Don't go and teach British `monsters', warn teachers recruited from

Whatever the truth, the NUT claims that foreign recruitment will not solve Britain own teacher shortages.

Olive Forsyth, an NUT spokeswoman, said: "Mr Timms might have the full complement on the first day of term but he won't necessarily have that by the second. Foreign teachers are coming from all over the world and being dropped in at the deep end."

Discipline problems are getting worse, says Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers. His union has sanctioned industrial action in 50 schools in the first few months of this year, backing teachers who are refusing to allow unruly and disruptive pupils into their classrooms. The figure is the same as for the whole of the previous year.

Ms Fahrenfort says: "The 18-month work permit we get is not worth the paper it was printed on. It is just there to get you through customs. It does not give you employment rights." She says she discovered that when she was dismissed from Laburnum for leaving a classroom window open and told she was a safety risk. She is now happy at a neighbouring school in Waltham Forest where she has gone through a useful induction period. She says the NUT helped her enormously.

A spokesman for Hackney Council says he does not know if Laburnum provided any induction for Ms Fahrenfort, though the LEA expected it to. He said that there are disciplinary guidelines and all headteachers and governors are obliged to ensure proper behaviour in schools.

Ms Fahrenfort is uncompromising. "Hackney Council was next to useless," she said. "I was given no induction and they provided no support, which is why they can recruit but can't retain."

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