TWO troubled upper schools in south Bucks will each get £70,000 to spend in the next financial year, to recruit more teachers and pay them more.

Hatters Lane in High Wycombe and Amersham School are both on special measures as a result of bad Ofsted reports.

Cressex School, which an Ofsted report said had serious weaknesses, is also to get a £20,000 payout.

Bucks LEA has an extra £350,000 in total to spend on specific failing schools next year. In addition to the south Bucks schools, two upper schools in Aylesbury will get £70,000 each and there is a further £25,000 each for two, as yet unnamed, primary schools.

The money is to reward, recruit and retain staff. Buckinghamshire County Council will have to come up with almost half the cash and the Government will give the rest as part of its special Standards Fund for education.

Steve Edgar, headteacher at Amersham School, said: "This money has to go directly to the school. It's going to be used in order to deal with the issues that have come to light from our Ofsted report - staff issues like employing extra staff and retaining them. It obviously will make a difference and the main thing is that it is guaranteed."

Lorna Coldicott, headteacher of Cressex School, said: "We are very pleased. It is a small amount but it will be used significantly as part of the plan to raise the levels of achievement. We will use it constructively."

The headteacher of Hatters Lane School was unavailable for comment.

Next year Bucks schools should get £20 million in Standards Fund cash.