'Recruitment, not funding, is the key'

Alan Roach, the headteacher of Chalvedon Comprehensive School in Essex, believes schools in the South-East are being held back by one problem above all others - teacher recruitment.

"I will not be thanked within the profession for saying this but it seems to me the problem is not one of funding. I do not think a lack of resources in schools is to blame here," he said.

Instead Mr Roach blames the high cost of living in the South-East for deterring good staff. He added: "I find it difficult to recruit classroom and senior teachers and that has impacted on educational standards. We have graduate trainees at school and we are training them up as apprentices."

While Chalvedon has excelled in recent test results, Mr Roach says he feels sympathy for those comprehensives in less affluent areas which find it hardest to recruit experienced teachers.