PARENTS have received a letter listing teachers who have left Malmesbury Comprehensive School due to a cash crisis.

However, headteacher Malcolm Trobe said the letter did not differentiate the redundancies from the list of staff leaving for other reasons.

The letter lists 12 members of staff who are leaving, of which three are taking early retirement.

Four new members of staff will be arriving in September.

Reshuffles will be made among the remaining staff to cover all the different areas of responsibility.

Mr Trobe said earlier in the year that most of the redundancies had been achieved through early retirement and teachers moving to other jobs.

The school announced at the beginning of May that up to six teachers would have to be made redundant to tackle a predicted £300,000 deficit in this year's budget.

Mr Trobe said the redundancies were a necessary measure and action was needed now to prevent the school sinking further into debt.

Teachers taking early retirement include Dave Rutter, head of geography, who has been at the school for 30 years; head of careers, Gordon Williams, who has spent 29 years at the school, and Katherine Chiles, second in the languages department, who has been at Malmesbury School for 19 years.

Bursar Cathy Young is retiring after 26 years at the school.

Dave Sneyd and Colette Asbridge, who have been at the school for 32 and 19 years respectively, are leaving the technology faculty to be replaced by Ros Snook.

Russell Blackaller, who has been the school's head of drama for 12 years, is leaving for a new position as head of faculty at Kingshill School.

This year they have been joint acting head of faculty at Malmesbury School.

Chris Saunders stepped down from her post as the head of sixth form at the end of term and will take up a part-time teaching commitment from September.

And Isabelle Finn-Kelcey is leaving to spend more time with her young family.

Teachers moving on to other jobs or planning to travel are Bob Basley, Ben Taylor, Bernie Laidler and Sophie Buckingham.