South London Press, 08/07/2003

Temporary teachers who were rushed in to cover classes at a school for autistic children quit after just one day.

At least five have walked out, saying they are not happy to carry on at the private special school, BBI Education, in Vauxhall, south London. It leaves the school's pupils - many with difficult behaviour needing one-to-one attention - with 13 teachers when there were more than 35 just two weeks ago.

Bosses at the school made long-standing staff redundant claiming a cash crisis a fortnight ago. Many are still waiting for June's pay-packet.

BBI then turned to cheaper temps to plug the gap until summer holidays, even though some have no experience of autism. Four of the 18 who started training on July 7 dropped out before first lessons on July 8 and one went home at lunchtime on the second day.

The remaining 13 are in charge of 16 children, when many need one-to-one care and some need to be watched by two teachers.

Some worried parents are keeping their kids at home and say they are furious at BBI's chief, Bill Goodyear, for the upset.

Joanna Butcher, from Clapham, said her son Luke, seven, was not going back to BBI. "There's no way after all the disruption," she said. "It would do him no good at all. They changed the teachers, the classes and even the classrooms."

For his part, Goodyear said: "Some of the teachers came in for training and said to me at the end of that day this was not for them. One came in for the first day of teaching and told me she had thought about it and decided she was not right for the job. Tuesday was a very, very difficult day and a lot of the kids were very confused, because it was a major disruption. But if you came in now, the school is a different place. The teachers have settled in and the children are starting to get used to them."

Goodyear said he had interviewed all new staff, and added: "Some do not have experience of autistic children, but as a whole they have more teaching qualifications than the outgoing staff."

He said he was "more than happy" that 16 children were sharing 13 staff.