Air chaos hits schools

Published 22 Apr 2010 10:09 4 Comments

Share this

By Ewan McInnes

TWO local head teachers are stranded abroad as a volcanic dust cloud wreaks havoc on the area's education.

Catherine Dillon-Ruddy, of St John's PS, in Barrhead, and Sandra Carey, of Madras Family Centre, in Neilston, have both been unable to make it home after travelling abroad for their Easter break.

The teachers were due back at their respective schools on Monday but have had to make alternative plans after the volcano Eyjafjallajoeku erupted in Iceland, last week.

Volcanic dust from the explosion is a serious threat to aircraft, and British airspace has been closed since early Thursday morning.

Catherine and Sandra are two of 134 East Renfrewshire teachers grounded abroad which works out at nearly 11 per cent of the council's teaching total of 1,230 staff.

The town's St Luke's High School is missing two teachers and Barrhead High has seven teachers absent.

The News has been told that all schools in the area are working as normal using a pre-prepared business continuity plan to fill the absences.

As some pupils are only two weeks away from major exams which will determine their future careers, secondary schools have been given priority to cover certificate exam classes in the run-up to highers, advanced highers and intermediates.

Three educational facilities fortunate enough not to have any teacher absences are Springhill PS, Neilston PS and Arthurlie Family Centre.

The council also revealed that many teachers stuck in Europe had been in contact with their schools to say they hope to return later in the week.

Education director John Wilson said: "We have swung into action with pre-prepared business continuity plans, including deploying supply teachers, and all of our 24 primaries, seven secondaries and one special school is open."

Across the local authority, the number of pupils absent because of the crisis is 280 primary aged kids, 187 from the secondaries and seven youngsters who attend nursery.

This equates to a total of 474 out of 17,000 pupils.

The council confirmed its schools have no school trips abroad at present and none are planned until May 1.

As the News went to press, having been open for a few hours in the morning the airspace around Glasgow Airport was due to close from 1pm yesterday, until further notice, as a result of the spreading cloud of volcanic ash.

Any Barrhead residents due to travel in the near future are advised to check the status of their flight with their airline before leaving for the airport.

This article appeared in Barrhead News 21 Apr 10

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

kenny
Unregistered User
Apr 23, 08:32
Report comment

Well done for the council for getting right on the case and putting supply teachers in our schools. Our kids education won't suffer, that's the main thing.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
anon
Unregistered User
Apr 23, 13:35
Report comment

I hope they've got some plan on how to deal with this. How can the council possibly afford to fund supply teachers and pay the actual teachers? They're getting rid of staff left right and centre. How much money do they have?

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
Big AL
Unregistered User
Apr 23, 20:59
Report comment

what do teachers expect they get more holidays than everybody else and are paid handsomely.

fair enough its no their fault but they don't really have the right to moan about losing a few days pay

Recommend? Yes 0 No 1
nick
Unregistered User
Apr 26, 09:13
Report comment

my kids are about to sit their exams and im just glad there was some sort of plan in place to help them. it wouldn't have been fair if they had had to lose out on their final days of studying because of this. however they sort out the row, the council should be commended for getting into action so quickly.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0

Follow @barrheadnews

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.