Schools in Trafford are challenging official Government statistics which state they have a high number of unqualified teachers working in their classrooms.

According to the most recent figures from the Department for Education, not one teacher at Altrincham College has qualified teacher status, but the school has vehemently denied this and said it does not employ a single unqualified teacher.

A spokesman for the school stated the correct figures had been sent to the Government, but that the online statistics, dated November 2018, had not yet been updated.

Similar figures from the Government state more than 85 per cent of teaching staff at Wellington School in Altrincham, Ashton-on-Mersey School and Lostock School are also unqualified.

According to the Government, at Wellington School 98.8 per cent of teachers are unqualified, at Ashton-on-Mersey School 86.9 per cent of teachers are unqualified and at Lostock College 85.5 per cent of teachers do not have qualified teacher status.

An education union said the statistics meant children were being “denied their fundamental entitlement to be taught by qualified teachers.”

But both Lostock School and Wellington School blamed an “internal error” for the figures and labelled them “inaccurate”.

Lee Fazackerley, Lostock School’s headteacher, said: “I can confirm that it is an admin error and does not reflect our current staffing situation.

“I will be undertaking an internal review of this situation and the appropriate steps to rectify this on the official return.

“No class is ever taught by an unqualified teacher, unless this is covered by a cover supervisor due to timetabled staff absence.”

Mr Fazackerley explained there are currently 26 full-time members of teaching staff as Lostock, all of whom have qualified teacher status, including one newly qualified teacher.

The headteacher added there are also nine part-time members of staff, who are also all fully qualified.

Qualified Teacher Status is usually achieved through completing a PGCE course, but can also be reached through some degrees.

Most state schools require teachers to be fully qualified, but academies and free schools are allowed to take on staff without the qualification.

Ashton-on-Mersery School did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesman for Trafford Council said: “We are clearly keen to see that every school provides a high quality of education for the children in Trafford but we do not directly manage academies.
“We would expect the Department for Education and the Regional Schools Commissioner to be fully aware of this information and to be offering the appropriate support and challenge to the academy”.