18 January 2002
Primary schools also struggled to attract suitable applicants, with 31% having to take out a second set of recruitment adverts.
The seventeenth annual EDS survey of senior staff appointments also found that salaries for some primary school head teachers in London broke the £60,000 barrier for the first time.
The survey, which collated information from national advertisements, reported that the rate of re-advertisement of secondary heads in England and Wales went up from 19% to 26% in 2000/01.
Professor John Howson, the survey's author, said of the rising number of re-advertisements: 'At one time this was only a problem faced by schools in London and the Southeast. Last year it became a national issue.
'This must be worrying for schools that have to repeat the recruitment process, often at a cost of well over £1,000, once staff time, advertising costs and other expenses have been taken into account.'
Howson found that one in ten state schools advertised for a head teacher or deputy in 2000/01. Advertised vacancies for secondary deputy heads rose to 2,930 but the number of secondary head teachers being sought dropped to 408 from the record 446 recorded the previous year.
Trade union representatives predicted that the reported increase in primary head teachers' salary levels would spread across the country.
David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: 'We've seen the £60,000 barrier breached in London and I think we will see it breached in other parts of the country.'
PFjan2002
