THE chief executive of An Daras Multi Academy Trust has responded to recent concern that staff redundancies are imminent under the trust’s planned restructuring of staff.

A member of the public contacted the Post to raise concerns that they believed the nursery at St Catherine’s was to close as the teacher was leaving and that the TA staff numbers were to be reduced.

Mr Will Hermon, chief executive officer of the An Daras Multi Academy Trust has assured redundancies are not being made and the nursery school teacher is to be replaced.

He said: “An Daras MAT is a successful and expanding local trust with an excellent record of academic achievement, we are always improving the consistency of our approach, the quality of our educational provision and effectively planning for long term sustainable growth. We take great pride in the professionalism and skills all our staff have as they support children to develop into great learners.

“St Catherine’s Nursery is not closing contrary to what has been said, but due to a management reorganisation of pre-schools within the MAT the current teacher is leaving, taking early retirement effectively, and we are replacing this role with a pre-school manager like in our other pre-school settings. The nursery will continue to be a highly rated and popular setting for pre-school children in Launceston.

“With regards to our support staff, we are simply restructuring one layer of our current staff roles to ensure consistency across all MAT schools and this standard process is being completed in full consultation with unions. This change will only impact on the three town schools and will ensure support staff at these schools are paid at the same rate, with the same contracts, same job descriptions, and with the same terms and conditions.

“Restructuring roles will also ensure the MAT maintains an effective operational, sustainable and consistent model in accordance with our three-year financial plan. The restructuring process may mean that some members of staff have a change in hours, slightly different roles within the school or different working patterns. Some support staff may be offered the possibility of voluntary redundancy package if they do not wish to apply for the newly restructured posts.

“We are pleased to welcome the addition of Coads Green Primary into the trust family of schools from July 1 and we continue to also collaborate with other partner schools in the locality — forming the basis of the next planned expansion in the new academic year”