Guernsey union concern over teacher redundancy
A teaching union says it is concerned about the number of teachers at a Guernsey school due to leave at the end of the term.
The NASUWT says staff offered voluntary severance at La Mare De Carteret have been asked to step down half-way through the academic year.
A spokesman for the education department said the severance process was confidential.
He said more details would be released early in 2014.
Guernsey NASUWT secretary Caroline Bowker says cutting teaching posts at this time of year will have a knock-on effect for students.
She said: "It will mean teachers being asked to leave at a time when they are in the middle of courses. I don't think it is the natural wish of any teacher to be asked to leave mid-year."
The education department said in a statement the voluntary severance programme is being introduced to help reduce costs but not at the expense of quality of services.
"It is important to realise that we have a natural turnover of staff in all our schools; this is managed in a careful and consistent way so as not to disrupt learners.
"We employ more than 1,000 staff across the education service and experience an annual turnover of approximately 11%.
"Teachers may leave at different times of the year for different reasons but we endeavour to ensure, wherever possible, that this is at end of an academic year or at least the end of a school term, not in the middle of a term unless there are exceptional circumstances."