SUNSHINE Coast Grammar School will trim its management structure in a bid to get more teachers back into the classroom.
The changes follow a year-long strategic review of the school’s delivery of teaching and learning, including consultation with staff and an independent survey of parents.
Grammar principal Nigel Fairbairn said while the overall number of “added responsibility” positions would be cut, new positions would be created and responsibilities redistributed without cutting student resources, subjects or extracurricular activities.
He said he had personally met with staff members to explain the restructure.
Letters outlining the changes had been sent home to parents.
“Most staff are relieved we made the hard decisions but obviously there have been some mixed emotions from staff who are directly impacted on,” Mr Fairbairn said.
“There has been the full range of grief one expects when there is major change but nothing we hadn’t anticipated. All of the positions of added responsibility being abolished will remain in place until the end of the 2010 school year and we have offered support services to affected staff to assist them to apply for new roles.”
Mr Fairbairn said the school’s highest priority had always been providing high quality teaching and learning for its students and the restructure was designed to best meet students’ needs and align with the 2011 adoption of the new Australian Curriculum.
“We really want to make sure teaching and learning are our priority. People want to see teachers in front of classes.
“The responsibilities of each of the roles being abolished will be redistributed to new and existing roles and students and programs will not be disadvantaged.
“We are not cutting subject choices and extracurricular activities, but retaining a student-driven curriculum that integrates with the new Australian Curriculum, in keeping with our commitment to teaching and learning opportunities.”
This article's primary contributor, Patrick Gillett, is an  of Sunshine Coast Grammar School.




The Sunshine Coast is a region approximately 95 km (60 miles) north of the state capital, Brisbane.
''Wikinews'' has obtained a list of middle management teaching staff allegedly made redundant, or laid off due to restructuring, by  (SCGS), in Queensland, Australia. Sources say that those staff have been told that they can apply for new positions that have opened up.

The list, published on the SCGS alumni Facebook page, contains the names of twenty-two staff members, eight of which taught this article's primary contributor. Seventeen positions are reportedly being opened up by the private Christian school, eight of which seem to significantly overlap the old ones.

The changes are, apparently, designed to get teachers back into the classroom. "We are not cutting subject choices and extracurricular activities, but retaining a student-driven curriculum that integrates with the new Australian Curriculum, in keeping with our commitment to teaching and learning opportunities," said headmaster Nigel Fairbairn.

Fairbairn could not guarantee that any of the staff would be given a position in 2011.  “That will depend on how many people on that list apply for new positions of responsibility and are successful,” he said.

"The Head of the School cannot guarantee the 21 staff a job at the School in the future, with many of the positions being advertised to external applicants," said Terry Burke, secretary for the Independent Education Union of Australia Queensland branch (Queensland Independent Education Union, QIEU).

"There has been little or no consultation with affected staff, who should not have to reapply for their jobs," he said. "Most of the proposed restructuring is highly questionable and places at risk the high quality education at the School."

Some former students responded angrily to the news.

Four of the affected teachers "were the backbone of the school when controversy surrounded founding headmaster John Burgess happened," a former prefect (student leader) said. "They got it through that crisis and this is the thanks they get."

"People are angry and shocked," they continued. "I am aware of at least 10 families who have said they will pull their children out of the school – it's that bad."

The student body has not ruled out protesting the schools plans. "It's getting to that stage," the former prefect said. "People are trying to look at it in an intelligent way but there is so much anger out there."

''Wikinews'' understands that Fairbairn attracted criticism when he was a head teacher in Christchurch, New Zealand, where a former student claimed that Fairbairn "replaced the open and welcoming culture ... with the tyrannical and oppressive one."