A troubled Scissett school has one of the highest rates of teacher sickness absences in West Yorkshire, it has been revealed.
Last year the Examiner reported how Nortonthorpe Hall School in Scissett was subject to an unplanned inspection over concerns about pupil behaviour.
The school, which cares for around 60 boys with special educational needs or emotional or mental health issues, was said to be in “crisis.”
A report by Ofsted inspector Gina White found a violent school where pupils had to be physically restrained.
Attendance was also a problem with a quarter of students absent on the day of the visit and there were often disputes between pupils “kicking off” in the grounds.
The report also said: “The school has experienced significant turbulence in staffing, including the frequent and long-term absence of school leaders and classroom teachers.”
Now figures compiled by the Trinity Mirror Data Unit have revealed high levels of staff sickness at the school.
According to figures for 2014-15 released by the Department for Education, Nortonthorpe Hall had the highest average teacher absence rate with 530 days lost to illness. This was an average of 26.5 days per teacher.
The figures meant Nortonthorpe had the fourth highest number for any school in West Yorkshire.
The figures also showed that in Kirklees as a whole 26,996 days were lost due to teacher illness last year – an average of 6.4 days per teacher.
This was the joint second highest figure for any of the 152 education authority areas in England and means that schools in Kirklees were more likely to have to pay out money to fill these gaps in staffing.
Other schools with high sickness levels were Park Road Junior, Infant and Nursery School in Batley with 26 average days lost per teacher; Warwick Road Primary School in Batley Carr with 24.9 and Hartshead Junior and Infant School in Liversedge at 23.5.
In 2014-15 a total of 2.22 million days were lost to teachers’ sickness absence across England as a whole, up from 2.21 million the year before.
The total number of days lost equates to an average of 4.2 days lost for every teacher. This is the lowest rate seen over the period from 2000 to 2014/15.
A Kirklees Council spokesman said: “The health and well being of all employees is important to us. We support our schools to manage sickness absence, and offer a range of additional assistance including occupational health and headteacher support.
“Absences in Kirklees are most often long term absences, although these situations are not desirable, they do mean that provision can usually be made to ensure continuity of teaching.
“Almost 90% of our schools are good or outstanding, this is a year on year improvement and above the national average. It also demonstrates that our schools are effectively managing any teacher absence.
“We will continue to support teachers who are unwell, and ensure the health and well being of teachers in the classroom.”
After last year’s report at Nortonthorpe, head teacher Sarah Wilson said the school was tackling the problems and a new leadership team had been put in place.
