isles - two at Sir E Scott Primary on Harris, one at Stornoway Primary on Lewis and a maths teacher post at the Nicolson Institute on Lewis.

Again it is a mix of full-time, part-time and temporary.

A relocation package is available with the �44,370-a-year post of head teacher at Cullivoe Primary School on Shetland.

No teaching vacancies were currently advertised on the vacancies section of Orkney Islands Council's website.

HIGHLANDS SCHOOL JOBS The Highlands are often held up as one of the areas of Scotland that struggles with recruiting teachers. The following vacancies are among those being advertised for local schools: 1. Thurso - A �49,000-a-year head teacher's job at 188-pupil Mount Pleasant Primary. The Caithness town is among the places in the Highlands furthest from main areas of population and teacher training colleges. It is 278 miles away from Glasgow, 264 miles from Edinburgh and 211 miles from Aberdeen. 2. Wick - Bower Primary School, near Wick, has a vacancy for a teacher. The school has a roll of about 22 pupils. 3. Ullapool - The town's primary school is looking for a principle teacher in Gaelic. 4. Tain - Vacancy for a pupil support teacher. Salary of up to �32,583. 5. Dunvegan - Gaelic teacher at Dunvegan Primary School. Salary of up to �32, 583. 6. Portree - A head teacher is being sought to oversee primary schools at eight-pupil Knockbreck and 32-pupil MacDiarmid primaries. A salary of �44,370 and �1,122 remote allowance on offer. 7. Plockton - Teacher in Gaelic at the village primary school. 8. Dingwall - Vacancy for an English teacher at Dingwall Academy, with a salary of up to �32,583. 9. Avoch - �42,897-a-year depute head post at primary school. 10. Inverness - Vacancy for a teacher of English for speakers of other languages. 11. Ardnamurchan - The high school has a vacancy for an English teacher. Salary of up to �35,523. 12. Fort William - Physics teacher for Lochaber High School at up to �32,583-a-year.

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