HEADTEACHERS in Bucks secondary schools are still 100 teachers short of the numbers they need for next term.

Buckinghamshire County Council's education department is still gathering the figures about what the situation is in primary schools.

The subject of recruitment and retention was on the agenda at a meeting of the area's primary and secondary school heads held at Disraeli Combined School in High Wycombe on Thursday.

Afterwards the head, Nigel Cook, whose school is fully staffed, said the meeting with the education department's finance chief Alan Mander was to keep them informed.

Another head said the problem had been exacerbated by staff in some schools in the south of the county being eligible for a London weighting to their salaries, while staff in another school, just a few miles away, did not qualify.

The rule is that teachers working in schools in Chiltern and South Bucks districts get an extra £750 a year London weighting regardless of where they live.

The county council was given £700,000 by the government this year to spend on recruitment and retention of teachers and it will get a similar amount next year.

All the cash was passed on to the schools according to their size, for them to spend as they chose.

A small primary school might only get £150, not really enough to pay for an advertisement for staff. An upper school would get £30,000 to £40,000, which some heads used to offer enhanced salaries to attract people daunted by the high costs of housing.

Another idea was that the money could be used to pay for a creche at the school to make it easier for teachers with pre-school age children to return to work.

Mr Mander said the situation would improve from day to day as heads eventually got one or two staff, but few people were applying and things could not be described as anything but bad.