Letter came home today from HT informing us that she's leaving...

[bramblina]

Which we had suspected, there has been casual gossip, things aren't great, she made a passing comment at a meeting 6m ago "well I won't be here anyway (when xx happens)"

Today's letter;

Staffing
I would like to inform parents and children that I have now offered my resignation and will be leaving on Friday 2nd June.

We have a wonderful staff here doing their best for the children. I am grateful to them for their dedication. We have children that are great to be with and full of enthusiasm for all we do. I am proud of all their achievements whether in school or out of school. I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents for their valued support over the years. We have a great school which has lots of strengths and lots to be proud of. For me, however it is time to move on.

(Signed)
E Smith

Please tell me what you make of this? Bear in mind (we are in Scotland) she leaves 4 weeks before the end of term. WTF???

Well, the area head said she will make an announcement...but we have no idea of what.....

I have been through this a couple of times over my primary school years (well my childrens )

Case 1 Dep head took over for 1 month and after summer new HT came in

Case 2 Another HT from another school came in and jointly dealt with the 2 school for 2 terms until a new HT came in

Case 3 A teacher became acting head for 2 terms and they interviewed in the beginning of 2nd term She was then given the job as HT.

Case 4 (a little different and I only heard of this today as I no longer have primary school children) HT is currently on Mat leave and not due back until next school year a DH was in place. DH is leaving (today) and in the interim another HT from a local school is looking after the school until actual HT returns from Mat leave.

So really in your situation there can be a lot of different solutions to the situation.

There are schools with 300 pupils throughout Scotland with no support for learning teacher.

I'm not quite sure why you are so focused on that as this woman's ultimate failing.

The principal of my DC's elementary school was fired about one month into the first term of the year. The school district moved a new principal in the following week because they knew she was going to be gone.

If your district doesn't have someone already to move into the school I suspect the head is moving for personal reasons and they haven't found a replacement yet. It could be anything from sudden ill health, to needing to care for a sick relative, to she's just had enough of the job and can't face going into work any more.

Bitey, I'm interested in the school you mention with 300 pupils. That's a very high roll compared to ours, but the amount of SfL teacher input is related to the level of needs. We have 50% of roll of children on the SfL needs matrix. Perhaps the school you mention is near another which educates the majority of those children with needs? We have no special school closer than 65 miles so daily travel is not an option- we have 2 mentally disabled children amoung other disabilities.

Could you tell me the name of the school you know of? And where could I find more information like this? TIA.