74477-17SWINDON schools will have a voice in the corridors of power now that a local head teacher has been elected to a top committee.

Mike Welsh, head teacher at Goddard Park primary school in Park North, is now a member of the national council of the National Association of Head Teachers.

He said: "I'm delighted, and so are my staff and parents at the school.

"It's a great honour to have a Swindon head on the council. We haven't had one for a long time.

"It will be good to be able to bring a Swindon viewpoint to the national scene as regards the future of schools."

Mr Welsh, 54, grew up in Swindon, went to school in Gorse Hill and has been headteacher at Goddard Park for 13 years.

He is married with four children, one of whom, Zoe, has picked up the educational torch and is now a teacher in Chiseldon.

He has been secretary of the Swindon branch of the association for seven years.

He said: "I am delighted to be elected at a time when there are key issues to debate on the future direction of schools. Major concerns include workforce reform, the need for improved funding of schools, and effective support for school leaders."

He is particularly concerned that new government initiatives are not accompanied by increases in funding.

Mr Welsh, who lives in Old Town, said: "Swindon is particularly poorly funded and we need to bring that to the attention of the government so that we can see some improvement and also to reflect the gains that Swindon schools have made for children.

"Swindon is poorly funded in comparison to somewhere like Slough. A large primary school in Slough would on average have three more teachers than an equivalent in Swindon."

He stressed that workforce reform is an important issue for head teachers now. He said: "Quite rightly from September every teacher will have ten per cent of their work hours given over to planning, preparation and assessment. However we haven't been given funding to effectively produce this, so once again the pressure is on the schools to get a quart out of a pint pot.

"Some of the government initiatives are quite excellent but the government need to know what the reality is.

"I intend to make sure the government understands the effects of initiatives on local schools and make sure that if they have flagship policies they should have flagship funding to go with these policies."