Recruitment

From today's Education Post (at the end of this article):

ESF begins teacher recruitment drive

The English Schools Foundation has begun its major recruitment drive for the year, seeking applications for 80 primary and secondary teaching positions. This year's intake will be the second cohort of teachers to be employed after salaries were cut by 5 per cent last year, following a remuneration review.

Peter Craughwell, the ESF's head of corporate communications, said teachers who were on contracts that predated the remuneration review would move on to the new conditions in September.

Mr Craughwell said 97 staff members had resigned this year, compared with 130 last year.

Last year Julian Harniess (then chair of the Association of Professional Teachers of ESF Schools) expressed the view that significantly more teachers would resign this year than did last year (ESF teachers are on 2 year contracts, so the theory was that they would wait until the contract ended before making a decision). It seems that this has not happened.

Actually, I'm not sure that this figure of 80 vacancies is correct - I heard 129 - but thankfully it seems that there hasn't been a huge exodus of teachers. I know that this is still a sensitive subject, so I won't make any comment except to say that, as a parent, I hope that the ESF can retain good teachers and attract high-quality candidates to replace those who are leaving.

Mr Craughwell said 1,089 applications were received this week but he expected the foundation would receive more over the weekend.

The ESF will hold interviews in Hong Kong early next month, followed by interviews in Australia and the UK.

The ESF has also advertised the position of director of education. The position, formerly known as education development director, is currently held by Graham Ranger. The advertisement says the director of education will be instrumental in shaping the foundation's educational policy.

As I understand it, Graham Ranger recently resigned from the ESF to take up a position as a principal of a school outside Hong Kong.

Also in today's Education Post

Foxcroft new head of West Island
Jane Foxcroft has been appointed the new head of West Island School, ending a selection process that has taken more than a year and involved two candidates rejecting the position.

Lamma parents start petition over zoning changes
Parents living on Lamma Island are upset that their children will have to attend a different English Schools Foundation school than previously planned due to zoning changes.

Re-zoning

One of the problems facing the ESF is that changing demographics are affecting the number of applications received by different schools. The biggest problems (as previously mentioned) are in Kowloon and the New Territories, where the population is expanding, but it also affects other areas where applications are falling.

Towards the end of last year, the ESF announced changes to the zoning. The most radical part of this is that the harbour is no longer a barrier, and so children from the West Kowloon reclamation area will be directed to Island School rather than KGV, and in the Tsing Yi area to Island School rather than Sha Tin College

In addition, primary school children from Lamma and Lantau (including Discovery Bay) will go to Bradbury rather than to Kennedy School. Some areas have been transferred to Clearwater Bay School from Kowloon Junior School and Sha Tin Junior School.

There are some obvious problems with this, particularly during the changeover period:

• Groups of friends/neighbours of similar ages going to different schools.
  
• Although younger siblings will be allowed to go to the same school as their older brother(s) or sister(s) that will mean that they will be separated from their local friends of the same age.

The journeys may be more difficult, which is obviously a concern (particularly with younger children) and it also creates some logistical difficulties with school bus arrangements.